Stereotyping, Prejudice & Discrimination Flashcards
Define Stereotype:
an oversimplified, generalised set of ideas that we have about a group of others.
Describe a study into Authoritarian Personality
Adorno
Aim: To find out if there is a relationship between a person’s personality type and prejudiced beliefs.
Method: hundreds of people were interviewed and tested using the F-Scale.
Results: they found the relationship between personality traits and prejudiced views.
Conclusion: There is an authoritarian personality and people with these characteristics are highly likely to be prejudiced towards others.
Give some characteristics of the Authoritarian Personality?
- look down on people who are felt to be of a lesser value.
- sticking rigidly to beliefs.
- being resistant to change
Describe a study into Prejudice?
Sherif
Aim: To find out if prejudice develops when groups are in competition for scarce resources.
Method: An American summer camp was organised for 22 boys.The boys were randomly split into two teams and the teams were kept away from each other. They were not aware that the other team existed. The boys were given time to settle into their camps and form group identity. After a while, the two groups discovered each other and the camp staff introduced a series of competitions with a silver cup as prize.
Results: Very quickly, the team began unpleasant name-calling towards each other and tried to attack each other.
Conclusion: Competition is a cause of prejudice.
Describe the study into discrimination?
Tajfel
Aim: To show how easily people discriminate against their out groups.
Method: 14 to 15-year-old boys were randomly assigned to two groups. Each boy was given a game to play where he had to award pairs of points, similar to Activity 5. They were told the points could be swapped for prizes at the end.
Results: The boys awarded points by choosing the pairings that created the biggest difference between the groups, not the pairings that gave them the most points.
Conclusion: People will discriminate against others just because they are members of an out group.
What are the two causes of Prejudice?
- Competition
* In and Out groups
What are the two things you can do to reduce prejudice and discrimination?
• Work together towards a common goal
• Empathise - get people to feel what it is like to be discriminated against.
i.e. Jane Elliott’s study.
Describe a study on Stereotyping?
Rubin et al.
Aim: To find out if new parents stereotype their babies
Method: Parents were asked to describe their new babies within 24 hours of the baby being born.
Results: They found that parents of baby boys describe their babies as being alert and strong, whereas parents of baby girls describe their babies as soft and delicate.
Conclusion: Parents stereotype that children from a very early age despite no stereotypical behaviour being shown. For lots of parents who know the sex of the baby prior to the birth, this stereotyping behaviour starts before the baby is born by painting a room pink for a girl or blue for a boy.
