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Ideology and Reality: Putting Belief and Behaviour in Context

This paper investigates how belief, social power, and ideology work together to create the subjectivities and social structures that guide our behaviour. Phenomena such as cognitive shortcuts, memory, bias, empathy, and dissonance are used to trace the effects of power and ideology on social construction and role-taking behaviour. Research on mass opinion in the United States is then used to identify the effects of information and salience on construction. Different conceptions of ideology and interest, drawn from the work of Hume, Marx, Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault, and others were referenced to explore the larger social dynamics of ideas and structures. Academic, ethical, and democratic implications are investigated at different points. The paper concludes by connecting parenting style to moral development in order to find strategies for resisting the tendency towards institutional behaviour.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/25471
Date17 December 2010
CreatorsBanerjee, David
ContributorsTrifonas, Peter
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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