week 9 Intergroup Relations

Question 1

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

Answer 1

stripping people of their dignity and humanity. When view outgroup as less than human. An extreme form of prejudice.

Question 2

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 2

Prejudice= negative evaluation or emotional response to an individual, based on their group membership.
Discrimination= enacting a prejudice, by treating someone differently, based on their group membership.

Question 3

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

Answer 3

if would have helped if didn’t belong to particular group, is discrimination. Often described in example of refusing to aid a group to improvement of their condition.

Question 4

Define the terms ‘tokenism’ and ‘reverse discrimination’. Provide examples of each of these forms of discrimination and think about the possible benefits and drawbacks for the target group.

Answer 4

Tokenism= publicly make small concessions to a minority group purely to deflect accusations of prejudice/discrimination. eg company takes on member of minority group purely to “make up numbers”or as a token. Can lead to targets having lower self esteem and decreased job satisfaction and loyalty.
Reverse discrimination= extreme form of tokenism. give favouritism treatment to a minority group. This eg in education can mean get preferential grades or treatment but when back on even playing field, unable to cope at that level and subsequently fail etc.

Question 5

After reading about the ‘Two-isms’, think back to the context from Week 2: Attributions. How might such prejudices affect your impression formations and what social cognitive concepts might explain them?

Answer 5

“Two-isms”” are race and gender. Social cognitive concepts of Social Role Theory and Stereotype Theory and Attribution Bias Theory.

Question 6

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

Answer 6

Stereotype threat; where an individual is aware of a negative stereotype re their group, held by the wider community, and the individual fears realisiing the stereotype and further cementing it. This fear can impede performance and sometimes create a self-fulfilling prophecy. an eg Is Islander in Australia fearing stereotype of “being less smart” gets anxious and can’t answer class question .

Question 7

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

Answer 7

increased stress, possible unhealthy practices, decreased self-esteem, can form unfavourable self-image, possible increased depression. may stop trying if inequalities seem insurmountable

Question 8

What is the effect of attributional ambiguity on stigmatised individuals?

Answer 8

Attributional ambiguity=uncertain of cause of behaviour. Stigmatised individuals more likely to if unsure, think that a slur is being deliberately cast on them. leads to mistrust and suspicion. also means stigmatised individual less likely to take personal credit for their succeses, but more likely to attribute to luck or reverse discrimination etc.

Question 9

What is meant by an authoritarian personality? Do you agree with the authoritarian personality theory of prejudice?

Answer 9

According to Adorno, an Authoritarian personality type has;
Blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong
Respect for submission to acknowledged authority
Belief in aggression toward those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking, or who are different
A negative view of people in general - i.e. the belief that people would all lie, cheat or steal if given the opportunity
A need for strong leadership which displays uncompromising power
A belief in simple answers and polemics - i.e. The media controls us all or The source of all our problems is the loss of morals these days.
Resistance to creative, dangerous ideas. A black and white worldview.
A tendency to project one’s own feelings of inadequacy, rage and fear onto a scapegoated group
A preoccupation with violence and sex.
The Theory of Authoritarian Personality proposes that an authoritarian personality is thought to have formed in childhood, when parents were autocratic and punitive, and the result is the child becomes prejudiced and ethnocentric.
I think there is some but not complete, veracity in this.

Question 10

Define ethnocentrism.

Answer 10

evaluative preference for own group.

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Social Dominance Theory proposes that some eg class inequalties are entrenched in a society as they have legitimised the, eg "Divine right of kings". Dominant groups are disproportionately advantaged.
System Justification Theory proposes that people have a natural setting somewhere along a scale of whether to go along with existing status quo or whether to question it. ie "Liberal"s"prefer progress, rebelliousness, flexibility, feminism and equality whereas "Conservative"prefer conformity, traditional values etc.
These Theories are both Politically based systems as opposed to individually based systems such as Authoritarian Personality Theory.

Question 12

Define intergroup behaviour. How does this level of analysis differ from the earlier theories?

Answer 12

Intergroup Behaviour considers the behaviour which comes from the group’s beliefs/prejudices, and individuals follow them because they are part of the group. This differs from earlier theories as it considers the individual acting in the group, to behave differently to the individual.

