Week 8: Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

Question 1

How are the terms stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination defined, and what is the relationship between prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 1

Stereotypes
Beliefs and expectations about what members of a social group are like.
- so its how an individual thinks that a group acts/behaves or believes.
-can be positive or negative
-can be directed at any group
-can be around traits, abilities, looks
-often function like a schema, they are a specific schema about a particular social group, often automatically activated, reduce cognition demand and used to interpret or predict ones behaviour.
-they can make us feel beet about the groups we belong to.

prejudice:
evaluation of a person based on their group membership.
negative emotional responses or dislike (hostility) based on group membership.
-a type of attitude, you are evaluating the person based on their group membership
-attached to predudice is negative emotion (fear, disgust) and this dislike.
-increases hostility.
-it is not always obvious or crude discrimination because it isn’t socially acceptable to engage in outright discrimination in today’s society.
-so they can be done more subtly:
1. a reluctance to help; not helping other groups so that they can improve their position in society
2 tokenism: making a small positive act towards a member of the group to deflect prejudice and discrimination while not doing more meaningful acts.

Differential treatment based on group membership
the actual enactment of a prejudicial attitude.
-its

so prejudice is a type of attitude about a group and discrimination in an actual enactment.

stereotype eg. women are not good at science/math compared to men
a prejudice eg.
person might evaluate a person that they come into contact with as not good at science/math
discrimination:
women not offered as many jobs because they believe they are not as good.

remember though attitudes don’t always lead to behaviour change.

Question 2

What are common individual theories of prejudice, and issues that arise from using these theories?

Answer 2

individual perspectives:
mere exposure effect: lack of exposure to a social group leads to fear and therefore prejudiced attitudes, argues that people’s attitudes towards a group improves as a direct function of repeated exposure. the more you are expose to other groups the less fear and a reduction of discrimination

social learning theories: prejudice attitudes and beliefs are learn early in life though socialisation from parents> parental modelling, operant conditioning (reinforcement) , classical conditioning ( learnt associations)

personality perspective: argue that holding certain ideological beliefs will make a person more predisposed to prejudice.

• right-wing authoritarian ( RWA) belief that positions of power within a social hierarchy come from correct and coral behaviour.
• so they believe that people should be in different levels and that they are in different levels because the one at the top have acted in a way to get them there (deserve to be in high status)
• social dominance orientation (SDO)- belief that legitimizes a certain hierarchy of social groups where dominant groups have more wealth and power.
• says that that it is good that higher social groups have more power, they think following a social hierarchy is good.

-these are personality traits and therefore they fall along a spectrum, therefore the higher you are on these two traits the more likely you are to hold prejudice and discrimitive attitudes.

Question 3

What is meant by intergroup behaviour?

Answer 3

behaviour among individuals that is regulated by those individual awareness of and identification with different social groups.

Question 4

What is relative deprivation theory and how are Sheriff’s famous studies an example of this?

Answer 4

group differences- all the theory’s follow this underlying perception that threat and uncertainty underlies prejudice and discrimination and helps explain why it persists

this theory is arguing that if we have some sort of gap between ones expectations and achievements will really make us feel like we are missing out on something.],
it is our sense of having less than we feel we should be entitled to when compared to other groups.

so if you expectation is that your group is going to we well off and do well financially, and that doesn’t occur (or isnt inline with our expectations) then we will have this feeling of whats called relative deprivation, make us more likely to make negative evaluations towards other groups that we feel are taking our outcomes or what we think our group deserves.
a key think to note though is that relative deprivation is based on perceptions.
e.g
people expect should have enough money to buy a house.
millennials feel that they should be able to get into the housing market because other have beforehand (but they can’t so they feel this relative deprivation). as though they are entitle to something but are been deprived of it.

Question 5

What is realistic conflict theory and how are Sheriff’s summer camp studies an example of this?

Answer 5

intergroup conflict and prejudice arises as a result of group competition and the nature of goal relations between groups.

intergroup conflict creates prejudice.

trying to achieve the same goal in competition = intergroup competition and therefore intergroup conflict

trying to achieve the goal together = intergroup cooperation therefore intergroup harmony

eg. school teams
boys vs girls competing for lunchtime this will create conflict and increase likelihood on prejudice towards one another.
but if they all had to work together would be different.

