Psychology Essay: Applying Psychological Theories to Rancic's Actions

This essay analyzes the behavior of Giuliana Rancic, focusing on her comments regarding Zendaya's dreadlocks and the ensuing controversy. It applies several psychological theories to explain Rancic's actions, including the behaviorist theory of learning, the two-factor theory of emotion, and theories of stress. The essay explores how environmental factors, such as societal racism, influenced Rancic's behavior. It examines the role of racism and racial discrimination in the context of the situation, referencing social psychological phenomena. The analysis also considers the interplay of nature and nurture in shaping Rancic's actions, highlighting the impact of both individual predispositions and societal influences. The essay draws conclusions about the complex interplay of psychological factors that contributed to Rancic's behavior, emphasizing the role of societal biases and emotional responses.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
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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

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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:

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 All the behaviour is learned from the environment- environment plays a role in
influencing the behaviour of a person. Humans learn behaviour through the
classical and operant conditioning.
 Psychology should be considered as a science- this means that the theories are
entirely obtained from the controlled and careful observation.
 Behaviourism is basically linked with the behaviour that are observable and it is
opposed to the events that are opposite to the internal events like the emotion
andthinking. The behaviourists accept the fact that the existence of the emotions
and the cognitions can be studied also by scientifically and objectively (Olson,
2015).
 There is a very little difference that exists between the other animals and the
humans. The fundamental fact is that there is no qualitative distinction between
the animals and the humans.
 Behaviour is the result of response-stimuli- all the types of behaviour can be
reduced to a much simple version of response-stimuli reaction (Ertmer& Newby,
2013).
Theory of emotion
The theory of emotion which is applicable in this scenario is the two factor model theory
developed by Schachter and Singer. This theory states that emotion comes from the combination
of cognition and state of arousal that best suites the situation a person is in. For example, the
theory of emotion highlights that when the when people becomes aroused, such people look for
cue as why they feel the way they do. The two major parts of emotion are cognitive label and the
physical arousal. It has been noted by Schachter and Singer that physical arousal played a key

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role in the development of the emotions. However, it has been mentioned that the arousal
remains the same for every type of emotion. This theory can be explained through an experiment
that was conducted by Schachter and Singer (Seth, 2013). A total of 184 male recipients were
injected with epinephrine. It is a hormone that increases the heartbeat, and elevates the rate of
breathing and trembling. All the participants were told that they were injected with a drug so that
their eyesight cam be tested. Whereas, the other group was not mentioned about the possible side
effects that the injection can cause to the participants, while the other group was not mentioned
about it. The participants were then kept in a dark room, and it was hypothesized that the
participants that knew the side effects will either feel angry or euphoric. While the participants
that do not know the side effects of the drug will either feel angry or happier. The respondents
that felt euphoric were able to interpret the side effect of the drug to be happiness. While the
respondents that were angry were able to predict the feelings as anger. It was hypothesized by
Schachter and Singer that if people experiences an emotion for which they do not have any
explanation then such people label such feelings as feelings at the moment (Zaki, Davis
&Ochsner, 2012).
Theory of stress
Stress is an important and interesting subject since the time immemorial and it is not just
limited to what happens to the body during a stressful environment, but it also takes into account
of the psyche of an individual. The theory of stress is an amalgamation of the theories of emotion
that are proposed by the Schachter and Singer, Cannon and Brad, James and Lange. The
Schachter and Singer argued that the understanding of an emotion requires both the emotional
arousal and the cognitive arousal when a person experiences an emotion.Schachter and Singer
proposed that attribution or the process where the brain tries to identify a stress stimulus that