Question 13

What is ‘relative deprivation’ and why has it been suggested that it is a crucial precondition for intergroup aggression? Read ‘Real World 7.4’ on page 241 which provides an example consistent with relative deprivation theories.

Answer 13

Relative Deprivation=the perceived gap between expectations and achievements. eg inUS 1960’s, the economy was rapidly improving, and whilst the circumstances of Black peoples was improving, it was doing so far more slowly than for White peoples. This then leads to great group disatisfaction and frustration. This is thought by many to be a crucial prerequisite for intergroup aggression.There seems to be a trend of this occurring when there is a long period of increasing prosperity (eg 20-30years), followed by a sudden recession. Such conditions make protest gatherings more likely, and this may spill into inter-group aggression if there are other frustrations (hot weather), others are aggressive (social facilitation), or if other group behaves undesirably (tear gas etc).

Question 14

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

Answer 14

this graphically demonstrates how when attainments suddenly drop away markedly from expectations(which are still rising), this leads to relative deprivation and ensueing dissatisfaction.

Question 15

Define ‘fraternalistic relative deprivation’.

Answer 15

same as relative deprivation but with even more of a feeling that ones own group is suffering more than other groups.

Question 16

Note the general procedure involved in Sherif’s famous studies and be able to define the term ‘superordinate goal’.

Answer 16

A superordinate goal is one shared by multiple groups, but can only be achieved if the groups work together.
In Sherif’s experiements, there was generally the following stages;
a. Children at camp did activities and formed friendships
b) children divided into digfferent groups, splitting up friendships.
c)intergroup contests. Hostilities b/n groups was quite strong.
d) superordinate goals.

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Sherif came up with a Realistic Conflict Theory to describe how intergroup behaviours could be predicted. Basically if groups or individuals had shared goals, there would be cooperation and harmony, but if groups or individuals had mutually exclusive gaols or were in competition for scarce resources, there would be conflict.

Question 18

Describe the findings of Sherif’s experiments.

Answer 18

Several findings of Sherif were;

a) there was group ethnocentrism aring even prior to any inter-group conflict
b) the ubjects were not authoritarian personalities
c) the winners were the less frustrated, and they tended to show greater inter-group aggression.
d) simple contact b/n groups did not improve intergroup relations.

Question 19

Understand how social identity theory developed from Sheriff’s studies.

Answer 19

Social identity Theory states that we have as many social identities as groups we belong to. Being identified with the group gives us information re how to behave towards other groups.

Question 20

What is the minimal group paradigm? What were the main findings?

Answer 20

an experimental method whereby participants are placed in groups which have minimalist requirements for division eg groups may be as arbitrary as Group A and Group B. This has demonstrated that this arbitrary grouping can be sufficient to create ethnocentricity.

Question 21

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

Answer 21

classifying people as belonging to different groups. This is the basic first step in creating a social identity. ie classify then identify as either in or out group.

Question 22

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

Answer 22

A person’s group membership/s define certain aspects of self.

Question 23

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

Answer 23

self categorisation leads to one being part of in-group and others as out-group. Social Identity Theory then means our association with our group defines how to behave towards out group members and this leads to intergroup processes of relations.

Question 24

Review the ‘meta-contrast principle. Can you think of an example from your own life where you have experienced this in action?

Answer 24

meta-contrast principle states that a category’s sub categories are more alike than different categories. eg Boxers and German Shepherds are more alike than cats.People have a tendency to view others (esp out group others)as more similiar to each other and less individual.

Question 25

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

Answer 25

when one views another as typical prototype of a group, without any acknowledgement of having individual characteristics.

Question 26

What functions does an individual’s social identity belief system hold?

Answer 26

determines whether an individual believes they can pass from one group to another.

Question 27

What is the difference between the social mobility belief system and the social change belief system?

Answer 27

Social mobility Belief system-believes is possible to pass from lower level status to higher level status. This is based on individual being able to move, but not group. Tends to be found in more individualistic societies.
Social Change Belief System-If it is not believed that an individual can change status groups and if there is belief that the hierarchy is possible to be altered, then one might believe that social change for a whole group can occur. eg India’s caste system.

