A Phenomenological Multi-Case Study About Social Success Skills, Aspirations, and Related Media Experiences

Fifteen-year-old Mathieu DuBois (1) and I were seated in his family's den during one of many semi-structured interviews conducted throughout this study. Mathieu had been excitedly explaining to me how much he enjoyed the diversity of his suburban neighborhood, Rockdale. Yet, when I asked him if any of his classmates also lived in his neighborhood the tone of the conversation changed. With a frown on his face, he informed me that most of his classmates lived outside of his neighborhood and that several of them had made negative comments about Rockdale. I asked him to elaborate on their comments and he provided a conversation he had during his freshman year with several White classmates at his predominantly White high school as an example: ... sometimes I eat lunch with my friends at school, and like last year, some of the guys would be like "aw man, Rockdale's a bad place." And I'm just like "Why?". Every time there's a majority, like, there's a good, like, Black population in this town, they would say "yeah there are police cars everywhere." I'm just like, "You can't really say that." (Mathieu, Interview, May, 2011) As our conversation continued, Mathieu struggled to comprehend why "Black" neighborhoods were considered "bad" and "poor." He disliked the stigmas that were associated with Black communities and he wished that some of his classmates would not automatically assume that Rockdale needed to be constantly patrolled by police. Research has shown that the negative traits Mathieu's friends associated with Rockdale are similar to the reactions numerous other similar communities experience (boyd, 2014; Wells, 2009). Residents from neighborhoods that are associated with Black and Latino groups are often stereotyped as delinquents who are unable or uninterested in developing the social skills and traits needed for social success (Rothstein, 2004; Wells, 2009). Furthermore, these negative reactions can be associated with some communities such as Rockdale simply because they were perceived as Black neighborhoods even if the majority of their population was White. Mathieu stated that his classmates were mistaken about the ethnic makeup of his neighborhood: "[Rockdale] isn't even a majority Black town, it's just a very diverse place." The importance of social skills and traits has been discussed for many years. Dewey (1909) introduced the term "social intelligence" and initially defined it as "the power of observing and comprehending social situations" (p. 51). Thorndike (1920) popularized the term and further defined it as "the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls--to act wisely in human relations" (p. 228). Interpersonal intelligence (Gardner, 2004), intrapersonal intelligence (Gardner, 2004), emotional intelligence (Salovey & Mayer, 1990), non-cognitive skills (Heckman & Rubinstein, 2001), and grit (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) are examples of additional terms that have been used to describe the social skills that are deemed necessary for success. I use the term "social success skills" as an umbrella term to cover these skills and all other skills that are needed to achieve social success. Past studies have explored how various negative societal stereotypes across the world unfairly over-represent non-White and lower socioeconomic students as individuals who lack the social success skills needed to achieve professional, academic, and social success (Wald & Losen, 2003; Warikoo, 2005; Youdell, 2003). Additionally, several scholars have concluded that some Whites and individuals from higher socioeconomic communities believe that these stereotypes are true and often rationalize the persistence of the inequalities in various societies with explanations influenced by their beliefs in these societal stereotypes (DiTomaso, 2013; Ispa-Landa, 2013; Wells, 2009; Wald & Losen, 2003; Youdell, 2003). Research also reveals that many Whites and higher earning teachers, students, employers, and employees tolerate and further perpetuate these social inequalities and beliefs in these stereotypes by displaying favoritism towards individuals from within their groups. …