Author: Andre Coleman

My personal reasons for choosing this dissertation topic stem from an interest in how media representations shape the attitudes of wider society. I feel it is important to note that I am writing as a non-disabled student with the view that disability studies and research should not just be the interests of disabled people. Issues of inequality and social injustice need to be considered by all members of society, while ensuring that the views, definitions and experiences of the particular group remain central to the discussion. It has been made apparent that the voices of disabled people have been absent from discussion because of the assumption that they need others to speak them and decide on their needs (Barton, 1993). Dominant views of disability dictate that it is a personal problem of the individual, based on biological impairment. However, I strongly advocate a social model of disability which emphasises that oppression and discrimination by society is the cause of experiences of disability. I plan to make this my main approach in writing my dissertation. Barton (1996, pg. 5) describes disability studies within the field of Sociology as an ’emancipatory project’ and argues that the fundamental question we must ask ourselves is whether ‘the sociological imagination contributes to the benefit of disabled people’ (original emphasis) I believe that any research which aims to illuminate the prejudices implicit in cultural representations of disability, are necessary pursuits and it is vital to seriously consider the reasoning behind research projects as well as the ultimate impact they are aimed to have on particular groups.

There has been many publications regarding disability and media representation in recent times which highlights that disability, impairment and disabled people are being frequently misrepresented in the mass media. Research has also suggested that such media representations have an alarming affect on the attitudes of the public. This issue can be divided into three key areas, the use of disability stereotypes, the use of specific language and images of disability and the under-representation of people with impairments working within the mass media. Pressures from disabled activists and legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 have brought this issue onto the agenda and worked to improve the rights of disabled people. An increasing awareness of the issues has resulted. However, the extent of this awareness is debatable as there is still much work to be done in tackling the negative and disempowering portrayals within the media and the current views of society. It is clear that the media has not made sufficient changes and therefore this issue remains extremely relevant. My aim is to explore the representations of disabled people to see whether any changes have been made.

1.3.3 Can Disability be represented positively?

It is safe to say that the majority of media depictions of Disability and impairment are incorrect and exclude people with impairments from participation within media production. During my search for literature on the issue of disability and the media, I found that a substantial amount of studies were very critical of the media and focus only on negative stereotypical portrayals with an inclusion of recommendations for their demise. An example which I plan to use in my literature review chapter is Barnes’ (1992) ‘disabling imagery and the media’ which ambitiously attempts to deal with all aspects of the media in misrepresenting disability. Despite such an extensive collection of studies in this area, there is very little literature which focuses on the representation of disability by disabled people themselves. It could be argued that there are not enough media sources which involve disabled people of which to analyse. However very recently I am pleasantly surprised to see that there are a few emerging. Notable examples include the Channel 4 ‘mockumentary’ ‘Cast Offs’ in which six characters with different impairments live together on an island. The show highlights many disability issues and challenges stereotypes of disability. Themes include sexuality, disabled identity and the exclusion of disabled actors and actresses from television (Wilde, 2009). Other media sources which feature disabled people include, ‘Britain’s Missing Top Model’ and ‘Dancing on Wheels’. Although this is a step in the right direction, the inclusion of individuals with impairments on TV has been restricted mainly to reality TV which offers little insight into the lives of disabled people; instead they are centred on strength and achievement despite the individual’s impairment rather than a celebration of disabled identities. The new American musical drama ‘Glee’ has considered disability issues within its plot lines, this included the use of wheel chairs during a performance in order to educate the able-bodied performers on the importance of considering the needs of wheel chair user ‘Artie’ and the difficulty in getting around the high school from his perspective because of the lack of ramps and accessible doors. Unfortunately however, the character of Artie is played by a non-wheel chair user and so any positive aspects of disability representation in the show are practically reversed by the exclusion of disabled actors and actresses from participating.

1.3.4 The Sun and Ouch!

I wanted to choose two online sources for my study which were imposing in terms of disability representation and portrayal. Tabloid newspapers are notorious for depicting various groups inaccurately and producing sensationalised media in order to sell newspapers. ‘The Sun’ is a daily tabloid newspaper which is among the highest in circulation in the world (The Newspaper Marketing Agency, 2010). The use of disablist language is common in tabloid newspapers and often in the broadsheets too. Reports regularly provide distorted representations of the experience of disability and focus on stereotypical assumptions (Barnes, 1991). This topic will be expanded further in chapter three. I chose The Sun because of its popularity in the UK and because tabloid news is a major source of information for the general public, I will be using articles from The Sun online website. After selecting a tabloid source for my study I began searching for an online source which involved the self-representation of disabled people, I dismissed many websites because they were charity based, political in nature, or simply provided information and advice for disabled people without necessarily being based on the views and experiences of this group. Examples of websites I considered include ‘Radar’ and ‘Disability Now’. I chose ‘Ouch!’ because it is not centred on disability politics and aims to ‘reflect the lives and experiences of disabled people’ (See Ouch! 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/about.shtml). The website consists of articles, blogs, podcasts as well as other features. The writers and contributors are not concerned with political correctness but seek to offer insights into the topics that are important to disabled people and those with a ‘stakehold’ in disability such as family and friends. To ensure that representations and portrayals of disability are suitable, the Ouch! team are disabled themselves. My first impressions of the website and its content were that it is very humour based and does not take itself too seriously. It is friendly, accessible and taps into the ordinary, everyday experiences of disability. This is why I decided it would be a suitable source for comparison with a more mainstream media source.

1.4 Structuring my Dissertation

My dissertation will consist of six key sections. The first is my introduction which will outline the topic of study, along with my reasons for choosing it and my aims. Chapter two will historicise disability using the work of Barnes (1991, 1996, and 1997). Chapter three will discuss the existing literature which relates to my topic, this will include studies of media representation and disability, a discussion of the political models of disability and the key terms involved in the debate. In chapter four I will discuss my methods of research, including how I selected my sources and an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of my chosen method of content analysis. I will also consider any ethical implications of the study in this chapter. Chapter five will be my most important section, in this I will present and discuss my findings. The final chapter (chapter six) will be focused on my concluding the study. It will relate my findings to the objectives presented in the introduction and the issues raised in my literature review. It will also include a reflection of my chosen methodology and a summary of the dissertation.

2.0 The History of Disability

In order to understand the representations and societal perceptions of disability today, it is necessary to study a history of Disability. The attitudes and practices of the past have a vital influence on present day beliefs. Barnes (1997) argues that the lives of Disabled people in history have been overlooked in favour of an emphasis on medical perspectives and it is clear that many disabled people experience exclusion from mainstream society. This is evident in such areas as employment, in which 45% of disabled people of working age are excluded from. It has been found also that disabled people tend to have lower earnings, with disabled men earning on average ?1.50 less per hour than non-disabled men (Hyde, 2001). As a result, many disabled people live in poverty or are at risk of poverty. Discrimination can also be seen within the education system welfare, housing, leisure and environment and planning.

‘The evidence that disabled people experience sever economic deprivation and social disadvantage is overwhelming and no longer in dispute, whether it be from the governments own commissioned research, from research institutes and academics or from disabled people themselves.’ (Oliver, 2003, pg. 312).

Historically, people with impairments have long been oppressed and marginalised. Hostile treatment, pity and ignorance are common disabling experiences. Barnes (1997 and 1991) claims that perceptions of disability are rooted in ancient Greek and Roman history, he discusses how the cultures of the western world are based on the achievements of the ancient Greeks who built their existence on slavery. Greek society was extremely violent, male dominated and prone to war. They had a strong value for physical and mental strength and any weaknesses and flaws were not tolerated. Such a concern for perfection meant that the infanticide of sick and disabled children was very common. In Greek philosophy, the gods and goddesses were ‘idealised representations of perfect humanity’ (Dutton cited in Barnes, 1997, pg 13). The only god who was physically imperfect was Hephaestus, this Greek God was rejected by his parents because of his grotesque appearance and labelled a ‘cripple’ by his wife Aphrodite who committed adultery with a more aesthetically pleasing lover. This mythology is significant as it is a clear source of the links made between impairment and sexuality today as many of us assume that disabled people are unable or do not want to have a sex life. When the Romans conquered Greece and expanded their empire, the values of strength, individualism and able-bodiedness were inherited with it. The Romans also advocated the infanticide of ‘weak’ children and ridiculed people who acquired impairment during their life course. Many roman games involved using individuals with impairment as comedy acts for the amusement of others. Although both the Greeks and Romans attempted to develop treatments for impairments, they were reserved mainly for those with power and wealth (Garland, 1995).

Another foundation of our thoughts and beliefs of disability can be found in the western religions of Christianity and Judaism. Religion in ancient societies viewed disability as anti-religious and a reflection of sin or immoral behaviour. Barnes cites many references from religious texts which imply that impairment is a consequence of bad behaviour. For example, in Deuteronomy (27-27) it states that immorality will be punished by blindness. In contrast to Greek and roman society, the Jewish faith opposed infanticide and encouraged its members to care for the ‘less fortunate’ this is also a feature of subsequent religions stemming from the Judaism, such as Islam and Christianity. People with impairments were accepted by the community, but as objects of neediness and charity. This was a key feature of Christianity. Consequently, they were viewed only in terms of their impairment and treated as incomplete human beings in need of sympathy (Barnes, 1997).

During the Middle Ages disability was associated with evil and superstition and people with impairments were treated with extreme hostility. Children born with impairments were believed to of been sent by the devil as a result of parents involvement in witchcraft and other black arts. This association with evil was very strongly held in Britain during this time and was reflected in art and literature, Shakespeare’s Richard III is a good illustration of this, Richard is portrayed as physically and mentally deformed despite having no physical impairment. He is destined to only be successful as a villain which perpetuates the negative stereotype of impairment and evil. Just as in the ancient world, disabled people were ridiculed during the middle ages in many forms. Analyses of joke books from this time reveal that impairments such as insanity and idiocy were used as sources of humour. Many individuals with visible impairments were displayed as objects of entertainment (Barnes, 1997).

The 18th and 19th century saw the transition from agricultural subsistence to factory production during the industrial revolution and urbanisation process. This brought with it a decline in religious authority and the growth of science and rationality. The development of utilitarian philosophy which emphasised the importance of pleasing the majority at the expense of minority groups created a new found value for individuality and progress. These developments provided justification for the beliefs and practices of the past and can be cited as a starting point for the disability issues which are visible today. These include the development and prioritisation of a medical model of Disability, in which the body and impairment are viewed in individualistic terms rather than social, cultural and political. The institutional prejudice and discrimination of people with impairments in everyday social life is a second issue of Disability theorists. The popularity of eugenic ideas during the mid twentieth century and the murder of thousands of disabled people, as well as other oppressed minority groups during the second world war is another significant point in modern history and many scientists still advocate ‘Social Darwinist’ ideals and view human imperfections (both physical and mental) as a societal threat, a threat that needs to be eradicated (Barnes, 1996).

The rise of the disability movement in the 1960’s saw the development of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), the establishment of such organisations and the activism of disabled people resulted in a re-classification of disability as distinct from impairment and social in nature as opposed to medical (Barnes, 1997). Disability became defined as the disadvantages caused by social institutions and environments which effectively exclude people from participation (UPIAS, 1976). This was later adapted by other organisations such as the British Council of Disabled People (BCODP) and the Disabled People’s International (DPI) (Barnes, 1997). Eventually, this new understanding of disability became known as the ‘Social Model’ of Disability (Oliver, 1996a). Disability theory will be discussed further in my literature review (Chapter 3) with an analysis of both the medical and social models of Disability.

3.0 Literature Review
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Disability and Impairment: Key terms in the debate

‘Disability’ is difficult to conceptualise because of its multi-dimensional and complex nature. The term can be used in many different contexts and from different perspectives which means there is little consensus on its definition (Altman, 2001). Classifications associated with a medical model of disability are based on a distinction between ‘impairment’ ‘disability’ and ‘handicap’ impairment is defined as functional limitations to do with the body, disability is when an individual cannot function normally because if this impairment, and handicap refers to an inability to participate in social life (Oliver, 1990). The main problem with such classifications is that the individual impairment is considered to be the most important factor and reinforces an ‘individual definition in which functional limitations predominate. Thus, disability is viewed in terms of an individual’s personal inability to function’ (Barton, 1993 pg. 237). This model has had a powerful influence in shaping not just social policy, but societal attitudes and behavior.

In reality, many disabled people have rejected this understanding of disability. Instead ‘disability’ refers to failures in the structural environment to meet the needs of all individuals. The Disabled People’s International (1981) put forward the following definition which better fits the views of disabled people.

Impairment is the functional limitation within the individual caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment.

Disability is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers.

In relation to my content analysis research, I will be looking to identify how disability is conceptualised and the type of language used both in The Sun and Ouch!

3.3 The Language of Disability

‘The first and most important thing to remember about discussions of language and disability is that they arise because disabled people experience discrimination daily and are denied the same rights and opportunities as the rest of the population. Apart from the fact that words can be deeply hurtful to disabled individuals, they have power and are used extensively to justify oppression’ (Barnes, 1993, pg 8).

The power of language is a significant topic of discussion in the area of disability studies. While we assume that the primary purpose of language is to aid communication, Oliver (1994, pg. 4) argues that it is also about ‘politics, domination and control’ and I am inclined to agree. The development of language is not based on consensus of meaning but rather through the ability of some groups to force their meaning and understanding of others. This form of ‘cultural domination’ is visible in many forms, the imposition of the spoken word on deaf people and sexist language directed at women are both suitable examples (Oliver, 1989, pg.1). The misconceptions that society has of disability are caused as well reinforced by the use of disablist language. Many of the abusive terms directed at disabled people are well circulated and familiar to most of the population. ‘moron’ ‘cripple’ ‘spastic’ ‘idiot’ ‘mong’ ‘dwarf’ ‘midget’ ‘lunatic’ the list is endless (Clark and Marsh, 2002). This kind of terminology has the power to promote prejudice and discrimination against disabled people. As mentioned in the previous section (3.2) the DPI re-defined impairment and disability in line with the reality that disability is rooted in social injustice. This means that the language used by both the media and wider society ought to reflect a social model of disability in which society discriminates against those who do not conform to the ideals of an able-bodied society. Disablist language such as ‘the disabled’ or ‘people with disabilities’ are unacceptable yet commonly used by the press and the population generally. Individuals do not have disabilities, they have impairments. Phrases such as ‘the disabled’ objectify the individual and impose a particular label on their identity which is based solely on their impairment. ‘Disabled people’ as opposed to ‘people with disabilities’ is more appropriate as it implies that the disability belongs to society, whereas the latter makes it the property of the person (Barnes, 1991 and 1992). Within the British press, the aforementioned terms, particularly ‘cripple’ and ‘handicap’ are used regularly. This is usually within a sentimental and patronising context. For example stories in which disabled individuals display ‘bravery’ despite of their disability or ‘handicap’ or instances where individuals have made personal scarifies to help a disabled individual or group. These generally involve the use of emotive language, such as ‘wheelchair bound’ ‘afflicted’ ‘sufferer’ ‘victim’ and so on (Barnes, 1991).

