Reducing Intergroup Conflict

In life we have all been in the cliques or “in-groups” or in other groups that were not so popular than those that were in the groups that rule the school or the office. There are groups in the workplace as well I know that it sounds very childish, and we have all deemed it middle and high school behavior at its finest. There is a belief that those that indulge in this particular behavior either didn’t belong to one of these social groups and grew from an “ugly duckling into that beautiful swam do there best to re-live those “glory days” that they did not have a as teens.

These groups teach youth prejudice and discrimination of others as well as intolerance these negative influences spread like wild fire. Most of all these intergroups teach youth and others on the outside to stereotype those that are in the group and around those in the groups without those that are doing the stereotyping to know that personal on a personal level. I have personally been stereotyped because people that I have hung around because of how they others in the group carried themselves outside of school.

Even though they were my friends in school we didn’t hang out that much after school yet I was called names and talked about until those that were slinging the mud got to know on an individual level. I understand that people do these things so that they can fit into the group also for peer pressure as well so that they can look cool and hip to others in the group, and then there’s a deeper level of ehy that they are starting or in these types of groups. The simple reason is that they just want to fit in and be wanted by someone.

Then there are your gangs some of those that join for the acceptance of others join because their families members joined just because it looks cool. There are some that join for protection they don’t believe in what the gang stands for the just want to be apart so that they won’t get picked on like others around them. These groups are growing bigger and bigger some of them are having greater negative impact on our youth today. What we have to find out are more ways to reduce the negative affects on our children and their schools.

The South-Western college Nelson-Quick glossary defines an intergroup conflict is between two groups or organizations. (Nelson-Quick glossary,2000) Knowing what intergroup conflict is we can look at youth in detention center some of these kids are already in gangs when they come into the center. In the center they all have one thing in common is that they all have some type of hostility, discrimination, prejudice, stereotyping towards others in the center.

These juveniles have these things in common so that branch out from a bigger group into smaller groups some of these youth are already gang members so if they are in the same gangs they group in together. Since they are in the same place as those rival gangs conflicts start to arise between the groups, and there are those that are not apart of any gangs just civilians casualties. Some of them join in the gangs in order to keep from being hurt or just the fear of the gangs in such close quarters.

There are some things that bring about these conflicts in the groups which are prejudice, stereotyping, and discriminations. Prejudice is the unfair feeling or dislike for a person or group because of sex, religion, or race. Stereotyping is to believe that all people or things have a particular characteristic are the same. Discrimination is the practice of treating people of different group from other groups because of their differences.(Merriam-Webster 2013)

When you have these behaviors all in the same place there at first is tention which if there is no one there to form solution of how to stop the tension from going in to from blown hostility people can be hurt. These negative emotions and behavior only feed the tension and violence that is around the center. Lets look at the key conflicts that bring on the violence stereotyping for starters when they other gangs see their counterparts and what they have been taught and told about the other groups.

For an example, when certain gangs sees rivals they the make assumption about how that person or group live, interact, or speak. With discrimination can be seen as the top concept of why the conflicts arise around us the gang can see someone of the a different gang and treat them different from those of their gang. For example, If one of the member same gang is working in the lunch line and give a little more food to his “brother” than the guy from the other gang he actually gives him less and spits in his food as insult to injury.

This can start and conflict or turn on that is already begun into something much more where others get hurt because of what happened in the lunch line. With prejudice when dealing with gangs they are taught that the gang is family that you have to have total trust and belief in the gang from the day you join until the death. Some of those that are in the gangs that are what we will call legacies they have been taught from childhood to not like those from a different “hood. ” They are taught to not lie them because of where the stay, how they dress, look, and what colors they represent as a group.

So in these close quarters there is a need to reduce those intergroup conflict so it can spill out from the detention centers into the neighborhoods. On way the Hewstones article talks about is direct approaches such as interventions are used with motivational processes Monteith (1993) can up with “prejudice and compunction” this take low-prejudice individuals and bring them to awareness using “is-ought. ” This process brings out the discrepancies of the individuals personal values and how they act towards others of different characteristics.

Using this process is to activate the self-guilt that the individual has which the mechanism takes hold and reduces the bias of others. Indirect approaches Leippe & Eisenstadt (1994) they use a different way they indirectly reduced bias by inducing the non prejudiced behavior in those that showed less bias in their attitudes which were in line with their behavior. Empathy also showed a very promising result with individuals with the cognitive and emotional aspects which showed desired results in generalized positive feelings towards person and groups.

Decategorization can work because it takes two mutual and reciprocal cognitive processes differentiation there distinction made in member of the out group then its personalization which those in the out group are seen for their uniqueness which is related to self. This method takes one from the in group after they have been individuated and introduce them into a the out group which in doing this remove the favoritism bias away from the group. Recategorization which takes those that are not in the popular group and bring one that is in the popular group in to the out group.

This alters and tips the scale so that the bias that was there over time is chipped away as well as broken down walls that were once there. To help these youth we need programs that going to breakdown the bias that have been taught and learn for some of them from childhood for others a little bit older. It is best that we take away from the glamour of being gangs teach them to love themselves as well as others and embrace differences in others around them. (Hewstones, Rubin,Wilis, 2002)

We need programs such as teamwork program such as; grow with the Earth grow in your life we have them to start a garden where everyone work together, Wrap session which talk about things that are bothering everyone this is where everything is put out there on the table to cut some tension in the groups, Mentor program for younger kids that are heading down the same path to show them how they can help those that are coming up give them a chance for a better life. Mortality this is a way that can have those gang members to see what happens when the glamorous side of gang life fades.