Question 6

How can Tajfel’s minimal group paradigm and associated research findings be described?

Answer 6

An Experimental methodology basis used to demonstrate intergroup discrimination, even when people are categorized on random or trivial criteria.

people who are categorised into minimal (eye colour, t-shirt colour etc. something superficial) still favor their in-group giving them tokens or coins ect over others.

Question 7

What strategies have been developed to improve intergroup relations, and how effective are they?

Answer 7

specific social conditions increase the likelihood that negative intergroup relations will occur:

• competition (perceived or real)
• perception of threat (symbolic or real)
• categorization others as an outgroup member

other conditions can actively reduce negative intergroup relations, especially prejudice. this has lead to evidence based interventions and solutions:

• education
  prejudice is learnt (parents, friends, insitutions) and so they can be unlearnt. research does show we often adopt prejudice attitudes from significant others that we identify with highly and that we with to be positively evaluated by (especially children).

is it effective?
formal education that teaches diversity has a marginal impact, especially is you are exposed to prejudice outside of the learning environment (especially with children)
- getting others to experience prejudice via role play seems to only reduce negative intergroup relations in the short-term

-intergroup contact

advocate for the contact hypothesis:
bringing together members of opposing social groups to be in contact with one another can reduce prejudice and discrimination

does it work?

• so increased direct or indirect (knowledge of other ingroup members positive contact with outgroup members) contact work, it is conditional though:
• the contact being positive, if negative contact it can amplify the negative.
• the outgroup member being seen as typical or representative of the group ( so they cant be seen as the exception),
• contact must involve cooperation between the groups (so the norm in each group changes to one of equality and respect)
• altering identity and goals ( re-categorization and superordinate goals)
• So you are encouraging opposing social groups to re-categorise their identities (i.e. change/shirt the boundary between ingroup and some outgroup so they see themselves as a single social identity). found to reduce feelings of hostility and prejudice between groups (both in lab and field studies)

Question 8

What is collective behaviour, deindividuation, and emergent norm theory?

Answer 8

collective behaviour- the behaviour of people en masse -such as in a crowd, protest or riot.

deindividuation- process where by people lose their sense of social identity and engage in unsicialised, often antisocial behaviours.
people usually restrain from impulsive, aggressive behaviour because society has norms about appropriate behaviour. in crowds these restrains are relaxed were we revert to aggressive, selfish behaviour
people in large groups prove people with a cloak of anonymity that diffuses personal responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Emergent norm theory
collective behaviour is regulated by norms based on distinctive behaviour that arises in the initially normless crowd.
so what is distinct about crowds is that is had no formal organization or tradition of established norms to regulate behaviour, so the problem of explaining crowd behaviour is to explain how a norm emerges from within the crowd.

Question 9

what are some of the implications of Prejudice and Intergroup relations?

Answer 9

socail psych help us know:
any type of social category (gender, sexuality, age class, disability (mental, physical), religion etc. can be the target of prejudice and discrimination
- we often use the perceptions we have of groups as a proxy for how we view an individual- although most don’t want to admit it, this is evident in numerous social issues and contexts (racial profiling, legal settings, employment opportunities, dating, etc)
-Prejudice and discrimination can be used as a basis of policies which often maintain inequality ( eg. segregation, drug policy, immigration).
- Negative intergroup contact can create and maintain prejudice, but positive intergroup contact and having shared achievable goals can reduce this.

Question 10

what are some of the implications of Prejudice and Intergroup relations?

Answer 10

socail psych help us know:
any type of social category (gender, sexuality, age class, disability (mental, physical), religion etc. can be the target of prejudice and discrimination
- we often use the perceptions we have of groups as a proxy for how we view an individual- although most don’t want to admit it, this is evident in numerous social issues and contexts (racial profiling, legal settings, employment opportunities, dating, etc)
-Prejudice and discrimination can be used as a basis of policies which often maintain inequality ( eg. segregation, drug policy, immigration).
- Negative intergroup contact can create and maintain prejudice, but positive intergroup contact and having shared achievable goals can reduce this.

