Stereotype Threats and Social Psychology

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

In life, we have to understand that we are the agents of change. We hold the key to a better world that we can be proud of and cherish. I have spent most of my life in the city of Doha and I came to realize that we have to deal with stereotype threats. Allingham (78) defines a stereotype threat as “A situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social groups.” I realized that most of the immigrants, especially those who come as casual laborers, consider the natives to be brutes who have no concern for the less fortunate members of the family. I learned about this stereotype in a very unfortunate way. My parents and I were traveling from the city when our car broke down in a remote area several miles away from the city. It was approaching midnight.

Main body

A group of four men came to check what the problem was with our car. They were petrol attendants in a nearby petrol station. They were willing to offer us any form of help after realizing that we were stranded. They were driven by automatic thoughts. Automatic thinking, according to Fox (81), refers to “Non-conscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless thoughts.” It came to the minds of these four men that we needed help, and they knew they could be of help. However, their attitude towards us changed after realizing that we were natives. One of them uttered a word in a strange language before they left us there, as helpless as they found us.

After a controlled thought, they made a decision that we were not worth helping. According to Haykin (74), controlled thinking is “A conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful thought.” These four men had a sudden change of mind that must have been as a result of an incident or incidents that they experienced in the past. We must have reminded them of people who had subjected them to some forms of pain at given stages of their lives. Although we were total strangers to them, our social background was a reflection of a people they had come to hate in this society.

This incident left me thinking a lot about the relationship between the natives in Qatar and the people who come from developing nations looking for opportunities. I developed an urge to determine the perception of the natives towards these immigrant laborers. I came to realize that society treated them with contempt. It was a social norm not just in the city but also in other parts of the country. Pickren (47) defines social norm as “The rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society.” to the society, it was acceptable to treat the immigrants differently from the rest of the population because they belonged to a lower social caste.

What most of the immigrants failed to realize is that not all natives in Qatar are domineering over their employees. Through personal experiences, I have noticed that most of the immigrant workers who come to Qatar find themselves suffering because of the greed of a few employers who want to take advantage of the country’s employment laws. The majority of the natives are supportive people who are concerned about the well-being of their employees.

The four men allowed judgmental heuristics to cloud their minds. Larner (25) defines judgmental heuristics as “Mental short-cuts that involve focusing on one aspect of a complex problem and ignoring others.” These men used a one-sided approach to judge us without noticing that we were unique people who deserve fair judgment. Our family driver is an immigrant from India. Since we hired him, he has been so faithful to us. He is currently my confidant and a best friend. We share secrets and help each other in times of need. The bond between us has changed from that of employee-employer to that of colleagues.

It was unfortunate that we did not travel with him on this fateful day. I believe that his presence with us would have changed the minds of the men who left us helpless on the road. Such generalized thoughts always lead to deviation from logic when making a judgment. I am sure that if our family driver were to meet a native Qatari helpless along the road, he would be willing to help because of the fond memories he has of his employers.

Our source of help came from the unlikeliest places we ever thought of after being abandoned. My father had made a phone call back to the city requesting the help of our mechanic. We decided to wait for help in the car because it was in the wee hours of the night. The mechanic assured us that he would take the shortest time possible to come for us. As we were waiting, a car that was passing along the same highway stopped to inquire what the problem was with our car. The occupant was a native Qatari. After sharing pleasantries with my father, we told him that the car had developed some mechanical problems that we could not explain. He made a call to one of his employees to come and check our car engine.

The employee happened to be one of the four men who declined to offer us any help. His boss instructed him to check our engine to identify the problem. As he worked on the engine, it was easy to read a cognitive dissonance on his face. Cognitive dissonance, according to Harvey (56), is “The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.” He had to pretend that we had not met fearing that we could inform the employer about our previous encounters. He would force a smile just to create an accommodating environment to please the employer. It was evident that he was driven by fear other than respect for the employer.

Conclusion

The experience we had on that particular night, and personal observations I made in our society after the incident helped me appreciate the need to develop a society that is united irrespective of socio-economic or religious differences. Many Native Qataris, just as the immigrants, desire to have a society where people are treated with respect. However, both sides fear making an effort towards the change we desire. As Larner (34) says, self-handicapping can never be a solution to our social problems. Allingham (119) defines self-Handicapping as “A cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.” We fear making proper efforts to address this social problem because we feel we might fail in the process.

Works Cited

Allingham, Moses. The mind readers. New York: Felony & Mayhem Press, 2011. Print.

Fox, Marci and Leslie Sokol. Think Confident, Be Confident for Teens: A Cognitive Therapy Guide to Overcoming Self-Doubt and Creating Unshakable Self-Esteem. New York: Cengage, 2011. Print.

Harvey, Philip. Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: Characteristics, assessment, and treatment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.

Haykin, Simon. Cognitive dynamic systems: Perception-action cycle, radar, and radio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.

Larner, Adams. Cognitive screening instruments: A practical approach. London: Springer, 2013. Print.

Pickren, Wade. The Psychology Book: From Shamanism to Cutting-Edge Neuroscience, 250 Milestones in the History of Psychology. London: McMillan, 2014. Print.

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Stereotype Threats and Social Psychology

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