factors affecting prejudice

Question 1

what are the factors affecting predjudice?

Answer 1

personality, environment/situation and culture.

Question 2

what is meant by authoritarian personality?

Answer 2

-are hostile to people of inferior status and are excessively willing to please those of a higher and show dislike towards weak people.

Question 3

what are traits of someone who possessing an authoritarian personality?

Answer 3

• tend to be rigid, inflexible, intolerant of uncertainty

Question 4

how does someone with an authoritarian personality refer to minorities?

Answer 4

“them” and seeing themselves as “us” `

Question 5

what does Adorno 1950 claim?

Answer 5

• authoritarians have often experienced harsh upbringings with little affection
• consciously they have very high opinions of their parents
• however unconsciously they reveal considerable hostility towards them stemming from frustrations felt as a child,
• they therefore project this anger and frustrations onto minority groups

Question 6

how does what Adorno claims reflect what a child may experience during their upbringing?

Answer 6

• because they were told to respect their parents whilst learning from them that they could be cruel to those who are weak.

Question 7

what did Adorno mean by a “vital ego-defensive function”?

Answer 7

• authoritarians also project their own unacceptable, anti-social impulses (especially aggressive and sexual)
• therefore their prejudice serves as a ego-defensive function = it protects them from unacceptable parts of themselves.

Question 8

what is social dominance theory?

Answer 8

social dominance orientation (SDO) refers to an ideological attitude and someone who sees society as hierarchical with themselves in a position of dominance over those of a lower state

• individuals with a high SDO have a strong desire for their groups to dominate outgroups
• reject politics establishing equality

Question 9

what is right wing authoritarianism (RWA)

Answer 9

• following Adorno’s work more research has been carried out which have continued to look at dimensions in personality
• RWA is a strand of authoritarianism that refers to people who like rules and structure and believe people must stick by these in order for society to function
• want everyone to agree and punish anyone who disobeys.

Question 10

what did Corhrs et al (2012) find?

Answer 10

• conducted a correlational study into personality dimensions; RWA and SDO and prejudice.
• he found that there was a correlation between RWA and prejudice which supports Adorno’s theory
• they also found that the more open someone is to new experiences the less likely they are to show authoritarianism

Question 11

what is criticised about the test measures that Adorno used?

Answer 11

• the way that some of the questions are asked produces a response set bias in the participants and therefore the research the theory is based on may not be balanced.
• also if the interviewer new the score of ptps on the authoritarianism scale the experimenter may show bias.

Question 12

why might Adorno’s theory be considered to be incomplete?

Answer 12

• because it cant explain why their may be a rise or fall in prejudice over time in particular societies
• for example it cant explain why anti-Semitism grew during a decade in Germany

Question 13

what was Adorno’s study that supports his theories?

Answer 13

• they studied college students and interviewed them concerning their political views and childhood experiences
• they used projective tests e.g. TAT test designed to reveal unconscious attitudes towards minority groups as well as an authoritarian scale.
• they found correlations between the tests and interviews to draw the conclusions that the authoritarian personality is prejudice.

Question 14

what did Rokeach 1960 find?

Answer 14

• criticise the authoritarian scale used stating that only measures authoritarianism in right wing political individuals ( with no left wing equivilant) therefore a question on the validity of the findings can be questioned.

Question 15

what did Adorno recognise as a limitation to his own theory?

Answer 15

• that racism is a product of human beings, rather than of a social and political ideology
• they recognised that it was society not the individual that provided content of attitudes and prejudice.

Question 16

how is culture thought to impact prejudice?

Answer 16

• a culture may have existing social norms that legitimise prejudice practice
• this can be seen in the way that prejudice beliefs change over time and adjust to social norms, laws or events that emerge.

Question 17

what did Katz and Braly find?

Answer 17

conducted a questionnaire with American students and found the majority classified African Americans as superstitious and ignorent and Jews as Shrewd in 1933.

Question 18

what did Karlins find ?

Answer 18

in 1969 Karlins did a study that replicated that of Katz and Braly and found that whilse some national stereotypes had changed other persisted.
- this suggests that culture does effect prejudice but as culture changes so do the prejudices

Question 19

what did Guimond (2013) find?

Answer 19

• investigated different social norms in different culture throught looking at the diversity policies of Germany, UK, US and Canada.
• they found that anti-Muslim attitudes were reduced in areas were pro-diversity was high.

Question 20

what did Alport 1954 find?

Answer 20

that the situation can impact prejudice

• he believed that if minority and majority groups were brought together in order to learn to work with each other this would reduce hostility.
• this is supported by a study carried out by Sheriff Rober’s cave.

Question 21

what did Akrami et al 2009 point out?

Answer 21

• not all Germans were anti-Semantic

- in a study on a uni campus they found that both situational factors and personality factors caused prejudice.