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PREJUDICE (SOC PSYCH CHPTR 9)
revised 4/02
ACTIVITY:
The label game, see handout
ACTIVITY:
generate a list of as many grps who been discriminated against.
For future consideration:
discuss how the word black is associated with negative connotations w/in a classical
conditioning context of prej development.
denigrate: denigrare
=to blacken from nigrare =to blacken and denigrate means to disparage someone's
character or reputation.
Historical Analysis
-Over 400 separate
hate grps have emerged in the
-A grp being
oppressed sticks together and then the dominant grp says see look at how they
don't want to be around us or be a part of us.
The different
theories of prej focus on a wide variety of specific and different causal
factors and no theory or framework has yet been proposed tt provides a complete
explanation of prej. So there's been a # of attempts to simplify this
complexity by trying to classify and categorize these explanations.
Level of analysis
varies: EX: Gordon Allport (1954): 6 Levels: hxorical, sociocultural,
situational, py, phenomenological, and stimulus object.
Authoritarian py and
other individual-level py constructs dominated rsrch and thinking during the
1950s.
Sociocultural
processes dominated the 1960s and 1970s.
There are 7 distinct
periods tt prej has been understood by psychologists.
See article
How Americans are perceived around the world
-In the 1960s and
1970s the North Vietnamese Communists called us the running dogs of capitalist
imperialism
-In the 1980s the
Iranian regime under the Ayatollah Khomeini said we were a ruthless,
power-hungry, amoral nation and called us "the great Satan"
-Many South American
countries refer to us as overfed economic and military bullies.
-The British perceive
us as intrusive, forward, pushy. (Americans label the British as cold and
unfriendly)
Prejudice can lead to and has lead to:
-hatred -torture -lack of access to
resources (jobs, education)
-murder -dehumanization
-genocide -displaced living/housing
-decrease in self-esteem
(Who we think we are is a key determinant in how we behave and who we become ;
Ppl w/ low s-e are more likelyto be unhappy and unsuccessful than ppl w/ high
s-e)
PREJUDICE REVISED FOR SUMMER 2001
WHAT
IS PREJUDICE?
Def of Prejudice: usually a hostile or neg att toward a distinguishable grp of ppl,
based solely on their membership in tt grp.
Atts
are associated w/ cog blfs abt the obj, affective feelings toward the obj,
& behavioral intentions related to the obj.
We
say usually prej is negative b/c occassionally atts toward a grp of ppl based
solely on their membership in tt grp can be favorable. (When you're biased in
favor of someone b/c they're a dolphins' fan or something like that)
EX: A Caucasian individual sees a person dressed in traditional
Middle Eastern dress (lets say Saudi Arabian) and they simultaneously feel
disgust and think those self-righteous, power hungry, war loving, camel
jockeys........ I should tell that rag-head to go back where she came from.
Affective: disgust
Cog: blf tt
all Middle Eastern ppl are self-righteous, power hungry, & war
loving ; the stereotypic labels of camel
jockey and rag head
Beh: intent to
act on feelings and blfs "I should tell tt rag-head to go back to
where she came from.
Def of Discrimination:
unjustified neg or harmful action
toward a member of a grp, simply b/c of his or her membership in tt grp. Intent
to act becomes the real deal.
EX: An overweight Hispanic woman had to have a C-section and
the physician didn't give her a cosmetic cut b/c he didn't feel like she was a
candidate
EX: Rsrch study conducted by Charles Bond et al (1988).
Compared
tx of black vs white patients in a psychiatric hospital run by an all white
staff.
Researchers
focused on 2 most common methods staff used to handle patients' violent beh.
(1) secluding the individ in a time-out room
(2)
restraining the individ in a straitjacket and administering tranquilizing
drugs.
They
examined 85 days worth of hospital records.
The
more intense method was used 4x as often on black patients as white despite no
differences in # of violent incidents committed by black or white patients.
And
the black patients on avg were diagnosed as less violent than the white
patients upon admission to the hospital.
The outcome of this study led to more humane tx of both blk and wht patients w/ no additional discrimination.
