Lecture 2: Historical Foundations Flashcards
William James
1875: First empirical psychologist. Started the first psychology laboratory at Harvard University. Mainly studied sensation, perception, and emotion
Kurt Lewis
1945: First social psychologist. Became the Director of “The Centre for Group Dynamics” at MIT. Used an experimental approach to study issues related to group dynamics and the impact of one’s social environment on individual behaviour
phrenology
popular scientific fad in the early 19th century that believed skull shape was a reliable predictor of psychological traits
William McDougall
1908: Was a prof at Duke University & Department Chair at Harvard. Wrote one of the first textbooks on social psychology. He identified numerous groups as “superior” and others as “submissive”
johnson-reid act
1924: Passed in the U.S. & imposed a quota of 165,000 immigrants for countries outside the Western Hemisphere (~80% reduction), while barring immigrants from Asia. Justified by research eugenics and other forms of scientific racism
Herbert Spencer
created the term survival of the fittest
survival of the fittest in social psychology
Existing disparities were justified as reflecting innate differences between more and less worthy groups
naturalistic fallacy
whatever exists is right
virginia sterilization law
1924: forcibly sterilized severely mentally ill people and was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court
Floyd Allport
1924: Pushed back against the naturalistic fallacy & argued that structural forces and prejudice must be contributors to differing group outcomes
William Graham Summer
Influenced the field of intergroup relation in his book Folkways by coining the terms ingroup, outgroup, and ethnocentrism
He noted the fundamental need to be part of a group
Walter Lippman
1922: He developed the term stereotype to describe the process through which someone takes impressions towards one group member and applies them to all group members
where did the term stereotype come from
it was a printing term
Lippman’s account of stereotypes
- The modern world is too chaotic, so some people must oversimplify it through larger categories and stereotypes
- Stereotypes arise from the need to abstract (there is more in the world than we can observe)
- Cultural influences and expectations influence the way we view the social world
The Princeton Trilogy Studies, 1933
First empirical study of stereotypes
Assessed the extent to which people explicitly subscribe to stereotypes
Personal experiences and cultural expectations can lead to stereotypes
Richard LaPiere
1934: Criticized current social psych studies for focusing on hypothetical questions rather than behaviour. Travelled around America with a Chinese immigrant couple and they were only refused service one time.
6 months after the visits, LaPiere contacted them and 92% said they would refuse service to a Chinese couple
Gordon Allport
Published a book called The Nature of Prejudice, which was the first psychological analysis of prejudice and discrimination
Where does prejudice stem from according to Allport?
erroneous generalizations & hostility
what perspective did Allport study prejudice from?
social cognitive
Contact hypothesis
we can fix prejudices between groups through intergroup contact
who developped the contact hypothesis
Gordon Allport
positive intergroup contact is based on
acquaintanceship, is integrated, and is communal
Singer, 1948 race & war study
77% of white soldiers reported that their attitudes towards Black people after serving in the same unit as Black soldiers
Stouffer, 1949 race & war study
Only white soldiers who fought alongside Black soldiers showed more favourable attitudes towards Black people
race & housing studies
Deutsch & Collins 1951: Residents in more integrated housing developed more positive attitudes toward Black people
Muzafer Sherif
conducted the robbers cave experiment which gave rise to realistic conflict theory
Realistic conflict theory
intergroup conflict arises due to competition for desired resources
3 stages of the Robbers cave experiment
forming ingroups, competition, integration
Stage 1 of the Robbers cave experiment
Boys were separated into two groups & participated in bonding activities. They formed a strong group identity and norms.
Stage 2 of the Robbers cave experiment
The boys were told about the existence of the other group and engaged in direct competitions where there would be a clear winner. The groups soon began antagonizing each other
Robbers cave experiment and perception
intergroup dynamics can influence perception; the two groups perceived the amount of time the tug of war lasted differently based on who won
Stage 3 of the Robbers cave experiment
The boys were then led to a series of situations that would allow for positive contact and cooperation between groups. Activities that introduced superordinate goals brought the groups closer together
Conclusion of the Robbers cave experiment
the same techniques can serve harmony and integration as well as a deadly competition
Henri Tajfel
Founder of social identity and minimal groups effect
Social identity theory
Individuals’ sense of identity & self-esteem was primarily determined by their group memberships
Minimal groups effect
the mere classification into ingroups and outgroups was sufficient to create intergroup bias
Frantz Fanon is known for
system justification
system justification
For members of marginalized groups, there’s some part of their psyche that is motivated to rationalize the status quo, even if it’s disadvantageous to them
Social justification theory
maintaining existing social structures is prioritized, even at the expense of personal or group interests. developped by John Jost & Mahzarin Banaji
Clark & Clark, 1947
The majority of Black & white children preferred to play with a white doll over a Black doll
Brown vs. Board of Education
The Supreme Court used Clark’s doll studies to justify how cultural messages create inferiority
social cognition
The study of how mental processes shape our understanding of the social world
social cognitivist perspective
argues that we must understand how the mind functions to understand the social world
implicit social cognition
investigates the role of automatic processes in social psychology processes
