What is meant by diversity?
Diversity is the differences between people, and varieties of lifestyles and cultures within our society.
Describe the community you live in. Highlight some of the variations you may observe in terms of: Interests, Beliefs, Ages, Lifestyles, Personal, social and cultural identities.
The community in which we live is a varied and diverse one, with many people not only sharing many similarities but also many differences. Each person has many qualities making them individual. Within my local community, there are many such variations with the people living within it. For example, the hobbies/leisure interests of the community vary to extremes; many such as myself enjoy using the local gym during our free time, where others prefer to make use of the local pub.
In Tamworth there is a very wide range in age groups, beginning with those young children in the currently overcrowded schools, the very busy college and training facilities with teenagers and the increasing need for social care with our elderly community.
Extended families now play a vital role within society today, many of us parents within my local area choosing to raise our children within a close proximity to our own parents and family, spending longer amounts of time together than before. The extended family seems to have grown more important to us as employment and the need for help with childcare increases.
Although we have a diverse cultural and religious community, no public festivals tend to be held. There is a shared respect for our differing beliefs and this has helped this community to live harmoniously together.
INTERESTS
Each person has their own interests, likes and dislikes. These are often shared with one or two others within a social group, making these interests part of a shared identity. However, when there are differences of interests respect and understanding of these differences must be upheld in order to live peacefully.
BELIEFS
Every person has their own beliefs, be it religious or lack of religion. These are very personal and held of high esteem by each individual. With the diverse cultures and many different religions within our society now, we have learned to understand and celebrate each different religion. Lack of understanding of some religions/ beliefs leads to bullying, stereotyping and at times, war.
AGES
With people now living a lot longer than before, the age variation within our community is huge. Whilst there are numerous teens on the streets in gangs, there are also just as many older people too. This older generation tends to judge the teens as being thugs, up to no good, lazy layabouts. This is a very broad stereotype based on things they may have seen or heard in the media. Respect for all, no matter what the age is essential for this society to get along.
LIFESTYLES
With this being a very open and broadminded society, we find now that people are being open with their lifestyles where they tended to hide them away before. A wider understanding of differences in sexual orientation, transgender, goth, economic background for example and how each would affect peoples quality of life is now apparent, making our community a much more diverse, friendly, comfortable place to be.
PERSONAL/SOCIAL/CULTURAL
With the amount of diversity now within our community, social groups are enlarged, multicultural and full of much more variety than before. We learn new skills, new beliefs, have a much stronger awareness and respect for others opinions and backgrounds with the wider cultural links within our social groups. A shared group identity becomes less important and is replaced by respect for others differences.
Describe what it means to respect people’s differences and why it is important to respect differences.
To respect peoples differences means to begin to understand them and tolerate if not agree with them. Whilst within society there are many similarities between people and it is much easier to accept those who are similar to yourself, within a diverse community such as this, tolerance and respect is essential for a peaceful environment. To accept others for their differences encourages others to
also accept you for who you are.
When these differences cause people to behave unpleasantly or illegally then people could become harmed. This is why respecting differences and the right to be different is essential.
What is meant by having multiple identities? Give three examples in relation to people you know.
With each person having many different characteristics that define them, it becomes easy for others to define you based upon one or more of your characteristics. These become apparent upon different social situations you are in. It is these different characteristics and definitions of such that give people their multiple identities.
Example 1:
- My father being a work colleague
- Also being a dad
- Has the role of husband too.
Example 2:
- My daughter’s teacher holds the identity of teacher
- He also holds the role of husband
- Also holds the identity of son.
Example 3:
- My brother holds the identity of sales manager
- Also holds the identity of uncle
- Also is a son.
What is meant by shared identity?
A shared identity is where there is a shared characteristic in common with other people.
Explain and give examples of how an individual can identify themselves as belonging to a number of different groups.
People identify themselves in a number of ways. These include:
- Personal interests
- Religious/cultural preferences
- Geographic
For example, if there is a shared identity within a social group which involves any of the above, such as being from the same local area, this
would make a person feel as though they belong in that group. Yet also, this same person could have a shared interest in going to the gym, therefore the people they use the gym with would also feel like a group in which that person belongs.
Shared interests make people feel more comfortable, like they have more in common and that they belong to any group in which their identities can be shared.
What is meant by stereotyping and labelling?
Stereotyping is when others focus on one of a persons characteristics and they over generalise the opinions on that characteristic, whether the view be true or not. This then leads to labelling. Labelling is a way of describing a person, usually based upon the original stereotype, in a mainly negative manner.
Though some stereotypes and labels may be made in a positive manner, they are still perceived as negative as they are generalised and not always based upon truth.
Explain why some people stereotype others.