What is Prejudice?
Prej is an att. Atts
are made up of 3 components:
1. affective or
emotional component: wch represents both the type of emotion linked w/ the att
(i.e.
anger, warmth) and the extremity of the att (i.e., mild uneasiness, outright
hostility)
2. cog : blfs ,
thoughts (cogs) tt make up the att
3. behavioral:
relating to one's actions, inclination to act
Def of Prejudice:
a hostile, insidious, or neg att toward a distinguishable grp of ppl, based
solely on their membership in tt grp.
Affective Component:
Can
be benevolent or hostile:
EX:
You can be prej against women or for women.
·
Women
shouldn’t be allowed to participate in combat. (hostile)
·
Women are such
lovely, sensitive people. They are so much better suited for work in fields of
care. (benevolent)
EX:
You can be prej against Texans
or you can be prej in favor of
Texans.
·
If prej
against Texans you might expect a Texan to act in ways congruent w/ your past
associations and think those obnoxious Texans. Mild uneasines or outright
hostility.
·
If prej in
favor of Texans you might expect Texan Bob to be friendly, hospitable, and
warm.
But soc psychologists
for the most part reserve the word prej to refer to neg atts about others.
Cognitive Component:
In
1922 Walter Lippman, a distinguished journalist, introduced the term STEREOTYPE in his book, "Public
Opinion". He wrote abt the distinction btwn the world "out
there" and stereotypes, "the little pictures we carry around inside
our heads".
Close your eyes and
pictures these images in your mind:
-a high school
cheerleader (i.e., full of pep, pretty, nonintellectual, bouncy, female)
-a
-a Jewish doctor What is the gender?
-a Black musician What is the gender?
Def of stereotype:
·
a
generalization abt a grp of ppl in wch identical characteristics are assigned
to virtually all members of the grp, regardless of actual variation among the
members. It's function is to justify (rationalize) our conduct in relation to
tt category (may be favorable or unfavorable)
·
Once formed,
stereotypes are resistant to change on the basis of new info.
Behavioral Component:
When blfs are
translated into beh.
Def of Discrimination: unjustified neg or
harmful action toward a member
of a grp, simply b/c of his or her membership in tt grp.
EX: An overweight
Hispanic woman had to have a C-section and the physician didn't give her a
cosmetic cut b/c he didn't feel like she was a candidate.
EX: rsrch study
conducted by Charles Bond et al (1988).
·
Compared tx of
black vs white patients in a psychiatric hospital run by an all white staff.
·
Researchers
focused on 2 most common methods staff used to handle patients' violent beh.
(a) secluding the
individ in a time-out room
(b) restraining the
individ in a straitjacket and administering tranquilizing drugs.
They examined 85 days
worth of hospital records.
·
The more
intense method was used 4x as often on black patients as white despite no
differences in # of violent incidents committed by black or white patients.
·
And the black
patients on avg were diagnosed as less violent than the white patients upon
admission to the hospital.
The outcome of this
study led to more humane tx of both blk and wht patients w/ no additional
discrimination.
Targets for Prejudice and Discrimination
-nationality -regionality -ethnicity
-gender -religious -age
-political -physical appearance
(weight, height, disabilities, hair color)
-diseases -SES (blue collar,
CEO-Fortune 500 person)
-sexual orientation -disability
QUOTE: We don't see
things as they are, we see things as we are. -Anais Nin
QUOTE: W/ all beings
and all things we shall be as relatives - Sioux Law
QUOTE: I never gave
anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell -Harry S.
Truman
QUOTE: Once you label
me you negate me -Sartre
QUOTE: Nothing is in
such need of change as other ppl's habits -Mark Twain
QUOTE: It is
difficult to shake hands with a closed fist - Golda Meir
QUOTE: To escape
criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing -Elbert Hubbard
QUOTE: A good idea is
like a wheelbarrow, it doesn't go anywhere unless you push it-William Abbot
QUOTE:Tell me and I
might forget, Show me and I might not remember, Involve me and I will
understand -Native American Saying
SOURCES
OF PREJUDICE
1. SOCIAL (MACRO) AS IN SOCIOLOGICAL
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL (MICRO)
3. SOCIO-BIO OR EVOLUTIONARY
1.
