GCC African American Suffrage with Voting Rights Research Paper Overview (Review from last week) You have been asked to create a 3-5 double-spaced report

GCC African American Suffrage with Voting Rights Research Paper Overview (Review from last week)

You have been asked to create a 3-5 double-spaced report on an underserved population, detailing the case law and legislation that has been passed related to the community you have chosen. You will need to have at least 3-5 external resources to complete your paper.

This report should include the following:

Definition of your community
Description of at least 2 Supreme Court cases and/or laws that have affected your community (either positively or negatively)
Your assessment of the current status of your community (think about whether anything else may be needed to ensure equality for this group)
Citations properly formatted

The first parts of your final paper will be graded based on the completion of the assignment and will help you do the research for your final paper. The final assignment will be graded based on the analysis of your findings and must include key course concepts from the Greenberg-Page text.

Resources to help you:
PCC Shatford Library POLSC 1 LibGuideLinks to an external site.
ACLU Website (Links to an external site.) (for overview of underserved communities and current news)
SCOTUS blog (Links to an external site.) (Supreme Court Blog)
Oyez Cases

Please see attached, the outline for the paper Running head: BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
Bikram Yoga and the Dynamics of Power
Student’s Name
University of California, Santa Barbara
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BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
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Bikram Yoga and the Dynamics of Power
Background
Allegations have surfaced accusing Bikram Choudhury, the founder of “Bikram Yoga,”
of sexual harassment and sexual assault of some of his female students, among other charges
(Tinoco, 2016). As the creator of his own form of “hot yoga,” Choudhury requires instructors to
attend periodic nine-week trainings in order to be certified to teach his particular brand of yoga
to others. Jill Lawler aspired to become certified and at age 18, applied to “Bikram’s Yoga
College of India” in Los Angeles. Although the age requirement was 21, the college made an
exception for her to attend after she wrote a personal letter to Choudhury (Tinoco, 2016).
Once there, Lawler excelled in her tasks, which drew praise from Choudhury, whom she
admired. During the evenings, Choudhury would select a number of students to join him in his
hotel room for late-night lectures and movie screenings (Tinoco, 2016). Eventually, Choudhury
invited Lawler to attend these late-night gatherings, and the first time she attended, she was
“taken aback, shocked by the sight of the guru covered with women” massaging his body
(Tinoco, 2016). However, Lawler assuaged her initial bewilderment by reminding herself that
Choudhury was a respected spiritual leader, and thus deemed him “trustworthy” (Tinoco, 2016).
Although these massages lasted for hours, Lawler admitted that she was “star-struck” at the time
and decided to maximize her time with Choudhury to learn as much as possible (Tinoco, 2016).
After a few weeks, Lawler alleges that Choudhury asked her to come to his room to
personally massage him, and upon complying with his request, Choudhury inappropriately
touched her thighs and proceeded to insert his hand into her pants (Tinoco, 2016). Lawler
immediately ran out of the room, and the following day, Choudhury apologized and explained
that he “couldn’t control” himself (Tinoco, 2016). For the subsequent two weeks, Lawler
BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
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continued to massage Choudhury in the evenings “without incident” until one night Choudhury
ordered her to “‘massage’ him to orgasm,” to which Lawler complied (Tinoco, 2016). After
another week of uneventful massages, Choudhury allegedly raped Lawler. A few months later,
he paid for her to fly back to Los Angeles, where he allegedly sexually assaulted and raped her
again, and then again a few weeks after that incident during another training seminar (Tinoco,
2016). Lawler still remained affiliated with the Choudhury’s yoga enterprise, however, and even
accepted a job in India to work for Choudhury’s yoga college, during which she alleges that she
was raped yet again. When Lawler heard of another woman filing a suit against Choudhury for
sexual misconduct, Lawler ended her employment with the college, and eventually decided to
file her own lawsuit, which is expected to go to trial this summer (Tinoco, 2016).
Literature
Gilovich, Keltner, Chen, and Nisbett (2016) present a number of studies exploring the
effects of power on human behavior. They define power as “the ability to control one’s own
outcomes and those of others” as well as “the freedom to act” (Gilovich et al., 2016, p. 467).
Drawing on historical examples of political leaders and celebrities, they propose that an elevated
amount of power could cause impulsive and immoral actions. From a social psychological
perspective, Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson (2003) offer the approach/inhibition theory as a
possible explanation. According to this theory, people in high-power positions are more likely to
give more attention to rewards, use heuristics (mental shortcuts) to make quick judgments,
experience an increased positive mood, and exhibit more disinhibited behavior (Keltner et al.,
2003). People with reduced power, on the other hand, are more likely to have negative emotions,
give more attention to threats, make more careful judgments, and exhibit more inhibited behavior
(Keltner et al., 2003). Furthermore, the theory posits that due to high-powered individuals’
BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
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increased tendency to automatically process of information, they are less able to exhibit empathy
to others or see the world from another person’s perspective (Gilovich et al, 2016).
As supporting evidence for the approach/inhibition theory, Gilovich et al. (2016) point to
a study done by Galinksy, Magee, Inesi and Gruenfeld (2006) in which participants were primed
to either feel more or less powerful by either recalling a time when they had power over someone
else or when someone had power over them, respectively. Following this manipulation, they
were then asked to draw the letter E on their foreheads. Participants in the high-power condition
were more likely to draw an E from their own perspectives, and in a way that was backwards if a
person across from them were to read it, while participants in the low-power condition were
