Answer

Power of the Situation

A situation in which I did something that conflicted my beliefs is when I supported abortion. I have always been a pro-life who believes that abortion should not be allowed since it denies other people the right to live. I have always believed that since we are not the creator, we have no obligation at all to eliminate any body or decide whether they should live or not. However, in this situation, my cousin carried a pregnancy that the doctor believed could endanger her life since she was young. While there were no clear proofs of the doctor’s arguments, I supported abortion mainly based on her age and life a head of her.

My decision was compelled by the power of the situation, which a basic premise of social psychology and assumes individuals’ actions, thoughts, emotions are influenced by the social setting. In this particular situation, my decision was influenced by my emotions and thoughts that my cousin has a better life a head of her and the pregnancy was likely to interfere with her health and education. Particularly, the doctor’s prediction that her life was in danger since she was too young to carry the pregnancy provoked my feelings on the importance of that pregnancy. Although I am aware of several girls who have carried pregnancy and delivered successfully at her age, I was not sure about her life. The second social issue is her life after pregnancy, especially in the event that it would affect her education. As narrated in social psychology, particularly in power of the situation, basically, individuals will change their behavior to align with the social situation at hand, and in this case, I changed to support abortion.

REFERENCES

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  Rucker, D. D., Galinsky, A. D., & Magee, J. C. (2018). The agentic–communal model of advantage and disadvantage: How inequality produces similarities in the psychology of power, social class, gender, and race. Advances in experimental social psychology, 58, 71-125.