PSYC1010 Introduction to Psychological Science

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
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1PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction
Giuliana Rancic is an Italian American TV personality she was talking about and African
American singer and actress named Zendaya. Giuliana Rancic on fashion police stated that she did
not liked the hair of the actress when the actress showed up in dreadlocks. Rancic said that the hair of
Zendaya looked like it is a weed and smelledlike patchouli oil. The viewers took the comment as a
racist comment and later on Rancic apologized. Zendaya herself went through the comments of
Rancic on the Instagram and replied that the comments of Rancic was outrageously offensive and
largely a stereotype. The star of the Disney channel then tried to connect the dots bigger picture of
racism that was prevalent and the individual micro aggression during the time. Zendaya highlighted
that at that time period African Americans were already experiencing criticisms in the society. The
people in the society chose to judge people based on the curls on their hair. Zendaya said that she
wore such a hair in locks on the Oscar because the she wanted to show the positive light and also to
remind the people that the colour of the hair is also good enough. After a few days, Rancic issued an
apology on the E News. Rancic replied that that the she wants to apologize for the comments she had
made on the fashion police regarding the Zendaya’s hair. Rancic said that she did not intended to hurt
the feelings of anybody and she learnt that her intent does not matter at all. Thus, she wants to say
that she is sincerely sorry if Zendaya and anybody else got hurt. She even continued that the entire
situation has been a learning experience for me she had learned a lot from the incident regarding the
stereotypes and clichés and the damage she has been responsible for (abcnews.go.com, 2018).
Rancic’s behaviour interested me because the she commented something which later on
magnified into a racist comment and she stereotyped Zendaya for dawning dreadlocks that were seen
majorly in the African Americans. This study will include the description of the learning theory that
fits best with the person’s behaviour especially in this case; describing the theory of emotion that best
justifies and applies to the selection; if the person is experiencing any mental disorder or a

2PSYCHOLOGY
personality disorder due to which the person is exhibiting such a behaviour, or else how stress played
a role in the act by relating the behaviour with the theory of stress; how other could have influenced
the behaviour of the person and a description of the social psychological phenomenon that describes
the situation best (abcnews.go.com, 2018).
Discussion
The theory of learning
The theory of learning that suits the incident best is the Behaviourism theory of learning
or the behaviourist approach. This approach explains that the learning is based on the changes in
the environment and when a person experiences the changes directly. The principles of this
theory can be explained by the operant conditioning and classical conditioning. This method
refers to a psychological approach that emphasizes on the objective and the scientific
approachesof investigation. The approach emphasizes only on the observable stimulus-response
behaviours. This approach states that all the behaviours are learned through an active interaction
with the environment (Schunk, 2012). Considering the case of Rancic, she went on to pass the
racist comments on the dreadlocks of Zendaya. One of the biggest issues if the prevalence of
racism within the white Americans regarding the African Americans. This incidents of racism
were already in the within the minds of the white Americans. The white Americans were already
having the feelings of hatred regarding the African Americans. This external environment
compelled Rancic to act in a way which others were also acting (Watson, 2017).
The assumptions that were considered for this study are as follows: