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The video discusses how loss is a really hard thing to go through. It is never easy to lose a loved one and dealing with the grief that comes with us is also a very difficult task. Jason B. Rosenthal lost his wife to cancer and doesn't know yet how he will deal with his children and make the decisions that would be best for them. This can be connected back to Atticus in "To Kill a Mockingbird" because he to lost his wife and isn't always sure on what will be best for his kids. He always tries his best to do what will benefit them and build their character. If Atticus would not have dealt with the death of his wife as well as he did, then Scout and Jem would have very different personalities.

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The journey through loss and grief | Jason B. Rosenthal

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The quote explains how loss can lead to multiple stages of grief. It may feel very strong and unbearable or light. You never quite know how you will be able to handle a loss, but it is important to know that it will happen and learning to cope with it is a skill you will need. Originally, the death of Scout and Jem's mother was really hard on them, but as time went on and Calpurnia stepped up as a motherly figure, they learned to appreciate who they still have and respect the amount of time and effort that Atticus puts into them. The loss of Jem and Scouts was sad, but it also really helped build their character and shape who the individuals they have become. Scout and Jem would have been very different without loss.

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Compassion is a very unique concept compassion does not only require empathy but also the desire and drive to help someone. Compassion is a very important part of "To Kill a Mockingbird" because it is was something that very few characters possessed. Some of the only characters that showed multiple moments of compassion in the book were Atticus, Calpurnia, Jem, Scout, and Boo Radley. Most other characters didn't really care about how their actions made others feel or even bother to help others get through hard times. This was especially true with how they treated African Americans. If no characters had any compassion, then we wouldn't have learned about the struggles that the blacks had to endure.

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What Is Compassion?

Compassion literally means "to suffer together." Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. Altruism, in turn, is the kind, selfless behavior often prompted by feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism isn't always motivated by compassion.

While cynics may dismiss compassion as touchy-feely or irrational, scientists have started to map the biological basis of compassion, suggesting its deep evolutionary purpose. This research has shown that when we feel compassion, our heart rate slows down, we secrete the "bonding hormone" oxytocin, and regions of the brain linked to empathy, caregiving, and feelings of pleasure light up, which often results in our wanting to approach and care for other people.

For more: Learn about self-compassion and compassion fatigue. Read Dacher Keltner's essay on "The Compassionate Instinct" and Paul Ekman's "Taxonomy of Compassion," which reviews different types of compassion.

What are the Limitations?

By Leila Rosenberg, Michelle Beadle Holder, Margaret Golden, Jill Suttie, Joanne Chen, Aurelia Santos, Zaid Jilani, Jeremy Adam Smith | March 6, 2024

It's time again for the Greater Goodies, honoring movies from the past year that exemplify human strengths and virtues.

Why Practice It?

Scientific research into the measurable benefits of compassion is young. Preliminary findings suggest, however, that being compassionate can improve health, well-being, and relationships. Many scientists believe that compassion may even be vital to the survival of our species, and they're finding that its advantages can be increased through targeted exercises and practice. Here are some of the most exciting findings from this research so far.

Compassion makes us feel good: Compassionate action (e.g., giving to charity) activates pleasure circuits in the brain, and compassion training programs, even very brief ones, strengthen brain circuits for pleasure and reward and lead to lasting increases in self-reported happiness.

Being compassionate-tuning in to other people in a kind and loving manner-can reduce risk of heart disease by boosting the positive effects of the Vagus Nerve, which helps to slow our heart rate.

One compassion training program has found that it makes people more resilient to stress; it lowers stress hormones in the blood and saliva and strengthens the immune response. Compassion training may also help us worry less and be more open to our negative emotions.

Compassion could improve our mental health: One research review found that practicing compassion meditation improved participants' emotional life, positive thinking, relationships, and empathy.

Brain scans during loving-kindness meditation, which directs compassion toward suffering, suggest that, on average, compassionate people's minds wander less about what has gone wrong in their lives, or might go wrong in the future; as a result, they're happier.

Practicing compassion could make us more altruistic. In turn, it may also help us overcome empathic distress and become more resilient in the face of others' suffering.

Compassion helps make caring parents: Brain scans show that when people experience compassion, their brains activate in neural systems known to support parental nurturance and other caregiving behaviors.

Compassion helps make better spouses: Compassionate people are more optimistic and supportive when communicating with others.

Compassion helps make better friends: Studies of college friendships show that when one friend sets the goal to support the other compassionately, both friends experience greater satisfaction and growth in the relationship.

Compassion helps make better doctors: Medical students who train in compassion feel less depressed and lonely, and avoid the typical declines in compassion that happen during medical school.

Feeling compassion for one person makes us less vindictive toward others.

Restraining feelings of compassion chips away at our commitment to moral principles.

Employees who receive more compassion in their workplace see themselves, their co-workers, and their organization in a more positive light, report feeling more positive emotions like joy and contentment, and are more committed to their jobs. A compassionate workplace culture is linked to less burnout, greater teamwork, and higher job satisfaction.

More compassionate societies-those that take care of their most vulnerable members, assist other nations in need, and have children who perform more acts of kindness-are the happier ones.

Compassionate people are more socially adept, making them less vulnerable to loneliness; loneliness has been shown to cause stress and harm the immune system.

By Leila Rosenberg, Michelle Beadle Holder, Margaret Golden, Jill Suttie, Joanne Chen, Aurelia Santos, Zaid Jilani, Jeremy Adam Smith | March 6, 2024

It's time again for the Greater Goodies, honoring movies from the past year that exemplify human strengths and virtues.

How Do I Cultivate It?

We often talk about some people as being more compassionate than others, but research suggests compassion isn't something you're born with or not. Instead, it can be strengthened through targeted exercises and practice. Here are some specific, science-based activities for cultivating compassion from our new site Greater Good in Action:

Feeling supported: Think about the people you turn to when you're distressed and recall times when you've felt comforted by them, which research says can help us to feel more compassionate toward others.

Compassion meditation: Cultivate compassion toward a loved one, yourself, a neutral person, and even an enemy.

Put a human face on suffering: When reading the news, look for profiles of specific individuals and try to imagine what their lives have been like.

Eliciting altruism: Create reminders of connectedness.

Compassion training programs, such as those out of Emory University and Stanford University, are revealing how we can boost feelings of compassion in ourselves and others. Here are some of the best tips to emerge out of those programs, as well as other research.

Look for commonalities: Seeing yourself as similar to others increases feelings of compassion. A recent study shows that something as simple as tapping your fingers to the same rhythm with a stranger increases compassionate behavior.

Calm your inner worrier: When we let our mind run wild with fear in response to someone else's pain (e.g., What if that happens to me?), we inhibit the biological systems that enable compassion. The practice of mindfulness can help us feel safer in these situations, facilitating compassion.

Encourage cooperation, not competition, even through subtle cues: A seminal study showed that describing a game as a "Community Game" led players to cooperate and share a reward evenly; describing the same game as a "Wall Street Game" made the players more cutthroat and less honest. This is a valuable lesson for teachers, who can promote cooperative learning in the classroom.

See people as individuals (not abstractions): When presented with an appeal from an anti-hunger charity, people were more likely to give money after reading about a starving girl than after reading statistics on starvation-even when those statistics were combined with the girl's story.

Don't play the blame game: When we blame others for their misfortune, we feel less tenderness and concern toward them.

Respect your inner hero: When we think we're capable of making a difference, we're less likely to curb our compassion.

Notice and savor how good it feels to be compassionate. Studies have shown that practicing compassion and engaging in compassionate action bolsters brain activity in areas that signal reward.

To cultivate compassion in kids, start by modeling kindness: Research suggests compassion is contagious, so if you want to help compassion spread in the next generation of young men and women, lead by example.

Curb inequality: Research suggests that as people feel a greater sense of status over others, they feel less compassion.

Don't be a sponge: When we completely take on other people's suffering as our own, we risk feeling personally distressed, threatened, and overwhelmed; in some cases, this can even lead to burnout. Instead, try to be receptive to other people's feelings without adopting those feelings as your own.

By Leila Rosenberg, Michelle Beadle Holder, Margaret Golden, Jill Suttie, Joanne Chen, Aurelia Santos, Zaid Jilani, Jeremy Adam Smith | March 6, 2024

It's time again for the Greater Goodies, honoring movies from the past year that exemplify human strengths and virtues.

May 31, 2024 View More Articles

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Compassion Definition | What Is Compassion

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Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related.

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The video explains how in order to have compassion we must pay more attention to the people around us. It is important that we learns things about them and understand how even one nice comment can really make their day. In "To Kill a Mockingbird" there were many moments in which if people were compassionate then the book would have been very different. If many of the white citizens of Maycomb would have been more aware of what African Americans went through and showed more compassion, then many of the altercations and events that occurred in the book would have never happened.

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Can compassion be learned? The answer is yes! Sometimes, all it takes is truly paying attention to the people around us. Visit http://www.happify.com for guided meditations and fun activities to help you build compassion for yourself and others.

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The article discusses the numerous principles of moral education, and when reading the article, Principle 3 had many connections to "To Kill a Mockingbird. Principle 3 explains how having a good moral educations is key to character development. When reading the novel, we see many examples of character development. One example from the book is Scout. Scout started off the book lacking empathy and a good foundation of moral education, but as the book went on Calpurnia gave Scout many lessons to improve her moral education. Scout experiences a lot of character development during the book and evolved as a character. Scout's character evolution became a very imperative part of Part 1 of the book.

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Principle 1

Promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character

Character education holds that widely shared, pivotally important, core ethical values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others, form the basis of good character. A school committed to character development stands for these values (sometimes referred to as "virtues" or "character traits"), defines them in terms of behaviors that can be observed in the life of the school, models these values, studies and discusses them, uses them as the basis of human relations in the school, celebrates their manifestations in the school and community, and holds all school members accountable to standards of conduct consistent with the core values. In a school committed to developing character, these core values are treated as a matter of obligation, as having a claim on the conscience of the individual and community. Character education asserts that the validity of these values, and our responsibility to uphold them, derive from the fact that such values affirm our human dignity, promote the development and welfare of the individual person, serve the common good, meet the classical tests of reversibility (i.e., Would you want to be treated this way?) and universality (i.e., Would you want all persons to act this way in a similar situation?), and inform our rights and responsibilities in a democratic society. The school makes clear that these basic human values transcend religious and cultural differences, and express our common humanity.

Principle 2

Defines "character" comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and behavior

Good character involves understanding, caring about, and acting upon core ethical values. A holistic approach to character development therefore seeks to develop the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of moral life. Students grow to understand core values by studying and discussing them, observing behavioral models, and resolving problems involving the values. Students learn to care about core values by developing empathy skills, forming caring relationships, helping to create community, hearing illustrative and inspirational stories, and reflecting on life experiences. And they learn to act upon core values by developing prosocial behaviors (e.g., communicating feelings, active listening, helping skills) and by repeatedly practicing these behaviors, especially in the context of relationships (e.g., through cross-age tutoring, mediating conflicts, community service). As children grow in character, they develop an increasingly refined understanding of the core values, a deeper commitment to living according to those values, and a stronger capacity and tendency to behave in accordance with them.

Principle 3

Uses a comprehensive, intentional, proactive, and effective approach to character development

Schools committed to character development look at themselves through a moral lens to assess how virtually everything that goes on in school affects the character of students. A comprehensive approach uses all aspects of schooling as opportunities for character development. This includes what is sometimes called the hidden curriculum (e.g., school ceremonies and procedures; the teachers example; students relationships with teachers, other school staff, and each other; the instructional process; how student diversity is addressed; the assessment of learning; the management of the school environment; the discipline policy); the academic curriculum (i.e., core subjects, including the health curriculum); and extracurricular programs (i.e., sports teams, clubs, service projects, after-school care). "Stand alone" character education programs can be useful first steps or helpful elements of an ongoing effort but are not an adequate substitute for a holistic approach that integrates character development into every aspect of school life. Finally, rather than simply waiting for opportunities to arise, with an intentional and proactive approach, the school staff takes deliberate steps for developing character, drawing wherever possible on practices shown by research to be effective.

Principle 4

Creates a caring school community

A school committed to character strives to become a microcosm of a civil, caring, and just society. It does this by creating a community that helps all its members form caring attachments to one another. This involves developing caring relationships among students (within and across grade levels), among staff, between students and staff, and between staff and families. These caring relationships foster both the desire to learn and the desire to be a good person. All children and adolescents have needs for safety, belonging, and the experience of contributing, and they are more likely to internalize the values and expectations of groups that meet these needs. Likewise, if staff members and parents experience mutual respect, fairness, and cooperation in their relationships with each other, they are more likely to develop the capacity to promote those values in students. In a caring school community, the daily life of classrooms and all other parts of the school environment (e.g., the corridors, cafeteria, playground, school bus, front office, and teachers lounge) are imbued with a climate of concern and respect for others.

Principle 5

Provides students with opportunities for moral action

In the ethical as in the intellectual domain, students are constructive learners; they learn best by doing. To develop good character, they need many and varied opportunities to apply values such as compassion, responsibility, and fairness in everyday interactions and discussions as well as through community service. By grappling with real-life challenges (e.g., how to divide the labor in a cooperative learning group, how to reach consensus in a class meeting, how to reduce fights on the playground, how to carry out a service learning project) and reflecting on these experiences, students develop practical understanding of the requirements of cooperating with others and giving of oneself. Through repeated moral experiences, students develop and practice the skills and behavioral habits that make up the action side of character.