Stereotypes occur from a lack of knowledge, understand and respect for other genders, cultures, ways of life, ages and sexual preference. For example, women used to be stereotyped within our society as being less able, not capable of learning, and much less intelligent than men. Further examples of stereotypes include: Pensioners viewing all teenagers as yobbish, with no manners, no respect and all hanging around in gangs Teenagers viewing elderly as having no manners, expecting respect without giving back, old, frail and easy to scare
People feel the need to stereotype for different reasons. Some of these reasons are so they can make quick sense of the world (make snap decisions about people or a situation without having to think things through), to fit in (when their family or friends hold prejudices and stereotype so they agree with it to fit in) and to make social comparisons.
At times this need to stereotype can meet the needs of an individual, such as an elderly person avoiding a teenager because of the stereotypes, though the stereotype may be factually wrong.
Provide two examples of the damaging effects that stereotyping and labelling can have on people.
Following on from the above example of the older stereotypes on women, this would have been damaging in the way that women would start to believe the labels, therefore wouldn’t feel able to try to learn, would feel less self worth and would have low expectations of themselves.
Stereotypes also lead to conflict between people. For example, the elderly view teenagers as being thugs, good for nothing layabouts. When they make these views known, teenagers rather than try to change the opinion, acts the way these older people expect, therefore justifying the original stereotype
whether it was right or wrong. This then reinforces the original view, causing conflict between these age groups in our society.
Provide at least two examples of the way stereotyping is perpetuated in society.
One example would be, going back to the teenagers, if a young lady was walking to her local shops in the dark, if she encounters a group of teenagers/hoodies, she would feel ill at ease and threatened. Although if this same lady encountered a group of elderly people instead, she would feel much more at ease. This perpetuates the theory that teenagers wearing hoodies are thugs, though that may not necessarily have been true.
Another view, these teenagers may view the elderly as being rude, expecting respect from the younger generation without giving the same back. An example of this would be where a teenage boy holds a door open for an elderly gentleman who is leave a building. Fully expecting a thank you for his time, the teenager smiles and wishes the man a nice day. Perpetuating the original views, this elderly gentleman walks through the door grumbling about the youth of today instead of thanking him and wishing him a nice day back.
These stereotypes unfortunately continue to exist because of the learned behaviour being passed from generation to generation, peers sharing their views (and the continual need to fit in) and these views and opinions can also be found in local and national media. It is when these stereotypes are so widely accepted and been around so long that people tend to look upon them as being fact and true, without demanding proof. This perpetuates to stereotype and it continues down to the next generation in society.
Define prejudice and discrimination.
Prejudice is an unfair or unreasonable view that people form about others without having any grounds or knowledge to base it on. Discrimination is when others treat another person or group differently, in a negative way, just because of one or more characteristics they have.
Explain how people may develop prejudices.
There are a number of ways in which people develop prejudices. For example:
- THROUGH SOCIALISATION. In this way, prejudices are learned from either family or friends. These prejudices will have been encountered in some form or another on a daily basis, and may even have been encountered in the media, be it through TV or newspapers. As these prejudices will have been encountered so often and will have been prevalent within this person’s lifetime, it makes it almost impossible to question or challenge it.
- OVER GENERALISATION. If a person has a powerful experience of some nature with a particular group then this becomes generalised to encompass all within that same kind of group. Its usually caused by a negative experience, and though it may be sensible to distrust this experience, it is wrong to over generalise and categorise all in the same manner.
Identify and briefly describe two other signs of inequality.
The Equal Pay Act 1970 was legislation intended to put an end to discrimination. This wanted pay to be based on ability and not on gender. The Human Rights commission have found that even now, women are paid on average 16.4% less than men.
There is a large inequality in pay dependent on the geographical area people live and work. Those in London for example, earn a much higher wage for the same job as a person living within the Midlands. This is said to be due to the higher cost of living. This makes for a huge inequality within our society.
Also there is a larger gap now between the highest and lowest earners in the UK. Whilst the minimum wage has increased slightly, the higher paid jobs have been increased dramatically. This increases the inequalities and in effect pushes the lower paid more towards poverty. The qualities of lives between these two classes of people differ greatly, and this does not lead to equal opportunities in our communities.
Within the local community there is a large inequality in the way disabled people are treated in comparison to those who are more able bodied. For example, there are still many buildings/ industries that do not cater for those in wheelchairs, therefore not allowing them access and discriminating those who need to use them. There are still places where toilets are upstairs with no lift for the disabled to use to gain access, and also where there are steps at the front of premises. This needs to be addressed in order for this community to be a more equal one for all.
In the wider community there lies a very large inequality with health care and treatments, with the larger and highest paid communities receiving higher care and easier access to treatment to those in smaller, lower paid communities. This is where the term postcode lottery stemmed from. Inequalities as this needs to be rectified, no person should be refused certain treatments or care because of where they live, this should be equal for all to receive.
