1) An antipathy based on faulty and inflexible generalizations.2) Can be felt covertly or expressed overtly.3) Can be direct towards a group as a whole, or toward an individual because s/he is a member of that group.
Prejudice(Allport – 1954)
Exploitation Theory1) Power is a Scarce Source
2) People innately want to keep their power and status
3) So people suppress the social mobility of the out-group
Scapegoating Theory1) Prejudiced People are the True Victims
2) They refuse to accept basic responsibility for some society failure (defeat in war / depression)
3) So they shift focus of responsibility to an out-group
Authoritarian Personality Theory
1) Person comes from a strict authoritarian background2) When that person grows up s/he wants to be the authoritarian of those around them
3) So this person subjects people in an out-group (who are seen as weaker) to their will
Structural Theory1) Social climate either promotes cultural and ethnic tolerance or intolerance
2) Is their obvious equality – if not people will subjugate others around them
3) Is there a definite hierarchy with a clear pecking order?
Ego-Defense Function
Protects people’s view of themselves on both a personal and social identity level.
Value-Expressive Function
People need to have value and behavioral consistencies in viewing their own cultural values, norms, and practices as the proper & civilized ways of thinking and behaving.
Knowledge Function
1) It takes time and energy to create knowledge
2) People tend to want to defend their knowledge base
3) So, people view others who lack such knowledge as ignorant or deficient
Utilitarian Function
1) Protecting the majority (In-Group) will make things easier on their life
2) In fact, they may be rewarded for doing protecting the in-group
Young Children and Prejudice
Adopting: Overt passing on of prejudice ideals to a child.
Developing: Creating a threatening and suspicious attitude, so that the child creates her or his own prejudices out of suspicion, fear, and hatred towards another person or group of people.
First Stage of Prejudice Children want to be accepted by their parentsChildren learn fears of strangers circumspect
from others.Children notice differences between themselves
and others.Child realizes that a group is hateworthy (even
though the child many not know neither the groups name or its identity).
PREJUDICE
DISCRIMINATION
YES
NO
ActiveBigot
YES NO
Fair-Weather Liberal
TimidBigot
ProactiveChangeAgents
Tolerance
The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
Liberal: Person who is critical of the status quo, who wants progressive social change
Conservative: Person who wants to maintain the status quo.
Education and Tolerance
Are educated people more tolerant?
Two Reasons Why:
1) Decreases insecurity and anxiety about life.
2) They realize that the welfare of one group is related to the welfare of all groups.
Empathetic Ability
Being able to understand where a person is coming from.
Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Intropunitiveness
Feeling loathing of their in-group for the intolerance that they see their in-group having for outsiders.
Fill out the scale on pages 60 & 61.
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Personality variable that distinguishes people who can operate effectively in communication situations in which there is a great deal of uncertainty from those who cannot operate effectively in such situations.
Inclusiveness
Being open and welcoming to people, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and practices that are not your own.
1) We must be honest with ourselves – confront our on biases and ethnocentric attitudes.
2) We should question the contents of our stereotypes and check against our actual interactions with out-group members.
3) We should understand how our negative images concerning out-group members affects our biased attitudes and interactions.
4) Use the principle of heterogeneity to break down the broad social categories.
5) We should use mindful qualifying language when describing out-group/others’ behaviors.
6) We should put ourselves in frequent inter-group contact situations to become comfortable with group-based differences.
Three Basic Features
1) Language names experiences which determines what is socially recognized
2) Dominant discourse silences, or mutes, groups that are not in society’s mainstream – often are invisible to Dominant Culture
3) Out-groups react to being muted in different fashions