Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is often a prevalent component in many cultures, especially that of America. In AP Psychology ethnocentrism is attributed to an evolutionary theory in behavior where early human ancestors had to quickly distinguish between friend and foe, thus forming an ingroup (group one belongs with) and outgroup (group one does not belong too) bias, this then severely limited the acceptance of diversity. Ethnocentrism has since been ingrained in the human psyche and is much easier to apply than to avoid. Early last year I had an Indian girl in my APUSH class who said she already had her marriage arranged with a boy she has never met. Given that my own family and culture ideals stress marriage with someone I feel a deep emotional connection too, an arranged marriage to me seemed like a very callous move by the parents and a flaw within her own culture. I had not noticed it at the time, but the girl was not the least bit bothered by the fact of an arranged marriage. I attempted to put myself in her shoes but that only resulted in anger and protest. I projected my own cultural ideals onto the girl and was oblivious to the fact that her values were far different from mine. I have since learned to accept values and ideals that are different from my own and have strayed away from ethnocentrism.