Principle 6

Includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them to succeed

When students succeed at the work of school and feel a sense of competence and autonomy, they are more likely to feel valued and cared about as persons. Because students come to school with diverse skills, interests and needs, an academic program that helps all students succeed will be one in which the content and pedagogy are sophisticated enough to engage all learners. This means providing a curriculum that is inherently interesting and meaningful to students. A meaningful curriculum includes active teaching and learning methods such as cooperative learning, problem-solving approaches, and experience-based projects. These approaches increase student autonomy by appealing to students interests, providing them with opportunities to think creatively and test their ideas, and fostering a sense of "voice and choice" having a say in decisions and plans that affect them. In addition, effective character educators look for the natural intersections between the academic content they wish to teach and the character qualities they wish to develop. These "character connections" can take many forms, such as addressing current ethical issues in science, debating historical practices and decisions, and discussing character traits and ethical dilemmas in literature. When teachers bring to the fore the character dimension of the curriculum, they enhance the relevance of subject matter to students natural interests and questions, and in the process, increase student engagement and achievement.

Principle 7

Strives to foster students self motivation

Character is often defined as "doing the right thing when no one is looking." The best underlying ethical reason for following rules, for example, is respect for the rights and needs of others, not fear of punishment or desire for a reward. Similarly, we want students to be kind to others because of an inner belief that kindness is good and a desire to be a kind person. Growing in self-motivation is a developmental process that schools of character are careful not to undermine by excessive emphasis on extrinsic incentives. When such schools give appropriate social recognition for students prosocial actions (e.g., "Thank you for holding the door, that was a thoughtful thing to do.") or celebrate character through special awards (e.g., for outstanding school or community service), they keep the focus on character. Schools of character work with students to develop their understanding of rules, their awareness of how their behavior affects others, and the character strengths such as self-control, perspective taking, and conflict resolution skills needed to act responsibly in the future. Rather than settle for mere compliance, these schools seek to help students benefit from their mistakes by providing meaningful opportunities for reflection, problem solving, and restitution.

Principle 8

Engages the school staff as a learning and moral community that shares responsibility for character education and attempts to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students

All school staff - teachers, administrators, counselors, school psychologists, coaches, secretaries, cafeteria workers, playground aides, and bus drivers - need to be involved in learning about, discussing, and taking ownership of the character education effort. First and foremost, staff members assume this responsibility by modeling the core values in their own behavior and taking advantage of other opportunities to influence the students with whom they interact. Second, the same values and norms that govern the life of students serve to govern the collective life of adult members in the school community. Like students, adults grow in character by working collaboratively with each other and participating in decision-making that improves classrooms and school. They also benefit from extended staff development and opportunities to observe colleagues and then apply character development strategies in their own work with students. Third, a school that devotes time to staff reflection on moral matters helps to ensure that it operates with integrity. Through faculty meetings and smaller support groups, a reflective staff regularly asks questions such as:

What character building experiences is the school already providing for its students?

What negative moral experiences (e.g., peer cruelty, student cheating, adult disrespect of students, littering of the grounds) is the school currently failing to address?

And what important moral experiences (e.g., cooperative learning, school and community service, opportunities to learn about and interact with people from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds) is the school now omitting?

What school practices are at odds with its professed core values and desire to develop a caring school community? Reflection of this nature is an indispensable condition for developing the moral life of a school.

Principle 9

Fosters shared moral leadership and long range support of the character education initiative

Schools that are engaged in effective character education have leaders (e.g., the principal, a lead teacher or counselor, a district administrator, or preferably a small group of such individuals) who champion the effort. At least initially, many schools and districts establish a character education committee often composed of staff, students, parents, and possibly community members that takes responsibility for planning, implementation, and support. Over time, the regular governing bodies of the school or district may take on the functions of this committee. The leadership also takes steps to provide for the long-range support (e.g., adequate staff development, time to plan) of the character education initiative, including, ideally, support at the district and state levels. In addition, within the school students assume developmentally appropriate roles in leading the character education effort through class meetings, student government, peer mediation, cross-age tutoring, service clubs, task forces, and student-led initiatives.

