individual differences affecting prejudice - personality Flashcards
how does authoritarian personality affect prejudice?
Adorno’s authoritarian personality can create a personality type that is highly obedient and prone to display prejudice.
- the parents offer conditional love which the children may feel hostile against and thus they will displace their anger onto others (scapegoating)
how does Allport’s authoritarian personality affect prejudice?
Allport compared authoritarian personality to more TOLERANT TYPES who have a sense of inner security and confidence from unconditional parental acceptance.
- Allport believed that authoritarian personalities are not necessarily prejudiced however they may be particularly receptive to arguments that target their inner fears
how does Right wing authoritarianism affect prejudice?
Altemeyer focused on
- authoritarian submission
- aggression
- conventionalism
people with high RWA tend to hold prejudiced views towards other groups
how does RWA develop?
Altemeyer says RWA develops as a consequence of social learning
- when children are socialised into believing that the world is dangerous, RWA is likely to develop.
People high in RWA seek security through preserving social order and they are suspicious of anyone DIFFERENT
what is social dominance orientation?
it describes people who are motivated to seek ingroup POWER, DOMINANCE and SUPERIORITY
- they prefer hierarchy rather than equal distribution of power
how is the worldview different to RWA?
people with SDO see the world as a COMPETATIVE JUNGLE where people have to be ruthless and fight for their share of limited resources and power
- this worldview is transmitted via role models and socialisation
what is a strength of the view of personality affected prejudice?
a strength is that the relationship between personality and prejudice is supported by evidence.
- Cohrs et al. (2012) found that RWA and SDO were positively correlated with generalised prejudice.
RWA is negatively correlated with openness to experience and SDO with agreeableness.
what is the competing argument?
it may be wrong to think that RWA and SDO are consistent over time - both interact with social factors which makes prejudice much harder to predict.
what did Levin find in her study?
Levin primed Jewish participants to think about their social identity within Israel, she found that Ashkenazi jews showed higher SDO scores in comparison to others.
- however differences in SDO disappeared when the Jewish groups were primed to think about the relationship between Israel and Palestine which shows that SDO is malleable.
what is a weakness of individual differences?
it ignores the role of social norms and situational factors.
- Louis (2003) notes that RWA and SDO scales do not include items which are heavily affected by social attitudes and norms, which are ignored in the research.
72% of people in the australian study strongly disagreed that the white race is the best race, but agreed with the exclusion of asylum seekers
how can you apply personality to reducing prejudice?
Allport and Altemeyer highlight that prejudice may be learned through EXPOSURE to worldviews which suggests that greater regulation of media sources may be beneficial
- strategies that challenge the view of the world as dangerous and threatening may help to combat SDO and RWA.
