Journal of the Black Psychology
INTRODUCTION
Research has it that beliefs, feelings and attitudes that people have are associated with their age position and experiences in historical and social context that are different. Indirectly the term generation can be said to be the knowledge of an individual’s age position, place in the history of time and the self-identity with a particular group. The topic of generation indicates that individual in a certain age will go through their social, personal not forgetting political histories in the same ways. It is believed that a particular generation faces their temporal difficulties during their age period. Hence this research was conducted to determine if generation and age affect the formation of the African American belief and its relation towards the general well-being across different ages and generation groups of American Africans.
METHOD
Participants
The research had a total of 2,107 interviews were fully done this being approximately 70% of the response rate hence the 30% was considered the incomplete interviews. Around 28.9% of this sample was in the age gap of 18-29, 43.1 was in the age range of 30-54 and 28% being 50 and above. This was done by professionally trained interviewers who conducted this survey at the respondent’s home.
Participants were responding to a number of questions which were subdivided to various subsections; Negative opinion had seven items, for example, a) Blacks are very idle, b) Blacks abandon their relatives, c) Blacks often step down d) most blacks are deceitful, e) Blacks are uncomfortable with themselves, f) blacks are greedy. The positive opinion is also divided into seven item, for example, a) Blacks are hardworking b) Blacks are kind c) Blacks are strong e) black are honest f) blacks endure g) blacks are brave. The closeness to black masses is divided into four; a) what do you feel when you are closer to poor blacks b) what do you feel toward blacks who are religious c) what is your closeness towards older blacks d) what is your closeness towards middle-class blacks. The closeness to black elites had two questions a) what do you feel about black officials b) what is your closeness towards black professionals
RESULTS
Results showed that 46% of participant chose the negative opinion while the 54% chose the positive opinion. Under the negative opinion the highest percentage were; most blacks feeble (60%), most blacks are very idle (59%), blacks often step down (80%), blacks are ashamed of themselves (89%), blacks are dishonest (70%).The positive opinion the highest percentage recorded was, blacks love families (80%), blacks keep trying (70%), blacks are honest (60%), blacks do for others (69%) blacks are proud of themselves (39%). Closeness to black (20%) felt close to black professionals.80% of individuals did not want to be close to poor blacks. 90% were negative about black officials. About 50% were okay associating with middle-class blacks 20% of individuals did not want to associate with older blacks. 60% felt close to religious blacks.
DISCUSSION
It is evident that one generation and age truly affect his or her social political and personal histories. This is due to the finding above a particular age group view thinks differently according to the generation they fall under. When one is in a particular generation ,they tend to experience different things and take them differently hence affecting their judgment to life experiences. It can be noted that younger generation has a different view of African Americans this is due to their different experiences to life with the blacks than the older people. Hence they see no difference in treating blacks differently except for the few who have been brainwashed by the older age individuals. It should be taken into account that a person’s generation is enough to affect their personal social and political histories. Therefore different measures should be taken when the influence is negative to the individual’s life.
The black journal article makes it open to us that the generation of individuals which occurs at different ages tends to affect the individual’s way of thinking and in the social aspects. People should try and control themselves since fully depending on generation and age may negatively affect a person’s way of life hence hindering various development. One should able to tell whether the generation affecting them brings a positive or negative impact in their lives so as to make the decision to either let it affect you. This needs one to be very intelligent when making such kind of decisions since it might play a very big impact on the individual’s life. It is important for people to know that generation and age play a big role in their day to day lives in the aspect of social personal and political need.
References
Toldson, I., & Toldson, I. (2006). Biomedical Ethics: An African-Centered Psychological Perspective. Journal Of Black Psychology, 27(4), 401-423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095798401027004002
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