Principle 10

Engages families and community members as partners in the character-building effort

Schools that reach out to families and include them in character-building efforts greatly enhance their chances for success with students. They take pains at every stage to communicate with families via newsletters, e-mails, family nights, and parent conferences about goals and activities regarding character education. To build greater trust between home and school, parents are represented on the character education committee. These schools also make a special effort to reach out to subgroups of parents who may not feel part of the school community. Finally, schools and families enhance the effectiveness of their partnership by recruiting the help of the wider community (i.e., businesses, youth organizations, religious institutions, the government, and the media) in promoting character development

Principle 11

Evaluates the character of the school, the school staff's functioning as character educators, and the extent to which students manifest good character

Effective character education must include an effort to assess progress. Three broad kinds of outcomes merit attention:

The character of the school: To what extent is the school becoming a more caring community? This can be assessed, for example, with surveys that ask students to indicate the extent to which they agree with statements such as, "Students in this school (classroom) respect and care about each other," and "This school (classroom) is like a family."

The school staff's growth as character educators: To what extent have adult staff-teaching faculty, administrators, and support personnel-developed understandings of what they can do to foster character development? Personal commitment to doing so? Skills to carry it out? Consistent habits of acting upon their developing capacities as character educators?

Student character: To what extent do students manifest understanding of, commitment to, and action upon the core ethical values? Schools can, for example, gather data on various character-related behaviors: Has student attendance gone up? Fights and suspensions gone down? Vandalism declined? Drug incidents diminished? Schools can also assess the three domains of character (knowing, feeling, and behaving) through anonymous questionnaires that measure student moral judgment (for example, "Is it wrong to cheat on a test?"), moral commitment ("Would you cheat if you were sure you wouldn't get caught?") and self-reported moral behavior ("How many times have you cheated on a test or major assignment in the past year?"). Such questionnaires can be administered at the beginning of a school's character initiative to get a baseline and again at later points to assess progress.

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Character education holds that widely shared, pivotally important, core ethical values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others, form the basis of good character.

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Prejudice is to have an opinion on something with no experience or reason on it. This website explains that with prejudice comes stereotypes such as racial stereotypes. This connects back "To Kill A Mockingbird" because so many kids such as Cecil Jacobs have no idea about the trial and how badly black people are getting treated. They continue to treat blacks with disrespect and like they are less than do to ideas without any proper justification. If people in Maycomb didn't have as much racial prejudice against blacks, than the racism that the book is about would not have been nearly as present and all of the characters would have been different.

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What Is Prejudice?

Prejudice is an often negative preconception or attitude toward members of a group. It can have a strong influence on how people behave and interact with others-particularly with those who are different in some regard-even if on an unconscious level.

Common features of prejudice include having negative feelings and holding stereotyped beliefs about members of the group, as well as a tendency to discriminate against them. In society, we often see prejudices based on characteristics like race, sex, religion, culture, and more.

When people hold prejudicial attitudes toward others, they tend to view everyone with the defining characteristic as being "all the same." They paint every individual who holds specific characteristics or beliefs with a very broad brush and fail to look at each person as a unique individual.

Prejudice vs. Discrimination

Types of Prejudice

There are numerous types of prejudice, some of which include:

Ageism, such as believing that someone is "too old" or "too young" to work in a particular role or participate in a specific activity

Classism, which may include having a negative belief about someone based on their income or looking down on someone because they are "poor" or a member of the working class

Homophobia, often defined as feeling a sense of discomfort, fear, distrust, or hatred for people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community and do not identify as heterosexual

Nationalism, which involves believing that the interests of your state's group are more important than those of other groups

Racism, which involves having a negative attitude toward members of a certain racial or ethnic group rooted in systems of power and oppression

Religious prejudice, which involves feeling negatively toward someone because of their religious beliefs, practices, or ideologies

Sexism, which involves holding certain stereotypes or beliefs about someone based on their sex or gender, such as feeling as if they can't (or can) do something based on this factor

Xenophobia, which involves disliking or fearing someone who the person considers "foreign" or "strange," often in the context of their native country

Causes of Prejudice

How is it that we can become prejudiced? There are a few potential causes to consider.

Stereotypes

In many cases, prejudices are based on stereotypes (and stereotypes are based on prejudices). A stereotype is a simplified assumption about a group based on prior experiences or beliefs.

A gender stereotype might be that only little girls can wear dresses or only little boys can play with trucks. Examples of racial stereotypes include "Black people are good at basketball," "White people can't dance," or "Asians are good at math."

According to an article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, prejudice comes from people who aren't comfortable with ambiguity being prone to make generalizations about others. These generalizations reduce the ambiguity while also allowing for quicker, often harmful decisions.

Categorizing

We are inundated with too much information to sort through all of it in a logical, methodical, and rational fashion. So, we often depend upon our ability to place people, ideas, and objects into different categories in order to make the world simpler and easier to understand.

Psychologist Gordon Allport believed that to make sense of the world around us, it's important to sort information into mental categories. "The human mind must think with the aid of categories," Allport explained in his book, "The Nature of Prejudice." "Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment. We cannot possibly avoid this process. Orderly living depends upon it."

Being able to quickly categorize information allows us to interact and react quickly, but it also leads to mistakes. For example, we tend to minimize the differences among people within certain groups and exaggerate the differences between groups. This is referred to as social categorization.

Prejudgments

In one classic experiment, participants were asked to judge the height of people shown in photographs. They were told that for every woman of a particular height, there was a man of the same height. Therefore, they were not to rely on the person's sex to determine the height.

Despite being offered a $50 cash prize for whoever made the most accurate judgments, participants consistently rated the men as being a few inches taller than the women. Because of their prejudgment that men are taller, the participants were unable to dismiss their existing categorical beliefs and judge the heights accurately.

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

People tend to view members of outside groups as being more homogenous than members of their own group. This phenomenon is referred to as the outgroup homogeneity bias.

This perception that all members of an outgroup are alike holds whether the group is based on race, nationality, religion, age, or another group affiliation.

Historical Events

Sometimes prejudice develops in response to historical events. An example of this is holding negative beliefs against all Muslims as a result of the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001. This is known as Islamaphobia and still impacts Muslim Americans today.

Family, Friends, and Social Groups

A 2018 study involving children between the ages of 3 and 9 found that if the parents held even a subtle ethnic prejudice, this predicted whether their kids held an implicit prejudice, regardless of parenting style. This suggests that the beliefs of parental figures can influence if a prejudice develops.

Another 2018 study found similar results, but with friends versus family. This one involved 1,009 teens who were either 13 or 16 years of age and found that the attitude of their peers affected the participants' level of individual prejudice.

Impact of Prejudice

When prejudice exists, it can affect people and societies in many different ways.

Poorer Health

Studies have connected the presence of prejudice with poorer physical health, both directly and indirectly. Examples of direct impacts are living in an unhealthy environment and limited access to health resources as a result of prejudice. Indirect impacts include prejudice-related stress and altered health behaviors.

Other pieces of research have linked perceived prejudice with reduced mental health, both in terms of ethnic identity and even feelings of hope. Being part of a group that experiences real or perceived prejudices can impact health both physically and mentally.

Increased Discrimination

Stereotypes not only lead to faulty beliefs, but they can also result in discrimination. They can impact the ability of the person being discriminated against when trying to get a job, secure housing, and more. It may even result in violence.

Studies indicate that discrimination can also negatively impact health. This is because someone who is discriminated against may have poorer living conditions, a lack of access to quality healthcare, and increased stress levels.

Research has even found that discrimination can affect the health of the person's partner, increasing their risk of depression and putting greater strain on the relationship.

Reduced Multiculturalism and Segregation

We live in a world where people can often move around fairly freely. According to one study, the level that people identify with their native country impacts their level of prejudice against people wishing to immigrate to their country.

If there is a high level of prejudice against a certain immigrant group, immigration policy is likely to reflect those prejudices potentially making it harder for members of that group to immigrate. Prejudice and discrimination can also lead to segregation.

How to Reduce Prejudice

In addition to looking at the reasons why prejudice occurs, researchers have also explored different ways that it can be reduced or even eliminated. Training people to have more empathy for members of other groups is one method that has shown considerable success.

Other techniques that can be used to reduce prejudice include:

Gaining public support and awareness for anti-prejudice social norms

Increasing contact with members of other social groups

Making people aware of the inconsistencies in their own beliefs

Passing laws and regulations that require fair and equal treatment for all people

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The Psychology Behind People's Prejudices

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Prejudice is an often negative preconception or attitude toward members of a group. It can have a strong influence on how people behave and interact with others-particularly with those who are different in some regard-even if on an unconscious level.

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The website below discusses the difference between prejudice and discrimination. These two terms can easily both be defined as the same. Prejudice is to have an incorrect attitude about on an opinion based on no experience, while discrimination is a negative attitude towards someones beliefs, ethics and values. This connects back "To Kill A Mockingbird" because during the part of the book in which Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline, assumes that Walter Cunningham would have enough money to pay her back the money that she offered him. She did not know that in Maycomb the Cunningham's are a very poor family. She was from a different town and assumed that everyone had enough money to pay for basic items. Prejudice is a big factor in the plot of "To Kill A Mockingbird". Almost all of the members of the town have prejudices against other members of the time because of what they have heard rather than what is actual fact.

