Community Perceptions: How Do People View Their Communities?

Human beings tend to fit in and feel accepted with other people who belong to a specific group. Conformity is the tendency to align beliefs, attitude, and behavior with those people who are around us. Conformity is a powerful force that is challenging to resist in the society since it aligns with the dominant perception in the community. Conformity is derived by the urge to be identified with a specific group, people, or belief that reigns in the society. Conformity demands that any member of the group must adhere to norms that guide the group. Conformity comes as a result of various community perceptions that there are people who should be perceived differently from others ( Heath et al., 2017). However, this is not the truth. There are no persons who deserve isolation from society as a result of any misfortune, disability or weakness. Notably, there are those who chose to conform to a specific group due to fear of being different from others. In such a situation, such individuals feel that they will be perceived as awkward or inferior in case they do not conform to a specific group. 

The forces towards conformity and the desire to be with a specific group to avoid shame, isolation, and rejection by friends or relative can sometimes block compassion. Compassion sometimes demands that people must take a stand and rise above intimidation, humiliation, denial, and isolation to be true to themselves ( Heath et al., 2017). Compassion also demands that people rise against those perceptions of the community as long as one is right and believes he or she is doing the right thing. Compassion is the true way of becoming human because it preserves the identity of an individual, and prevent a person from losing his or her identity or culture due to conformity forces in society. 

Reference 

Heath, P. J., Brenner, R. E., Vogel, D. L., Lannin, D. G., & Strass, H. A. (2017). Masculinity and barriers to seeking counseling: The buffering role of self-compassion. Journal of counseling psychology , 64 (1), 94.