The world has changed in the last two years — the pandemic has seen to that. If you take a look around, you can see the change — both globally and locally. Some of the changes have roots in the past, particularly within our smaller societies — they aren’t as obvious perhaps, but the pandemic sped their growth too.
Rachna Minhas has always been a keen observer of society and the way people interact — her early-life experiences taught her that people do things because of past events in their lives and that most of us carry those things with us, often developing a cognitive bias. As a student of psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, she soon found her interest, academically and professionally, lay in social psychology, particularly in group dynamics surrounding race, age and gender — and she needs your help.
Understanding ourselves better
As part of her Honours research grant, Rachna is looking at some of the effects that the pandemic has had on society; where we attribute blame and its potential connection to the rise of racism. She is hoping you’ll participate in her online, completely anonymous study on COVID-19 and the Belief in a Just World theory proposed by Melvin Lerner.
The purpose of the study is to understand the differences in victim blaming amongst young and middle-aged adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Victim blaming comes from the Belief in a Just World Theory” (Lerner & Miller, 1978): “individuals who believe that people get what they deserve may engage in victim blaming. When a victim is hurt by a perpetrator, individuals may accuse the victim as the problem rather than the perpetrator because the victim is perceived to have deserved it.” (Lerner & Miller, 1978)
Help to make positive change for a better future for everyone
Rachna says she was drawn to this field of social psychology because she can see what is going on around her — it’s relevant to how we are living and how we will go forward as a society and studies like hers can help us make positive change in our culture through understanding ourselves and our group dynamics better. “It’s been a life-long interest for me,” Rachna notes. “I believe that through understanding ourselves better we can make change for the better for everyone.” Rachna plans to graduate from Kwantlen Polytechnic with Honours in the fall, and from there, intends to pursue her MA in Social Psychology at UBC.
Simple and easy to participate
It’s easy to do — just rate each of the questions on a scale of “Strongly agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” Participants must fall into the 18 to 25 or 40 to 65 age categories. The study will only take 10 to 15 minutes to complete and you can enter to win one of 15, $10 Amazon e-gift cards
This is your chance to be part of the change for the better. To participate, email justworldtheorysurvey@gmail.com or follow this link: https://kpupsychology.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7a3zTn7JhJuLrcW?source=consentredditfacebook. The study is open until April 15, 2022. Don’t miss your chance to help out.