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Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) toward an individual based solely on the individual's membership in a social group.

For example, a person may hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or gender, etc. (e.g. sexist).

Discrimination is the behavior or actions, usually negative, towards an individual or group of people, especially on the basis of sex/race/social class, etc.

Differences Between Prejudice and Discrimination

A prejudiced person may not act on their attitude. Therefore, someone can be prejudiced towards a certain group but not discriminate against them.

Also, prejudice includes all three components of an attitude (affective, behavioral, and cognitive), whereas discrimination just involves behavior.

There are four main explanations for prejudice and discrimination:

1. Authoritarian Personality

2. Realistic Conflict Theory - Robbers Cave

3. Stereotyping

4. Social Identity Theory

Conformity could also be used as an explanation of prejudice if you get stuck writing a psychology essay (see below).

Examples of Discrimination

Conformity as an Explanation of Prejudice and Discrimination

Influences that cause individuals to be racist or sexist, for example, may come from peers, parents, and group members. Conforming to social norms means people adopt the "normal" set of behavior(s) associated with a particular group or society.

Social norms - behavior considered appropriate within a social group - are one possible influence on prejudice and discrimination.

People may have prejudiced beliefs and feelings and act in a prejudiced way because they are conforming to what is regarded as normal in the social groups to which they belong:

The effect of Social Norms on Prejudice

Minard (1952) investigated how social norms influence prejudice and discrimination. The behavior of black and white miners in a town in the southern United States was observed, both above and below ground.

Below ground, where the social norm was friendly behavior towards work colleagues, 80 of the white miners were friendly towards the black miners. Above ground, where the social norm was prejudiced behavior by whites to blacks, this dropped to 20.

The white miners were conforming to different norms above and below ground. Whether or not prejudice is shown depends on the social context within which behavior takes place.

Pettigrew (1959) also investigated the role of conformity in prejudice. He investigated the idea that people who tended to be more conformist would also be more prejudiced and found this to be true of white South African students.

Similarly, he accounted for the higher levels of prejudice against black people in the southern United States than in the north in terms of the greater social acceptability of this kind of prejudice in the south.

Rogers and Frantz (1962) found that immigrants to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) became more prejudiced the longer they had been in the country. They gradually conformed more to the prevailing cultural norm of prejudice against the black population.

Evaluation: Conformity to social norms, then, may offer an explanation for prejudice in some cases. At the same time, norms change over time, so this can only go some way toward explaining prejudice.

References

Minard, R. D. (1952). Race relationships in the Pocahontas coal field. Journal of Social Issues, 8(1), 29-44."> Race relationships in the Pocahontas coal field. Journal of Social Issues, 8(1), 29-44.

Pettigrew, T. F. (1959). Regional differences in anti-Negro prejudice. Journal of abnormal psychology, 59(1), 28.

Rogers, C. A., & Frantz, C. (1962). Racial themes in Southern Rhodesia: the attitudes and behavior of the white population (p. 338). New Haven: Yale University Press.

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Prejudice and Discrimination in Psychology

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Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) toward an individual based solely on the individual's membership in a social group. For example, a person may hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or gender, etc. (e.g. sexist).

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The quote describes how moral education is not all about yourself. It is important to look around you and develop an understanding of the people and things around us. The most important step in having a good moral education is having empathy for the people around you even when no one else does. This relates to part 1 of " To Kill a Mockingbird" because Calpurnia is a great example of someone having a good moral education. She has a lot of knowledge and empathy for members of the African American community because she is part of it, but she also understands that it doesn't matter what skin color you are. Everyone should be treated with respect and compassion. Calpurnia's moral education is an important part of the book because she uses her moral education to teach Jem and Scout.

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This picture represents how most people in society have brushed racism aside and how racial slurs are normal these days, but it is not okay. Why should race determine how people look at you? This connects back to "To Kill A Mockingbird" because if there was no such thing as racial prejudice then Atticus and his family would not have had to endure rude comments from others because Atticus had to defend Tom Robinson.

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Moral education is when you know the difference between right and wrong. It is very important to have a good Moral Education and help others with their moral education as well. Calpurnia takes a big part in making Scout understand this concept. Calpurnia is a role model and a motherly figure to Scout. One example of this is when Calpurnia yells at Scout for having improper manners at the dinner table. She informs Scout that it is important to be understanding of others and act respectfully towards them. Without Calpurnia, Scout would be a rude and disrespectful child, and the plot of "To Kill A Mockingbird" would be completely different since Scout would have a very different point of view on the members of her town.

