Prejudice Chapter 1 definitions

Question 1

appraisal

Answer 1

a set of cognitions that are attached to a specific emotion

ex. the emotion of fear might be elicited when one perceives that a situation or individual is out of one’s control or unpleasant and blocks one from attaining one’s goals. such as staying alive, staying healthy.

Question 2

attitude

Answer 2

a general evaluation of some object

ex. you like tennis but hate soccer

Question 3

basic (primitive) categories

Answer 3

categories in which people are grouped automatically upon perception. i.e. race, gender and age

Question 4

cultural stereotype

Answer 4

consensually or widely shared beliefs about a group

Question 5

discrimination

Answer 5

negative behavior toward someone based on their membership in a group

Question 6

individual stereotype

Answer 6

the beliefs held b an individual about the characteristics of a group

Question 7

ingroup

Answer 7

a group which one affiliates themselves

Question 8

minimal group

Answer 8

groups formed on arbitrary or random criteria

ex. randomly assigning people to group a or b

Question 9

motivation

Answer 9

the impetus to do something bbehavior or avoid doing some behavior, and to keep doing it, in order to meet one’s goals

Question 10

outgroup

Answer 10

a group with which one does not affiliate themself.

Question 11

prejudice

Answer 11

a biased evaluation of a group, based on real or imagined characteristics of the group members.

ex. you might be prejudice in favor of your favorite football team when it is playing another team

Question 12

realistic-conflict theory

Answer 12

states that prejudice and stereotyping arise from the competition between groups for scarce, valued resources
e.g. jobs, food, land

Question 13

schema

Answer 13

cognitive methods of organizing information
ex. a schema of a librarian- you think she works with books, is old, is there to help you locate books and other informaitin within the library,

Question 14

stereotype

Answer 14

a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people. believing that certain characteristics are associated with other groups.

Question 15

subtyping

Answer 15

a new category is created to accomodate stereotype-inconsistent members og a group about which one holds negative stereotypes.

Question 16

Lippman’s definition of stereotype

Answer 16

tendency of people to thin of someone or something in similar terms

Question 17

social cognitive definition of stereotype

Answer 17

an automatic process of human thinking. type of schema. beliefs and characteristics leading to attitudes and attributes

Question 18

cognitive consistency(cognitive dissonance)

Answer 18

thought’s don’t match up, so we do something about those thoughts. consistency between thinking and behaving.
ex. a smoker who knows that smoking is bad for their health. but instead of quitting, they change their attitude about smoking instead.

Question 19

attribution theory

Answer 19

focuses on declarative statements about others. “prejudice and a lot of stereotypes”
ex. white devil

Question 20

fundamental attribution theory

Answer 20

interpreting a person’s act by underestimating their situation and to overestimate that person’s overall disposition
ex. kristin and snowball

Question 21

categorization

Answer 21

organization strategy of the brain

binary- either/or

Question 22

cognitive miser

Answer 22

people embrace efficiency rather than accuracy. brain is cognitive miser motivation to conserve energy, speedy processing, vs. accurate processing

Question 23

motivation

Answer 23

how we perceive changes depending upon our goals. Motivation can bias how they person perceives any individual depending on the perveiveer’s salient needs, values or goals at that given time.