prejudice: realistic conflict theory Flashcards
What does the theory suggest brings about prejudice?
That the presence of another group will lead to conflict if they have conflicting goals or competition over limited resources.
Give 3 examples of scarce resources.
- money
- land
- food
Define ‘zero-sums fate’.
When there are not enough resources to share and so only one group can prosper.
Give an example of a perceived conflict.
The idea that immigrants are coming into the UK and ‘stealing’ our jobs, when the reality is that they don’t apply for the majority of the jobs the British public seek.
Give an example of an actual conflict.
Civil war in Germany over competition for land.
What does this theory suggest as a solution to competition causing prejudice?
Superordinate goals.
Define ‘superordinate goals’.
A goal that can only be achieved through teamwork.
Give an example of a superordinate goal reducing conflict.
The jigsaw classroom technique, whereby a class/group are divided into 4-6 smaller groups to each complete a small chunk of the task and it can only be completed when the groups come together to pool what they have done.
OR
Sherif- fixing broken water problem, pushing a broken truck out the mud or pooling resources together to watch a film.
strength PEE and CA
- supporting evidence
a strength of the theory is the supporting evidence from sherif. for example, hostility occurred when the teams played games for resources but friction between the eagles and rattlers was reduced when they worked towards a superordinate goal such as fixing a broken truck. It was found that at the end of the stage 2, the rattlers out group friendships were 6.4%, and at the end of stage three were 36.4%, showing clear improvement as a result of superordinate goals and how competition over scarce resources led to prejudice/reduced friendships. therefore, this shows that prejudice can come from competition and can be reduced through working towards a common goal.
however, the study has low generalisability as the sample only consisted of 12 year old boys from similar backgrounds and matched on IQ and sporting ability. therefore, this limits the usefulness of the findings because they aren’t representative of people outside this sample.
weakness PEE
- criticism
a weakness of the theory is that the research often lacks validity. this is because of the use of correlational data of limited resources and conflict between groups. therefore, it is difficult to establish a cause and effect relationship which reduces credibility. Additionally, RCT lacks credibility as in the first stage of sherifs study, there was already prejudice- upon hearing of the other group the rattlers became derogatory and the eagles became competitive, suggesting that the mere presence of another group is enough to cause prejudice, so SIT better.
strength PEE
- application
a strength of the study is that it has applications. for example, Can explain real life examples of discrimination between people of different ethnicities. therefore, discrimination can be reduced in ways such as the jigsaw classroom technique (working together to piece together and assignment)
weakness PEE
- reductionist
a weakness of the study is that it could be reductionist. for example, it Reduces cause of an abstract concept such as prejudice down to competition for resources and conflict of interest. therefore, this is an oversimplified explanation as humans are complex and so there must be more detail to why prejudice occurs. this is supported by tyernman and spencer who conducted a similar study to sherif and found that competition remained friendly throughout and friendship ties across the groups remained- showing that there must be other causes to prejudice apart from competition.
alternate theory PEE
an alternate theory is social identity theory which disagrees with the concept of realistic conflict theory. It says that the only thing you need to cause prejudice is the presence of another group, and the in group will discriminate against the out group through social comparison to maintain the high esteem of the ingroup. therefore, competition is not the only factor of prejudice, and RCT is an oversimplified explanation.
