Class 4 Flashcards
What is Scientific Racism?
Dominant time period: Before 1920s
Context: Use of scientific research to justify White cultural domination.
Focus: Identifying exotic & negative differences in non-White people.
View of prejudice: Justified by data
What is Phrenology?
Belief that the brain has multiple “organs” that correspond to different abilities or traits
Grew in popularity in the US during the 1830’s and 1840’s, where many Americans were looking for a scientific justification to continue practicing slavery.
*Samuel Morton, an American doctor, popularized the idea that race could be correlated with skull size, which reflected group differences in intelligence
What are Psychodynamic Theories?
Dominant time period: 1920s-1950s
Context: Prevalence of explicit racism, aftermath of the Holocaust.
Focus: Identifying why individuals are prejudiced.
View of prejudice: Irrational and unjustifiable, rooted in individual differences
o Personality
o Unconscious defense mechanisms
o Projection of frustrations onto minorities
How did psychodynamic theories use Displaced Frustration and Aggression?
People experience frustrationwhen one of their goal’s is blocked.
Following frustration, people feel aggression, which creates an intention to harm.
However, aggression is usually displaced, because the source of the frustration is too powerful.
As a result, aggression is then displaced on to a weaker target (even the self). The weaker the target, the more satisfying the release of aggression (Minorities)
What is “The Authoritarian Personality” by Adorno ?
A set of personality traits associated with belief in obedience to authority and oppression of subordinate groups.
o Psychodynamic explanation: The “id” produces negative impulses, which cannot be properly controlled by one’s “ego”. o This “psychic conflict” then projects those negative impulses onto minority groups and greater respect for authority.
How did Adorno push his idea?
Self report scale to see who might turn to prejudice when stressed
Today: We look for personality traits associated with support for group
- Similar personality traits, but no “psychodynamic” explanations
New: Authoritarians have increased sensitivity to societal threat (tend to be republican / MAGA)
How do we measure the Authoritarian personality? (These = just examples, so freebie)
Young people sometimes get rebellious ideas, but as they grow up they ought to get over them and settle down.
An insult to our country’s honor should always be punished.
Most people don’t realize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
Nobody ever learned anything really important except through suffering
What are Sociocultural Theories?
Dominant time period: 1960s-1970s
Context: Civil Rights Movement
Focus: Social and cultural influences on prejudice.
View of prejudice: Prejudice is a manifestation of cultural norms
What is the Clark & Clark baby doll study?
Black and white doll
Black kids thought white one was better
contributed to ending segregation
What is the Cognitive Theories?
Dominant time period: 1980s -Present
Context: Prejudice appears to be a universal phenomenon that emerges from low-level mental processes
Focus: How prejudice arises from “ordinary” aspects of cognition.
View of prejudice: Prejudice is a feature of the mind, not an unintended “bug”
(Cognitive)
What does the Schema Theory argue?
people organize information in their minds by unconsciously creating categories and scripts through experience or exposure
(Cognitive)
How does schema theory explain stereotypes?
Schema Theory then explains stereotypes as ”schemas gone wrong”, by arguing that we naturally categorize people into groups and make generalizations about those group
What are the Evolutionary Theories?
Time period: 1990s -Present
Context: Prejudice appears to be a universal phenomenon that emerged from challenges in evolutionary history.
Focus: How prejudice may have been evolutionary adaptive.
View of prejudice :Prejudice helped address social problems in our evolutionary past (and may or may not in the present)
(Evolutionary theory)
What is the Prediction?
Across cultures, prejudice is stronger against social group members that are men than women due to increased probability of intergroup violence
(not sure how true this is)
(Evolutionary theory)
What “adaptations” would have lead our ancestors to reproduce?
- Want to approach ingroup friends
- Want to avoid dangerous animals (if people learned to like threats, those ppl would have died out and no one would carry this inclination)
(Evolutionary Theory)
What is the approach / avoid task?
People are faster to avoid snakes (even if instructions say approach all snakes)
- Can we do same task with groups
Are we quicker/slower to approach/avoid ingroup and outgroup members based on group membership?
Found: White ppl = faster to avoid black faces (not much timing difference with approach)
Same study with Italian ppl (approach / avoid Italian and Slavic names)
Evolutionary Approach:
alternative explanations for these results?
How do we know this is related to an evolutionary-based threat?
- Familiarity with names
- Could be that we learn to avoid through culture
If this is an evolutionary-based threat minority groups should show the direct opposite (black ppl avoid white ppl)
- Results: mixed bag (not rlly signifigant)
What is Intergroup Relations Theories?
Dominant time period: 1970s
Context: Persistence of group conflicts in the U.S. and around the world.
Focus: How social structure reinforces prejudice.
View of prejudice: Prejudice is a manifestation of relationships between groups
What is the prediction with intergroup relations theories?
Prejudice is weaker when groups are integrated and have opportunity for friendships (compared to being segregated)
(Intergroup relations)
Explain the Salma Mousa and ‘social trust’ study?
Randomly assigned Iraqi Christian soccer players to teams with no Muslims or made up of 25% Muslims
What are the important factors Salma Mousa had to account for when making teams?
Exploring whether intergroup relations can be changed following new forms of contact that are:
1) Cooperative (training together)
2) Equal (no status differences on team)
3) Endorsed by community authorities (one’s church)
4) Has a shared goal (win the soccer league)
What were the results of Salma Mousa’s study?
More results in on field outcomes
(Christians more likely to play with muslims in the future and recommend muslim players for awards)
But: Not a big change in off-field results
