Criticism of a Social Group

Criticism of a Social Group The intergroup sensitivity effect occurs when people perceive criticism of a social group they belong to. Group members evaluation of the criticism depends largely on the source of the message. According to social identity theory outgroup members are typically evaluated less positively than ingroup members because people are motivated to perceive their group (and themselves) as more favorable than a reference group. Applying this ingroup preference to intergroup criticisms; outgroup critics are evaluated less positively than ingroup critics, and their comments arouse greater sensitivity than do the same comments made by an ingroup member. Since ingroup members receive more positive appraisal, their criticisms are perceived as more constructive, provoke less sensitivity, and are agreed with more. Research by Hornsey and Imani (2003) supported the intergroup sensitivity effect by revealing that ingroup critics were met with less defensiveness than were outgroup critics, regardless of t he amount of experience they had with the ingroup. The black sheep effect is another phenomenon related to social identity. When ingroup member deviate from the defining norms of the group they threaten the image of the group. One goal of group membership is positive distinctiveness; to be distinct from a reference group in a more positive way. When ingroup members deviate from norms that define the group they threaten the positive distinctiveness of the group. These individuals are then negatively evaluated. The black sheep effect refers to more negative evaluations of ingroup deviants compared to outgroup members, deviant or otherwise. Outgroup deviants cannot threaten the positive distinctiveness of the group like an ingroup member can. Groups may have a tendency to agree on more extreme positions than those held by individuals through a process called group polarization. Often this occurs following group discussion. Two theories may account for this phenomenon, social comparison theory (SCT) and persuasive arguments theory (PAT). According to SCT, people are motivated to evaluate and present themselves positively, in order to do this an individual must be continually processing information about how other people present themselves and adjust their self-presentations accordingly. People also want to be perceived to be better than average so they present themselves in a more favorable light. When all members of a group engage in this comparing process the result is a shift in a direction of perceived greater value. To do this people engage in removal of pluralistic ignorance, where they present their views as compromises between the ideal and the desire to not be too deviant from the group. People then tend to shift towards the ideal position, leading to group polarization. The bandwagon effect, or one-upmanship, also occurs because people want to be different and distinct from other people in their group in a more favorable direction. This happens when people infer the norm of the group, then shift their respo nse to a more ideal position. The persuasive arguments theory (PAT) suggests that an individuals choice or position on an issue is a function of the number and persuasiveness of pro and con arguments that that person recalls from memory when formulating their position. Discussion causes polarization because it provides persuasive arguments to the individual. These arguments tend to be evaluated on their validity and novelty. A meta-analysis by Isenberg (1986) suggested that, while there is evidence for both SCT and PAT as mediators of group polarization, PAT tends to have a stronger effect. While both may occur simultaneously, there is evidence that they are two conceptually independent processes. One of the primary ways that individuals maintain independence from norms associated with social groups is through social support. Allen (1975) proposed that social support serves to provide an assessment of physical and social reality. Under situations of conformity (experimentally manipulated by consensus on an incorrect answer) social support encourages individuals to express responses inconsistent with those of the group. Social support counteracts negative social factors related to dissent by reducing anxiety related to potential rejection, and reducing the perception that the group will make negative dispositional attributions about the dissenter. On a cognitive basis, social support helps nonconformity by simply breaking the expectation of group consensus, by cognitively restructuring the meaning of a given stimulus, and by reassuring the dissenting person that they have not lost touch with reality. Nonconformity aided by social support is enhanced by previous social contact w ith the supporter, and occur whether the supporter is an ingroup or outgroup member (as long as the conformity issue is not related to the salient social identity. The effectiveness of minority influence relies on a number of factors. According to Moscovici Faucheux (1972) one of the main factors is consistency of the message. People are motivated to seek consistency in their social world and it is easier to persuade individuals of the legitimacy of ones view on issues when the message is consistent, particularly when the answer is unknown (e.g. how to fix  the economy). Moscovici also suggests that rigid minorities tend to have a less direct influence than more flexible minorities, which may imply that Palin needs to portray her views as more moderate. Alvaro and Crano (1997) suggest that indirect minority influence may be effective at changing attitudes. In an effort to effect popular opinion about highly contested and core political issues (e.g. abortion rights) she ought to target an associated, less contentious issue (e.g. sex education in public schools). In order for her to have any success at indirect influence however, she needs to present herself as an ingroup member. She might focus on her identity as a woman, a mother, cite a long familial American heritage or any other potential cross-cutting categories. She will have more success if she portrays herself as more similar to the majority of Americans. Old fashioned prejudice may be characterized as overt prejudice where discrimination is obvious and public. Modern prejudice can be conceptualized as aversive racism (Gaertner Dovidio, 1986) which is characterized by ambivalence between feelings and beliefs associated with a egalitarian value system and unacknowledged negative feelings and beliefs about African Americans. For most Americans an egalitarian value system is important to the self-concept, demanding a nonprejudiced self-image. This is the result of sympathy for victims of past injustices leading to support of public policies that promote racial equality. However, negative attitudes toward African Americans are still pervasive. These feelings and beliefs may be derived from a historical and contemporary culturally racist contexts (creating uneasiness or discomfort). They may be biases derived from cognitive mechanisms that contribute to the development of stereotypes. They may also develop from any combination of historic al stereotypes, institutional racism, need for self-esteem, or economic competition. As opposed to the direct link between old fashioned racism and acts of prejudice, aversive racism has more complex antecedents for expression of prejudice. When there is weak, ambiguous or conflicting normative structure defining appropriate interaction or if a prejudiced response can be rationalized or justified through attribution to some factor other than race, actsof prejudice are more likely to occur. When there is clearly appropriate normative structure and a prejudiced response cannot be rationalized acts of prejudice are less likely to occur. Deindividuation effects have classically been described as anti-normative behavior stemming from decreased self-awareness and decreased self-evaluation, occurring when the presence and identity of a group supersede individual identity. Specific antecedents of deindividuation effects were proposed by Zimbardo (1969), which included anonymity, sensory overload, novel situations, loss of individual responsibility and substance abuse. Zimbardo proposed that deindividuation effects manifested as behaviors that were violations of norms and largely characterized as antisocial. Diener (1980) further elaborated on the effect as decreased self-awareness by an individual, making them responsive to external stimulus over internal monitoring and planning. It is important to note that these classical conceptions of deindividuation effects largely as an individual process, rather than a group process. A more contemporary model that challenges classical conceptualizations of deindividuation is the social identity perspective on deindividuation effects (SIDE; Reicher et al., 1995). The SIDE model proposes that deindividuation effects fall into one of two categories; (a) cognitive effects and (b) strategic effects, depending on whether the self or other group members are anonymous. Cognitive effects are believed to occur in relation to others being anonymous or identifiable. When group members are anonymous the individual has a tendency to perceive indicators of group membership, making social identity and group norms salient, however when other group members are identifiable, individual identity becomes salient, decreasing the power of group norms. In contrast, strategic effects occur when the self is either anonymous or identifiable to the group. They are named as such because rather than being involved in perception of social identity, they are involved in displaying social identi ty. Studies suggested that when an individual was anonymous they expressed more punishable than unpunishable ingroup norms, when they were identifiable, they expressed more unpunishable than punishable ingroup norms. When identity is available to an ingroup, individuals express group norms in an effort to enhance social identity, but when identity is available to an outgroup, individuals are less expressive of group norms, possibly for fear of retribution. The SIDE model suggests that crowd behaviors related to anonymity rarely result from deindividuated states, rather that behaviors were context dependant and consistent with group norms.