more likely to draw the E in a way that was backwards to themselves but legible to another
person (Galinsky et al., 2006).
In addition, Gilovich et al. (2016) cite studies conducted by social psychologists which
have shown that when primed with feelings or ideas of power, people were more likely to touch
others while communicating, have sexual thoughts, feel attracted to a stranger, and overestimate
a stranger’s attraction to them. In contrast, several studies show that individuals in low-power
positions exhibit their inhibition by expressing themselves less in group interactions, and act
more withdrawn. This combination of increased inhibition of less powerful individuals and
increased disinhibition of more powerful individuals can potentially lead to aggressive or violent
behavior when members these two power spheres interact. One study found that sexual
harassment in the workplace is more likely to occur when there are power imbalances between
the victim and the harasser (Studd, 1996). Gilovich et al. (2016) point to another study by
Reeves-Sanday (1997) which found that the number of rape incidents in a given society increases
in proportion to the level of male domination and female subordination in that society.
BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
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The concept of authority relates to the notion of power, since individuals that are more
powerful usually command a certain authority as well. The influence of an authority-figure on
people’s behavior was powerfully demonstrated in Milgram’s (1963) landmark study in which
unsuspecting participants were made to think that they gave electric shocks at dangerously high
levels to another person for giving incorrect answers in a memory task. Many of the participants
willingly followed through with the high-voltage shocks based only on an authority-figure in the
form of an experimenter telling them that they needed to continue.
Psychologists have also found that a phenomenon called the foot-in-the-door technique
may increase the likelihood of people to comply with requests. This strategy involves a person
initially making a small request to which any reasonable person may comply, and then following
up with a larger request that builds on the previous one. In the Milgram (1963) study,
participants were first told to give a “slight shock” to the other person for every incorrect
response, but then the voltage incrementally increased. This approach may have increased the
likelihood of the participants to eventually deliver the high-voltage shocks as opposed to if they
were told to deliver these dangerous shocks from the outset.
Analysis
Assuming that the sexual assault allegations against Bikram Choudhury are true, the
concepts within the approach/inhibition theory could provide a potential explanation for his
misconduct. First, in analyzing the situation we must take into account the relative power
asymmetry between Bikram Choudhury and the alleged victim, Jill Lawler. Lawler was a young,
inexperienced devotee admittedly eager to gain the favor of her guru, Choudhury. Choudhury by
that time was a world-renowned, well-established expert having amassed a considerable fortune
as the progenitor of a yoga movement that swept across America and the rest of the world. This
BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
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difference in each individual’s perceived social status demonstrates a clear power asymmetry,
and, as discussed earlier, may have contributed to Choudhury’s alleged aggressive behavior.
In Lawler’s account of the events that took place, Choudhury’s actions seem to fit the
behavioral tendencies of powerful individuals according to the approach/inhibition theory:
Choudhury was impulsive, explaining his sexual misconduct by saying that he was unable to
control himself; he was disinhibited, demanding that women massage him for hours on end; and
he was either unable or unwilling to empathize with the distress that his actions caused other
women. Aside from his status, Choudhury held significant power of his students because he
could deny them their yoga certifications, thus potentially threatening their career prospects.
Lawler, as the low-power individual in this polarized power dynamic, also behaved in
ways that the approach/inhibition theory would predict: after Choudhury allegedly violated her,
she did not discontinue her professional involvement with him or speak out until several years
following his repeated offenses. Furthermore, as the Stanley Milgram study demonstrated,
Lawler most likely acquiesced to Choudhury’s initial demands because she may have viewed
him as a “trustworthy” authority figure. Moreover, Choudhury’s sexual advances did not happen
all at once. He first initiated physical contact with Lawler by requested long, late-night massages,
then allegedly breached Lawler’s personal space through inappropriate touching, then he
escalated his demands by having Lawler massage his genitals “to orgasm,” and finally, he forced
himself upon her. By incrementally escalating his demands, Choudhury utilized the foot-in-thedoor technique to allegedly commit his egregious acts. Although these are currently still
allegations, if legal proceedings do find Choudhury guilty, then Lord Acton’s aphorism that
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” may hold true once again.
BIKRAM YOGA AND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER
References
Galinksy, A., Magee, J.C., Inesi, M.E., & Gruenfeld, D.H. Power and perspectives not taken.
Psychological Science, 17(12), 1068-1074. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x
Gilovich, T., Keltner, D., Chen, S., & Nisbett, R.E. (2016). Social Psychology (4th ed.). New
York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D.H., & Anderson, C.A. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition.
Psychological Review, 110(2), 265-284. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.110.2.265
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral Study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 67(4), 371-378.
Reeves-Sanday, P. (1997). The socio-cultural context of rape: A cross-cultural study. In L.L
O’Toole (Ed.), Gender violence: Interdisciplinary perspectives. New York, NY: New
York University Press.
Studd, M.V. (1996). Sexual harassment. In D.M. Buss & N.M. Malamuth (Eds.), Sex, power,
and conflict: Evolutionary and feminist perspectives. New York, NY: Oxford University
Press.
Tinoco, M. (2016, February 5). Another alleged rape victim of the yoga guru breaks her
silence. Vice. Retrieved from https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/another-allegedrape-victim-of-the-yoga-guru-breaks-her-silence
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