prejudice: social dominance orientation Flashcards
Define ‘social dominance orientation’.
A person’s ideological attitude towards hierarchy whereby higher scores indicate agreement with the system and lower scores rejection.
What does someone with a high SDO believe in?
inequality
social hierarchy
dominance of their own group
What 5 factors affect the development of SDO?
1) Group status in heirarchy
2) Social context affecting tendency for dominant groups to exhibit SDO
3) Having traits such as coldness, aggression, and vindictiveness
4) Being a male, rejecting policies that advocate change
5) Socialisation
How can SDO be measured?
- 7 point likert scale
- 14 - 16 items
- SDO-6 has reversed scoring for items 9 and 16 to reduce acquiescence bias
How does having a high SDO change if a person identifies with subordinate groups?
It translates to an acceptance of subordination in a social hierarchy.
Give 3 examples of social institutions.
- companies
- education
- religion
Give an example of how someone with a high SDO would function in a social institution.
A headteacher of a school distributing lower pay to their colleagues who are teachers that are seen as beneath them to maintain the divide.
How does having a high SDO link to prejudice?
They believe in stratification that leads to an inequality that may cause people to see others as inferior to them.
strength PEE
- supporting evidence H
a strength of this theory is the supporting evidence from Heavens. They found that SDO was a strong predictor of negative attitudes towards women’s rights. therefore, This demonstrates how males who are in socially dominant positions prejudice women.
strength PEE and CA
- supporting evidence G & D
a strength of this theory is the supporting evidence from Guimond and Damburn. They found that the maintenance of hierarchy is one of the most important goals for individuals in all societies and that SDO mediates the relationship between ingroup position and prejudice. therefore, this shows that a high SDO causes prejudice.
however, their study has low generalisability because the sample only consisted of psychology students from France. therefore, the findings cannot be generalised to a population outside of this category.
weakness
- opposing evidence
a weakness of this theory is the rejecting evidence from Rubin and Hewstone. they argue that social dominance theory has changed its definition along with how it is measured in changing the items many times to stay as one theory. therefore, this suggests that the amount the theory has to change, reduces its credibility
strength PEE
- application
a strength of the theory is that it has applications. for example, It states that people with a high SDO score favour hierarchy and inequality in social institutions. therefore, from this we can understand the different processes involved in how this ideology rises to implement ways of reducing it to reduce prejudice
weakness PEE
- criticism of methodology
a weakness if the theory is that it’s methodology lacks validity. for example, the SDO questionnaire is only a 7 point likert scale with only 2 reverse questions. therefore, this may be open to demand characteristics which reduces credibility.
