Social Psychology And African Adolescent Identity

It’s been said that curiosity killed the cat, meaning that being inquisitive about other people’s affairs may get you into trouble, well so far the only thing that curiosity has gotten me is a better understanding of what social psychology is and the impact that it has on African American children. African American adolescent identity, the thing that make children curious, and their reaction to curiosity, gave a clear understanding on how to answer the #1 question that children ask. Children often ask the question “WHY?” when they don’t understand something or when their curiosity kicks in. After several attempts without an answer, some children like me would go out and search for the answer. After failed attempts, I would turn and ask my

I recall at an early age wanting to be a teacher. I always had in mind that teachers are very smart people, so they most know why people behave the way that they do. Often the teacher’s pet I saw a lot of bad behavior in some of classmates. My curiosity wanted to know the reason that they would act out in class, but wouldn’t act out in other environments, and why my teacher would give them the attention that she did, but that dream was short lived after middle school. I did research and found out that being a teacher would not answer that question, but being a psychologist will. Researching a little further I found that I would need to go a little deeper than the surface of this problem and found the true meaning for my passion, and what measures I need to take in order to answer all my “WHY’s” and calm my curiosity. I decided to study in the field of

Let’s take the Nature vs Nurture approach of psychology for a moment. Nature refers to the process of biological maturation inheritance and maturation. Nurture refers to the impact of the environment, which involves the process of learning through experiences. There are things that you do just because of the DNA that you are given and then there are thing that you learn from the environment for family that you are a part of (i.e. the neighborhood). Being an adolescent this can affect your social development. Your peer relationships, family relationship, as well as the community that you live. For African Americans, adolescence is also a time when they begin to consider themselves in regard to race and ethnicity. It has been suggests that in early adolescence individuals first begin to differentiate friendships by ethnic group and to show increased group-esteem and ethnic. Therefore, African American youth must define themselves in relation to the social status and meaning of their racial and ethnic group (Brittian). African American youth in the United States are not only expected to undergo typical developmental experiences that are the hallmark of adolescence, such as physical growth and development and developing a desire to assert their independence; they are also coping with a world in which they may be normatively expected to experience racial prejudice. According to Spencer (2006, 2008),