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produces an emotion. The theory describes that the humans become aware of the situation that
leads to an emotional response. When the reason seems to be unobvious then humans look for
the environmental clues for the exact interpretation of the emotion (Hyland &Boduszek, 2012).
Rancic is to be emotionally attached with the other white Americans that have hatred towards the
African Americans and pass the racist comments against them. This is a natural tendency within
the whites and it compelled Rancic to pass racist comments when she saw Zendaya dawning the
dreadlocks. The dreadlocks are naturally seen among the African Americans and thus it is easy to
designate them. This emotion of Rancic along with the other whites created a complex mix of
emotion and stress.
The emergency theory of Cannon-Bard explains that the emotion is a result of stress and
it can occur even when the bodily changes are not present. It can be also said that the Rancic
faced a lot of stress when she was criticized by many regarding the racist comments and
stereotyping the act of Zendaya. The stress acted as an emotion or feeling of remorse for Rancic
and it can be argued that the emotional response to the stress is a not due to psychological
response and it rather occurs as a simultaneously (McCarty, 2016).
Social psychological phenomenon
Since the colonial period there has been a widespread occurrence of Racism. Socially and
legally all the major privileges are sanctioned for the white Americans whereas it is denied to all
the other races. A majority of the Americans have revealed that racism is still major problems in
America and it is a prominent thing in the politics and the society. It has been seen that about 64
percent of the Americans have said that racism is a major problem in the American society. The
pluralities of the America have mentioned that the in America the race relations are getting
worse and the reason is that very little attention is paid to the racial and race issues. Overall, a

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whopping 30 percent of the of the plurality think that race is still the biggest source of divide in
America. Racial tensions can be effectively tied to the bigger national events and the studies
have indicated that there is a huge difference between the everyday experiences. It has been
noted that the racial discrimination is felt not just in the public places but in other areas as well.
About a quarter of the Americans have said that the they have experienced discrimination in the
workplaces due to the discrimination which is based on their race (Walker, Spohn&DeLone,
2012). While it has been found that the blacks are likely to experience the more racial
discrimination in comparison to the other racial subgroup. 48 percent of the African Americans
have revealed that they have experienced the workplace discrimination in comparison to the 14
percent of the whites and the 36 percent of the Hispanics. As high as 72 percent of the
Americans have issues of racial discrimination against the Blacks and this has been a serious
problem for America. This has been complemented by the 81 percent of the Hispanics and 89
percent of the Blacks. While 30 percent of the Americans have mentioned that it is not a serious
problem and 68 percent of the Americans have mentioned that it is a serious issue. Majority of
the people think that white people have the larger amount of benefits in comparison to the black
people. When questioned, 84 percent of the Blacks have mentioned that white people receive a
great deal of benefits. 71 percent of the Hispanics have mentioned that white receives a lot of
benefits (nbcnews.com, 2018).
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion it can be concluded that behaviourist theory, two factors
theory of emotion and the theory of stress framed by Schachter and Singer, Cannon and Brad,
James and Lange played a role in defining the behaviour of Giuliana Rancic, who made racist
comments on Zendaya. It has been found that the racism played a key role in shaping the

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behaviour of Rancic which compelled her to make racist comments on dreadlocks of Zendaya. I
believe the action of Rancic is an action of both the nature and nurture. The society in which
Rancic is brought up has serious discriminative issues against the people of black communities.
Since the colonial period there has been a widespread occurrence of Racism. Socially and legally
all the major privileges are sanctioned for the white Americans whereas it is denied to all the
other races. A majority of the Americans have revealed that racism is still major problems in
America and it is a prominent thing in the politics and the society.

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Reference
abcnews.go.com. (2018). Giuliana Rancic 'Didn't Intend to Hurt Anybody' With Zendaya Hair
Critique. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/giuliana-rancic-publicly-
apologizes-offensive-zendaya-comment/story?id=29213927
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing
critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement
Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.
Hyland, P., &Boduszek, D. (2012). A unitary or binary model of emotions: A discussion on a
fundamental difference between cognitive therapy and rational emotive behaviour
therapy. Journal of Humanistics and Social Sciences, 1(1), 49-61.
McCarty, R. (2016). The alarm phase and the general adaptation syndrome: two aspects of
Selye’s inconsistent legacy. In Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior (pp.
13-19).
nbcnews.com. (2018). Poll: 64 percent of Americans say racism remains a major problem.
Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/poll-64-percent-
americans-say-racism-remains-major-problem-n877536
Olson, M. H. (2015). Introduction to theories of learning. Routledge.
Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories an educational perspective sixth edition. Pearson.
Seth, A. K. (2013). Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self. Trends in cognitive
sciences, 17(11), 565-573.

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Walker, S., Spohn, C., &DeLone, M. (2012). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in
America. Cengage Learning.
Watson, J. B. (2017). Behaviorism. Routledge.
Zaki, J., Davis, J. I., &Ochsner, K. N. (2012). Overlapping activity in anterior insula during
interoception and emotional experience. Neuroimage, 62(1), 493-499.