To summarise, much of the language that is used in discussions of disability are based on an individualistic/medical understanding of the nature of disability. They are not developed from the experiences of disabled people, but rather from the perceptions of others. While conducting my study I will be interested to see which kinds of terminology and language are used in the newspaper articles from my sample.

3.4 Disability Theory: the Medical model and the Social model

The medical model of disability has formed the basis of commonsense assumptions and beliefs about the nature of disability. This perspective focuses on the individual and his or her impairment. It ‘imposes a presumption of biological or physiological inferiority upon disabled persons’ (Hahn, 1985). Medical views attribute physical and intellectual impairments as constituting disability, while denying its social and political nature. Oliver (1983 and 1996a) prefers the term ‘individual model’ and argues that medicalisation is one element of this, along with psychological aspects. Medical accounts amount to a personal tragedy theory of disability (Oliver, 1990 and Finkelstein, 1980) in which disability simply ‘happens’ to individuals and is personal to them, it implies that any difficulties are a direct result of impairments (Finkelstein, 1993) this forms the basis of everyday beliefs. In terms of rehabilitation, emphasis has been placed on functional limitations of an individual and ‘attempts to find ways of preventing, curing or (failing these) caring for disabled people’ (Marks cited in Williams, 2001 pg 125).

As mentioned throughout this dissertation, this way of understanding disability has been heavily criticised by disabled people and disability has been re-conceptualised as a social and political problem through the work of disabled groups in the 1960’s (Barnes, 1997). Disability theory has roughly been divided into American and British contributions. I will briefly outline the work of American sociologists, however I am more concerned with the work of British authors as it better relates to my dissertation and it’s theoretical standpoint. American writers during the 1960’s challenged the idea that individual medical conditions or impairments were the cause of disability. Goffman (1963) discuses the role of ‘stigma’ in ‘spoiling’ (pg. 15) a person’s social identity, one of the forms of stigma he identifies derives from physical abnormalities. He also identifies that disability is socially constructed and concludes that the attitudes of professional contributes to experiences of disability. Stone (cited in Barnes, 1997) argues that the social construction of disability is based on the power of the sate in restricting welfare to those who require it. The importance of work and production in industrialised society has meant that those who are unable to participate are in need of assistance from the state, who along with medical professionals, are able to define disability as an individual problem and determine the level of access to welfare and other state services. Other writers, notably Albrecht (cited in Barnes, 1997) point out that disability has been ‘controlled and transformed into commercial enterprise’ (pg. 6) he claims that societies produce different forms of illness, impairment and disability. The ways in which these are interpreted is dependent on economic factors he argues. American functionalist/interactionist accounts of disability are derivative of Parsonian ideas and focus on the role of being ‘sick’ which is expected of disabled people and considered to be a form of deviance (Oliver, 1996b). The liberal values that exist in an industrial (and post- industrial) society place importance on personal responsibility and a strong work ethic, deviancy is created when an individual is unable to conform to these ideals. Writers have also argued that people with impairments are dependent on medical professionals who ‘assist in the psychological accommodation of a ‘disabled’ identity’ (pg. 21) and provide rehabilitation. The main criticisms made of the American tradition are that they over look the significance of social and economic factors central to experiences of disability. They also fail to take into account the perspectives of disabled people themselves, both these points form the main focus of British writers which I will turn to next.

British theorists have been much more critical in their assessments of disability and have explicitly expressed their arguments about the oppression, prejudice and discrimination that many disabled people encounter on a routine basis. A number of writers have approached disability in society through a materialist or Marxist analysis, focusing on economic and political factors. Others have highlighted the importance of the subjective experiences of disability and the role of culture. References have been made to the importance of gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality and other social factors which shape individual understandings of disability (Barnes, 1997). Theorists who use a materialist framework claim that oppression is caused by economic structures. The lives of disabled people have little value in a capitalist society as they are deemed unable to contribute to economic and social life (Riddell, 1996). Finkelstein (1980) identifies three phases in history with regard to societal reaction to impairment . In the first, ‘pre-industrial’ phase people with impairments were not excluded from economic life and the notion of disability did not exist. This was because work was subsistence based and aimed at providing basic food and amenities for survival. Communities needed all the labour they could get from its members (Barnes and Mercer, 2003). The second phase was that of industrial capitalism during the 19th century, both Oliver (1990) and Finkelstein (1980) argue that during this time Disability developed along side capitalist production and free market enterprise. The rise of factory production and the intense levels of speed and control involved meant that disabled workers were not welcome in the work place. Processes of urbanisation created fragmented communities and weakened family networks. The growth of towns and cities to house the work force were geographically and structurally inadequate for disabled people and contributed to their segregation from wider society and the introduction of residential institutions (Barnes and Mercer, 2003). For Finkelstein, it was at this point that people with impairments became a distinctly oppressed group, he argues that in phase the use of technology and the activism of disabled people will end oppression and disability will cease to be viewed in individualistic or medical terms (Barnes, 1997). Perhaps the growth of the internet and websites like BBC Ouch! mark the beginning of this phase. Oliver (1990) also discusses capitalism and disability, he applies Marxist ideas about the power of ideology to argue that the values which form the basis of social practice and culture conceptualised disability as a ‘personal tragedy’ and aided the development of the individual model.

Critics of Finkelstein and Oliver’s materialist analyses of disability argue that they over look the individual experiences of disability, rather than treat disabled people as a homogenous group. The social model needs to be reconceptualised with this in mind and from a postmodernist perspective which recognises diversity (Shakespeare, 1994, Morris, 1991, Crow, 1992). These writers discuss the prejudiced attitudes towards disabled people through culture, as material explanations fall short in explaining why discrimination exists and how disablist culture produces it. *incomplete*

3.5 Media representation of Disability and effects on the audience

The stereotypical portrayal of disabled people within popular culture is one of the most significant factors contributing to the discrimination of disabled people. Hunt (1966) argues that disabled people represent an ‘other’ in society and pose a threat to the able-bodied values entrenched in its structure. He describes this threat as being divided into five forms, as ‘unfortunate, useless, different, oppressed and sick’ (pg. 146). Disabled people are considered ‘unfortunate’ because of the belief that they are unable to lead a full life. They are ‘useless’ because they cannot contribute economically, ‘different’ because they do not conform to ‘normal’ expectations of a human being and ‘marked out as members of a minority group’ (pg. 150). Finally, they are ‘oppressed and sick’ because they do not fit in, ‘for the able-bodied, normal world we are representations of many of the things they most fear- tragedy, loss, dark and the unknown… contact with us throws up in people’s faces the fact of sickness and death in the world’ (pg. 155-156). Hunt’s arguments about the way disability is understood in western culture are applicable today in studying the misconceptions which are reproduced by the media. As discussed in Chapter Two, such misconceptions stem from the beliefs and practices of the past and have become firmly ingrained within society. Disablist attitudes become normalised through a process of social learning (Barnes, 1991) however, the extent and nature of this process is open to debate and many argue that there is no real way of knowing how he media influences perception. There have been many studies which have investigated the cultural portrayals of disability, some examples follow.

3.5.1 ‘Disabling imagery and the media’ by Colin Barnes.

The focus of this study is the portrayal of disabled people in the media and its stereotypical nature. Using secondary data from the content analysis studies of various organizations, Barnes (1992) identifies several stereotypes of disabled people produced within the media. These are: the disabled person as ‘pitiable and pathetic’ as ‘an object of violence’ as ‘sinister and evil’ as ‘atmosphere or curio’ as ‘super cripple’ as ‘an object of ridicule’ as ‘their own worst enemy’ as ‘a burden’ as ‘sexually abnormal’ , as ‘incapable of participating in community life’ and as ‘normal’ (Barnes, 1992, pg 3). Rather than focus on particular aspects of the media, Barnes chose to study all aspects of the media, including the press, radio, television, books and so on. He argues that media depictions of disability contribute to experiences of discrimination in a significant way. He goes on to reiterate that the poverty experienced by disabled people cannot be explained by the traditional model which suggests individual physical or intellectual limitations to be the root cause. It is caused by ‘reactive environments and disabling barriers. Thus ‘disability’ refers to a complex system of social constraints imposed on disabled people by a highly discriminatory society’ (Barnes, 1992, pg. 5). As mentioned in Chapter T7wo, stereotypical assumptions about disability stem from the beliefs and practices of earlier times, they are embedded in the very structure of society and are expressed in all institutions- ed

Once a famous German caricaturist and poet Wilhelm Busch (1832 – 1908) said that “becoming a father isn’t difficult, but it’s very difficult to become a father.” This phrase can be interpreted in different ways, but at the moment it is as topical as never before, since essential social changes and shifts state the question of parenthood for men in absolutely new light. The matter is, more and more men these days find themselves single fathers, and have to face new reality, while the society is not actually ready to accept them appropriately. This problem is attracting more and more attention of public and specialists, but still there is not enough research of the matter and fathers still essentially take pains to prove their rights: “single dads remain a poorly represented group in official statistics, government programmes and communities,” as Sandra Gruescu (2010, p. 19) states. The topicality of the subject and its narrow presentation in scholar studies has motivated us to focus attention on this problem in order to find out whether single fathers really face many problems in child fostering and their personal life and what ways out there are for them to make things better. In this way the object of out research is lone parenthood and single fatherhood of London is the main subject. To move from the first to the latter we are going to use deductive method. Apart from that, as for methodology to be applied, we shall use surveying and case study in order to get information at first hand, content-analyses in order to understand what has already been found out and what the probable holes of studies are. To provide that, we shall study local, national and partly international press, official reports and local overviews. Then we shall be able to sum up theoretical and empirical data and make conclusions on what are the modern conditions for men growing children on their own.

In this way, tasks we are going to undertake are the following: to study general materials on single parenthood; single out the issue of lone fathers, especially those living in London; synthesize fragments gathered and give critical summary; involve the comments of interviewees; and finally to tally up the situation.

SINGLE PARENTHOOD IN TERMS AND FIGURES

In this paragraph we are to find out what is single parenthood, where it takes its roots and where results in. On the whole, as for the terms, a lone parent is one who takes care of a child (or children) all on his or her own, without participation of another parent within home. Divorce or death of the spouse are among the main reasons of growing a child alone; adoption, abuse or abandonment, and artificial insemination. A parent who takes a conscious decision to grow up a child on his own from the very beginning is also called a choice parent.

All in all, as calculated in 2009, there are 1.9 million sole parents in the UK. In total they bring up about three million children. By Labour Market Review (2006), cited by Charlotte Philby (2010), each forth family is a family of one parent (among them about 8-11 % are male). Among those, 13% are under 25 years of age.

Those parents who stay with the child most of the time are called ‘primary carers’, and those who just visit children are called ‘secondary carers’. By statistics, more than 90 percent of primary carers in the United Kingdom are women, and it goes without saying that all the assistance from the government, tax credits and benefits are given to them. Still, as the General National Survey has shown, more than a half of single-parented households live below the poverty line. On average, it takes about 600 pounds per year to raise a child, and about 10,500 pounds to grow a child from birth till full age.

CALAMITIES TO OVERCOME

Except financial, there is a great number of long-term social and psychological, physical and mental health influences on both ex-spouses and children after divorce. It may be destructive or loyal, and the strength of loss depends on the extent of intimacy between children and each of the parents, on parents’ characteristics like age, education level, occupation and income, on relations left between parents, on visitation rights prescribed for the secondary carer, and the circumstances children grow in on the whole (Coombs, 1991). ‘Half-abandoned’ children are more like to experience behavioural problems, and Augustine Kposawa (2003) adds a schedule of main consequences: higher risks of clinical depression, greater need for formal psychiatric assistance, and higher rates of suicide among men.

As any other vulnerable group, sole parents receive a kind of support from the government, from non-profit organizations and on-line resources as well. These days there are more and more forums, web-sites, social networks, blogs and professional advice services where sole parents can share their problems and look for decisions together. A good example is the Gingerbread National Charity for Single Parents.

The development of such programs seems to be obvious for the first sight, but in reality the issue is not so well-defined. The matter is, there is much debate over single parenthood: on the one hand, government assistance is a normal social practice. But on the other hand, it turns out that the government itself is supporting the phenomenon which is against the society itself while sole parenthood doesn’t correspond to the traditional moral values and family standards; and it seems, there can be no sound society with unsound families. Thus present British Prime Minister Mr. Cameron is rather to encourage marriages by ?150 tax breaks than take care of objectionable sole parents living under the breadline (Rowling, 2010). The police of the Tories has naturally risen a good deal of criticism: “Do you not think that is discrimination against someone who pays their tax bill every month, and someone who is going to find that my friend down the road who has managed to find Mr Right gets away with paying less tax than I do, just because I am raising my children by myself?” (Tapsfield, 2009 p. 15). Single parents are pushed to feel second-class.

But why are we now there?

Through the 20th century the amount of households with single parent was rather low, but during last three decades figures began to grow rapidly. Basically, these changes have their historical, social and demographic reasons. Firstly, women began to feel more confident in their rights and freedoms, and more and more of them came to the conclusion that living on their own has more advantages than living in an unhappy wedlock. They began to receive more support from the official structures and the attitude of the society became not as reprehensible as it used to be. “Fresh figures show that 57 per cent choose the single life as they say it is more rewarding”, Steve Doughty (2010, p. 30) writes. Meanwhile the civilized world has been experiencing crucial shifts in gender social roles. More and more women prefer career to family and under the tension of business life more and more women are loosing their maternal instinct while paternal one on the contrary has been gaining force.