Question 11

Describe the term ‘dehumanisation’ and explain how is associated with prejudice.

Answer 11

Stripping people of their dignity and humanity.
If an outgroup can be viewed as less than human, then atrocities against its members become essentially no different to squishing an insect.

Question 12

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 12

so prejudice is a type of attitude about a group and discrimination in an actual enactment towards a group.
prejudice is attitude.
discrimination is behaviour

Question 13

How can ‘reluctance to help’ be a form of discrimination?

Answer 13

they fail to help other groups to improve their position in society, e.g organizations that omit to provide new mothers with flexible working hours or opportunities for job sharing.

Question 14

Define the terms ‘tokenism’ and ‘reverse discrimination’.

Answer 14

tokenism - practise of publicly making small concessions to a minority group in order to deflect accusations of prejudice and discrimination

reverse tokenism- a more extreme form of tokenism. people with residual prejudice attitudes may sometimes go out of their way to favor members of a group against which they are prejudiced more than members of other groups. can be beneficial short term but have negative long-term consequences, damaging on self esteem of those who are employed as token minorities.

Question 15

Provide an example to explain what is meant by stereotype threat.

Answer 15

stereotype threat is defines as a situational predicament in which individuals are at risk of conforming negative stereotypes about their group. It is the resulting sense that one might be judged in terms of negative stereotypes about tones group instead of on personal merit.
eg. of negative stereopype threats regarding African American students
not intellectual or inferior to other ethnic groups
as a result they do not devote adequate effort to school
believe academic success is a farfetched goal to achieve

Question 16

Describe how victims of prejudice may develop a sense of failure.

Answer 16

victims of prejudice belong to groups that are denied access to those resources that society makes available for people to thrive and succeed, such as good education, health, housing and employment. Discrimination thus creates clearly visible evidence of real disadvantage and of manifest failure to achieve society’s high standards. This sense of failure can be internalised by victims of prejudice so that they become chronically apathetic and unmotivated: they simply give up trying because of the obvious impossibility of succeeding.

Question 17

What is the effect of attributional ambiguity on stigmatised individuals?

Answer 17

Attributional ambiguity is a psychological attribution concept describing the difficulty that members of stigmatized or negatively stereotypes groups may have interpreting feedback.
According to this concept, a person who perceives him- or herself as stigmatized can attribute negative feedback to prejudice. This can lead stigmatized group members to feel uncertainty about whether negative outcomes are due to discrimination against them or their own behavior. In comparison, they might discredit positive feedback as a form of sympathy rather than seeing it as the result of their ability and achievement.

or other examples
did she fail to serve me at the bar because I am African American or simply because someone else shouted louder?

Question 18

Define the self-fulfilling prophecy. How does the self-fulfilling prophecy contribute to the promotion and continuation of prejudice against a particular group?

Answer 18

Expectations and assumptions about a person that influence our interaction with that person and eventually change their behaviour in line with our expectations.

so a stereotypical belief can create a material reality that confirms the belief.
eg. have negative view on African American, going to therefore interview them differently (maybe less open/harsher) then that makes them perform less well. fulfilling you already held belief.

Question 19

What is meant by an authoritarian personality?

and ethnocentrism?

Answer 19

Theory that personality syndrome originating in childhood that predisposes individuals to be prejudiced.
Evaluative preference for all aspects of our own group relative to other groups.

Question 20

What are the differences between social dominance theory and system justification theory?

Answer 20

suggests that inequality is fair, supports social hierarchy.
- an approach in which prejudice, exploration and oppression are attributed to an ideology that legitimizes a hierarchy of social groups.
therefore people who want their own group to be superior have a high social dominance orientation, reject equality as a virtue and are more prejudice. people who are high in social dominance are ethnocentric, nationalistic, authoritarian, racist and sexist.

system justification theory is very close but is more specifically connected to people’s views on politics. its fundamental argument is that people vary along a dimension that measures the extent to which they justify the political status quo, and the social and economic policies that go with this.

Question 21

What is ‘relative deprivation’ and why has it been suggested that it is a crucial precondition for intergroup aggression?

