Accepting Homosexuality
Upon receiving this assignment, I was rather confused on how I would go about conducting an experiment for Social Psychology. So far this year we have learned of numerous experiments done in the past that have been more physical: experiments done by Milgram, Asch, Zimbardo, and many others. Honestly, I am rather shy when it comes to social events, so I was worried about what direction I could take on this assignment.
I decided to take a social topic and discover how people view and respond to that topic. The topic that I chose was same-sex rights and whether or not you believed they deserved to have those rights. The way I went about conducting my experiment was I created a survey and handed it out to 20 people, 10 being over the age of 35 and 10 under the age of 35. My objective was to compare and contrast my findings between the generations about homosexuality.
I also observed how people reacted to a person who was openly homosexual. A friend of mine, who happens to be transgender, sat down next to multiple people and I observed how long they sat there, what they said if anything when my friend started conversation, and how they reacted when my friend moved closer to them physically.
Prejudice and discrimination are seen all through-out society; sometimes it is subtle, but sometimes it is scary how ‘in your face’ it can be. Being a young single mother I have dealt with prejudice and discrimination firsthand, and I know how it feels when other people look down on you for your lifestyle. I wanted to observe whether or not people would be openly rude, accepting, or just tolerant of my friend. During the observation I saw something’s that were less than nice.
We conducted the experiment at the college in the halls when they were busy and filled with students. We chose the college because we could target people of all age groups, nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. My friend wore her usual female clothing, make-up, and had...
Please login to view the full essay...