FATHERS IN THE MIDDLE

Now we are to sharpen our attention at a narrower group presented by sole fathers. It was investigated that “more than 3 million men are classed as ‘economically inactive’, living on benefits or the black economy” (Arendell, 1995 p. 112). It is also an example of social changes, but still many of men either successful or not very face obligation and will to be primary carers for their children: “Active involvement in the day-to-day lives of children is no longer the exclusive domain of mothers. Fathers are being encouraged to build closer interpersonal relationships with their children. As a result, many fathers have found that being a parent is richly rewarding and they are not willing to assume the role of “weekend” father just because a marriage relationship has soured” (Bartz and Witcher, 1978 p. 2). According to the statistics, family heads are divorced or separated fathers (8.4 per cent), never-married fathers (1.5 per cent), and widowers (0.9 per cent).

In the United Kingdom there are 210,000 male sole parents (8-11 %) rising up 280,000 dependent children. In London specifically, by National Statistics (2006), there are 16,473 households headed by single males. In other words, each ninth single parent is father. Meanwhile there are 180,366 male secondary cares also identified as ‘absent fathers’. In the borough alone there are 5,710 households headed by single parents with 934 children living with their fathers (Ehrlich, 2008).

SPECIFIC DIFFICULTIES FACED BY SINGLE FATHERS

It goes without saying that lone fathers face generally the same problems as lone mothers, but there are some particular troubles too. First and foremost, it is already difficult to prove their right on the child, as courts traditionally favour mothers. And even if men win, their exes often don’t leave them in peace, as they are more natural to be with a kid. The society has much less trust and approval for men. Nevertheless, “men can be essential for developing language skills, developing awareness of rules and boundaries and being a positive male role model in the child’s life” (Risman, 1986 p. 96).

Further on, it is considered that financial problems are less spread among men, but in fact they receive much less flexibility at their workplace and face negative attitude of supervisory. They are taken as awkward while it is not commonly for fathers to be so involved and faithful. Meanwhile is the most important thing for a child, his or her love can’t be bought with money, therefore a lone father has to balance between financial obligations and emotional relations. “If they go straight back to work, they’re treated like bad parents; if they don’t, they’re called benefit scroungers,” Jane Ahrends explains (Philby, 2010 p. 15).

Moreover, it is not a secret for a father that a child needs a woman to see a female behavioural model and to provide care, but it is rather hard for a lone father to get married again: a woman is likely to avoid a man with children, as their mother is often there too; maybe, the girl doesn’t like children at all or wants to have her own first and better to share all those first experiences with her husband; she doesn’t want to be initially judged as a mother and she doesn’t want to share her husband’s attention with someone else (Miller, 2007). Yet, for sole fathers on the first place are the problems with their exes with whom, for the sake of their children, they should co-work effectively despite all misunderstanding.

Then, what is even more striking, sole fathers should be ready to cope with emotional distress of children who can have low self-esteem, feel different from others and consequently have problems with socialization. Especially it is hard when a man fosters a girl. He should keep his healthy guide’s status and escape equality in order to keep balance.

“It’s easy to become angry and depressed when loving and committed fathers have to prove they are just that,” Peter Ehrlich (2008, p. 18) admits.

THE MEANS TO WITHSTAND

In fact, there are special support groups for those who bring their children alone no matter female or male. But certainly there are more women who into the bargain feel more natural and free to express their feelings and emotions. For most of men that method is not available.

Versus the indifference of the officials, single fathers are now actively uniting their forces. And one of especially active representatives of this social group, William McGranaghan has recently organized a special service Dads House within the project Homes for Families and Fathers (Hoff) specially for their companions-in-arms where they can get in touch, spend time with their offspring and acquire some useful skills like cooking. By summer 2010 it has had already 1,400 active members. There are other support groups as well, e.g. the one of Pete Wrighton, where men learn to talk and to be honest.

CONCLUSION

So, the things are not as bad as they may seem on the face of it. However, we have found out that the topic strongly needs further consideration. The attention of employers and officials should be attracted to the issue, and social stereotypes should be discarded gradually. On the one hand, it is hard to disagree with the governmental policy intended to encourage healthy family structures which seem to be more reliable and stable. But the matter is, that is a deceptive impression to date, and, if accepted and assisted, lone fathers are able to bring up much healthier, much happier and much more perspective citizens of future, than two-parented, but unhappy and destructive families where a child receives no care but copies wrong behavioural models. These issues should be deeply learnt by family psychologists and scholars as well. All in all, single fathers’ problems in today’s London are many, and they should be thoroughly examined by sociologists, demographers, psychologists and pedagogues. In that way they are possible to be solved and unloaded.

Statistics of the U.S. researchers showed that an average user management 21% of the time during the week to resolve the contradictions and conflicts within the company.Thus, conflict resolution and conflict so satisfied with a job that managers need to pay attention to promote the company work better. Conflict is a process in which one side perceives that its interests are opposed or negatively affected by another side . Conflict is inevitable. The potential conflict is found everywhere. Conflict as well as conflicts within an organization can occur at many levels from small to large.This topic talks about how to identify the type of conflict, the origin of them and give appropriate treatment strategy of conflict. Conflict has an important influence in business administration such as high level of conflict will create a loss of control in the organization, reduced productivity and increased hostility between people. Energy for the work have to use for conflict and contradiction. With high levels of conflict, anger will tend to focus on individuals rather than dispute can be resolved . From here the coordination disappeared and confidence threatened. Great disadvantage and loss for many companies. In addition to the above disadvantages, conflict can function to promote the development of an organization. The nature of conflict is not bad but its consequences in a positive or negative depends on how to solve them. So, figure out the cause of the conflict is the key to manage them in the direction of creating positive consequences for the organization.

GROUP CONFLICT LITERATURE REVIEW

The group is a collection of individuals who satisfy the following four factors: There are 2 or more members; have time to do certain work together, sharing the same or perform general one task or plan to reach theobjectives that the group expected, operating under the general provisions of the group. Group work brings good results that the individual can not do or that the efficiency is not high. Also allows individuals to overcome personal obstacles and society to achieve or accomplish results, higher goals.At the same time leads to the development of other members to join the group. The result of the first group help the second group learning experience. Participate in group have some benefits such as: Take advantage of talent, skill and ability of each member make it become collective strength, can learn from each other work experience, life experience and social experience. The group can support each other to solve the problems of the individual, help the individual to develop and reach the common goals of the group. Help groups behavior change, personal attitude in a good way by individual self-improvement. For example: Personally speaking crowd will be more confident. Working group to help solve problems more effectively, due to the many different members, with experience and knowledge. And work together are factors that make motivation for all members. The group is a collection of people with different characteristics and demands of purpose and work method completely different. Therefore conflicts arising is normal. Conflict is complex psychosocial issues in collective activities of the organization. It is a psychological phenomenon among human. Manage relationships through the team requires leadership, management should have proper awareness about conflict and how to resolve conflicts in the organization. Conflict is a social psychological phenomenon the status changes to previous psychological balance. Collective conflicts in the contradictory nature of antagonism arose between human in the process of working together in groups. As we all know, human activity is purposeful activities; activities each can to achieve different purposes (for example, achieve a purpose to achieve objectives B, with the purpose B to achieve the purpose of C). But the ultimate goal that everyone wants to achieve is always a benefit to meet the physical and spiritual needs of his. Through searching the benefit human have relations with the enviroment and relations with each other. Thus, the conflict is the interaction between people (between subjects with other subjects) in the direction hinder, exclusion each other or struggle each other. Debate is an inevitable and necessary part of the work group. However, it is useful only when it debates in peace and all revolve around issues of common work. In fact, the debate easily out of control and negative impact on work and relationships of the group. Conflict can bring positive or negative results, depending on the nature and intensity of the conflict, and conflict resolution. So why conflict need resolution? As the nature of conflict does not go away by itself, if don’t solve the problem can create greater conflicts. Effective conflict resolution will bring benefits such as: Improving understanding and mutual respect among team members. Improve team collaboration through discussion, negotiation in resolving conflicts. Strengthening the human link when the conflict is resolved effectively, they will understand the others about feelings, preferences and circumstances. Improve understanding of each member due to personal conflicts push them more efforts to quickly pass the “rival” of them, help them understand the real issues most important to them, and lead them to success faster. However, if the conflict is not resolved in a scientific and effective way, they can cause unpredictable consequences. Conflict in the work easily turn into personal conflicts. Team work is broken, wasted talent, and easy to protest and blame on each other make the spirit of teamwork disintegration and this is very detrimental to any company or organization. This literature review will clearly state the causes of conflict, conflict category. Once you understand the source of conflict will be easy to understand and figure out the direction to solve it effectively. This is a very useful topic for all kind of professions, social class. This skill helps people avoid embarrassment before the scene of conflict and minimize conflict.

Key words: Conflict, Group behavior, Group Conflict, Cause of Conflict, Resolving Conflict, Conflict Style..

TYPES OF CONFLICT

There are three types of conflict include: Conflict between individuals and individuals, Individuals and groups. Or conflict between groups and groups. In essence, the conflict is the clash of interests and values aa‚¬aˆ?aa‚¬aˆ?of human

Individuals to Individuals: In the organization possible conflicts between the individual and the individual.The cause of the conflict is very different: the incompatibility of psychology; misunderstood each other; disagreements in perspective, lack of understanding, mutual trust, the crowding out of other people for. Psychological conflicts between individuals can occur such as : One side Conflict is only one person against another in a positive way in the form of public or non-public. Or two side Conflict come from both parties are actively involved.The evolution of the conflict without solve conflict first step will be a logical progression in the upward direction. Both parties refused to accept the proposal of each other, making the conflict a progression. After that conflict evolve become very strong. Drastic actions of the two sides, can not be controlled. Then conflict evolve explosion: This is often conflict started after the insiders have to silently endure and contradictions become extreme stress in a moment of explosive conflict. These conflicts often have great strength and ended very quickly. The conflict can be ended as diverse as: Resolving thoroughly, extinguish the conflict when it is completely finished with the victory of the people and the failure of others, or by compromise, concession each other. One side conflict, when a person has cleared his inhibition, then the conflict is resolved completely. If not resolving thoroughly it can turn into a dormant state that the two parties are fatigue and risk of back anytime. Or the other way it would be a false ending in the illusion of wraps of conflict due to one reason or another, while the cause of the arising conflict is still not resolved. When the enemy back stance, his earlier opinion, the conflict between the two sides became more intense, reproducibility conflict is huge.

Individual to the group: There is a conflict between a member of the collective. This type of conflict is caused by many reasons. May be due to the reason comes from the individual or from the collective.For example: All the many elements of bad, lazy, undisciplined … good personal conflict, positive; conflict between a bad individual selfishness, dishonesty in dealing with a collective good; conflict between the development of the collective characteristics of leadership style. Etc.. Type of conflict between groups and individuals by the views or interests do not match.For example, in a sales team, a majority of the members of the group want to lower the product for quick consumption and more.But there is one person in the group do not agree so that it can affect the overall profit and customer may be rated poor quality.In this case, conflicts between individuals and groups occur

Groups and the Groups: In an organization can have multiple groups.View of the interests of the group do not agree with each other such as division of labor no reason not understand each other, conflicts between individuals with different individuals in the two groups caused conflict between the two groups, ordue to competition between groups leads to conflict occurs

CAUSE CONFLICT:

To successfully resolve conflicts that arise in the work is not easy it requires you to know exactly the origin arising conflicts and provide reasonable solutions. Conflict is a disagreement, dispute occurs when there is a difference:

Work methods between people: Each person has different way of working.There are people who like to work fast, but also those who want to work slowly but surely.Or more emotional work while others are rational.There are also those who want to work for profit regardless of tricks but there are those who work with responsibility and conscience.Different styles lead to conflict at work

Communication Barrier: Conflict is more likely to occur in this case because of the misunderstanding of communication.In particular, differences in language and customs are the most common problems. Besides the geographical barriers of distance or transmitted by mouth through many people incorrect information leads to misunderstandings and contradictory arise together.

Personality: Sometimes the tension and stress and pressure, leading to an individual feel uncomfortable so the easy anger unusual and lost faith in the people around.They feel out of place in the group when the workload is too much due to the uneven division of labor. From that easy to cause jealousy, competition, personal steam along with other

Besides, due to the following reasons : Different target, Stress / psychological pressure, Ambiguity about the scope of the powers,..

CONFLICT STYLES

Here are the five conflict management direction useful for those who always face conflict.Each direction effectively solve different specific circumstances, it is important to understand the time to apply them wise.

Forcing

This is a quick method, but not collaborative, it is resolved in favor of the direction of power. They find ways to reach the goal with any price (intimidate, oppress, crush, etc.), they do not care to demand others. This method is best used in situations that require quick decisions that are vital, such as in the case of an emergency. This type of person always aims to compete for a better position the company, they know what they want. They usually start from a powerful industry, they are lured by position, social status, they’re intelligence, and have a good vision. But when they decide not to match, they find ways to defend themselve. However they feel unhappy, depressed when to do the job without challenges.

Accommodating

This method is not definitive, but it collaborative and opposition to competitive methods. The leader using this style can ignore their own interests in order to satisfy the needs of others. They see the relationship is paramount and their interests are secondary. They are willing to sacrifice the purpose, benefits as long as other people love them. They think that to avoid conflict to keep the peace. This method can promote the best performance when the problem to be solved become especially important for people other than yourself

Avoiding

This method is indecisive, no cooperation. Those who use it will not be solved conflict. It is often applied to problems less importance. Therefore, the cost to resolve the said conflict is usually higher than the subsidized amount to solve it.

They are always run away from conflict. They are the kind of people who execute the decisions, not opinions and do not want to touch anyone. They like to do the job at bringing competitiveness, argue against them is cheap method. So, this is a type who was very weak. It is important for you to recognize each type of person in your company, you can use them only when you think it’s best to resolve the problem you are experiencing. You can also solve them by instinct, experience and learn how to change the resolution if necessary.