SOCIAL (MACRO) AS IN SOCIOLOGICAL
Is
the economic relationship =
($, food, property)?
Is the soc relationship =
(status, prestige, popularity)?
If
not, if one grp has more power or access to resources, then prejudice is likely
to develop.
-
Slaves
-Property
-Equipment
(i.e . want ad from the 1800s that said tt a negroe boy and girl (brother &
sis) were for sale under "farm equipment" and could be sold
separately
-Savages
-Uncivilized
-Vermin
-Babes,
broads, dames, chicks
-Other
derogatory body part words to describe men and women (c***, p****, d***),
-Boy
instead of Black man or Af-Amer man
-Greeley
Police Officer who said to an uncooperative male who received a DUI and said
right before leaving,
"Now
don't you give these lovely girls any trouble or else I'll have to come back
and take you to jail".
He
put me and the other staff members at risk by implying that we were weak.
Generally
when there are many euphemisms for a word, it's a reflection of the fact tt ppl
find the word and what it stands for to be distasteful or stressful.
*death, passed away
*arm/leg, limb
* fat woman, encore, large, plus
*woman girl (infantilizing) ; lady
*i have to use the restroom or mommy
i have to go #1 for toilet
we see this visually too when menstrual products or diapers
are advertised on tv.
Now if BLUE fluid
ever came out of any part of my body you bet I'd go straight to the E.R.
·
those who
perceive themselves as socially superior are more likely to treat others in
inferior ways (SFP)
-
Someone who perceives themself as "Master"
-White
male scholars, doctors, etc. thought of women and black ppl as mentally slow,
emotional, primitive, and content being in a subordinate role.
G.
Stanley Hall thought seriously believed tt women's reproductive system would
shrivel up if they filled their heads w/ knowledge.
-stereotypes
help rationalize (justify) treating ppl unequally (i.e. gender, ethnic, age,
etc).
·
male as
normative ; white as normative ;
heterosexual as normative
This
is changing, but there are still many instances in which the "male as
normative" phenomenon occurs.
The
male is regarded as the normative or standard member of the species.
And
being tt there are only two genders male and female, women and girls are relegated
to being "the other" member of the species.
We
see this especially in language and law and medicine and psychological research
EX:
generic use of pronouns, he, his, and him
EX:
artificial heart
EX:
the common practice of generalizing results from male only or white-male only
samples to other populations.
multiple
py disorder, schizophrenia, atts, etc.
Sexual
harassment and the reasonable woman standard vs the reasonable person standard
Language
and Thought Processes are intertwined meaning tt the language used in a culture
influences how we think abt things and how we think abt things influences how
we communicate.
Atts
are adaptable. One minute we're getting along pretty well w/ a grp and then as
conflict arises we change our atts.
EX:
The Non-Jewish Germans still
smarting from WWI saw ppl of Jewish ethnicity/religion prosper while they
remained stagnant.
This
perception was blown out of proportion and served as fodder for the anti-Jew
campaign.
EX:
During WWII the
Over
120,000 ppl of Japanese descent were forced out of their homes and into
internment camps.
They
were forced to leave most of their belongings behind never to see them again.
Religion:
How
have cruel acts been carried out in the name of religious doctrines?
-Burning
of witches
-Persecution
of Queer ppl
-The
Crusades / Holy War
(oxymoron)
-Correlations
btwn religion & prejudice
-faithful church attenders are less
prejudiced than occasional attenders
-those who are intrinsically
motivated to adhere to religious teachings are less prej than those who are
extrinsically motivated (i.e., primary purpose is for the soc aspects)
-Protestant ministers & Roman
Cath priests gave more support to the civil rights movement than lay ppl. (So
pro-soc acts have also been carried out in the name of religious doctrines).
Can we say that religiousness causes less
prejudice?
No. Correlations do not show causation. There
is probably a third variable tt varies with both (i.e., kind py).
