Older Members Of The Tribe example essay topic

Survivor Africa has been entertaining to watch and will be interesting to see how the different episodes relate to the topics discussed throughout the course. It will be interesting to see how the different group dynamics within each tribe collaborates. You have a plethora of different personality types within each tribe. There are young and old members, gender differences, workers and slackers, introverts and extroverts, and racial differences. However, the first and most appropriate example that comes to mind that is directly related to the show and the course is the Robbers Cave Study. The study was able to show that whenever you are competing for limited resources, conflict is inevitable.

The first days most dramatic moments in the Boran tribe revolved around Diane and Clarence. I believe Diane started off on the wrong foot by taking control of the map and then leading the rest of the tribe in the wrong direction. She assumed a leadership role without earning it. When they finally arrived at their campsite they were lacking water, so they decide to open a can of cherries.

They carefully passed the can around, with each member taking one. Well, each person except Clarence, who helped himself to two cherries. This was Clarence's first mistake, this was not a brilliant move on Clarence's part, especially after only the second day. As we learned in chapter four, first impressions are lasting, and people are slow to change their first impressions on the basis of new information. Later on that day, both teams had their first immunity-reward challenge that involved having a race. It was quite obvious that Diane did not do very well, she pretty much passed out.

Samburu ultimately won the challenge. When Boran returned to camp, Diane was still not feeling well, so Clarence decided to stay behind to help her while the other team members went to get water. While the other team members were away, Clarence decided to open a can of beans to feed to Diane thinking it might do her some good, What a guy! Well, Diane ate some and Clarence polished off the rest of them and then discarded the can.

To make a long story short, this was Clarence's second mistake. When the team returned, they realized what had occurred and all lashed out at him. Considering what just occurred, I must admit, Clarence handled himself extremely well. He didn't deny what he did, he didn't downplay the situation, he tried to justify his actions, and accepted the fact that he's isn't the trustworthiest guy in the tribe right now.

He knows he has to regain everyone's trust. Back at Samburu, we " re dealing with totally different problems. You have Frank, who immediately takes charge of the camp and starts barking orders to the rest of the tribe members. From the onset, a social categorization developed and was quite obvious. Different in-groups and out groups were created between the young and the older tribe members. An alliance was formed between the older group members, as they felt a sense of belonging ness, and identity.

Another alliance was formed with the younger members, they even went as far as making special necklaces to further distance or distinguish themselves from the older members. In addition to these in-groups and out groups formed, another division was created between the workers and the slackers. The older members of the tribe were committed and not afraid of hard work, whereas the younger members were less motivated and seemed irresponsible. The lack of conformity is quite obvious also. The younger members are sleeping in and hanging around while the older members are continuously fetching water and firewood, and continuously thinking ahead.

This lack of conformity will definitely play a role in the following episodes, and ultimately have a negative impact on the group. As mentioned previously, the very fact that groups differ from each other on any of a number of dimensions, be it religion, ethnicity, racial, cultural, age, or gender, can spark conflict. Many different issues cause conflicts between groups, such as, competing for scarce resources, stereotypes and prejudice, and from one's own personal ideas and principles. Other important external factors that are worth mentioning that have a significant effect with conflict are issue such as odors, heat, physical pain, crowding, negative feelings, and threatened self-esteem. As we saw in the very first episode, it didn't take long for conflict to begin, and continued to escalate in the following episodes. During episode #5, an interesting yet shocking occurrence took place.

Lex, Tom, and Kelly from Boran tribe were abruptly switched to Samburu tribe. Frank, Theresa, and Silas were switched to Boran tribe. However, the issues within each tribe did not change. It was the new members of Samburu who had to deal with the issue of laziness with their new members. I believe that Tom, Lex, and Kelly received the short end of the deal.

Frank, and Theresa felt rejuvenated and a sense of relief knowing that they had just escaped the possibility of being voted off in the next tribal counsel had this change not occurred. In this same episode, Lindsay became very emotional, first, for losing the challenge and secondly, for having to compete against old team members. Her emotional state can be explained by Berkowitz's cognitive-neo association analysis. This approach proposes that unpleasant experiences create negative affect, which in turn stimulates automatic associations connected with anger, fear, and sadness. The fact that she had to compete against her old team members with whom she had built a loyal friendship with in addition to losing the competition, took a toll on her emotional being. The show "Survivor" is so successful because it is so very much manipulative.

Furthermore, the characters, which I'm sure were chosen for conflict potential, are even more fascinating. As we have learned from class, conflicts between groups are caused by many different factors, including competition for scarce resources. However, once conflict is in place, it can feed on itself, which has been demonstrated throughout the series. It will be interesting to see who the winner will be.