Prejudice and Intergroup Conflict Flashcards
What are the individualistic approaches?
The authoritarian personality
Social dominance orientation
What is the authoritarian personality?
Based on Freudian psychodynamic theories (father is the central parent to propelling children to prejudice, father figures are authoritarian and breaking the rules will result in punishment,
Influence from childhood and parents
Frustration is displaced to vulnerable groups in society
What were the characteristics of AP due to autocratic child rearing?
Ethnocentrism, intolerance of Jewish people, AA, other ethnic minorities groups, pessimism, cynical view of human nature, conservative political and economic attitudes and a suspicion of democracy
What were the limitations of AP and who found them?
Pettigrew 1958
Doesn’t account for sudden changes in attitudes (Germany for example)
Minard 1952
What did Pettigrew look at?
Tested the authoritarian personality theory in a cross-cultural comparison between South Africa and the southern and northern United States.
What did Pettigrew find?
He found that although white people from South Africa and the southern United States were significantly more racist than those from the northern United States, they did not differ in how authoritarian their personalities were
What did Minard find?
Found that 60% of miners shifted from racist to non-racist attitudes in response to situational norms
What is the F-scale?
What indicate an authoritarian personality on the F-scale?
Obedience and respect for authority
Aggression towards deviant groups
Who made the RWA?
Altemeyer
What is the RWA?
Collective of attitudes with 3 components: conventionalist, authoritarian aggression and authoritarian submission
What is conventionalist?
Adherence to societal conventions endorsed by established authorities,
What is authoritarian aggression?
Support for aggression towards social deviants
What is authoritarian submission?
Submission to society’s established authorities
What are some RWA scale items?
Established authorities are generally right about things but radicals show off their ignorance
Women should obey their husbands
Countries need leadership that will destroy radical ideas
Trust for the judgement of proper authorities
Who made social dominance orientation?
Sidanius and Pratto
What is social dominance orientation?
People who desire their own group to be dominant and superior to outgroups
These kinds of people are more inclined to be prejudiced
Who looked at SDO?
Milfont et al 2013
What did Milfont et al find?
People with a high social dominance orientation have low environmental concern and are more willing to dominate and exploit the natural environment, and this is independent of other correlates such as authoritarianism and political ideology
What is a critique of SDT?
SD orientation is highly responsive to situational and more enduring feature of the intergroup context
What are sample items measuring SDO?
Some people are simply inferior to other groups
It is okay if some groups have more of a chance in life than others
To get ahead it is necessary to step on other groups
If certain groups stayed in their place we would have fewer groups
Who looked at US stereotypes of the Japanese in 1933?
Katz & Braly 1933
What are the stereotypes in 1933?
Intelligent, industrious, progressive, shrewd, sly
Who looked at US stereotypes of the Japanese?
Gilbert, 1951
What are the US stereotypes of the Japanese in 1951?
Imitative, sly, extremely nationalistic, treacherous
Who made realistic conflict theory?
What is realistic conflict theory?
What are the summer camp studies? (Procedure)
3 field experiments over 5 year period
White 12 year old boys in U.S.A., ‘well-adjusted’
Split into two groups and a
competition for scarce resources introduced
What are the summer camp studies? (Findings)
Led to prejudice, violence, in-group preference, physically dominant leaders, ‘us versus them’ mentality
Personality is not an adequate explanation
Who evaluated RCT?
Blake & Mouton 1962
What did Blake and Mouton do?
Trainee managers split
into small groups and given a group task,
manifested in-group preference
What did Blake & Mouton find?
Difficult to prove negative interdependence is the
main cause of prejudice & group conflict
What did Julian et al 1966 find?
Competitive environments
enhance group cohesion
What is social identity theory?
Who looked at minimal group studies?
Tajfel et al 1971
What are minimal group studies?
Assignment to groups on ‘minimal’ criteria, or toss of coin
Participants completed booklets full of point-allocation matrices
What did minimal group studies find?
‘Ingroup favouritism’=mixture of maximum ingroup profit and maximum
difference
Replicated in other countries (e.g. USA, Switzerland, Germany, New
Zealand, with adults and students)
What did Mummendey et al 1992 find?
May not explain hostility on allocating punishments instead of rewards
What did Otten & Wentura 1999 find?
Probably activates unconscious processes
What did van Bavel et al 2008 find?
fMRI work shows amygdala activation on minimal categorisation
What are the assumptions of social identity theory?
Interpersonal vs intergroup behaviour
Categorisation which affects social perception
We desire positive distinctiveness + create it via stereotypes
We stereotype ourselves as well as outgroups
Prejudice and conflict can occur
Why can prejudice and conflict occur in SIT?
When people in groups strive to be positively distinct from others and
perceive collective injustice
When social identity is perceived to be threatened by outgroups; defensive reactions can spark prejudice and discrimination
What are the biases in social-information processing?
Stereotype biases
Memory distortions
Ultimate attribution error
Who looked at stereotype biases?
Linville (1982)
Quattrone (1986)
What did Linville 1982 do and find?
Looked at complexity
What did Quattrone 1986 find?
Looked at out group homogeneity effect
Who looked at memory distortions?
Duncan 1976
Howard & Rothbart 1980
What did Duncan do and find?
Looked at confirmation biases
What did Howard & Rothbart do and find?
Recall fewer negative statements about the ingroup than about outgroups
Who looked at ultimate attribution error?
Hewstone et al 1982
What did Hewstone et al 1982 do and find?
Looked at private vs state schools
Who made social identity theory?
Tajfel and Turner
What is social identity theory?
Individuals derive part of their self-concept from their group memberships, leading to a desire for positive distinctiveness of their ingroups.
Who made self-categorisation theory?
Turner et al
What is self-categorisation theory?
Examines the cognitive processes of categorization, explaining how individuals classify themselves and others into various social groups.
Highlights multiple levels of self-categorization, from personal identity to various social identities.
Who looked at the core principles of SIT?
Hornsey 2008
What did Hornsey find with SIT principles
They are:
Social categorisation
Social comparison
Positive distinctiveness
What is social categorization?
The process of classifying people, including oneself, into groups.
What is social comparison?
Evaluating one’s group relative to others to achieve positive self-esteem.
What is positive distinctiveness?
The motivation to favour one’s ingroup over outgroups to maintain or enhance self-esteem.
Who looked at the core principles of SCT?
Hornsey
What are the core principles of SCT?
Meta-contrast principle
Depersonalisation
Context-dependent categorisation
What is meta-contrast principle?
Individuals accentuate similarities within groups and differences between groups.
What is depersonalisation?
Adopting the prototypical characteristics of a group, leading to group-based behaviour.
What is context-dependent categorisation?
The salience of particular self-categorisations varies depending on the social context.
Who looked at the levels of SCT?
Abram & Hogg 1990
What are the levels of SCT?
Superordinate Level: Emphasising human identity.
Intermediate Level: Focusing on social identity based on group memberships.
Subordinate Level: Pertaining to personal identity and individual differences.
What are the criticisms of Hornsey?
Overemphasis on Group Factors: Critics argue that individual differences and interpersonal relationships may be underrepresented.
Complexity: The interplay of multiple identities and contextual factors can complicate predictions.
What is outgroup homogeneity effect?
Perceiving members of outgroups as more similar to each other than members of the ingroup, which can reinforce stereotypes and biases.
What is ingroup favouritism?
The tendency to preferentially treat and positively evaluate members of one’s own group over those of outgroups.
What is intergroup discrimination?
Behaviours and attitudes that disadvantage outgroups, often as a means to enhance or protect the ingroup’s status and distinctiveness.
Who looked at the cognitive underpinnings of grouo cohesion?
Abrams & Hogg
What are the cognitive underpinnings of group cohesion?
Shared Social Identity
Influence on Communication
Resistance to Dissent:
What is shared social identity?
A common group identity fosters unity and collective purpose among members.
What is influence on communication?
Members are more likely to engage in open and supportive communication within the ingroup.
What is resistance to dissent?
Strong group cohesion can sometimes suppress individual opinions that deviate from group norms.
What is group polarisation?
Refers to the tendency for group discussions to lead to decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of group members.
Who looked at the mechanisms of group polarisation?
Abrams & Hogg
What are the mechanisms of group polarisation?
Social comparison
Persuasive argument
What is social comparison
Individuals adjust their opinions to align with perceived group norms.
What is persuasive argument?
Exposure to compelling arguments supporting a particular position can strengthen individual stances.
What are the implications of group polarisation?
Can intensify group attitudes, leading to more extreme positions and potentially riskier decisions.
Who found the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
Dollard et al 1939
What is the FA hypothesis?
Frustration leads to aggression and aggressive behaviour presupposes the existence of aggression
Theory grounded in psychodynamic assumption of fixed amount of psychic energy
Catharsis
What is the process of FA hypothesis?
Goal achievement is impeded=psychic energy is activated=system is in a state of psychological disequilibrium that is corrected by aggression
What can prevent aggression?
If target is amorphous, indeterminate, too powerful, unavailable or someone you love
Who looked at FA?
Miller & Bugelski
What did Miller & Bugelski find?
Men at summer camp, goals were frustrated by authorities, attitudes to two minority grouos deteriorated as a consequence of frustration
What are criticisms of FA?
Burnstein & McRae
Reductionist as it doesn’t focus on all aspects of prejudice (can only explain a limited subset of intergroup aggression
Miller et al
What did Miller et al find?
Aggression doesn’t need frustration
What did Burnstein & McRae find?
Doing badly in a test can reduce prejudice