No.
Church attendence is not a valid method of assessing religiosity.
Religious
groups differ.
Realistic Conflict Theory
:
DEF:
the theory tt hostility btwn grps is caused by direct competition for limited
resources.
Competition btwn grps creates hostility and prej toward each other.
Prej
is a likely consequence of conflict over resources tt each grp wants.
Prej
arises when one grp frustrates the other grp's needs.
There
are two different sources of discontent wch are related to Relative Deprivation:
Def
of Relative Deprivation: Feelings of
Discontent aroused by the blf tt one fares poorly compared to others.
1. egoistic deprivation
wch is a concern for one's own self interest ; an individual's feeling tt he or she is deprived relative to
other ppl.
EX: Lets say that your family moves into a house that is 3
stories high with 6 bedrooms, 4 car garage, a swimming pool, tennis court, etc.
etc.
Well
tt's all well and good, unless your neighbors have 4 story houses with 6 car
garages, separate guest houses, swimming pools, a jacuzzi in every bathroom,
horses, Picasso, Renoir, and Monet originals, vacation homes in Aspen, Palm Springs,
and Lake Tahoe, etc. etc.
It's
not the size of the house tt matters it's whether it's larger than the
Rockerfellers' next door tt matters.
2. fraternal deprivation
wch is an individual's or grp's concern for the interest of one's grp whether
or not you, yourself, are directly affected.
There
probably wouldn't be the degree of prej and discrimination against women and
Af-Amer today if men and white men didn't feel threatened w/ a loss of status
and access to resources.
EX: affirmative action controversy ; Even
though many white men have secure jobs they may feel tt affirmative action
signals a displacement of white males by women and members of minority grps.
EX:
Muslims vs the Hindus in
EX:
Palestinians vs the Israelis
EX:
Serbs vs the Bosnians
EX:
Civil war period northerners vs southerners
EX:
Men and women after WWII competing for jobs in wch women got used to and liked
working
Fraternal
Deprivation is more common than Egoistic Dep b/c its easier to mobilize ppl on
the basis of supposed grp mistreatment than individual mistreatment.
Explains
why ppl all over the world believe tt their own nation, culture, lang, and
religion are better and more deserving than others.
EX: Correlation of Lynchings with Economic Indices
Carl
Hovland and Robert Sears in 1940 (published in the journal of psychology)
looked up archival data on cotton prices in the Southern States from 1882 to
1930 and the # of lynchings of Southern Af-Amers
during tt same period.
Cotton was by far the most important crop in the South.
They
found a correlation of -.72 wch means?
As
cotton prices dipped, lynchings
increased
EX: The
·
Researchers:
Muzafer Sherif, L. Harvey, B. White, W. Hood, and Carolyn Sherif called The Robbers Cave Experiment: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation. {Book,
not a journal article}.
·
Location:
·
Participants: 11 and 12 y/o boys all white, middle-class,
and healthy (I'm assuming means able-bodied) who never met before. Parents
okayed tt they participate in an experiment in wch they were told competition
and cooperation were to be studied.
·
Method: The
boys were randomly assigned to one of two camps the Eagles or the Rattlers
(they named their own grp & had T-shirts and hats made w/ their name).
Neither grp knew the other existed for abt a week. This gave
them time to form their own culture.
Then they "discovered" the
other camp and soon competitions were arranged.
The
competitions consisted of football, baseball, tug-of-war, and a treasure hunt.
The winning
team was awarded pts and the overall winners were promised a trophy, medals,
and other prizes.
Their rivalry quickly escalated.
They burned each others' flags, ransacked each others'
cabins, got into a food fight, etc. etc.
·
Schools:
graffiti, no handicap access
·
Industry: Product design (crayons called flesh for
peachy color, but a lot of ppl's flesh is brown, black, etc.) (bandaids tt are
flesh colored)
·
Media: Media
coverage of any given grp is likely to reflect the broader society's current
stereotypes abt tt grp. The media tends
to reinforce not change stereotypes.
