Our Need To Belong

Why can't we as individuals live on our own? Why do we have to belong in groups? The answer to these two questions is simple, survival. We as a species need to survive and to do that we need to depend on one another for resources. Being in a group can not only provide us benefits to survive but the support we need to carry on living. As human beings want to fit in and be accepted in society. The sense of belonging and being a part of something satisfies the basic human need to form relationships and connections with one another. The need to belong is present in all societies today, people of all cultures are eager to form relationships and bonds with one another.

Belonging in a group allows us to define ourselves and that is what makes the membership of being in a group so important. More than anything the groups we belong in can define us and represent our identity. This concept is prominent in education. For example, the school you go to or the clubs/sports you participate in. Not only do people fear rejection and want to belong we also want to be distinctive. Groups have the ability discern others from different groups. People want to feel that their group is distinctive from other groups. A liberal arts college like Holy Cross can provide its students the feeling of belonging unlike a large state university. Personally, I feel a great sense of belonging and acceptance at Holy Cross. However, even in a small school like Holy Cross people will find the need to be distinctive in what group they are in.

Demarcation can be seen everywhere on campus. Whether in class year, major or even in residence halls the distinction between groups are prominent on campus. We can even see this in fictional movies and novels. Such as, Harry Potter the students that attend Hogwarts are all split into houses: Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor. All groups have social roles and implicit/explicit ways to behave. Each house has their own trait or attitude that distinguishes students from each house. For example Ravenclaws are known to be clever and wise whereas Hufflepuffs tend to be kind and caring towards others. Being sorted into each house and taking on each houses identity and social roles affect how people behave. When people get so engrossed into that social role they lose their true identity and that is portrayed in Draco Malfoy. Growing up as a pure blood he was taught to be vain and sly. Later on as the series progresses we can see that he truly does not have the same views as the pure blood and Slytherin group.

Not only can we lose our identity by belonging in a group we can also lose it by not being in a group. Studies show that those in the LGBTQ community have higher rates of mental disorders than homosexuals. A study done by Susan Cochran found that there are higher rates of of major depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts among those of the LGBTQ community. Discrimination may be a contributing factor towards this finding. Cochran wanted to explore whether discrimination affects the mental health of those in the LGBTQ community. They found a strong correlation between the two factors. A survey was done by having 74 LGB and 2,844 heterosexuals rated their experiences with discrimination. They looked a situations to where discrimination might be present as well as feeling so perceived discrimination. They found the LGB participants had a higher rate of perceived discrimination than heterosexuals. The findings don't prove that discrimination causes health defects but it is a stigma that is affecting the LGBTQ community.

The discrimination faced of those in the LBGTQ community represents how the sense of belonging and acceptance is so important to people in our society today. If we belong to a group we have find the sense of acceptance and belonging and if we don't we face many other issues. Either way we as human beings have an instinct to survive an
d to do that we find groups to become members of. We find our identity from groups but we also have to remember not to fall victim to the power that groups can have over us.

Minh Nguyen

DeANGELIS, T. (2002, February 1). New data on lesbian, gay and bisexual mental health. Retrieved November 15, 2015.

Aronson, E., & Wilson, T. (2013). Social psychology (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.