Perceived Significant Variables in Prejudice Reduction: Narratives of Focolare Movement Members

Abstract

The world has undergone a major structural change within these last few decades. With the exploration of great technological advancements, it has been transformed from a mere parchwork of self-reliant nations into what can be considered now as a “global village.” Hand in hand with these developments, a growing consciousness among people about the value of “world citizenship” is gradually beginning to take its place. People in these days find themselves enveloped in a society where contact among cultures is inevitable. In so far as a world like this exists, there will then manifest a growing need for programs which will facilitate the smooth contact among people of different cultures. The problem of long-term cultural adaptation is now recognized as something that needs to be constantly addressed. There is in fact, a growing effort to eliminate insular group prejudices which prove incompatible with this growing universal thrust towards unity and internationalism. It is in this light that the role of cultural exchanges has come to be seen as that of encouraging universalist and humanistic values and attitudes. In recent years, however, intercultural contact programs that have been implemented by various socio-political organizations have not been very successful in terms of reducing intergroup prejudices. The question regarding the efficacy of cross-cultural contact in prejudice reduction has then become the focus of many sociological and psychological studies. Studies on the effects of cross-cultural contact led several social psychologists and sociologists to conclude that contact in itself cannot guarantee positive changes in attitude. It has been found that certain conditions like equal status contact, stereotype-breaking contact, large-sample and long-duration contacts, presence of superordinate goals, potential for acquaintanceship, and many others, are essential to the success of a cross-sectional contact situation. All these findings point out the fact that the efficacy of contact as a prejudice-reducing activity is dependent on a vast array of variables. The large number of factors influencing the effects of cross-cultural contact on prejudiced attitudes makes research conclusions quite tentative. The question that remains then is whether there is a deal situation in which contact can actually produce genuine change in attitude. It is in this light that this study has been undertaken, with the hope that this pioneering work would be able to initiate direction into an otherwise pure and simple enumeration or isolation of contact variables. In the researcher’s own analysis, this can best be done by assessing the significance of these contact variables in a real-life contact situation. This is precisely what this study is all about. The main problem in this study is briefly exemplified in this question: In the context of the Focolare Movement as a venue for cross-cultural contact, what variables played significantly in prejudice reduction as perceived by its core center members? Specifically, it seeks the answers to these subquestions: 1. What is the profile of the Focolare Movement according to its nature and history, goals, organizational set-up, and membership? 2. What activities for cross-cultural contact does it promote? 3. What is the individual background of the core center members of the Focolare Movement, taken as subjects of the study? 4. What beliefs and attitudes towards racial, religious and ethnic differences did these core center members have before they got involved in the movement’s cross-cultural contact activities? Which of these beliefs and attitudes do they think significantly change in them due to their involvement in these activities? 5. From the core center members’ viewpoint, how did the change in their beliefs and attitudes towards racial, religious and ethnic differences occur? What factors played significantly in this change process? 6. What is the effect of this change in beliefs and attitudes on the communicative patterns of the core center members of the Focolare Movement?

To be able to answer the above questions, the researcher adapted the case-study type of descriptive research. The respondents of the study were eleven, representing the total population of core center members of the Focolare Movement living in three separate communities within the area of Metro Manila. The choice of the three core centers was based on their geographic accessibility. The study only involved the core center members as subjects because they are the members of the movement with the most exposure to intercultural contacts.

For the data gathering, the researcher employed the ethnographic interview device. This enabled the researcher to probe deeper into the process of attitudinal change in the Focolare Movement. The researcher conducted two separate interviews. One of these contained questions about the context of cross-cultural contact, and was administered to containing questions regarding the prejudice reduction process in the movement, was administered to each of the eleven respondents. Through the use of the ethnographic interview device, the researcher was able to gather a massive amount of data. These data were classified and analyzed through the domain structure. From this method of data analysis, a taxonomy of stages of prejudice reduction in the Focolare Movement was successfully derived. From the data gathered, it was found out that the significant variables of prejudice reduction in the Focolare Movement are perceived by the core center members as interwoven into a dynamic and cumulative process of attitudinal change. The researcher was able to determine the stages in this process, which are: (1) the call of grace, (2) correspondence ta the call of grace, (3) meeting the way of life, (4) realization/discovery, (5) interior change and (6) gymnastics of lasing and being in the other. These domains are further ramified into sub-domains. The call of grace domain has two sub-domains, namely, grace and conviction of members. This according to the respondents are its manifestations. Attendance and understanding constitute the sub-domain of the major domain, correspondence to the call of grace. These two are distinguished by the respondents in that one is external and the other internal. The most complex of all domains is meeting the way of life. has two major sub-domains —— environment of communicative activity and actors —--— both of which are divided into further sub-domains. The domains, realization/discovery and interior change have two sub-domains each: God is love and choice of God for the first, and beliefs and attitudes for the latter. The last domain, gymnastics of losing and being in the other exists as a single unit of thought. The above data—analysis produced several findings, which are as follows: 1. The Focolare Movement played an important role in the reduction of prejudice among its core. Center members, by offering an environment and structure conducive to change. 2. The cross—cultural contact activities of the movement were found to vary only in terms of their quantitative aspects. 2. The individual background of the core center members of the Focolare Movement varied in all aspects considered under study. 4. The effect of cross-cultural contact in the context of the Focelare Movement, on the racial, religious and ethnic beliefs and attitudes of the core center members was very positive.

core center members of the Focolare Movement were interwoven into a dynamic and cumulative process of attitudinal change. 6. There were two types of cross-cultural contact variables that significantly played in the prejudice reduction process within the Focolare Movement. These were the intrinsic variables and the extrinsic variables. 7. There was yet another potent factor integral to the completion of the prejudice reduction process in the Focolare Movement —— the element of grace —— which is the constant that serves as the binding spirit of the intrinsic and extrinsic variables. 8. The change in the beliefs and attitudes of the core center members of the Focolare Movement precipitated a modification of their communicative patterns, from closed to open communication lines and from inactive to dynamic dialogue among them. From these findings, the researcher concludes that there are three factors that significantly play in prejudice reduction as perceived by the core center members of the Focolare Movement. These are the intrinsic and the extrinsic variables of cross-cultural contact, and the element of grace. The conclusion of this study now modifies the treatment of the two approaches to prejudice reduction —— the personal approach and the social approach —-— by introducing the dynamic and essential relationship between the two. The results of the study likewise suggests a more wholistic view of prejudice reduction- by recognizing not only the psychological, social and cultural aspects, but the divine or supernatural as well. As Tor recommendations, the researcher encourages the simultaneous use of the quantitative and qualitative methods for future researches of the same nature as this current undertaking. It suggest the use of other qualitative methods (like observation) for more fruitful future studies. 1t likewise prompts other future researchers, to conduct similar studies using different contexts, or to replicate this study using the same context, but with people from other religions and non—believers as subjects. Lastly, it raises an important research question which is: At what exact point in the prejudice reduction process are attitudes actually changed and prejudice reduced? A correlate to this problem would be: What are the conditions present in such an occasion?