Collaborating

This way both resolute and collaborative, it is the opposite of elusive style.When collaborating, individuals often try to work with others to find a solution that both parties are satisfied. It is often used in situations both parties interests are important to compromise Tube aims to try to reconcile and recognize that all people are equally important. This type of person is very useful when you need to combine the views of the people to give a best solution that everyone feel good; when there is conflict in the group for a long time;, or when you have a very important case that can only be resolved by agreement between the members. They see conflict as a problem to solve, they find ways to reduce stress, they are not satisfied until reaching common goals and solve problems between the two sides.

Compromising

This is how to solve the intermediate nature of assertiveness and cooperation. It is located in the middle of the competition and help. This method be applied when the purpose set out in moderation and it is essential to quickly go to the settlement. When unresolved conflict team members may begin to divide faction and of course no group solidarity. That is why it is important for the leaders to resolve the conflict if it occurs. This kind of people aims to compromise in order to try to find a solution to satisfy everyone. They sacrificed a neutral interests to find a solution in order to achieve common goals. They also mobilize their opponent to do the same

RESOLVING CONFLICT

To resolve the conflict, you should apply the following methods: Keep good relationship is the top concern. Be polite and calm with people, build a culture of mutual respect and avoid people feel pressure in everyday relationships. Separate issue from the people will helps you to have a lively debate that does not affect the relationship between colleagues together. Pay attention to the existing benefits by listening carefully you will understand why people accept their current position. Listen before speaking to solve a problem effectively need to listen in order to understand their needs. By following these methods, It can resolve conflicts in a calm and polite.This helps you to prevent the protests could lead to “reckless” in the company

Steps to resolve conflict:
Step 1:

Analyzes: Resolve conflicts when it started, avoid prolonged easy arising conflicts. Described conflict as a common problem to be solved, not as a struggle with winners and losers. Identify contradictions content as specific as possible.

Step 2:

Exchange: Listen, clarify, evaluate each other’s opinions. Flexible and ready to change the view to be convinced. Focus on demand, purpose and discover the difference between the two sides.

Step 3:

Understand: Try to find out the circumstances of the other by putting yourself in their situation.

Step 4:

Agreement: Find out wise solutions beneficial to both. If there are errors, please be willing to apologize

If all else fails, ask the help of expert because bystander opinion always fair and objective

DISCUSSION

Most of the conflicts between individuals are so opposite in personality and effective communication.There can occur when people do not like each other, when the belief does not exist. They can also conflict when vying a position or interest. Anger is the heart of each individual conflict. There are many notions of conflict.The version that conflict is bad, negative, creating stress, distrust, suspicion, reduced performance, reduced commitment and cohesion, increase resistance to change, so should be avoided.The second conflict is also negative; however, the notion that the inevitable third school that conflict is natural and comes from the interaction between individuals or between individuals withelements within the organization.Therefore, in itself, is neither good nor bad, but the potential positive or negative consequences depending on where it arises, awareness.

DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Future studies relevant and useful includes Group think or Group Decision Making.Because to understand the nature of the group, or of each member will be easy to make the final decision and avoid unnecessary conflicts occur.Solidarity in the group is very important.If a team has more talent, but every individual fighting with each other, the result will not work as expected with the break plans.But if a group agrees, to comply with the principles set out and mutual respect with the slogan “We are one” will achieve certain success.Besides also strengthen human love, the colleagues, friends.

CONCLUSION

In group activities can not avoid conflict.Some Confict may have no benefit for the organizational, but also the conflict will change the team become better. Conflict is always present, in the scale, scope and frequency of different organizations.Identify conflicts, their causes, and therefore, conflict management, an effective way requires a lot of knowledge, skills. Although conflict is a normal phenomenon in society, but it is a phenomenon that should be considered research, because it not only helps us to correctly identify conflict, but also the right choice method of solving conflictfor human and social benefit.

Different types of animal cruelty have ee around for many years. Laws relating to animal cruelty vary from state to state. As of 2009, about forty-six states have some felony provisions in their anti-cruelty and/or animal fighting laws (Wisch, 2005). As time passes and new things are being invented, people seem to loose interest in their pets. Even though people use animals for their testing/experiments, there are other ways to get a solution to something.

Scientist and many others, find it easier and safer to test on animals than to test on other possible sources. They test products such as makeup, and cologne. They also use animal fur for designer clothing & other types of fashion. Innocent animals are being used for useless products that we can live without. Many animals die due to different types of crucial testing. They suffer by going through several procedures. The goal is not to patch up ailing people but to use the human tissues in place of mice, dogs or other lab animals for testing new drugs, cosmetics and other products (New York Times, nd). With the donation of human cells, animal testing will be reduced. This way is safer & can be both suited for animals and humans. “If the animal- rights movement had a bible, it is Singer’s 1975 book, Animal Liberation” (New York Times, Jan. 15, pg 30). Singer calls many of the attitudes human beings have toward other animal’s speciesism, a concept which can be found throughout history (Gargaro, 1991). Humans are just like animals as far as feeling pain.

Eight billion animals are killed each year in this country for food. More than a thousand animals are killed and shipped to groceries stores to be bought. Slaughtering of cows, pigs, and other animals, happen everyday because consumers keep purchasing meat. Animals on today’s factory farms are kept in crowded, filthy enclosures and denied everything natural and enjoyable to them. Most of them have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats. There are some fruits or vegetables that can give the same protein as meat. The Humane Slaughter Act requires that animals be rendered unconscious with one swift application of a stunning device before slaughter. Animals in slaughterhouses can smell the stench, hear the sounds and often see the slaughter of those before them. As the animals struggle from fright, the human workers who are pressured to keep the lines moving quickly often react with impatience towards the animals. Numerous cases of deliberate cruelty have been reported including workers who took sadistic pleasure from shooting the eyes out of cattle, striking them in the head, and electrically shocking them in sensitive areas of their bodies. As for the chemistry of the central nervous and endocrine systems, there is no difference between humans and other animals. All free-range, factory-farmed, egg-laying, dairy-producing, or wool-bearing animals that don’t first die from disease are trucked to the slaughterhouse. To minimize costs, animals are crowded and must live in each other’s excrement. They are exposed to extreme weather conditions in the open trucks. Shipping fever, which can be fatal, is common in cattle transported long distances to the feedlots, the stockyards and then the slaughterhouse (Compassionate Action Institute, nd).

Animal cruelty can be either deliberate abuse or simply the failure to take care of an animal. Either way, and whether the animal is a pet, a farm animal, or wildlife, the victim can suffer terribly. People with emotional problems may beat, shoot, or stab animals or set them on fire. Neglect is not giving an animal the right food, water, shelter or vet care. Their misery goes on for so long; animals who die of neglect can suffer just as much as animals who are harmed on purpose. All U.S. states have animal cruelty laws, and 47 states treat some forms of abuse as felonies. Farmers and researchers can do cruel things to animals that other people can’t do legally, but all states have some protection for pets like dogs and cats. There are different cases in animal cruelty, for example cockfighting and dog fighting. Animal cruelty has not gone away. In Brea, California, 85 children, ages ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, witnessed a cow being slaughtered at Carbon Canyon Christian School, according to PETA Action Alerts. The rational for having the student’s witness this cruel act was that they could see this act, instead of only experiencing it through the books they had read during the year. Chances are if an animal is being abused and there is a child in that household, then the child is also being abused. Chances are that a child abusing an animal can grow up to be someone who commits other violent crimes. Studies also found that a history of animal abuse was found in 25% of male criminals, 30% of convicted child molesters, 36% of domestic violence cases and 46% of homicide cases (The National Animal Abuse Registry, nd). While prosecution of animal cruelty cases is generally considered the exclusive purview of law enforcement, veterinarians who routinely examine and treat sick and injured animals occupy a unique role in the legal process of identifying cruelty and bringing its perpetrators to justice.

People engage in animal cruelty, otherwise known as animal abuse, in every city throughout the world. There are many reasons why people mistreat animals – some individuals act on sadistic desires – others act unintentionally, harming animals with their carelessness. But the true abuse is systemic, involving the choices we make as a collective. Animals are used as dummies because people think they aren’t harming anyone by doing so. In the past few years, organizations and individuals have been using the power of the internet to spread awareness of animal cruelty facts – a great sign considering animal abuse will only continue on a massive scale until enough people come face-to-face with the statistics. To fight this abomination, activists, scientists, authors, lawyers, and politicians have sacrificed their valuable time and money, occasionally their lives, to save suffering animals. With gratitude to those who accumulate animal cruelty facts and educate the populace, people are finally taking notice of suffering animals and the mistreatment they undergo.

Sources of Cultural Biases can be interpreting through different frameworks which meaning is attributed. Sue and Sue (1990) attributed class, culture bound values; differences in verbal, emotional, and behavioral expressiveness, differences in causes and effect orientation, and differences in patterns of communication. The discrepancy in attributional systems that are culturally different clients and counselors bring to their interactions may present a barrier. The interactions may fail because of underlying mechanisms of culturally mediated attributional differences. The relationship between subjective culture (Triandis, (1972) and attributional processes are illuminated by theoretical and empirical work conducted by social psychologists as well as important insights from the field of linguistics. The occurrence, form and meaning of a particular behavior in a particular situation may differ from culture to culture because of differences in norms, values, role perceptions, expectations, and historical experience. Individuals from different cultural traditions bring to cross-cultural interactions different implicit, as well as explicit, frameworks for interpreting these experiences (Albert, 1983). These differences in interpretation may lead culturally different people to view the same situation or behavior very differently. There is a great range of within-group variation in the attribution and cause and meaning, between-group variation may account for failed interactions because of differential attributions likely to occur (Salzman, 1990). The silence of an individual from one culture may be interpreted by a culturally different as indifferent or hostility when it was intended as respectful noninterference. The behavioral consequences of this discrepancy could interfere with the development of mutually respectful, cooperative, professional and personal relationships.

Attributions are inferences about the causes of behavior. Heider (1958) indicated that humans are constantly engaged in the process of making inferences about behavior that is observed. Even though the behavior in any interactions that are or not performed can be important, it is the interpretations that are given to these behaviors that are critical (Albert & Triandis, 1979). A compliment can be interpreted as a way to manipulate, help can be seen as demeaning and a gift as a bribe. These interpretations have predictable behavioral consequences and may serve to define the interaction. Discrepant attributions have been found to result in misunderstandings, low personal attraction, rejection and even conflict (Albert, Trianis, 1979; Salzman, 1990). It is thought that such discrepancies are more likely to occur in cross-cultural interactions because of differences in norms, roles, values and expectation that each culture has developed in adapting to life geographically, economically and historical circumstances. Heider (1958) saw all people behaving as naA?ve scientists, constantly engaged in making inferences about events and observed behaviors by attributing causes and motives. Casual attributions, then answer the “why” questions about behaviors. They serve as mediators between all stimuli encountered in the world and responses made to these stimuli. Humans do not respond directly to events around us, we respond to the meanings or interpretations given to these events (Albert and Triandis, 1979).

Pedersen (1987) noted that one source of bias is the implicit assumption that normal means the same to people of different social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds. Instead he argued that “what is considered normal will change according to the situation, the cultural background being judged and the time during which a behavior is being displayed or observed” Pedersen (1987), p. 16). He pointed out the dangers of diagnostic errors when using definitions of normality generated from the perspective of one culture with people of different cultures. Rogers objected to therapists making diagnosis of clients on their own evaluations (Rogers, 1951). He believed however that the individual client should be the only one who should make specific evaluations and set goals. Rogers (1980) advocated the location of power in the person not in the expert. Rogers espoused the view that only the individual embedded in a particular social, cultural and historical context could define normal behavior for him or herself.

Pedersen (1987) asserted that many counselors neglect the development of the family, organizations and society in favor of emphasis on the welfare of the individual. According to Pedersen, counselors are encouraged to focus on changes in the individual client, sometimes blaming the group demands for the client adjustment problems and disregarding the effects of individual change on the groups to which the client belongs. Traditional counseling approaches according to Pedersen (1987) have all too often neglected other academic disciplines that speak to problems and issues of humanity such as sociology, anthropology, theology and medicine. Counselors tend to view their clients problem from a very limited perspective; however their problems are not confined to the disciplines of

psychology and counseling. Pedersen (1989) believed that it is important for counselors to go outside the boundaries of their specialized knowledge and interest, to examine the issue or problem from the client’s cultural perspective. According to Pedersen (1989) many counselors downplay the role of family and peers in providing support to a troubled individual and instead emphasize their professional services. He argued that counselors should attempt to incorporate the client natural support system into a treatment plan, which in some cultures is more acceptable than disclosing intimate information to the counselor, who is likely to be a stranger. Pedersen (1987) argued that too often counselors assume that their role is to change the individual to fit the system and too often fail to question whether the system should be changed to fit the individual.

Counseling and therapy has a history of protecting the status quo against change, at least as perceived by minority cultures, through what has become to be called scientific racism (D.W. Sue &Sue 2003). Counseling psychology has been slow to respond to evidence of cultural bias. Sampson (1993) suggests that psychology and counseling have at best accommodated add on eclectic strategies in response to culturally different movements and special interest groups without fundamentally transforming conventional frameworks of understanding.

Wren (1962) first introduced the concept of cultural encapsulation. The perspective assumes five basic identifying features. First, reality is defined according to one set of cultural assumptions. Second, people become insensitive to cultural variations among individuals and assume their own view is the right one. Third, assumptions are not dependent upon reasonable proof or rational consistency but are believed true, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Fourth, solutions are sought in technique oriented strategies or quick and simple remedies. Fifth every one is judged from the viewpoint of one’s self-reference criteria without regard for the other person’s separate cultural context. There is evidence that the profession of counseling is even more encapsulated now than it was then when Wren wrote his original article (Albee, 1994; Wren, 1995).

Counselors’ bias coming from two sources, such as their own cultural backgrounds and their professional training were highlighted in studies their actions toward groups other than whites. In a study examining this particular source of bias, the degree of cultural stereotyping among practicing counselors was explored using structured interviews (Bloombaum, Yamamoto, & James, 1968). The results indicated that counselor’s attitudes toward Mexican Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans and Jews reflected the similar degree of cultural stereotyping usually found in the general population.

Counselors must recognize racism, prejudice and discrimination, and accept them as real to better understand the living reality of clients who without the benefit of choice find themselves members of minority groups on the basis of differences from the dominant culture in our society, (Glauser, 1999). Each individual counselor must identify and accept his/her personal capacity to help or hinder clients whose life experiences, beliefs and physical makeup and or culture are different from their own. A counselor who is aware of his/her own limitations, when working with members of minority groups will conform to ethical guidelines and assure that their clinical efforts have the potential to help rather than do harm.

Research has shown that prejudicial responses, in the form of stereotype activation, can persist long after an individual makes a conscious break with habitual prejudice thinking (Devine, 1989). Individuals in low prejudice tend to carefully scrutinize messages from minority groups to guard against unfair reactions. The care they take may interfere with the communication process in interaction with minority group and hinder full engagement by a counselor in the therapeutic setting (Petty, Fleming and White, 1999).

The following examples indicate the types of cultural issues and their effects on the counseling situation. In the cultural value system of the Chinese American passivity rather than assertiveness is revered, quiescence rather than verbal articulation is a sign of wisdom and self-effacement rather than confrontation is a model of refinement(Ching and Prosen, 1980). Since humility and modesty is so valued it is difficult for counselors to draw out responses from a Chinese American in a group setting. The reticence which reinforces silence and withdrawal as appropriate ways of dealing with conflict may be interpreted as resistance by the uneducated counselor. Democratic counselors may also be uneasy with the role of the “all knowing father” that the Chinese respect bestows upon them (Ching and Prosen, 1980). African Americans place great value on family, especially their children, who are seen as a gift from God and on social relationships with a great emphasis on community and their place in it. In this context social conflict resolution becomes important, so that peace and equilibrium may be restored to the community while personal conduct becomes secondary. (McFadden and Gbekobov, 1984). In his discussion of counseling the Northern Natives of Canada, Darou (1987) notes that counseling is seen as cultural racism when it does not fit native values. These values are cooperation, concreteness, lack of interference, respect for elders, and the tendency to organize by space rather than time and dealing with the land as animate not an inanimate object. Bernard and Flores-Ortiz (1982) point out that Latin cultures view the family as primary support for its members. Any suggestions that the family is not fulfilling that obligation can bring shame, added stress and an increased reluctance to seek professional services. Involving family members in treatment will most likely ensure successful counseling outcomes with Latinos.

In examining the aspect of grief, the way the client reacts to it should be noted and respected this helps them to normalize their experience. The counselor should not try and fix the person’s pain, but be as present as possible and pay attention to what the person is telling you in the moment. Give clients the permission to talk; they may have a need to tell their story over and over, as a part of the healing process. The counselor should give the client room to express their feelings and not censor them. It is okay to ask culturally different clients how grief and loss are addressed in their culture. As counselors we must be aware of our own feelings about grief and loss from personal experiences. Self-awareness helps avoid expecting clients to act like we would in a similar situation.

Alcohol and other drug treatment programs continually report relatively low success rates among African-American participants. There is a need to consider treatment approaches that are more culturally competent.

Counselors must view the identity and the development of culturally diverse people in terms of multiple interactive factors rather than strictly cultural framework (Romero, 1985). A pluralistic counselor considers all facets of the clients’ personal history, family history, and social and cultural orientation (Arcinega and Newlou, 1981).

‘At stake are questions about the linkages of different identity domains, how the various aspects of the self interconnect, and how various identities become active or inactive as people locate themselves in various social contexts’ (Narvaez et al 2009)

Everyone needs to know who he or she is. This is a question about one’s identity. Identity is a complicated and debatable termaˆ‚ It is a set of characteristics that belongs uniquely to somebody. It includes both changeable and stable aspects and is influenced by both outside and inside factors. One’s identity consists of three basic elements: personal identity, family identity and social identity. Each of these elements is determined by ‘individual circumstances’ (Wetherell et al 2008).

First of all, personal identity is about one’s moral beliefs and self values. It is showed in the decisions one makes, the way they talk to themselves and the different goals they have achieved in their lives (Wetherell et al 2008).

Most people have a standard for right and wrong. People doing the ‘right’ things would grow honesty and integrity (St Louis 2009). On the other hand, if a person keeps on doing things that they believe to be wrong, they may start to believe they are not to be trusted. These choices will have huge effect on how people consider themselves; this is called ‘sense of worth’ (Nolan and Rudenstein 2009).

Communicating with themselves, people do ‘self-talk’ (Narvaez et al 2009) most of the time. This self-talk is an important way to build up the sense of how people consider themselves and their self-identity. Each person has their own standards and values. Each person judges how they are doing according to these criteria (Dyrenfurth 2009).

Moreover, one’s successes and failures will also affect personal identity (Dyrenfurth 2009). When people achieve their goals they feel accomplished and fulfilled (Narvaez et al 2009). In contrast, if one fails there occurs a ‘self-questioning’ (Nolan and Rudenstein 2009). Setting and fighting toward goals also makes people meet their limits, which helps find their abilities as well as limitations. This is important for one’s ‘self-identity’ (Narvaez et al 2009).

Second element is family identity. It is made up of the characteristics a person has been given along with the role in their family they have been born into (Wetherell et al 2008). Family identity builds up the cultural environment in which people will grow their knowledge of who they are. Scientifically, this is about DNA, which is unique to each and everyone. As well, the ‘inherited traits’ (Narvaez et al 2009) one receives through birth determines both their mental and physical attributes. Some children may be gifted with high intelligence while others may suffer with an emotional, mental, or physical handicap (Crenshaw 1996, cited in Narvaez et al 2009). Although these nature born characteristics may have less impact during life experience, they will always have fundamental effects.

The ‘bearing on’ (Wetherell et al 2008) identity or say the role people are born into in their families has been well explored by many psychiatrists. There are many researches exploring the personal characteristics different roles of the family will have. ‘Commonalities of people within each group’ (Wetherell et al 2008) can be explained by analyzing children’s behaviors in their families. The ‘Firstborns’ (Wetherell et al 2008) are known to feel they have the responsibility to be the one to set an example in their family (Zylinska 2005, cited in St Louis 2009). While the youngest child of the family are often considered spoiled and not have to fight for as many rights as their older siblings. (St Louis 2009). Though these generalizations may vary in different families, they still impact on one’s identity throughout life.

Culturally family leads to the way of life one will go. Women and men have always considered having different roles in life (St Louis 009). This is determined in both gender roles and ethnic groups. For example, men are often taught to be the ones to earn money and in contrast, women are to be the homemakers. Men are natural to be tough and unemotional while women are caring and sensitive (Wetherell et al 2008). On ethnic stage, education is one of the most significant aspects in some cultures, while athletic ability or beauty is more important for others (Duany 2003, cited in Nolan and Rubenstein 2009). These are all cultural influences one would receive to build up their sense of identity.

‘. . . the question, and the theorization, of identity is a matter of considerable political significance, and is only likely to be advanced when both the necessity and the ‘impossibility’ of identities, and the suturing of the psychic and the discursive in their constitution, are fully and unambiguously acknowledged'(Hall 1996, cited in St Louis 2009).

Finally, social identity is about one’s world around them. It includes what one believes others feel about them and how one believes they fit within their society (Wetherell et al 2008). It is largely influenced by factors such as one’s working class, monetary value, education level, and popularity (Dyrenfurth 2009).

Owning a company compared to working at the bottom floor of a company creates a different sense of power and security (Nolan and Rubenstein 2009). Positions in employment can impact on the community one lives in and the respect they receive. This is how it impacts on the power and respect one believes they have (Nolan and Rubenstein 2009). This also affected by monetary conditions, as people with wealth are often given the same power and respect in society. A well-dressed person will be more intently listened to in public than one who is poor and in broken clothes. This will transfer over to the sense of worth people feel they have (Dyrenfurth 2009).

Moreover, the level of education one experiences effects the belief of one’s ability. Society as a whole enforces the separation (Wetherell et al 2008). Many community and business positions require a formal education record without giving exploration to the experiential background of candidates. This may cause one to believe they are more or less equipped, brighter or slower depending on the level of education received (St Louis 2009).

Last but not least, one’s popularity in society is among the greatest influences upon social-identity. To be popular or not in determined by many aspects. One can hold or lose popularity by showing their charm, good will, humor, intelligence, power, social standing, wealth, beauty and so on. Being liked or not is based on these qualities, which may highly likely cause one to re-evaluate the qualities they believe they have and their elf value and self-identity (Narvaez et al 2009). People’s feel of their self-identity will change during their social experiences.

In conclusion, with such individuality and uniqueness, it is without a doubt to say identity is complex, but it is also simple to see aspects from where self-identity is gained. Self-identity shifts throughout life with influences of family, personal, and social factors. In the end, one’s identity is built up of a set of characteristics that one finds are uniquely belong to oneself.

Dr. Raj Kumar acquired his Law degree from Delhi University and PhD from Kurukshetra University. He served Haryana Education Service from 1970 to 1973. He published a 7 volume series on Women and Indian Freedom Struggle and 15 volume series on Women, Society and Culture. He has contributed a number of articles in historical journals and commemoration volumes. He, justifiably, edited the present work of various scholars which provides a panoramic survey of women studies, based on latest research. He scrutinizes the status of women in India during Vedic times-a period of golden era for women and Brahmanic times. He mentioned the factors affecting the female psyche along with women’s self-concept developed by Mohan (1988), which revolves around the confidence that woman is a weaker gender and her weakness can be converted into strength for her development by considering the woman’s basic needs and solicitudes about success and power in this regard. Women are involved in role conflict particularly in the field of work and after marriage. Regarding rural development in India, out of 79% female work in agriculture, 46% are agricultural laborers’, 33% are cultivators, and 5% are industrial workers. In Himaachal Pradash- a rural state, women know every task regarding the field of agriculture and livestock, despite of domestic work. According to 1981 census, 91.3%, out of total working women are agriculture workers against 63.3% of males in the state. Rural development is concerned with multi-sectorial programs like agriculture dependent upon industrial activities, transportation, commercialization, infrastructure, health and education services. According to world economic profile, women are 50% of the population, out of which official labor force is 30% and those women utilize 60% working hours and receive 10% world income. In Asia, there are a high proportion of women in agriculture. Regarding some determinants of women development, it was mentioned that on the second half of 20th century, first, UN Declaration on Women’ rights, adopted on 7th Nov, 1967, mentioned appropriate measures for women rights in Article 1-11. Second, World Conference on International Women’s Year in Mexico City on June 1975 issued a world plan of action and focused on human role of women. Some other factors like education, female health status and female economic participation as a determinant of social development as in India female literacy rate is 24.8% against the male literacy rate which is 46.89%. ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) provides additional nutrition, health check-up, medication of minor illness, immunization, nutrition and health education to women and supportive services like water supply and sanitation. Asia- Pacific region is also multiform in terms of women’s role in the economy because development and women’labour participation are based on the overall female economic activity rates. As well as the participation in modern sector naturally increases with economic development. In India, 90% of women belong to agriculture life so future development of Indian womanhood must be examined in terms of village women. There is need for new cadre of women ICS and their inclusion in local panchayts. The topic “women and development” has been discussed at several gatherings within UN at conferences of non-aligned countries, governmental and non-governmental meetings. At ministerial conference of non-aligned countries in Lima in August 1975, the ministries of these countries programmed on Mutual Assistance and Solidarity repeated that full development of developing nations require maximum participation of women and men in all spheres of national activity. NIEO (New International Economic Order)’s cornerstone is the participation of women along with men in the development of country is indispensable for successful development. UN decade for women has facilitated the identification and overcoming the impediments to integrate women in society, resulted in the wastage of human resources needed for development. The areas for specific action aimed at the advancement of women are employment, education, health, food, water, agriculture, industry, trade and commercial services, science and technology, communications, housing settlement, community development and transport, energy and environment. There are most commonly used sources of energy utilized by women but the sources like coal, oil, gas, hydropower and bio-gas are commonly used in industries so the users can not be easily distinguished by gender. Participation of women in energy conservation requires education, training and consumer information in the field of energy. Self-reliance as a development strategy, treat women as an integral part of overall development. Technical (TCDC) and economic (ECDC) cooperation in developing countries should aim at reaching the largest number of social groups like women and youth in rural and urban populations equally. By critically analyzing, in the past, women were treated as mere slaves. Though, India is changing politically, economically and socially, at a swift pace. The condition of women is also changing, as they have begun to take their due place in free India by educating themselves, inducing the right of voting and heartedly participating in country development. In 2010 March 9, one day after International Women’s day, Rajyasabha passed Women’s Reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state legislative bodies. In modern India, women have adorned high offices including that of the President, Prime minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Leader of Opposition, etc. The current President of India is a woman. In the last five years, the Government of India made amendments in law and formed a ministry of social and women’s welfare in 1985, while, Article 14 of the constitution emphasis on the discrimination of gender. In Himachal Pradash, there are a number of welfare organizations besides Manila Mandals is working for the elevation of women in state while other departments are also working for the women development like health, social welfare and family welfare. Regarding ICDS influence, there is decline in malnutrition from 19.1% in 1976 to 7.8% in 1983 and mortality from 15% to 3%. All India Spinners’ Association’s cottage industry gave new life to millions of female workers. Collective self-reliance encourages the transformation of women’s position in the world, so that it can become an integral part of each country’s long term development strategy. There is a high rate of women’s participation and other stakeholders (e.g. Ministry of Gender, Youth and Community Services) during program formulation. The last few decades have seen a mushroom growth of organizations struggling for women to get their dues, but, how far has this helped in the improvement of the status of women in the home, in society, in office or in the country as a whole, is still a debatable issue. Gender training is still very weak, while, regarding the cultural values; women tend to be shy during group meetings. Women have no access to modern machines and other technology. In any program formulation, there is a lack of gender considerations, untrained staff in gender analysis skills, gender-blind budget, and weak business skills among women. All Indian Kisan Movement and All Indian Ryots’ Association are improving human conditions but few female join them. Muslim women’s legal position is better than Indian ones in terms of right to inheritance, divorce, marriage and religious education. For the establishment of NIEO, policy of economic independence and collective self-reliance is necessary because lack of progress in NIEO establishment requires that greater attention is paid to the collective efforts and cooperation of non aligned and developing countries. There is no strict implementation of certainty about the right abuses of women. The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth rate of crimes against women would be higher than the population growth rate by 2010. Earlier, many cases were not registered with the police due to the social stigma attached to rape and molestation cases. Distracted from other areas such as women’s low socio-economic status, labor market inequalities and legal bias, literacy programs are a relatively inexpensive and politically expedient palliative in their present form. While, 80% rural and urban females in India receive little medical care, so there is a need to strengthen professional and health education to face challenge of promoting female health. In conclusion, in a developed nation, female education is imperative for their self-sufficiency. For the rural development, a national perspective plan for the rural women and fighting discrimination will improve the social and economic status of women. In accordance with the social policy in public and private sectors, society is not supposed to exploit the dual role of women but acknowledge it as a contributor to socio-economic perspective. South Asian countries showing a lower level of female participation in non agriculture sector as compared to other countries at the same level of per capita GDP. This pattern of increase does not imply gender equity in the work place or in earnings. The availability of disaggregated information on the training and employment of women in energy related fields just like in US would enable planners and decision makers to formulate better strategies’ for energy supply and development. According to most of the governments, prejudicial attitudes towards women are fundamental obstacles towards the integration of women in national and international life. The role of educational planning, raising the level of skills and directing aspirations of both men and women is necessary for a developing nation.

