More Homophobic Bullshit from Itawamba

[evolveme]

Originally Posted by Selenay

What do you know of Exchange Theory? One of the criticisms of that paradigm is that for it to be entirely plausible, we would have to weigh the benefits of every single action we do--and some don't believe it's possible to do that. Others believe that when you make decisions on a frequent enough basis that you unconsciously make a decision based on your experiences. So yes, I understand your belief that the neural paths are branded by our common behaviors, but I cannot believe that any teenager could have made the decision to step on the rights of others enough time to create a new pathway contrasting what they (theoretically) have been taught about right and wrong; I think that takes more than eight years of conscious decisionmaking.

Sociology gets me goin', man.

Okay. So, let's talk (loosely) of Exchange Theory for a moment. Provided that a teenager has been given what we might term a moral framework around which to center her or his own ethical compass (and many have not...also media directed toward the teenager does not foster it), the external pressure to engage in unethical behaviors are strong enough in our society (and others) to steer one away from what one knows to be "right," while creating varying (and progressively greater) degrees of cognitive dissonance. We could get philosophical for a moment and discuss whether and if these are perhaps the years in which the human is meant to learn the very essential need for social order by employing all manner of instinctual behaviors against it (while still under the protection of the family), thereby learning her/his value to the self and the group. A sense of ethics is both taught and built. Often, it must be repaired.

Rational choice is a matter of development and, person-to-person, a matter of degree. It too, must be taught, built, sometimes repaired.

I think that what the teenager is getting from negative social behaviors (acts of social aggression such as the homophobia directed toward Constance), thus why s/he does it, is a kind of peer approval. Acceptance. Validation that one believes correctly and that one is also safe from the kind of derision one is party to. I think that the need for these things guides this decision making - however many times, and however unconsciously - and that until the desire not to be party to something so ugly and painful becomes greater than the need for approval and acceptance, then these behaviors will only continue.

Admittedly, I have an evolutionary perspective on all of this, as I do on most things.