There's
also the invisibility issue. (i.e., less
that 1% of the cartoons in the New Yorker magazine showed Af-Amers even in
1980). Ch watching tv in the 1980s
(traditional-age college students in late 1990s/early millenium) perceived
Af-Amers as middle class who live in integrated neighborhoods and mostly
interact w/ white ppl in a work setting, not a soc setting. The work place
interactions were formal, rare, and distant.
Most
of us think tt the 1992
To
the media's credit: Efforts are being
made to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS to reduce prej toward homosexual men and
all ppl who have AIDS/HIV.
Prej is a soc norm of the grp in wch the individual lives.
Prej can be learned inside and outside of the home.
Norms are learned as part of the process of socialization.
Where discrimination and prej are the norm we call this
institutionalized racism, institutionalized sexism.
Prej develops w/in an individual simply by being a part of tt
society, it doesn't necessarily have to be actively taught.
EX: North Americans have historically held prejudiced atts against
Africans, Asians, & Latin Americans and to favor those who come from
Other cultures’ examples:
Russians prej against Jews
English “ Africans
Chinese “ Japanese
Japanese “ Koreans
EX: AGE: In 1988 Aboud found tt by age 5 most urban white ch
displayed some signs of racial prej. By
age 7 most also showed signs of prej against Asians and N.A.
We see changes as generations shift. Younger generations are
expressing increased tolerance
Conformity's role ? How
does conforming to soc roles influence ppl?
We follow the path of least resistance; we go w/ the flow not out
of a need to hate but out of a need to be accepted.
Scapegoat theory Frustration & Aggression:
Frustration
element (related to Realistic Conflict Theory)
RECALL:
* Competition btwn grps creates
hostility and prej toward each other.
* Prej is a likely consequence of
conflict over resources tt each grp wants.
* Prej arises when one grp frustrates
the other grp's needs.
Scapegoating
is the tendency for individuals
when frustrated or unhappy to displace agg onto grps tt are disliked, visible,
and relatively powerless.
(def
of scapegoat): a person, grp, or thing upon whom the blame for the mistakes or
crimes of others is thrust.
How this is different from Realistic Conflict Theory is tt there are situations in wch a logical competitor doesn't exist.
EX: In
When
the Nazis gained power in the 1930s they managed to focus the frustration of
the German pop on the Jews, an easily identifiable, powerless out-grp who were
in no position to defend themselves.
It's
hard to fight back against world events, or one's government, especially when
one's government was evading responsibility by blaming someone else.
So
the Nazis created the illusion tt if the Jews could be punished, deprived of
their civil rights, and ultimately eliminated, all of the problems plaguing
EX: A young Asian-Amer was beaten to death by several white
Amers in
The murderers were unemployed autoworkers who were angry at the Japanese auto industry b/c they felt tt competition from this industry was the main reason for their unemployment.
Ironically
the young man was Chinese-Amer.
EX: Ronald Rogers and Steven Prentice-Dunn in 1981 conducted an
experiment at the Univ of Alabama.
White
students were instructed to administer a series of shocks to another studetn as
part of a learning experiment. The students were free to adjust the level of
the intensity of the shocks.
The "learner" as usual was
a confederate and actually felt no shocks.
Half of the white students were
angered by an insulting "peer" and half weren't, they interacted with
a friendly "peer".
Divide
the grps again where you have a black peer or a white peer.
Would
angry white students deliver more intense shocks to a black peer than a white
peer? YES!
When
the "peer" was friendly the students administerd slightly less
intense shocks to
the
black peer than the white peer.
Mood
College
men were working at a camp and were asked abt their atts toward Jap and Mexs
either before or after being surprised with either good news or bad news.
News
tt either put them in a good mood or a bad mood.
Half
of the men were then forced to stay in and take tests while the other half got
to go to the movies.
Those
who reported their atts after being told they had to take a test and therefore
being put in a bad mood held significantly more prejudicial atts than the other
3 grps.
Personality (py) Influences
-need
for status & belonging
Despised
outgrps strengthen in grps. Americans are more friendly toward each other when
we're at war with other countries.
Americans pull together when threatened.