Question 28

Describe social creativity and social competition processes.

Answer 28

Social creativity=group based strategies that improve the group’s social identity yet without challenging the Dominant hierarchy. eg Had poorer housing materials but look what lovely gardens we have made or eg black is beautiful.
Social competition -group based strategies that improve the group’s social identity by confronting the dominant group.

Question 29

What is collective behaviour?

Answer 29

People’s behaviour en masse.

Question 30

What is LeBon’s theory of collective behaviour? Do you think LeBon’s theory still important nowadays?

Answer 30

this theory states that when in a crowd, an individual’s socialisation/civility decreases and äntisocial ancestry”emerges as a driving influence of instinctual behaviour. Facors allowing such a process to occur are
a)anonymity
b)contagion-ideas spread rapidly
and c)suggestibility.
it still has relevance these days but more situational analysis is also required to explain such behaviours

Question 31

What is ‘deindividuation’? Understand how it might be involved in collective behaviour.

Answer 31

Where because are in a crowd, people “lose touch”with their individualised self, so that restraints are relaxed and can allow anti-social behaviour.

Question 32

What explanation of collective behaviour is provided by emergent norm theory? (have a look at Figure 7.15.)

Answer 32

Emergent Norm Theory proposes that even in a crowd, the group is following a norm. However, becuase initially in the crowd there is no standard norm(as a large group of people who do not know each other), a new norm emerges.Thus the behaviour by distinctive individuals or distinctive bahaviour, is accepted as the norm. Then once there is a norm, there is immediate conformity pressure.

Question 33

According to your text, what important feature of crowd behaviour is often ignored?

Answer 33

Frequently a crowd actually comes together because of a common complaint. Frequently the complaint is re another group and so ofttimes crowd behaviour can be classified as inter-group behaviour.

Question 34

How does the social identity model of deindividuation phenomena seek to address this?

Answer 34

Rather than losing identity, crowd members can gain identity with the crowd.

Question 35

Are crowds really all violent and a descent into madness?

Answer 35

Most crowds are not violent.
Even when crowds are violent, there are limits eg might attack police or merchants selectively.
There can be emotions of anger but there can also be emotions of joy and being as one.
Those promoting crowds as violence might fear the possibility of social change, and have biases also.

Question 36

What is Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis? What conditions did Allport specify for contact to be effective?

Answer 36

Allports’t proposed Contact Theory states that if relations between groups are to be significantly improved, with reductions in prejudices and discriminations, contact between groups should :
a)be prolonged and involve cooperative activities
b)should occur within official frameworks of reducing prejudice eg legislation against inequality
and
c) should bring together people of different groups but equal social status.

Question 37

Why might there be problems with the idea that contact causes people to recognise their similarity to others?

Answer 37

Glossing over cultural differences which are actual, can be offensive, or lead to misunderstandings. Recognising similarities does not resolve conflict if there is still competition for resources eg jobs.

Question 38

What is Gaertner’s common ingroup identity model?

Answer 38

If can get 2 groups to actually recognise each other and form 1 new all-encompassing group, and they work together, this can lead to prejudices disappearing

Question 39

Is the provision of superordinate goals an effective way of improving intergroup relations? Note the qualifications provided in your text. Also, note which type of superordinate goal is particularly effective.

Answer 39

Can be effective, but only if the common goal is achieved. if the goal fails to be achived, inter group relations are likely to worsen with blame being assigned to other group. It is also quite effective if allows groups to see each other as one, and in so doing, compare themselves with a new different outgroup. eg French and English could (prior to Brexit) unite as Europeans and then compare themselves (favourably) against US.

Question 40

Note the definitions and effectiveness of different types of negotiation strategies.

Answer 40

Bargaining=group representatives reach agreement via negotiation. Often fails. Representatives usually bargain harder for their group than they would as their own individual. Groups fear if their representative becomes too friendly with others, that they are being sold out.
Mediation-where a neutral party is seen as impartial but is able to exert pressure on both parties for a negotiated outcome
Arbitration-whereintergroup confliuct is otrherwise irresolvable. The arbiter has the authority to impose a solution.

Question 41

q’s re “First Contact”show

Answer 41

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