Social inJustice and Social Psychology: A Perspective
By: Sushmit Gupta
Tags: Social Commentary, Injustice, Social Justice, Social Change, Psychology

Hierarchy. A system of domination. Ranking beings according to their status, a status that finds its inferiority by measures of qualities that are beyond human control, or it is decided by inane, mindless and hateful pieces of historical context that discriminate against the masses. Gender inequality, Xenophobia, Islamaphobia, Casteism, Racism and so many more forms of prejudices and narrow-mindedness have plagued society for centuries. Is there a scientific logic to this distinction between the better and the bad, “higher-ranking and lower-ranking”? No. Social Psychology, however, creates a paradigm with social justice that adopts communal edifices and lived episodes.

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The Principle of Critical Ontology is pursued by Psychology to attain the absolute perception and cognizance of the ontology of a person. What does it mean to be a human being? How can life be defined as existence? These can be classified as philosophical questions, but they are also a link between credos and the interpretative structure of mentality.

Critical Bifocality (Weis and Fine, 2012) aims to “render visible the relations between groups to structures of power, to social policies, to history, and to large sociopolitical formations” (p. 173). The members of marginalized groups and communities try to find reason in their position in a complex geopolitical structure, with the apex of this structure dominating their stance. The disposition of their constitution leaves them unprotected in trying to understand their societal surroundings.

John Locke held that personal identity was a matter of psychological continuity. Social Identity Theory permeates through the wall of this centric identity force. A person’s self-conception is impacted, often to its detriment, by the perception of one’s social status, and marginalization within a larger group (Hogg,2016). To gauge the connection between social injustice and psychological encounters, we must always analyze the thread using a kaleidoscope of historical context. Group history and identity, blight the individual identity of members through a narrative of forceful secondary status (Hammack, 2008, 2011b).

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In contrast to social injustice, this theory also affects social justice. Frost (2018) brings narrative evidence to the foreground. The personal narrative of any disadvantaged community accentuates their hardships. This can inspire change. As empathetic creatures, we respond better to humane stories than complicated graphs. In courts of law, and at sites of protest, the driving account is that of unique psychosocial stressors.

The work of social psychologists is to bring about contact between groups (Allport, 1954). Coexistence might be the endgame, however, the turning point comes in raising powerful awareness within the domineering and prepotent group. The mixture of shifting group relations, systemic discrimination and the realisation of evidenced narrative can lead to true social policy changes, an arrangement that seeks to end the infinite nature of inequity (Hammack & Pilecki, 2015).

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