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This website explains to us how having empathy can change your perspective, values, and ethics in a positive way. The website connects back to part one of To Kill A mockingbird because Calpurnia teaches Scout how important it is to be empathetic to others rather than judging them. Throughout part 1 of the book, there are many moments of empathy such as when Calpurnia explains to Scout how Walter has a different life style and she should be more understanding. Empathy affected Scout's character throughout the book and greatly affected the plot because Scout is a very featured and important character, and if her character was different than the narrative of the book would be different.

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It's time to show off your compassionate side.

Practicing empathy can do a world of good. It allows you see someone else's perspective -- and that could do wonders for your relationships, your stress and more.

Happify, a website and app dedicated to helping people build skills for happiness through science-based activities and games, created an infographic that details all the ways empathy can transform a person's life. Take a look at it below. Perhaps it's time to start seeing the world through someone else's eyes?

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empathy benefits of empathy how to be more empathetic happify happify empathy

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How Empathy Can Change Your Life, According To Science

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It's time to show off your compassionate side. Practicing empathy can do a world of good. It allows you see someone else's perspective -- and that could do wonders for your relationships, your stress and more.

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In this video it explains the difference of sympathy and empathy. Sympathy means to care about others feeling without actually taking in and bringing up the experiences that made you feel a certain way. This video represents  how some people in Maycomb sympathized for the black people but they could never truly have empathy for how unfair they were being treated. In this video it also talked about how much easier it is to have sympathy for someone and then forget about the entire topic. This video teaches us to put ourselves in someones shoes. If the people in Maycomb County really understood what blacks went through than people such as Scout wouldn't have been so ashamed of taking a black person's side.

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The image below discusses the dark areas during our life, and how the people that can help us the most are the people who have also been through hard times. The image can be related to Part 1 of To Kill a Mockingbird, because Atticus has made many relations to the people around him and understood what they were going through. He didn't care about the color of people's skin or if they struggled with addiction or bad habits. All throughout part 1 Atticus shows moments of empathy towards others. Atticus's empathy is a key part of the plot since his empathy effects the court case, Jem's character, and and Scout's character. Without Atticus’s empathy, the plot of the book would have been very different, and Scout and Jem's characters would have been completely different. Scout and Jem would have lacked a lot of empathy and wouldn't have understood the racial prejudices against blacks.

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This website tells us about the most common ways children of different ages deal with grief or loss. When Scout and Jem were very young they lost their mother. Jem still cries over her, but Scout doesn't really understand so she has no reactions. The plot of "To Kill A Mockingbird" would be really different because then Jem wouldn't be so emotionally vulnerable and protective of Scout. This would also affect the plot because then Calpurnia wouldn't have as much of an important role as she does.

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Children grieve differently than adults. A grieving child will look just like any other child, but even though their grief may not be as outwardly expressed, it does not mean they are not grieving.

While each child will react differently to loss based on personality and age, these are a few common signs to help recognize grief:

Separation anxiety - child becomes "clingy," has trouble saying "good-bye" to loved ones, fears
leaving his or her parent(s), even for a short time.

Regression - child reverts to bed wetting or thumb sucking

Impatience - child becomes overly frustrated and angered during the course of daily activities

Withdrawal - child becomes unemotional, separates from his or her friends and family

Inattentive - child has trouble focusing in school

Protectiveness - child acts paternally towards his or her siblings

At what age are children able to mourn? Grief author Alan Wolfelt said, "Any child old enough to love
is old enough to mourn." Below are a few more signs of grief broken out by age.
Preschool (2-4 years) Elementary School (5-9 years)
Middle School (9-12 years)

High School (12-18 years)

Note: Some children may have lost a loved one several years ago and are now just coping with feelings of not having a parent, grandparent or sibling, as they move into a new growth stage.

Grief does not have an end date, such as 6 months or a year. Grief is a life-long journey that will have highs and lows. It will ebb and flow, and will often be triggered by life events such as moving, graduation, weddings, etc.
Photo Credit.

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Children grieve differently than adults. A grieving child will look just like any other child, but even though their grief may not be as outwardly expressed, it does not mean they are not grieving.

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This quote below represents how much you should be practicing compassion in our daily lives. Atticus and Calpurmia have always tried to teach Scout compassion. The plot of To Kill A Mockingbird would be very different because black and white people would be considered equal if more people had empathy for one another. If white people in Maycomb really tried to put themselves into a black person shoes they would realize how terrible and extreme they have life.