“Throughout history, sociological theory arose out of attempts to make sense of times of dramatic social change”. Discuss the development of Sociology as a discipline in the 19th century in light of this statement.

Sociology is the study of the lives of humans, groups and societies and how we interact. Dramatic social times occurred because of the massive changes in society that took place leading up to the modern world. The development of sociology as a discipline emerged in the 19th century in response to modernity. Problems that arose from modernity include industrialisation, urbanisation, rationalisation and bureaucratisation (Montagna, 2010). The difference between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ led to the term ‘modernity’ and the modern world of the 19th century was shaped by the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution brought about massive changes in areas such as culture, industry, politics, technology, science and communication (Marshall, 1998). A ‘new world’ had formed and theorists needed to understand and explain how the effects of these changes impacted on society. The Industrial Revolution saw aristocratic and religious societies change to liberal and more science based societies (Marshall, 1998). The Industrial Revolution created dramatic changes in every part of social life. Machines were created which overtook manual labour. Factories and industrial towns were built and people left rural areas and their way of life to go to the cities for work. Canals and roads were built which made transportation easier and increased production of goods (The Industrial Economy, 2010). Capitalism grew with technological change as factory owners who controlled the means of production became wealthy. Changes in the political structure occurred due to the capitalists replacing agrarian land owners as leaders of the nation’s economy and power structure (The Industrial Economy, 2010). Technological advances were seen with the invention of electricity, which improved the production in factories and made life easier, and the railways and steam ships, which helped improve travel. All these changes would have been overwhelming as people went from their ‘old world’ of working the land and having satisfaction for the work they did to the ‘new world’ of mass populated, industrial areas where they sold their labour.

In the wake of industrialisation, some sociologists that argued for a system of understanding sociological change were; Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber. All had different theories but all contributed significantly to sociology as a discipline.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution refers to the rapid changes in areas such as culture, industry, politics, technology, science and communication which took place in the latter half of the eighteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century (Marshall, 1998). It defines the transformation from a predominantly rural and agrarian society to an increasingly urban one based on manufacturing and industries.

With the rise of factories and industrial areas, people were forced out of their rural surroundings and into factories to work for small wages just to survive. These people who came to the rapidly expanding urban areas provided much of the labour-force for the new manufacturing industries, and formed the basis of a new industrial working class. Women and children were also forced to work long hours, under harsh conditions and for small wages. There were little or no government regulations imposed upon factory policies which allowed the wealthy, middle-class owners to pursue whatever path was most profitable, regardless of the safety and wellbeing of their workers (The Industrial Economy, 2010). Birth rates went up during this period and it was quite common for women to have several children. This increased the burden of providing for the family and the mothers were often forced back to work after giving birth. Population increases, due to urbanisation, resulted in overcrowding which led to poor health, disease and a low standard of living. People had many things to adjust to not just a new way of living but also new technologies and innovations. These new innovations saw the decline of tradespeople as machines could produce goods at a much faster rate (The Industrial Economy, 2010).

Agriculture improved with better farming techniques, which increased production and growth for the farmers. This resulted in rising demand for goods, which stimulated urban industry and distribution. Large investments of capital, particularly in textiles, coal mining, and metal industries, enabled the growth of powerful manufacturing industries which in turn relied on, and were strengthened by, internal markets and overseas exports (Montagna, 2010).

There was also a boom in transportation. Roads were built, canals were constructed and there was the development of the railway system. These transport systems radically improved the ease and speed with which goods could be transported. Transportation became very important for the distribution of raw materials and industrial products. Technological inventions, including steam power, were crucial to the operation of trains, ships, and the larger factories (The Industrial Economy, 2010).

These radical changes were revolutionary because of the speed at which many of them occurred. The desire to understand and analyse such dramatic changes provided a catalyst for early sociologists to develop theories relating to the division of labour, capitalism, and bureaucracy and their effects on social change in society (Marshall, 1998).

Classical sociologists

Classical sociologists who helped develop sociology as a discipline were Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber. They all witnessed the transforming effects of the revolution and they offered lasting conceptual framework for analysing the ongoing upheavals.

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte is known as the founder of sociology. His work consisted of studies and the analysis of social order and structure. Comte was interested in social order so he set out to understand what creates it and what causes it to change. He identified three stages of human society: theological (various phenomena explained in religious terms), metaphysical (explanations were philosophical) and positivism (phenomena explained in terms of the scientific approach to the social world) (Ritzer, 2011). Comte also termed the word positivism, which is the idea that the scientific method should be implemented to the social world when conducting sociological studies (Ritzer, 2011). Comte greatly emphasized the usage of the scientific method when studying society and he believed that sociological studies should lead to social reform.

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer believed that no one should guide social reform. He believed that society should simply evolve from lower or barbarian forms to a higher and civilized form. As society evolves in this fashion, the most capable individuals rise to the top and the least capable die out. Spencer termed this idea ‘survival of the fittest’, and his theories on social order became known as social Darwinism (Gates, 2010).

Emile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim developed sociology as an independent discipline and science. Durkheim developed the concept of functionalism which maintains cultural and social unity through interactions (Ferrante, 2007). His most famous work is The Division of Labour in Society, which described how social order was to be maintained in a society by economic regulation. Durkheim held the belief that sociology was the study of social facts. He felt that people’s ideas, feelings and behaviours occurred outside the consciousness of the individual. This belief led Durkheim to create a social fact which refers to the ties that bind people together this is known as solidarity. He noticed the ties that bound people changed significantly with the increase of industrialisation. He believed the mechanism that shaped solidarity need to be analysed and explained. In his writings he is preoccupied with the ties that bind and it is shown in his popular writing Suicide.

In Suicide, Durkheim believed it was not feasible to study the immediate circumstances in to why people kill themselves because any personal circumstance can serve as a pretext for suicide (Ferrante, 2007). Durkheim believed it was the ties that bind, or fail to bind, people to others in society that lead people to kill themselves and by committing this act they are severing relationship. Durkheim introduced four types of social ties: egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic (Ferrante, 2007). Egoistic suicide occurs when the ties that bind the person to society are weak. Altruistic suicide occurs when the person’s ties are so strong that they have no life apart from the group. Anomic suicide occurs when the social ties are disrupted caused by a dramatic change in economic circumstances. Fatalistic suicide occurs when the ties to the group are so oppressive that there is no chance of escape (Ferrant, 2007).

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, political theorist, sociologist and a revolutionist. Marx thought that social change was driven by conflict and that it shaped the means of production (lands, tools, equipment, factories, transportation and labour) (Ritzer, 2011). He believed this system created a confrontation between an exploiting class and an exploited class. The Industrial Revolution created this divide of classes known as the bourgeoisie (they own the means of production) and the proletariat (who sell their labour to the bourgeoisie) (Ferrante, 2007). Marx devoted his life to understanding the causes and consequences of this inequality which he connected to a fatal flaw in in the organisation of production (Ferrante, 2007).

The technological changes that occurred as a result of the Industrial Revolution, Marx believed, increased goods and services and created a hunger for more profit. He believed capitalism ignored human needs and forced people to sell their labour to make products that they themselves could not afford to buy (Ritzer, 2011). Marx believed that if the economic system was governed by people who had society’s best interest at heart instead of the people who had were motivated by profit, that there would be more public wealth and it could be distributed amongst society according to need (Ferrante, 2007). Marx’s solution was to create a revolution where capitalism would be destroyed and replaced with communism.

Max Weber

Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist, who influenced the discipline of sociology. He had influences in areas not only in sociology but also in history, philosophy, anthropology, economics and political science (Ferrant, 2007). In Webers work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism he writes that the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced people to work in the secular world (Ritzer, 2011).They developed their own businesses, engaged in trade and accumulated wealth for investment purposes. This was what Weber believed led to capitalism. His belief on idealism led him to develop an interest in power and authority especially in bureaucracy and rationalisation (Ferrant, 2007).

Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions within certain social contexts. Weber thought there were four types of social action: traditional, affectional, value-rational and instrumental (Ferrant, 2007). Weber was most concerned with the value-rational type as he thought it could lead to ‘disenchantment’. Weber thought (Jacoby, 1976) disenchantment occurred when scientific understanding became more valued than belief and where processes are oriented toward rational goals.

Weber also thought (Jacoby, 1976) that bureaucracy was the problem of the industrial society as he seen it shift from a value-oriented organization and action to a goal-oriented organization and action. Weber believed under the control of rationalisation and bureaucratisation that society would be trapped in an “iron cage” under strict rules from which there would be no escape (Jacoby, 1976).

Conclusion

Sociology as a discipline was born out of the attempt to understand the transformations that seemed to threaten the stability of society. Social thinkers argued that there was an urgent need to establish a separate science of society. They believed that such a science would be of great help in understanding the nature of society. The amount of changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution heavily impacted on society and it was necessary to gain an understanding of these changes and how they were influencing society. People were faced with a new world and it had created disorder, misery, poverty, disease, unemployment and conflicts (Marshall, 1998). People felt despair, lacked traditional beliefs, lacked confidence and felt inferior.

Theories were developed to try and gain an insight into society and improve social life. The classical theorists Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber were seeking to explain the radical changes that occurred due to modernity and create social ideas to improve society.

References

Marshall G, (1998). A Dictionary of Sociology

Montagna J A (2010). The Industrial Revolution

Gates G (2010). Overview of Sociology

Ferrante J, (2007) Sociology: A Global Perspective

The Industrial Economy (2010)

Available: http://www.ehs.org.uk/industrialrevolution/PH_indexb.htm (accessed 9/10/10)

Jacoby H (1976). The Bureaucratization of the World

Ritzer G (2011) Sociological Theory

In this essay I will be looking at the development of geography as an academic discipline, and then I will be discussing the role that theory has had in the development of geography. I will research past events and influences, to see how they have affected geography as an idiographic subject and changed the subject into a spatial science and effectively into a core academic discipline.

The discipline of geography is among the most ancient of sciences. Geography can be traced back to Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar who lived around 276-196 B.C and who is often called ‘the father of geography’. Alexander Von Humboldt was a German geographer from 1769-1859, commonly known as ‘the father of modern geography’. As well as Humboldt, Carl Ritter is also considered as one of the founders of modern geography. Both Humboldt and Ritter shared similar views. The naturalist Charles Darwin wrote a book called the ‘Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection’ in 1859. It “proved an inspiration to many geographers, who saw in Darwin’s idea of natural selection the possibility of a general theory of man-land relationshipsaˆ¦ so man needed to adopt modes of living which were consonant with the environment in which he livedaˆ¦” (Graves, 1975)

Geography branched out as a new light and the thought process was now in place. Yet Darwin never claimed to be a geographer, with his main concentration being botany. Humboldt and Carl Ritter then co-founded a Geographical Society in Germany in 1874, bringing together Humboldt’s principle of a systematic approach and Ritter’s regional approach which were key methods of geography at this time. Regional geography is the study of world regions. It looks at key characteristics and how one place is specific and unique compared to another.

Another German geography, Freidrich Ratzel was the first person to use the term Lebensraum, which was used by Adolf Hitler. One of Ratzel’s students Ellen Semple studied under Ratzel and was heavily influenced by his ideas, publishing ‘Influences of Geographic Environment in 1911. Another one of Ratzel’s students, Ellsworth Huntington also applied Ratzel’s theory of regional geography to the reasoning behind the rise and fall of civilisation. Despite being one of the oldest disciplines, in today’s society, geography struggles to define itself as an academic subject. Over the past few decades, geography has had to forge its way to stand as a fundamental scientific subject.

In the early 19th century, many geography scholars believed that environment had a key role on the living marvels. The theory of Environmental Determinism – the view that the physical environment sets limits on human environment – was being questioned due to claims of its lack in the intellectual relevance and faults in its descriptions of certain locations. This led on to the theory of environmental possibilism. Possibilism states that the environment does have an effect on society, however it is not deterministic and humans can heavily influence the environment around them. By the 1950’s environmental determinism was virtually history and environmental possibilism had now taken over as central theory.

The first few steps forward for geography were the opening of the first geographical institutions, such as the establishment of the first institution by Humboldt and Ritter in Germany in 1874, The National Geographic Society in 1888 and also the Royal Geographical Society, founded in 1830 in Britain. The Royal Geographical Society is an institution to encourage the progression of geographical science. “The Society also devoted much of its energy to education, and was responsible for both the incorporation of the study of geography in schools at the turn of the 20th century, and for the first university positions in the discipline.” (Royal Geographical Society website.) The Society is the largest Geographical Society in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It supports and promotes geographical research, field training, education and teaching. These associations were the grounding for geography to start to grow and develop as the funded key and essential research. They also promoted geography in schools and universities, leading to the first university lecturer appointed in 1888. In 1919, Geography was the established as a Bachelor of Arts degree, and Cambridge University appointed its first professor in 1933, which was a great step forward for geography being such an influential place of learning. This appointment acted as a catalyst, and after this, many other universities started to follow suit.

