The Basics Flashcards
ABCs of psychology
Affect (feel)
Behavior (do)
Cognition (think)
Prejudice
Biased feelings or attitudes based on perceived group membership
Discrimination
Differential behaviors towards people based on perceived group membership
Stereotypes
Generalized beliefs about people based on perceived group membership
Kernal conundrum
Stereotypes can be based in observations
S or P
Librarians are old
S
S or P
Policemen are no good
Both
Intrapersonal discrimination
Person-to-person
Organizational discrimination
Practices, rules, and policies of formal organizations have discriminatory outcomes
Institutional discrimination
Social norms and institutions
Who is affected by stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination?
Everyone
Scientific racism
Attempt to empirically justify prejudice based on physiology
Ex. Phrenology
Psychodynamic model
Proposes that universal psychological processes account for prejudice, irrational and unjustified beliefs
Sociocultural model
Ties prejudice to culture and societal structures
Intrasocietal competition
Perceived competition between groups creates conflict
Relative deprivation theory
Prejudice results from people believing they are being deprived where another group is not
Conflict perspective
Conflict comes from competition for resources
Intergroup relations
People can only have a positive self-identity by feeling positively about the groups they are in
Cognitive modeling
Prejudice is viewed as a universal/inevitable consequence of basic cognitive processes
Ease of processing
It is cognitively simpler to think of all members in a group to be similar to one another
Evolutionary model
Behavioral tendencies stem from psychological mechanisms that evolved to allow survival
Xenophobia
Suspicion and fear of strangers, the “other”
Kin selection
Cooperation among relatives to ensure genetic survival
Optimal distinctiveness theory
If individuals perceive minority groups to be distinctive and inclusive, then individuals should be more likely to identify with and prefer minority to majority group membership.
Perceptual biases
Actual group membership is irrelevant we judge based on percieved group membership
Areas of prejudice “visible from a distance”
- Race
- Gender, sexual orientation (secondary)
- Age
- Appearance (class distinction, attractiveness, weight)
“Less visible” areas of prejudice
Religion, speech (accents), disabilities, career choice, political beliefs, hobbies, drug usage, criminal record
-isms
Belief systems based on group superiority and behaviors which reflect those systems
1. Combine prejudice and group-centered worldview that emphasized the “natural” superiority
2. Desire to control and dominate other groups
3. Reflected in behavior (discrimination)