Memory Management Comparison Essay

When discussing the differences in memory management practices between Windows and Linux environments, an understanding of what they do is necessary. Memory management systems are core aspects of operating systems. Managing a memory hierarchy of random access memory (RAM) and available hard disks is only its basic function. They perform other critical tasks such as the allocation and de-allocation of memory for processes that take care of logistics and implementing virtual memory via the hard disk to perform as additional RAM. Maximum optimization of the memory system is crucial as it greatly affects the overall speed and performance of the system. An important concept in memory management is virtual memory. The basic idea behind this is providing an application the illusion of the presence of large amounts of memory available for use. This is made possible as the kernel makes use of secondary storage (hard disk) to fulfill extra memory requirements. Virtual memory requires mapping functions to do address translation – converting physical addresses to virtual addresses. The virtual being the location the application refers to, and the physical being the actual memory location; this is generally a paging or segmentation function, but can be both, depending on the kernel, processor architecture and its state. To begin a comprehensive comparison of memory management systems of Windows and Linux, let us first analyze the data structures used to keep track of and maintain virtual memory. Windows uses a tree form system where each node of the tree is called Virtual Address Descriptors (VAD). VADs denote a range of address that has the same commit state information and protection parameters. This tree is a balanced to keep the depth of the tree at a minimum. This allows the search time when finding a node containing a location to be kept relatively low. Nodes can be marked one of three ways, committed, free, or reserved. Committed nodes represent ones that have had code or data mapped to it. Free nodes are not yet used; reserved nodes are used in special cases. In Linux systems, virtual memory is kept in a linked list structure. This list is a structure that represents continuous areas of memory having the identical protection parameters. The structure records the address range it is mapped onto, whether it is pinned in memory, the direction it will grow in, and the protection mode. Whether the area the public or private is also recorded. This linked list also converts into a tree list if the number of entries exceeds a particular number. This method uses the best structure in the best situations. These two systems while originating in different backgrounds (Windows –commercial setting, Linux – hacker setting), have modern and theoretically sound concepts which are suitable for production environments. Both systems have many things in common with few technical differences. Windows has gone through more thought and effort during its design/development with decisions at various levels being made to better performance. While in the case of Linux, these decisions were often favoring simplicity instead of performance. This caused Windows to be developed into complex and sophisticated code whereas Linux is elegant and simple while still being modern.

The Burning Of The Houses Of Parliament By Samuel Taylor...

Romanticism, a literary movement that swept through much of Europe as well as many other countries throughout the world, carried a spirit, which in itself was a revolt against an established order of things- precise rules, laws, and dogmas. It praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition over science, making way for a vast body of literature of great sensibility and passion. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. One of his phenomenal works is â€Å"Frost at Midnight,† which captivates a father’s love for his son and his understanding of Nature as an essential part of one life. J.M.W. Turner’s artwork, â€Å"The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, 1835,† drew many connections to Coleridge’s poetry, as both were highly symbolic of Nature, while following the other tena nts of Romanticism. While Turner’s artwork and Coleridge’s poetry are quite different from one another, the different tenants of Romanticism, including Nature and the Development of the Individual, the beauty of Nature and the value of hidden concern and affection all help bring the two pieces together. The starting point of â€Å"Frost at Midnight† is, thus, a sharp and frosty night, on which Coleridge, surrounded by complete utter silence and the warm interior of the cottage where his son lays asleep, contemplates on the dark yet calm,

Organizational Project Management - 1193 Words

Contents Acknowledgement 1 1. Introduction 3 2. Organizational project management 4 3. OPM3 Model 5 3.1. Primary physical parts of the standard 5 3.2. OPM3 Stages 6 4. How does the OPM3 work? 7 5. Benefits of OPM3 to the organization 8 6. What kind of commitment is required to launch OPM3 in an organization? 8 7. Importance of OPM3 to the project management profession 9 8. Summary 10 9. References 11 1. Introduction Successful implementation of a new organizational strategy can turn a good organization into a great one. Conversely, strategies that fail or generate poor results can quickly damage the organization’s reputation and brand, internally and externally. Effective strategy execution is the†¦show more content†¦ii. The self ASSESSMENT element is an interactive database tool that lets organizations evaluate their current situation and identify their areas in need of improvement should an organization decided to embark on the path to higher maturity. iii. The IMPROVEMENT element will help map out the steps needed to achieve their goals. * KNOWLEDGE element which drives Assessment * ASSESSMENT element which in turn drives Improvement * IMPROVEMENT element. 5. Benefits of OPM3 to the organization I. It bridges the gap between strategy and individual project. II. It provides a comprehensive body of knowledge regarding what constitutes best practices in organizational project management. III. By using OPM3, an organization can determine exactly which organizational project management best practices and capabilities it does and does not have. IV. If the organization decides to pursue improvements, OPM3 provides guidance on prioritizing and planning. 6. What kind of commitment is required to launch OPM3 in an organization? The process of applying OPM3 in an organization is difficult to quantify. 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