By the 1930’s Britain had 44 University geography departments. However, there was a slump in the early 1940’s when geography hit crisis point. Geography departments started to deteriorate as geography as an academic topic struggled to stand as a basic University subject. “aˆ¦geography as a subject is frequently misunderstood by the non-geographersaˆ¦” (Graves, 1975) This meant that other discipline professors and educators questioned the importance of geography. “During the eighteenth century, geography began to be taught in certain institutions of higher learning, though the substance of what was being taught varied immensely in quality.” (Graves, 1975) This was followed by Harvard University abolishing geography as a subject in 1948. Being such an important and significant place of learning, this eradication had an adverse impact on the way geography was viewed. It lost its place as a highly regarded subject, and was starting to be regarded as overly descriptive with no relevance to science, the Greeks named it as ‘a description of the earth’.

It was at this point that questions were raised about the importance of geography and whether it answers the ‘why’s?’ and ‘how’s?’. At this time, geography had no documented split between the human and physical side. Also, “aˆ¦geography in academic institutions straddled the arts and the sciences.” This made it hard for geography to have a true factual definition. Society started to wonder whether it sat as a science or a humanity subject. These questions and queries made it increasingly difficult for geography to have a good platform on which to grow. Essentially, the subject needed to be defined, and this would entail more detailed research.

With more advanced research, geography started to branch out with the division of both physical and human geography into contemporary geographies. Henderson (1968) “the ‘adjectival geography’: agriculture geography, urban geography, social geography, settlement geography and so on.” These numerous modern geographies started to make it easier to for geography to be defined. At last there were specialised areas that focused on one particular area of geography. “Parallel to this trend towards specialization, there developed a tendency to use quantitative techniques of analysis.” (Graves, 1975)

The importance for technology to develop in society had increased massively by the end of World War II, which meant there was a gap for geography to grow. This gap led to the quantitative revolution, which was one of the major turning points of modern geography. This revolution began in the 1950’s, and marked a swift change in the method behind geographical research – making geography into a spatial science and shifting from an idiographic subject to an empirical law making one. It made laws that applied to large groups of people and individuals, and established broad generalisations.

It was a turning point, and geography started to grasp attention once again. It brought to light new determinism models and mathematical equations to answer hypotheses that could be used in teaching, and helped to define geography, making it able to answer the more logical questions and respond in more depth. Geography could again stand as a strong scientific discipline in schools and universities. The subject started gaining popularity again and Universities began to recognise the value of geographic study and training – this provided more classes and degree opportunities.

The use of fieldwork started to be used in schools in the 1950’s, as a key method of teaching. Fieldwork is an effective teaching method in geography – is an interactive fun way for people to learn and experience what they are learning at first hand. It is an important method of learning as fieldwork teaches things that cannot be taught or learned in class. However, disappointingly the focus on fieldwork started to weaken as it “aˆ¦ is not promoted in educational institutions because of factors such as time to cover comprehensive curricula, financial constraints, legal issues and commitment by educators.” Factors such as these had the effect that the inclusion of fieldwork declined in some schools; however, with the help of funding fieldwork is still a very important and prominent part of teaching geography whenever possible.

Geography is unique in that it is not artificial. It is not something that textbook writers had composed for students to study. Geography is alive, and something that is relevant and we use in our daily lives. Fieldwork started to make a real impact in higher education in 1985. It gave people transferrable skills, including “Project design, organisational skills, leadership skills, group skills and student participation.”(Royal Geographical Society website) This is why fieldwork is vital, it helps pupils understand and picture the subject for them. Fieldwork also put research and findings into practise. In undertaking field work, students are effectively carrying out innovative research over and above what could be achieved in a classroom.

The president of the American Geographical Society, Jerome E. Dobson, president of the American Geographical Society argues that geographic tools allow for scientific advancement and therefore geography deserves a place among the fundamental sciences, but more importantly more of a role in education. “aˆ¦most academics in the United States considered geography a marginal disciplineaˆ¦” (Jill Freund Thomas) In May 1993, Roger Down worked towards making research in geography education to be an “integral part of work”. In his own words, “The need for research in geography education: it would be nice to have some data.” (Downs, 1994b:57). In the UK, The Geography Education Research Collective is “aˆ¦dedicated to the promotion of geography education through research and publication.” (http://www.geography.org.uk/gtip/gereco/) 13 teachers come together every four years with the resolution of creating research in geography education. It is a UK based association and was first set up in 1893. “The field of geography education is sadly lacking in empirical data that might inform and underpin decisions about standard setting, curriculum design, materials development, teaching strategies, and assessment procedures. Large quantities of high-quality data are necessary if geography is to be successfully implemented in the education systemaˆ¦ We need a new attitude towards researchaˆ¦”

In conclusion I believe that geography will continue to grow and develop with the discoveries of new modern geographies due to the enormous amount of scientific research that is now able to be undertaken. The development of new technologies has helped geography turn into an academic discipline as it supports research making research easier to carry out, and getting results which are far more precise.

In the future technology will continue to advance and thus continue to be included and promoted in school curriculums. “aˆ¦the most important change which has occurred is the realization that any progress in understanding phenomena studied by geographers involves the conscious use of scientific methods and the development of a body of theory to explain such phenomena.” (Graves, 1975) With advanced technologies, wider geographical research will also be capable and new discoveries will be made.

The role of theory in the development of geography in education is very significant as it is the basis of learning and has helped geography thrive over the last couple of centuries. “For, if a theory is to be developed, then some understanding of the nature of theory and of the process of theory building was required.” (Graves, 1975) Today geography continues to flourish and expand in education. Nowadays, increasing numbers of students chose to study this subject at university, so the trend is set for the popularity and importance of this discipline to continue to go from strength to strength in the future.

The development of social identity has been a source of great interest to psychologists, however much research has been directed at the development of the social self, that is, the self defined by one’s membership of social groups such as gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and sub-cultural groups. The aim of this paper is to consider development of criminal social identity looking from psycho-social perspective, the self defined by membership of anti-social or criminal groups such as gangs or small non-organized criminal groups. The article starts with an explanation of the meaning and role of identity as social psychological concept introduced by Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) and Self-Categorization Theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher and Wetherell, 1987), indicating its multidimensional nature. The remaining parts of the article are organized around the application of Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory to development of criminal social identity, indicating essential role of dysfunctional family, anti-social peers and stored representations of criminal significant others in memory. Finally, the last part describes multiple social identities emphasizing gang membership and the process of how criminal behaviour may shift as social context and social identity shift.

Social Identity and Self-Categorization Theory

One theoretical approach in which social comparisons occupy a essential place is Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979), and its more updated explanation, Self-Categorization Theory (Turner et al., 1987). According to Social Identity Theory, individuals’ perceptions of, and attitudes toward, in-group and out-group members ultimately develop from their need to identity with and belong to groups that are relatively superior, as means of enhancing their level of self-esteem. The result of these processes is that individuals perceive other group members to be similar to themselves and show preference in their attitudes and behaviours toward them, whereas out-group members are perceived to be dissimilar from in-group members and to posses less favourable qualities, and therefore they can be discriminated against.

Turner’s (1982) distinction between personal and social identity illustrates the beginning of Self-Categorization Theory. Personal identity is defined as self-definition of unique individual in terms of interpersonal or intra-group differentiations (“I” or “me” versus “you”), whereas social identity means self-definition as a similar group member in terms of in-group – out-group differentiations (“we” or “us” versus “they” or “them”). The theory was then developed in greater detail by Turner et al. (1987) who pointed out that Social Categorization Theory specifies the antecedents and consequences of both personal and social identity. Therefore, it can offer explanations for both individual conduct as guided by personal identity and group behaviour guided by social identity.

According to Self-Categorization Theory, both personal and social identity develop from self-categorizations, which are:

“cognitive groupings of oneself and some class of stimuli as the same … in contrast to some other class of stimuli” (Turner et al., 1987, p. 44).

The theory suggests that identity salience is a combined function of individuals’ readiness to adopt a particular identity and the degree to which that identity is accommodated as a significant self-definition within a specified social framework. Readiness to adopt a specific identity depends on individuals’ universal principles, changing motives, currant objectives, former experiences and so forth. For example, a former experience of being ignored because of particular group membership likely decrease individual’s readiness to classify oneself in terms of the corresponding social identity, if individual wants to escape from further mistreatment. However, if one’s present aim was to draw public attention to particular mistreatment, readiness for such self-definition should increase. Moreover, readiness to adopt a specific identity can be influenced by the comparative strengths of one’s needs for assimilation or differentiation (Brewer, 1991). For example, adolescents in large anonymous neighbourhood may wish to join a local criminal group to achieve a noticeable identity, whereas in criminal group new member may wish to assimilate and blend in with the rest in order not to become an outsider.

The salience of personal identity is constructed in the same way as a combined function of readiness (e.g., a high need for distinctiveness) and fit. However, the significant distinction lies in the consequences of personal versus social identity salience. The salient personal identity should accentuate the perception of individual differences and intra-individual similarity or consistency. A salient social identity, however, is supposed to improve the perception of self as similar to, or even identical with, other in-group members and as diverse from out-group members, who are perceived as highly similar to each other.

It is the mechanism of depersonalization, related to a salient social identity, or personalization, associated with a salient personal identity, that is responsible for group behaviour or individualistic behaviour, correspondingly. This process of depersonalization specifies a shift from personal to social identity which should not be confused with a loss of identity – a state that has been referred to as deindividuation (Zimbardo, 1970). This process not only depersonalizes self-perception but also transforms self-conception and assimilates all aspects of one’s attitudes, feelings, and behaviours to the in-group model; it changes what individuals think, feel, and do (Hogg, 2001). Depersonalization is the fundamental process underlying group phenomena; it perceptually distinguishes groups and provides with perceptions, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours that are stereotypical and group normative.

Multidimensional Aspect of Social Identity

Literature review on social identification suggested that cognitive processes, emotional relations, and interdependence between group members are all significant characteristics of the social identification process (Deaux, 1996). A number of researchers investigating the nature of social identification concluded their research with empirical evidence for the multidimensional structure of social identification (Cameron and Lalonde, 2001; Ellemers, Kortekaas, and Ouwerkerk, 1999; Hinkle, Taylor, Fox-Cardamone, and Crook, 1989; Jackson, 2002; Jackson and Smith, 1999). Karasawa (1991) differentiated between identification with the group members and identification with group. Hinkle and colleagues (1989) found empirical support for three aspects of identification: an affect aspect, a cognitive aspect and a group dynamics aspect. Further investigation conducted by Ellemers and collegues (1999) reported findings indicating three dimensions of social identification; group self esteem, self categorization, and commitment to the group. Findings similar to those presented by Cameron (2004) were reported by Jackson (2002) who suggested three dimensionality of social identification in relation to self categorization (a cognitive factor), evaluation of the group (an affective factor) and perceptions of solidarity (in-group ties factor). Although the factor structure of social identification does vary across these research, the notion of multidimensionality consistent with Tajfel’s (1978) definition of the construct, which explains social identity as originating from familiarity of group membership, and the value and emotional significance attached to that membership.

Cameron (2004), in his recent investigations referred to Deaux’s (1996) three factorial nature of social identity and devised his own multidimensional scale which measures three aspects of social identity. First, Cognitive centrality which is referred to the cognitive importance of a given group membership, and is analogous to the self categorization factors which appeared in Ellmers et al’s (1999) and Jackson’s (2002) studies. Second, In-group affect, refers to the emotional evaluation of that group membership, summarizing the emotional dimension which has emerged in previous research (e.g. Ellmers et al., 1999; Jackson, 2002; Hinkle et al., 1989). Finally, In-group ties, is referred to the perception of resemblance and bonds with other members of given group, which again has been suggested in previous investigations (e.g. Ellmers et al, 1999; Jackson, 2002; Hinkle et al., 1989; Karasawa, 1991).

Research suggests that people belong to numerous social groups; nevertheless these memberships are not likely to be of corresponding psychological meaning or determining the behaviour at a given time (e.g., Deaux, Reid, Mizrahi, and Ethier, 1995). The rationale is based on contextual factors, such as the salience of a specific social categorization, which occupy a significant function in bringing the relevant identity to the cognitive foreground. This process is referred to in terms of shifting self-categorizations (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, and Wetherell, 1987), or brief changes in the self-concept that consequently direct social perception and behaviour. Another explanation for the relative psychological primacy of a given social category, however, is its continuing (i.e., cross-situational) cognitive importance within structure of the self concept; that is, some individuals are chronically readier to perceive and act in terms of given category than others (Oakes, 1987; Gurin and Markus, 1989). Therefore, the social identification for these individuals may be relatively central. Having said that centrality is manifested in the cognitive accessibility of a social identity, the operationalization of this phenomenon is the frequency with which membership in a particular group ”comes to mind.”. However, an additional associated method in which centrality has been conceptualized is related to personal significance for the self (Hutnik, 1991; Rosenberg, 1979; Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton, and Smith, 1997; Stryker and Serpe, 1994).

Research proposes that the emotional quality of group membership occupies a significant role in social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel and Turner, 1979), which hypothesizes that a negative social identity, resulting from intergroup social comparisons, stimulates attempts to achieve a more positive identity by engaging in particular strategies such as engagement in more constructive social comparison, challenging the intergroup status hierarchy or leaving group structures. Most scales measuring social identification include at least a few items that reveal the evaluation of group membership (e.g., Brown et al., 1986; Ellemers et al., 1999; Hinkle et al., 1989; Luhtanen and Crocker, 1992; Crocker, 1992; Phinney, 1992; Sellers et al., 1997). In the Cameron’s (2004) model, this aspect of social identity is referred to as in-group affect, given that measured items reflect particular emotions (e.g., being glad or regretful) that occur from group membership.

