Psych Assignment 4
Stuti Jain
PSYCH 280: WRITING ASSIGNMENT #4
The Indian American Student Association on campus, commonly called IASA, recently had their cultural show at Hill Auditorium with an audience of 4000 people. The show consisted of ten dance performances portraying different regions of India and these performances were put up by a total of 240 students, both trained and untrained dancers, who had been practicing for the show for the past two months. The IASA Show is a big part of the Indian community here at UM, and their show this month was one of the biggest events on campus this semester.
As an international student at UM from Kuwait, I get a lot of follow-up questions and surprised looks when asked where I’m from. Over time, I have received a wide-range of questions but I am almost always asked about my experience of living in an Arab country. This past weekend, someone jokingly asked me if my dad owned oil mines and camels in Kuwait, which got me thinking, is this because of the various stereotypes associated with the Arab community in America?
Since IASA is an Indian association, it is obvious that membership is limited to those who are Indian. However, a distinct feature of the association is that many Indians on campus believe that IASA is a separate clique, and you can only be a part of it if you have friends in the association already. A unique type of grouping is at play here; just being Indian is not sufficient to be a part of an Indian cultural organization. Some social psychology concepts that are applicable to this phenomenon include self-censorship, which is the tendency to withhold information or opinions in-group discussions. Evaluation apprehension, defined as people’s concern about how they might appear in the eyes of others or, in other words, about being evaluated can be applied here as well. Deindividuation is the perceived loss of individuality and personal responsibility that can occur when someone participates as part of a group. It can have
PSYCH 280: WRITING ASSIGNMENT #4
The Indian American Student Association on campus, commonly called IASA, recently had their cultural show at Hill Auditorium with an audience of 4000 people. The show consisted of ten dance performances portraying different regions of India and these performances were put up by a total of 240 students, both trained and untrained dancers, who had been practicing for the show for the past two months. The IASA Show is a big part of the Indian community here at UM, and their show this month was one of the biggest events on campus this semester.
As an international student at UM from Kuwait, I get a lot of follow-up questions and surprised looks when asked where I’m from. Over time, I have received a wide-range of questions but I am almost always asked about my experience of living in an Arab country. This past weekend, someone jokingly asked me if my dad owned oil mines and camels in Kuwait, which got me thinking, is this because of the various stereotypes associated with the Arab community in America?
Since IASA is an Indian association, it is obvious that membership is limited to those who are Indian. However, a distinct feature of the association is that many Indians on campus believe that IASA is a separate clique, and you can only be a part of it if you have friends in the association already. A unique type of grouping is at play here; just being Indian is not sufficient to be a part of an Indian cultural organization. Some social psychology concepts that are applicable to this phenomenon include self-censorship, which is the tendency to withhold information or opinions in-group discussions. Evaluation apprehension, defined as people’s concern about how they might appear in the eyes of others or, in other words, about being evaluated can be applied here as well. Deindividuation is the perceived loss of individuality and personal responsibility that can occur when someone participates as part of a group. It can have