Chapter 5 Flashcards
Racism
prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s racial background
Systemic racism
institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group over another.
Sexism
prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s gender.
Stereotypes
- beliefs that links a whole group of people with certain traits or characteristics.
- no valence involved.
- can be wrong because context changes.
Prejudice
negative feelings towards people based on their membership in certain groups.
- valence is involved.
Discrimination
behaviour directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group.
Old-fashioned racism
ascribing negative traits and opposing equal rights.
Modern racism
a form of prejudice that surfaces in subtle ways when it is safe, socially acceptable, and easy to rationalize.
Aversive racism
incorporates both egalitarian social values and negative emotions causing one to avoid interaction with members of a racial group.
Microaggression
characterize the subtle but hurtful forms of discrimination
Implicit racism
racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- measures the extent to which two concepts are associated.
- If someone is consistently slower identifying something good after seeing a black face than a white face this would indicate a degree of implicit racism.
Interracial Interactions
can be mentally exhausting because people self-monitor to avoid appearing prejudice.
Ambivalent sexism
attitudes about women that reflect both:
(1) negative beliefs/feelings.
(2) affectionate but potentially patronizing beliefs/feelings.
hostile sexism
resentful feelings about women’s abilities, value, and challenge to men’s power
benevolent sexism
affectionate feelings founded on the belief that women need and deserve protection.
Claims that:
1) women are weak.
2) women should stick to traditional gender roles.
3) women should be idolized for sexual purity.
Objectification
Women are treated as mere bodies or objects and less as fully functioning human beings
Stigmatized
being persistently, stereotyped as deviant and devalued in society because of a particular characteristic.
Stereotype threat
concern about being evaluated based on negative stereotypes about one’s group.
Two ways stereotype threat can hamper achievement in academics
- ) by increasing anxiety, triggering distracting thoughts & focusing on failure rather than success.
- ) it can cause individuals to disidentify from the domain.
Evidence for underperformance due to stereotype threat
African American student is likely to perform worse on an athletic task if the task is described as reflecting sports intelligence vs. reflecting natural athletic ability.
Stereotype threat effects
- Trigger physiological arousal and stress.
- Drain cognitive resources.
- Cause a loss of focus to the task at hand.
- Impair working memory.
- Activate negative thoughts.
- Feelings of dejection.
- Concerns about trying to avoid failure.
Social categorization
- the classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes.
Ingroups
groups which an individual feels a sense of membership, belonging, and identity.
Outgroups
groups which an individual does not feel a sense of membership, belonging, or identity.
Outgroup homogeneity effect
the tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of outgroups than among members of ingroups.
- (1) people tend to have less personal contact and familiarity with individual members of outgroups.
- (2) people often do not encounter a representative sample of outgroup members.
Dehumanizing Outgroups
- people perceive outgroup faces more like objects and lower order animals than like fellow humans.
- can be seen in brain activity.
Identity fusion
the sense of “oneness” that people may feel with a group.
Terror management theory
favoring ingroups over outgroups is one important way that people preserve their cultural worldviews & attain a kind of immortality.
Social dominance orientation
a desire to see one’s ingroup as dominant over other groups and a willingness to adopt cultural values that facilitate oppression over other groups.
System justification theory
a theory that proposes that people are motivated to defend and justify the existing social, political, and economic conditions.
Stereotype content model
a model proposing that the relative status and competition between groups influence group stereotypes along the dimensions of competence and warmth.
Higher relative status = higher competence.
Greater perceived competition = lower warmth.
Robbers Cave
3 Phases to Experiment
1) In group formation (Eagles vs Rattlers)
2) Friction –> made groups compete against each other.
3) Integration –> only super ordinate goals could restore peace.
Superordinate goals
a shared goal that can be achieved only through cooperation among individuals or groups.
Realistic conflict theory
the theory that hostility between groups is caused by direct competition for limited resources.
Relative deprivation
perceived resource disparities lead to conflict.
Minimal groups
people will show ingroup favouritism even when categorized on the basis of trivial, minimally important similarities.
Ingroup favoritism
the tendency to discriminate in favor of ingroups over outgroups.
Social identity theory
the theory that people favor ingroups over outgroups in order to enhance their self-esteem.
Two component of Social Identity Theory
(1) A personal identity.
(2) Social identities.
Socialization
- how stereotypes are learned.
- self-fulfilling prophecy.
Gender Stereotypes
Males → adventurous, assertive, aggressive, independent, & task-oriented.
Females → sensitive, gentle, dependent, agreeable, emotional & people-oriented.
Social role theory
the theory that small gender differences are magnified in perception by the contrasting social roles occupied by men and women.
Three Steps of Social Role Theory
(1) Biological + social factors create a division of labor between the sexes.
(2) People behave in ways that fit the roles they play.
(3) Behavioural differences provide a basis for social perception that reflect the roles the sexes play.
Why do stereotypes persist for so long?
- confirmation bias
- When a target of a stereotype behaves in an ambiguous way, perceivers interpret behaviour as consistent with the stereotype.
Illusory correlation
an overestimate of the association between variables that are only slightly or not at all correlated.
Ex:
1) variables that are relatively rare.
2) variables people already expect to go together.
Subytping
accommodating individuals who deviate from one’s stereotype by splitting off a subgroup stereotype (such as “middle class Blacks” or “feminist women”).
Automatic Stereotype Activation
Stereotypes can be activated without our awareness.
Subliminal presentations
a method of presenting stimuli so rapidly that people do not have any conscious awareness of having been exposed to them.
The Shooter Bias
An unarmed man is more likely to be misperceived as holding a gun if he is black than if he is white.
Contact hypothesis
the theory that direct contact between hostile groups will reduce intergroup prejudice under certain conditions.
Four Conditions are deemed ideal for intergroup contact to serve as a treatment for racism.
1) Equal Status
2) Personal interaction
3) Cooperative activities
4) Social norms
Contact reduces prejudice by
1) enhancing knowledge about the outgroup
2) reducing anxiety about intergroup contact
3) increasing empathy and perspective taking
Extended/Indirect contact effect
knowing that an ingroup friend has a good relationship with a member of an outgroup can produce positive intergroup benefits in ways similar to direct contact.
Jigsaw classroom
a cooperative learning method used to reduce racial prejudice through interaction in group efforts.
Common Ingroup Identity Model
Proposes that if members of different groups categorize themselves as members of a more inclusive superordinate group, intergroup attitudes & relations can improve.
Explicit vs. Implicit Prejudice
Explicit –> conscious, controllable behaviours. ex: saying racist things
Implicit –> subtle behaviours we are less in control of. ex: eye contact.
Stereotypes about women
generally more positive then stereotypes of men.
Effects of benevolent sexism
- less likely to protest against a sexually discriminating policy.
- greater gender disparities at economic an political levels.
Glass cliff
women CEOs more likely to be hired when company in turmoil.
Evolutionary causes of racism
appearance-based signals of “outsideness” used to identify danger & otherness.
Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Stereotype
people may be more likely to think about situational factors when they see others acting in ways that seem to contradict a stereotype.