A third feature of social identification reflects the psychological ties that connect the self to the group. Allport (1979) explained the nature of identification as an ”emotional merging of self with others” (p. 293), which corresponds to Freud’s (1967) concept in which the libidinal ties between members of particular group reflects those ties that are between parents and children. This nature of identification as emotional bond between group members is incorporated in a number of scales of social identity (Phinney, 1992; Hinkle et al., 1989; Brown et al., 1986; Cameron and Lalonde, 2001). Moreover, a great amount of the related theoretical and empirical studies concerning in-group ties is associated with the literature on group cohesion. Although cohesion has been conceptualized and evaluated in many ways (see Dion, 2000; Hogg, 1992), one significant difference is between scales that incorporate a group-level approach and those aimed at capturing individual-level perceptions of the degree to which one feels bound to the particular group. Consistent with the latter approach, in-group ties are defined here as the degree to which ”group members feel ‘stuck to,’ or part of, particular social groups” (Bollen and Hoyle, 1990, p. 482).

The Development of the Criminal Social Identity

According to Erikson’s (1963; 1968) and Marcia’s (1967) theory of ego identity formation, the development of one’s identity arises out of the identity crisis that occurs during adolescence when peer relationships play an important role (Waterman, 1985). In order to deal with psychosocial crisis, individual has to engage in the process of exploration of different identities and roles, eventually emerging in pro-social or antisocial identities. It is suggested that the need for social comparison increases during adolescence, where peer influence plays an important role in identity development. Goethals and Darley (1987) maintain that the school setting is one that supports strong social comparison, especially in terms of academic achievement. Such comparison processes involve social categorization, as the two are strongly linked, and have implications for the self-concept (Turner, 1985). Self-categorization’s meta-contrast principle clarifies how individuals who engage in these comparisons achieve their group identity. This depends on:

“the degree that two or more people come to perceive and define themselves in terms of some shared in-group – out-group categorization”. (Turner, et al. 1987; p. 51)

Therefore, it is the perceived relative resemblance and distinction that results in identification and psychological group development. Membership in particular group is “psychological” when the social identity of the group members, incorporated into their self-concept, can become salient without the physical presence of individuals of given group. As a consequence of social comparison and categorization processes, it can be suggested that two groups are distinguished within the higher level category of the person identity; the successful and the failures when the measurement of comparison is intellectual and social abilities, and the conforming and the non-conforming, when the comparison is measured by attitudes towards authority (see Lynam, et al. 1993; Tremblay, et al. 1992; Zingraff, et al. 1994).

The more successful individuals, under certain circumstances when their social identity is salient, tend to identify themselves as members of particular group. This process is influenced by higher status and increased impermeable boundaries of the group (Ellemers, 1993) and provides a socially protective purpose. In addition, the group identification of the failures and non-conforming individuals is expected to be facilitated by the low status, high stability and perceived impermeability of group boundaries (Ellemers, 1993). It is anticipated that for these people, there is only slight probability of transferring to a higher status group, as this is significantly influenced by individual intellectual and social abilities, which is comparatively constant. Over time, group boundaries are likely to become strong and constant, once categorization and labelling followed by rejection between groups takes place. The failures and non conforming group would exhibit significantly higher level of out-group discrimination. The identification of the failures and non conforming individuals as a group fulfils the emotional function of providing its members with an alternative social identity and an increased self-esteem, as hypothesized by social identity theory.

Individuals, who have failed in their social roles and exhibited non-conforming behaviour on a personal level, would see themselves as inconsistent in relation to higher level identity. Higgins (1987) suggested that they would experience a sense of discrepancy in terms of their actual and ideal selves which is associated with depression or sense of agitation. This statement corresponds with Agnew’s (1993) Strain Theory which suggests that inability to reach important goals results in frustration and anger.

These unconstructive feelings of self-derogation, anger, frustration, jealousy, antipathy and hostility (Salovey and Rodin, 1984) may be aggravated by external family factors, including the lack of tenderness, parental rejection or inappropriate parenting style (Shaw and Scott, 1991; Patterson, et al. 1989; Simon, et al. 1991). The lack of parental tenderness and affection can restrain the development of empathy and guilt (Baumeister, et al. 1994), by emotional, psychological and physical isolation individuals from their parents, which makes a negative impact on the bonds of social control (Hirschi, 1969) and reduce any motivation to make every effort for pro-social accomplishment or to conform to the authority. An empirical support conducted by Downs and Rose (1991) suggests that peer groups are deviant in terms of un-involvement with pro-social activities and non-conforming behaviours. Members of this group are rejected by the other pro-social groups and manifest more psychosocial problems than individuals from the other groups indicating, at the same time, lower level of self-esteem. Therefore, it can be suggested that these dimensions influence development of negative or criminal identity.

The role of peer relationships has a significant influence in development of criminal identity. Parker and Asher (1987) followed by Juvonen (1991) have suggested that the consequences of peer rejection are reported by individuals’ low self-esteem, violent tendencies, an increased risk of dropping out of school or social activities and development of criminal behaviours. Rejection by peers, whether real or perceived, is then an additional source for categorization into groups which mutually reject one another. Having said that, rejection can be perceived as the cause or the product of self-categorization. Therefore, the negative identity that results in being self-discrepant or inconsistent, pertains not only to individual group member who consistently fails in his/her social tasks and is non-conforming in pro-social attitudes and behaviour, but applies as a whole to group of members, which also face the dilemma of a lower social status in society compared to the group of successful and conforming individuals.

In the process of identification with others and forming a subgroup within the higher level social identity, non-conforming and less successful individuals adopt the scheme of “social creativity” and according to social identity theory, they achieve increased level of self-esteem (Oakes and Turner, 1980; Lemrye and Smith, 1985) through their positive distinctiveness, which is characterized by rejection and reversal of pro-social norms, in other words, what is considered constructive, positive and valued in society is redefined as unconstructive, negative and derogated(Cohen, 1955). Having said that, non-conforming behaviours associated with criminal identity, such as aggressiveness or any aspect of anti-social conduct, would be perceived as a desirable trait.

Criminal identification creates mutual agreement among members who have similarly as a group, rejected conventional model of social norms. McGarty et al. (1993) have suggested that this has the effect of uncertainty reduction and is likely to be a source of self- enhancement (Kaplan, 1978, 1980; Kaplan et al. 1986, 1987). Thus, this group of individuals tend to engage in criminal behaviours in spite of their sense of self-derogation (Fischer and Bersani, 1979), in contrast to those people who maintain strong psycho-social bonds with the family and the society, who tend to exhibit low self-esteem after engagement in criminal behaviour (McCarthy and Hoge, 1984).

Campbell’s (1987) research conducted on Puerto Rican female gang members has supported concept of identity formation through rejection and reputation. This study has discovered that the gang membership is a manifestation of a rejected identity. She concluded that gang members perceive themselves as dissimilar from their peers.

“Their association with the gang is a public proclamation of their rejection of the lifestyle which the community expects from them” (p. 463).

Their criminal identity or criminal self-image derives from the process of rejection and putting-down those peers who are not associated with their anti-social norms. Therefore, they often define themselves by characteristics of what they are not to others.

Once the criminal social identity with reversed (criminal) norms becomes established, members of criminal group then achieve a sense of self-consistency by a manifestation of their new identity in terms of criminal behaviours. This has been suggested by Breakwell (1986) who emphasized the significance of relationship between identity and behaviour:

“Action is the social expression of identity. The only route of access to the identity of another is through his or her action, whether verbal or not. Since identity comprises emotions, beliefs, and attitudes it is a prime motivator of action. Identity directs action.” (p. 43)

Development of criminal identity can be better understood from Interpersonal Social-Cognitive Theory of Self proposed by Andersen, Chen and Miranda (2002). It suggests that mental representations of significant others are stored in memory and that:

“transference reflects basic social-cognitive processes – namely, the activation of the perceiver’s mental representation of significant other in an encounter with a new person, leading the perceiver to interpret and remember the person in terms of the activated representation, and to respond emotionally, motivationally, and behaviourally to the person in representation-derived ways” (p. 160).

It further postulates that significant others’ (criminal others in this particular case) mental representations are significantly influential because they loaded with affect and because they describe the manner in which one’s expectancies, affects, motives and behaviours in relation to other individuals arise. Furthermore, it assumes that significant-other representations are connected to knowledge signifying the self one is in relation to significant others. The presence of such connection entails that the activation of significant-other representation should extend to features of the self and identity that are related to particular other. However, as suggested by Linville and Carlson (1994), the idea that one’s whole pool of self-knowledge is likely to be working at once is vague. It is positioned that only a subset is in working memory at given moment. Therefore, the contextual cues determine the particular elements of self-knowledge that are entered into working memory, suggesting that the self and identity is fundamentally created alternatively in each context. In Andersen et al.’s (2002) opinion:

“when contextual cues activate a significant-other representation, the working self-concept shifts toward the self one is with the significant other” (p. 161).

Once the criminal social identity become salient, members tend to display behaviours that are exemplary of the criminal group model and may participate with other in-group members to express their conformity (Turner, 1982; Thornberry et al. 1993). Demonstration of over-conformity to criminal standards and conduct would then be positively encouraged and reinforced by other in-group criminals, consequently leading to an increase of criminal behaviour, or an alteration of non-criminal acts to criminal one. Therefore, criminal group members do not have to apply persuasion in order to make an impact on others anti-social attitudes or commit a crime because it occurs through the process of identification and self-categorization.

The investigation conducted by of Klein and Crawford (1968) and that of Pabon et al. (1992) suggested that the criminal group members are characterized by a sense of belongingness, which is an inter-group rather than inter-personal feature. Klein and Crawford (1968) found that the cohesiveness of the criminal group is due to external rather than internal aspects, and Pabon et al. (1992) established in their empirical research that members of criminal groups tend to lack intimacy and affection in regards to their relationships.

Multiple Social Identities and Their Change

Societies, in general, produce various moral principles for different settings and situations, such as for behaviour in the home, in the community, or on the streets. Moral behaviour is not only context-specific, but also formed by the social identities that occupy an important role in a given circumstances. Particular social identities represent particular beliefs and values about what is morally appropriate or inappropriate, and when they become significant in a precise context, they are likely to model individual behaviour. Subsequently, aggressive practices which take place in the situation of the assertion of a particular social identity do not necessarily carry over into another situation within which a different identity, with diverse moral standards, prevails. Therefore, as suggested by Dawes (1992), moral behaviour may shift as social context and social identity shift.

It has been postulated in the Situational Theory of Delinquency (Sykes and Matza, 1957; Matza, 1964) that criminals tend to drift in and out of non-conforming or anti-social behaviour. Under certain circumstances, such as company of criminal group, individuals can be expected to think and behave along with non-conventional norms. Thus, anti-social behaviour is manifested only when the criminal identity is salient. Individuals are expected to be more delinquent in the presence of criminal in-group others, although the physical company is not essential for salience to take place. What matters most is the psychological identification with the criminal in-group members. In other words, it is suggested that those individuals in their personal identity as members of their family tend to have less anti-authority attitudes than when they are in the social identity as criminals among criminal in-group members. It has been also noticed by Cohen (1990) that in the commitment of criminal activities, criminals act as interchangeable units of a collectivity, thus, any insult caused to one member of criminal group is perceived insult to all members who share the same identity.

Strocka (2008), in her research in Latin America, reported a degree to which gang members’ behaviour changed across different social contextual situations which made her to realize of the multiple social identities that young people held apart from their gang membership . She observed that a number of gang members were permanently drunk and involved in criminal violent behaviour, however during the time they worked in their rural communities they completely abstained from alcohol and violence. Moreover, two ex-gang leaders, whose police records indicated that they had no scruples to eliminate their rivals, revealed lack of violent tendencies towards their children or wives. Both gang leaders had been physically abused by their parents when they were children and did not want to copy that behaviour in their families. Thus, Strocka (2008) suggested that the youth gang members were not generally and inherently violent because they only showed violent and criminal behaviour in context of their social identity as gang members, that is, at joint actions with their peer group and encounters with opponent gang group. In these situations, individual criminal conduct is more likely to be directed by the norms and values of the criminal group, according to which violence is a desirable when comes to defend the gang’s honour and territory. However, youth gang members appeal to different moral behaviour and reasoning when they identify with different social roles such as a father, husband or day worker.

Youth gang membership is limited to a certain period of the life cycle (Rodgers, 1999). The question, then, arises; what happens to gang members when they grow older? According to Strocka (2008) the prevalent assumption in public discussion is that most youth gang members either are being killed before they reach adulthood or will end up as “professional criminals” with persistent violent tendencies. In other words, it is believed that gang members when they grow up, they either adopt social identities with similarity or even more negative characteristics (professional criminals), or carry over the harmful behaviours related to gang membership to other social identities, for example, it is assumed that a ex-gang member will become an abusive husband and father.

The position of cultures of resistance and adjustment is imperative in theories of the appearance and verification of criminal identity and was incorporated in the Clemmer’s (1961) concept of “prisonization”, a form of secondary socialisation in which offenders learn how to adapt to prison life style. These adaptations have been documented along the range from withdrawal to continual rebellion. Cohen and Taylor (1972) argued that such investigations do not seek to identify what these adaptations imply to inmates themselves. They agree to the importance of the “inmate code” and offender subculture (Sykes and Messinger, 1960) in helping prisoners to get by, however they want to stress

“the conscious, creative nature of the subculture” and “the positive nature of the dogmas, mythologies, beliefs, modes of adaptation and feeling which are part of day to day experience of people who find themselves in extreme situations” (Cohen and Taylor, 1972; p. 58).

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to present the application of social identity and self-categorization theories to development of criminal social identity. It is suggested that individuals become criminals because of a persistent criminal identity which has its origin in social comparison processes. Negative social comparison of individuals who have failed in their social roles and exhibited non-conforming behaviour on a personal level, aggravated by contextual factors such as dysfunctional family and the role of criminal peers, contribute to the development of negative identity suggested by strain and social control theories. This concept was supplemented by interpersonal social-cognitive theory of self which proposes that development of criminal identity might be influenced by representations of criminal others stored in memory, and is activated based on contextual cues. This is also consistent with the notion that individuals have multiple social identities which may shift as social context shifts. Therefore, it can be hypothetically suggested that the process of re-socialization of criminals should be based on pro-social context rather than penal one in order to change their criminal identity into pro-social identity and avoid adaptation of harmful behaviours associated with criminal group membership to other social identities such as adaptation of aggressive behaviour in family environment as father or husband.