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COURSE NOTES: Social



	Based on the course PSY/SOC 301, taught at The Sage Colleges by Prof. Susan Cloninger. This class uses the following textbook, which provides the chapter organization that you see on the menu on the left side of this page: Myers, D. (2005). Social Psychology (8th ed.) New York: McGraw Hill. (Note that much of this outline deviates from the text, including supplementary material from lecture.}

Chapter 9:

Prejudice: Disliking Others

THE NATURE AND POWER OF PREJUDICE

DEFINING PREJUDICE

PREJUDICE

a negative prejudgment of a group and its individual members (an attitude, consisting of affect, behavior, and cognition)
ex: racism; sexism; ageism

STEREOTYPE

an overgeneralized belief about the personal attributes of a group of people
ex: "Americans are outgoing."

DISCRIMINATION

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members
ex: red-lining to prevent mortgage lending in ethnic areas of cities

racism (individual)

an individual's prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given race
ex: negative attitudes against Hispanics, and discrimination against them in employment and immigration

racism (institutional)

institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a given race
ex: educational curricula that ignore the achievements of Hispanics and individualistic practices that impede support of Hispanic families (e.g., limitations on hospital visitors)

sexism (individual)

an individual's prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward people of a given sex
ex: prejudice against women as inferior and unmotivated, and discrimination against them in job promotion

sexism (institutional)

institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a given sex
ex: educational curricula that ignore the achievements of women and scheduling that makes child care difficult

HOW PERVASIVE IS PREJUDICE?

RACIAL PREJUDICE

Is racial prejudice disappearing?

greatest prejudice in the most intimate social realms
subtle forms of prejudice
- reveals prejudice hidden with blatant measures
automatic prejudice
- Implicit association tests can be used to measure prejudice (stereotypes). [lecture]

GENDER PREJUDICE

Gender stereotypes

emotional
"head of the table"
stereotypes exaggerate differences (males: assertive, dominant; females: tender, compassionate)

Gender attitudes

change
failure to replicate Goldberg's (1968) classic study that judged female authors (Joan T. McKay) lower than male authors (John T. McKay)

Notice the various public images of women.

image: needs protection [graphic presented in lecture]
image: Rosie the Riveter [graphic presented in lecture]
What image(s) of women should we support?

competence: prejudice against women in old studies has disappeared

subtle bias

behavioral bias (car price)

SOCIAL SOURCES OF PREJUDICE

SOCIAL INEQUALITIES: Unequal Status and Prejudice

stereotypes justify division of labor
"hostile" and "benevolent" sexism (Glick & Fiske)

SOCIALIZATION

The Authoritarian Personality

ethnocentrism: belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic and cultural group, and a corresponding disdain for all other groups
bigotry such as that portrayed by Archie Bunker on television

Religion and Prejudice

justification for war
prejudice and religious fundamentalism
deep religious beliefs, low prejudice
mere religious membership, high prejudice

Do you think, overall, religion has helped women or hurt them?

How?
What aspects of religion?

Conformity

Pettigrew's observations about racial prejudice

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORTS

children's readers (gender stereotyping)
"face-ism" in magazine photos (which portray men's faces, women's bodies)
stereotyped media presentations

MOTIVATIONAL SOURCES OF PREJUDICE

FRUSTRATION AND AGGRESSION: THE SCAPEGOAT THEORY

realistic group conflict theory
Should tax dollars be spent on social programs, or should tax incentives be offered to stimulate business investment? (realistic group conflict)

SOCIAL IDENTITY

the "we" aspect of our self-concept. The part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships
ex: "I am Australian."
ex: "I am Catholic."

INGROUP

"us"--a group of people who share a sense of belonging, a feeling of common identity
ex: we women of Sage; we Americans; we Purple Cows

OUTGROUP

"them"--a group that people perceive as distinctively different from or apart from their ingroup
ex: those RPI men; those members of another ethnic group

Ingroup Bias

the tendency to favor one's own group
ex: If Troy spends money improving sidewalks, it should be done on Congress and 2nd Street [local example!]

What ingroup/outgroup issues in history prompted the following poster? [graphic presented in lecture]

What ingroup and outgroup examples are particularly significant today?

Need for status, self-regard and belonging

insecurity increases prejudice

Motivation to Avoid Prejudice

COGNITIVE SOURCES OF PREJUDICE

CATEGORIZATION

Perceived similarities and differences

OUTGROUP HOMOGENEITY EFFECT

perception of outgroup members as more similar to one another than are ingroup members.
ex: "They are alike; we are diverse." (where "they" is a particular outgroup)
"All Caucasians look alike." (quoted from a Chinese man who was mugged, trying to describe his assailants to the police, in the movie Flower Drum Song.)

DISTINCTIVENESS

Distinctive people

draw attention

Vivid cases

Distinctive events

produce illusory correlations

ATTRIBUTION: IS IT A JUST WORLD?

Group-serving bias

explaining away outgroup members' positive behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior by one's own group)
ex: "They" only helped because there was something in it for them; we help because we are good people.

The just-world phenomenon

blame the victim (Lerner)

the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
ex: poor people don't deserve money; rich people have worked hard and should get to keep what they have

other examples

What are other examples of the "just-world phenomenon"?
How do these examples influence the laws that people support?

for discussion: A few years ago, as reported in the national news, two black students were suspended, for two years, from a Midwestern high school, because they were involved in a fistfight at an athletic event, in the stands. Was this "just"? Or did it illustrate racial discrimination? What opinions would you expect, based on the just world phenomenon?

CONSEQUENCES OF STEREOTYPES

Self-perpetuating stereotypes

subtyping and subgrouping as ways of maintaining stereotypes (Myers, 2005, p. 370)

accommodating individuals who deviate from one's stereotype by splitting off a subgroup stereotype (such as "middle class Blacks" or "feminist women"), or by seeing them as exceptions (subtypes).

Discrimination's Impact: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Stereotype Threat

a disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype, that one will verify the stereotype
ex: worrying that you will do poorly at math, as expected for a female, or on an IQ test, as expected for a minority (under some testing conditions)
impact of stereotype threat on job applicants and math tests
problem with minority support programs (Myers, 2005, p. 372)