prejudice
- Prejudice is unfavourable attitude towards a social group and its members.
Prejudice is generally indirect and subtle
major types of prejudice
sexism racism ageism discrimination on the basis of sexuality discrimination on the basis of ability
sexism
○ Sex stereotypes
§ Males are more competent and independent
§ Females are more warm and expressive
§ The correlation between sex stereotypes and reality is only strong for those who are prejudiced.
○ Sex roles and power to define roles
performance attribution: successful task performance by a man is attributed to ability or effort and thus is deserving of rewards or recognition while female performance is attributed to luck or ease of the task.
racism
○ There is difficulty detecting modern-day racism in studies.
○ Reaction time studies often work to eliminate the filter, this can be done by showing positive and negative adjectives.
ageism
○ In some culture there is an idea where the older people are worthless and powerless.
○ At least in Australia, there is an emphasis on extended vs. nuclear family.
§ In Australia, there is an idea that grandparents are disconnected from our immediate, nuclear family.
○ Teenagers are also the victims of ageism.
§ There is an idea that adolescents are more likely to be rebellious or rude purely due to age.
§ This can lead to issues with self-esteem.
discrimination on the basis of sexuality
○ Initially, there was freedom of sexuality within roman times, however, with the rise of Christianity there began to be bouts of homophobia. The 1970’s saw freedom which was quickly shut down but the outbreak of AIDS in the 1980’s which was blamed/labelled as a ‘gay’ disease: called GRID, gay cancer etc.
○ Power of language: ‘that’s so gay’
discrimination on ability
○ Negative representations around mental illness based on uncertainty and being unsure about how to react etc.
types of subtle discrimination
- Reluctance to help
○ Can also include refusing service etc.- Tokenism: the practice of making small, public concessions in order to deflect accusations of prejudice or discrimination.
- Reverse discrimination: publicly being prejudiced in favour.
None of these discriminations have a positive long-term effect as they generally do not bring about change.
effects of prejudice
- Social stigma
- Self-esteem
- Disadvantage
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
○ If you have a prejudice idea about a group, you can constrain the environment so that the prophesy becomes true.
○ Bloomers vs. non-bloomer experiment. - Even violence and genocide in extreme cases.
- When reverse discrimination is employed in an educational setting, there is often an adverse effect as students are given positive feedback which may set them up for failure in the future.
○ Genocide does not particularly mean the genocide by murder. It can be bought about by refusing to maintain culture or language.
explanations of prejudice and discrimination
- Innate reaction
- Mere exposure
- Learned reactions
- Frustration aggression
○ Hypothesis that states that all aggression grows from frustration.
○ This is often then blamed on a minority group- scapegoat. - Authoritarian personality
○ Prejudice people are often authoritarian and have an obsession with rank etc.
○ This explanation underestimates situational factors. - Dogmatism
○ Black and white thinkers
○ Rigid and cognitive
theoretical perspectives on aggression
- Biological (if we are aggressive, there is a greater chance that out genes will carry on).
- Social/ bio-social
- Person
○ Does it depend on type a personalities for example?
○ Male vs female differences
○ The role of alcohol and disinhibition - Situational
○ Long hot summer theory
○ Anonymity - Mass media
○ Does video gaming cause violence etc. - Role of society
○ When aggression is institutionalised it is likely to be found more favourable by the population.
reducing aggression
- Societal level
○ Peace studies
○ Conferences on reducing aggression (UN).- Family level
○ Avoiding the use of punishment
○ Not rewarding the acts of violence
○ Role modelling (do as I say and not as I do does not work)
○ Children are less likely to obey when they are told and more likely to when they see the behaviour exhibited by someone (particularly parents). - Interpersonal level
○ Behaviour modification
○ Anger management
- Family level
components of prejudice
○ Cognitive: beliefs about the attitude object
○ Affective: strong feelings (usually negative) about the attitude object and the qualities it is believed to possess
Conative: intentions to behave in certain ways towards the attitude object (the conative component is an intention to act in certain ways, not the action itself).
stereotype threat
feeling that we will be judged and treated in terms of negative stereotypes of our group and that we will inadvertently confirm these stereotypes through out behaviour.
self-fulfilling prophecy
Expectations and assumptions about a person that influence our interaction with that person and eventually change their behaviour in line with our expectancies.
mere exposure effect
repeated exposure to an object results in greater attraction to that object.
target of aggression
- The target of aggression is usually the perceived target of frustration but often the agent of frustration is amorphous, indeterminate or too powerful. At this point, we employ a scapegoat.
dogmatism
cognitive style that is rigid and intolerant and predisposes people to be prejudiced.