Answer 21

relative deprivation is the perceived gap between expectations and achievements.
so the riots that happened in the 60s the rights of blacks were not nearly as good as for whites and therefore they experienced relative deprivation.
relative deprivation creates frustration and frustration creates aggression. therefore the overcrowded communities in the heat of the summer were very frustrated and therefore amplified acts of aggression.

Question 22

What is Davies’ (1969) J-curve hypothesis? (Also see Figure 7.8.)

Answer 22

the way in which relative deprivation occurs arises when attainments suddenly fall short of rising expectations.
so like a long period of increasing prosperity, lasting twenty to thirty years was followed by a steep and sudden recession.

Question 23

Define ‘fraternalistic relative deprivation’.

Answer 23

is a sense that our group has less than it is entitled to, relative to its aspirations or to other groups.
so this is were people think that the lot of their ingroup as a whole is worse when compared with other groups.

Question 24

What roles are fundamental to collective protest?

Answer 24

injustice- indignation about how authorities are handling a societal problem, e.g social inequality, or a violation of human rights.
efficacy- a conviction that the situation can be changed by collective action at a reasonable cost.
identity- define by group membership, when people identify strongly with a group they have a powerfully shared perception of collective injustice, need and goals.

Question 25

Define racism

Answer 25

prejudice and discrimination against people based on their ethnicity or race

Question 26

define the term ‘superordinate goal’.

Answer 26

goals desired by groups. groups have to work together.

groups may desire these but they can only be achieved by intergroup cooperation

Question 27

According to Sherif, what happens when groups compete for scarce resources?

Answer 27

they engage in competition and this can prevent the group forming or can cause an existing group to collapse.
when goals require inter-dependence to be achieved ie goals are superordinate, conflict is reduced and harmony is encouraged

Question 28

Describe the findings of Sherif’s experiments.

Answer 28

goals relations between individuals and groups determine cooperative or competitive interdependence, and thus the nature of interpersonal and intergroup behaviour.

Question 29

Define racism

Answer 29

prejudice and discrimination against people based on their ethnicity or race

Question 30

What is social categorisation? What role does it play in the development of the social identity theory?

Answer 30

it is the process of categoristing people as members of different groups.
by identifying with groups we ca simplify our lives and make our choices of action more predictable

the central premise of the social identity approach is that social categories of all kinds (eg university, nation, hobby group) provide members with a social identity- a definition and evaluation of who one is. social identities not only describe attributes, they also prescribe what one should think and how one should act.

Question 31

What is the basic premise of social identity theory? Be able to define and explain the role and importance of ‘social identity’.

Answer 31

this theory is all about becoming part of different groups, and how membership to these groups helps construct out identities.

Question 32

Understand how self-categorisation theory and social identity theory are used to explain intergroup processes.

Answer 32

self-categorization theory: how the process of categorisating oneself as a group member produces socail identity and group and intergroup behaviours.

Question 33

In social identity terms, what is meant by ‘depersonalisation’?

Answer 33

the perception and treatment of self and others not as unique individual persons but as prototypical embodiments of a social group.
we judge them as more similar to a relevant prototype than they probably are.

Question 34

What functions does an individual’s social identity hold?

Answer 34

self-enhancement: groups stand in status and prestige to one another and we recognize this. Groups compete to be different in favorable ways to achieve positive distinctiveness, and this provides a positive social identity for the individual member

subjective uncertainty reduction: in life we want to know who we are. We also want to know hoe to relate to and what to expect from others, how to make like predictable and to plan effective action. By identifying with groups we reduce uncertainty and address these concerns.

Question 35

What is collective behaviour?

Answer 35

the behaviour of people en masse- such as in a crowd, protest or riot.

Question 36

How does the social identity model apply to collective behaviour?

Answer 36

an important aspect of crowd behaviour that is usually ignored is that it is actually an intergroup phenomenon.

eg. riots at football matches shows quite clearly how these events are intergroup confrontations between supporters and police, and that how the rioting supporters behave is impacted quite significantly by how the police behave, and vice versa.

in a crowd there is also a change from idiosyncratic personal identity to shared social identity as a crowd member