Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this essay is to provide a concise discussion of the following topics, Symbolic Politics, Political Socialization, Restorative Justice, Identity Politics and Social Justice Theory. Each term will be defined and then a brief discussion will ensue which will utilize the use of examples were possible. SYMBOLIC POLITICS Symbolic Politics can be described as using symbolism to present a political stand or viewpoint. It involves the use of symbols or symbolic impressions to portray political views, ideologies, perception and perspective. For example, Donald Trump’s 2016 US Presidential Campaign Slogan ‘make American great again’ is a symbolic representation of his political ideology. This phrase is a symbolic appeal in effort to influence and persuade voters using words that would “nudge” (nudge theory) them along to vote for him. In political reality, he can achieve this symbolic tagline or campaign slogan by implementing certain policies, passing particular legislations and build and improve infrastructure. Symbolic Politics appeals to the emotions of voters to get to act in favourable way towards a politician in question. There is sometimes no legislative credence behind symbolic political appeals, but despite this, voters appear willing to support and vote for candidates who engage in symbolic politics. Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION “Political socialization describes the process by which citizens crystalize political identities, values and behavior that remain relatively persistent throughout later life” (Neundorf and Smets 2017). It is a process that is a largely informal one. We all in some ways and in varying degrees experience this through our interactions with different individuals and entities within our social sphere such as family (primarily our parents), peers, friends and mass media. It can described as a lifelong process where depending on our stage in life, the influence particular individuals and entities may differ. For example, early on in our lives our ideology is primarily shaped by our parents but as we grow this gradually shifts to our friends and peers which then may be shifted towards mass media through our consumption of it. Our first interpretations of politics are usually defined within our family. Whether through hearing family members getting into heated debates about different topics in politics our hearing casual political remarks around the dinner table or while eavesdropping on our parents “private” conversations. Our family political ideologies are usually what shapes us from a political perspective. For example, it may be highly likely that if you grew up in a family household which predominantly supports the People’s National Party, you may end up supporting Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 them as well. It is keen to note however, that the family or parents influence over a child is arguable waning due to varying different factors such as institutionalized child care and the increased use of electronic devices. The educational system via schools introduces children to elections when they elect school mates into different student body positions and roles. Political facts and issues are learnt by children through the teaching of different subjects such as History and courses such as Political Psychology. Friends also can aid in political socialization but this can be argued to be of minimal effect. It is said that most young people nowadays have no political alignments and politics usually never dominates their social interactions while conversely, there is indeed a number of young people involved in the young political arms of political parties such as the PNPYO. During adulthood much of our political information comes from the mass media which may further strengthen our political ideologies (political alignment to a particular party) or even weaken it. Mass media is a dominant information source and can easily shape public opinion hence acting as a form of political socialization. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Restorative Justice can be describes is a process whereby all the parties involved in a particular offence work together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence. It involves three parties namely, the victim – the Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 individual who was harmed, the offender – the individual who caused the harm, and the community – the place where the harm took place. It focuses on holding the offender accountable for his/her actions but in a more meaningful way by trying to get the offender to take responsibility for his/her actions, to understand the harm they have or may have caused, to give them an opportunity to redeem themselves and to hopefully discourage them from causing any further harm. It repairs the harm done to the victim by aiming to reduce the feelings of anxiety and powerlessness and seeks to restore and reintegrate the offender into the community which may help to achieve a sense of healing for both the victim and the community. An example of Restorative Justice is the National Restorative Justice Programme in Jamaica. IDENTITY POLITICS Identity Politics according to Maguire (2016), “is when people of a particular race, ethnicity, gender, or religion form alliances and organize politically to defend their group’s interests.” They tend to organize and promote their own specific interests without any regard to the interests of any larger or smaller political groups or entities. Examples of this include the feminist movement, the civil rights movement, and the gay liberation movement. Identity Politics also involves identifying with a particular groups ideology. All of this self- Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 identification and promotion of specific interest of political groups can result in Political Tribalism. This phenomenon describes a situation in which people are overly loyal to their political group. It is often seen as putting one’s own political group above everything else including social order and justice. When taken to extremes this can lead to war. An example of this can be seen in the flare up of gun and gang violence in the lead up to Jamaica’s 1980 general election which is now known as ‘Jamaica’s Bloodiest Election’ (also dubbed ‘Ballot, Blood and Bullets’) between rival party gangs. Jamaicans during that time was severely split along political ideological lines which may have led to the fierce gun battles and vicious killings that occurred during that period as people identified themselves with one political party or the other (political identity). Rational thought among party members was laid to rest during that period so instead of trying to understand each other respective viewpoints and perspective, gun violence was used to settle their differences. Identity Politics may also lead to the development of In-Groups and Out-Groups. Bias can occur were members of an in-group are favored over members of an out-group (In-group Favourtism). Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 SOCIAL JUSTICE THEORY Social justice is generally deļ¬ned as the fair and equitable distribution of power, resources, and obligations in society to all people, regardless of race or ethnicity, age, gender, ability status, sexual orientation, and religious or spiritual background according to Van den Bos (2003). The absence of social justice may affect the lives of individuals in most if not all of the areas mentioned in the definition above. For example, the lack of equitable distribution of resources can result in economic distress which can have domino effects on other aspects of an individual’s life such as their health making them more vulnerable to illnesses. I discussed earlier about Identity Politics. Factors associated with identity politics can be seen in areas such as ones race (white vs black), gender (feminist movement), sexual orientation (gay liberation movement), were social injustice may occur because of the inclusion versus exclusion of certain groups in certain areas such as job opportunities and employment benefits. CONCLUSION This essay has provided a brief discussions on the following topics, Symbolic Politics, Political Socialization, Restorative Justice, Identity Politics and Social Justice Theory. Examples where applicable were used to substantiate the points being made when discussing each topic. Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 REFERENCES Ayala, E., Wilcox, E. M., Hage, S. (2011). Social Justice Theory. ResearchGate.com. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310769309_Social_Justice_Theory Campbell, H. (n.d.). Flashback: 1980 general election, Ballot, blood and bullets. The Jamaica Gleaner.com. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101030/news/news5.html CliffsNotes (n.d.). Political Socialization. CliffsNotes.com. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/american-government/publicopinion/political-socialization Dutton, B. (2017). The Ascendance of Symbolic Politics: An Explanation and Consequence of Gridlock. Bill Dutton.com. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://billdutton.me/2017/04/16/the-ascendance-of-symbolic-politics-anexplanation-and-consequence-of-gridlock/ Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 Leary, J. P. (2020). The Troubling Obsession With Political “Tribalism”. The New Republic.com. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://newrepublic.com/article/156448/troubling-obsession-political-tribalism Maguire, L. (2016). Identity Politics. Philosophy Talk.org. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.philosophytalk.org/blog/identity-politics Ministry of Justice, Jamaica. (n.d.). What is Restorative Justice? Government of Jamaica, jam.gov.jm. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://moj.gov.jm/programmes/restorative-justice Neundorf, A., and Smets, K. (2017). Political Socialization and the Making of Citizens. Oxford Handbooks Online.com. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935307.00 1.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935307-e-98 Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 Van den Bos, K. (2003). On the subjective quality of social justice: The role of affect as information in the psychology of justice judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 482–498 Vocabulary.com (n.d.). Tribalism. Vocabulary.com. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tribalism Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 QUESTION 9 INTRODUCTION In this essay I will be critically examining the core elements of peace psychology. I will be defining each core element and make known the important issues surrounding each element. It is keen to firstly establish the meaning of peace psychology and briefly examine it and other related concepts. Peace psychology is the study of psychology that seeks to develop theories and practical solutions that aims to prevent violence, wars and conflicts and also to mitigate and reduce the negative effects they have on society. It also involves studying and developing viable methods of promoting peace. This psychology emerged during the Cold War (1947-1991) as a distinct area of research and practice, when the eerie concern of nuclear war surfaced. Psychologist wanted to discover ways and methods on how to prevent an event of this nature from occurring. Peace Psychology today is more global in scope and nature. One of the major topics in peace psychology is Violence. It is also one of the major hindrances to peace. It can be defined as any action of physical or even psychological force that intends to harm or cause harm and emotional discomfort. Johann Gatlung, a renowned peace theorist and researcher, distinguished between two types of violence, structural and direct violence. He posits that structural violence occurs because of social injustice which Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 results in the slow death of people because they have been deprived of basic human needs (food, water, clothing and shelter). Structural violence is an insidious form of violence that is built and woven into the fabric of economic and political systems, both within and between nations. An example of this is if people in a particular country (a common scenario in a number of countries in Africa) are starving and there is food in the world to feed them, then structural violence is taking place (Galtung, 1969). Ghandi referred to structural violence when he said, “theearth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not enough to satisfy everyman’s greed” (cited in Pyarelal, 1958, p. 552). Contrastingly, direct violence occurs episodically (episodic violence) and harms or even kills people directly through physical bodily force. Episodic violence can vary from interpersonal interactions rife with aggression, such as bullying, to the organized form of interstate or inter nation violence called war. War can be defined as a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air (Dictionary.com). War causes instability in areas where it occurs rendering peace virtually impossible until some stabilizing force is developed. This usually happens at the conclusion of a war at some point in the future or sometimes through achieve through temporary cease fire. Wars usually emanates from conflict. Conflicts can occur between individuals, groups of people or between countries. We can therefore surmise peace psychology is an endeavor Maurece Thomas ID #: 620097873 Psyc2017 that is defined by theory and practice aimed at developing and influencing patterns of behavior and cognition that prevent and mitigate against both episodic and structural forms of violence stemming from conflicts which can results in wars. Now that I have briefly established what peace psychology is and its’ related concepts let’s now get into the meat of the matter, the core elements of peace psychology. THE CORE ELEMENTS OF PEACE PSYCHOLOGY The core elements of Peace Psychology which I will be discussing are Social Justice, Human Rights, Non-violence, Inclusiveness, Civil Society, Peace Education and Sustainability.