Where
are you on the social ladder? If you have a high need for status and tt goal is
blocked you are susceptible to more prej atts.
-when
you feel inferior to someone else
According
to Adler the more inferior you feel the more motivated you are to feel superior
and prej atts can arise from trying to improve your self-worth.
When
you're humiliated in front of others this leads to stronger in-grp bonding.
-when
thoughts abt death rise into awareness
Promotes
insecurity wch then leads to an increase in in-grp bonding.
-authoritarian
py
Has
an intolerance for weakness, punitive att, ch should be seen and not heard,
honor and respect are a big deal, ch are harshly disciplined,
Sees
things and ppl in rigid categories.
Since
they do this they rely on stereotypes since their critical thinking ability is
stifled.
Ambiguity
is difficult to tolerate.
Beh
is expressed as aggression toward those who are perceived to be
"beneath" them.
-soc
dominance orientation
bound
to hierarchies, overly concerned with who's above and who's below.
Below is info from Hal Mansfield, the director of the
Religious Movement Resource Center in Fort Collins, CO. He visited our class
and talked about high demand groups like cults and supremacist organizations.
From: "Hal"
<intruder@webaccess.net> | Block
Address | Add to Address Book
To: intruder@webaccess.net
Subject: FW: Brutal
Date:
Hi ,
Hope
the holidays were great! I found this of interest since it
involved on campus activity
Hal Mansfield
The Associated Press
Monday,
a 15-year-old girl he met on the Internet and
carving swastikas on her
face, police said. Brian Dance, 20, a student
at the
The 15-year-old identified Dance as her
attacker when he arrived, and
he was arrested without incident, authorities
said. Police said they found
duct tape in his pocket and a knife they
believed was used in the attack.
Dance is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
© 2001 The Associated Press
629 S Howes, Ft Collins, CO 80521 Director
970-490-2032
TOTAL CALLS: 67 TOTAL PRESENTATIONS: 2
General Info: 10
Hate groups: 7 Interfaith of Ft Collins:
25
Militia groups: 5 Brethren aka Jim Roberts
Group: 1 Terrorism: 11 International Church of Christ: 12
Rebirthing: 1 Society for the Greater
Scientology: 3 Moonies: 3
National
INTERNET WEB PAGE USAGE: 13,258 (counted as of May, 1997)
NOTES:
Subject: FW: Comments/Photo at Aryan Nations Site
Date:
Hey folks,
It's
easy to forget during the war on terrorism that we have our own
here. Case in point the attached, and that is
but one example. Too many
of these nut bags are trying to take
advantage of the tragedy for their
own ends. Some are no longer covert and are
being far more directive. I
fear an event with one of such groups, they
feel the time is ripe. -Hal
Subject: Comments/Photo at Aryan Nations Site
>From the Aryan Nations site at http://www.aryan-nations.org/
Part of
thefollowing was posted at the
Posse-Comitatus site earlier...I believe
thefirst paragraph here is a recent addition.
Additionally there is an
updatephoto of Kreis and Redfeairn at:
http://www.aryan-nations.org/indexpagenews/greetings_from_national_director.
htm
WELCOME!
We, of the Aryan Nations, condemn the acts of
the
nothing more than a puppet government of Israeli, in the attacks
against the Taliban
Freedom Fighters and the Islamic peoples of
that it was the Ruling Elite, the jews; ie.
Mossad, the so-called
Order, behind the attack of the WTC on Sept.
11th to further enslave us in a
total police state using broader, newly
enacted anti-terrorism laws.
Further,we believe that the attacks by the
Terrorist State of Israeli against the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors
should be looked at and
condemned by the world as the acts of
terrorism that they are.
*******
If
in
mostpowerful empire on earth suffered a
learning experience in the
tortuousvalleys of the Kindu Kush should be
read by all combatants including
theAustralian and UK SAS as preparation to
those yet to be "blooded" in
thecorps!
When you're wounded and left
On
And the women come out,
To cut up your remains,
Just roll on your rifle,
And blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd
Like a soldierŠŠ.
Rudyard Kipling