SOCIAL INTERACTION : PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION IN PSYCHOLOGY

SOCIAL INTERACTION : PREJUDICE AND  DISCRIMINATION IN PSYCHOLOGY

social interactions with others, or the relationships between people, both casual and intimate.

PREJUDICE AND  DISCRIMINATION

We’ve seen how stereotypes, a set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular social category or group, can be formed by using only superficial information about that person or group of people. When a person holds an unsupported and often negative stereotyped  attitude about the members of a particular social group, it is called prejudice.

        When prejudicial attitudes cause members of a particular social group to be treated differently than others in situations that call for equal treatment, it is called    discrimination. Prejudice is the attitude, and discrimination is the behavior that can result from that attitude.

          In other words, discrimination can be controlled and in some cases eliminated, but the prejudicial attitude that is responsible for the discrimination cannot be so easily controlled or eliminated.

TYPES OF  PREJUDICE AND  DISCRIMINATION

There are many kinds of prejudice. There are also many kinds of discrimination that occur as a result of prejudice. There’s  ageism, or prejudicial attitudes toward the elderly or teenagers (among others); sexism; racism, or prejudice toward those from different ethnic groups; prejudice toward those from different religions, those from different economic levels, those who are overweight, those who are too thin, or those who have a different sexual orientation. Prejudice can also vary in terms of what type of people or groups make  the most likely targets. In any society, there will always be in-groups and outgroups, or “us” versus “them.” The in-group is all the people with whom a particular person identifies and the out-groups are everyone else (Brewer, 2001; Hewstone et al., 2002; Tajfel & Turner, 1986).

           Once an in-group is  established, prejudice  toward and discriminatory treatment  of the out-group or groups soon follow, causing stress and possible negative impact on the health of the out-group members (Brewer, 2001; Forsyth et al., 2014). Members of the out-groups  are usually going to become stereotyped according to some superficial characteristic, such as skin color or hair color, and getting rid of a stereotype once formed is difficult at best ( Cameron et  al., 2001; Hamilton & Gifford, 1976). Microaggressions, the seemingly minor insults and negative exchanges that members of the dominant culture often use toward minorities,  add to the discriminatory treatment. Microaggressions are not as blatant as someone using a racial or gender-biased epithet, but are more subtle statements  that might repeat a stereotyped idea or that minimize the reality of discrimination (Sue, 2010). For example, a professional woman who is told by a supervisor that she  needs to change her hairstyle because it is unprofessional may be seen as experiencing microaggression from the supervisor.

SCAPEGOATING:  Conflicts between groups are usually greater when there are other pressures or stresses going on, such as war, economic difficulties, or other misfortunes. When such pressures exist, the need to find a  scapegoat becomes stronger. A scapegoat is a person or a group, typically a member or members of an out-group, who serves as the target for the frustrations and negative emotions of members of  the in-group.

HOW  PEOPLE  LEARN AND  OVERCOME PREJUDICE

ORIGINS OF  PREJUDICE : social  cognitive theory  (using cognitive processes in relation  to understanding the social world), prejudice  is seen as an attitude that is formed as other attitudes are formed, through direct instruction, modeling, and other social influences on learning.

REALISTIC  CONFLICT THEORY  This theory  of prejudice states that increasing prejudice  and discrimination are closely tied to an  increasing degree of conflict between the in-group and the out-group when those groups are seeking a common resource, such as land or available jobs (Horowitz, 1985; Taylor & Moghaddam, 1994).

SOCIAL  IDENTITY  THEORY  In this theory, three processes are responsible for the formation of a person’s identity within a particular social group and the attitudes, concepts, and behavior that go along with identification with that group (Tajfel  & Turner, 1986; Richard et al., 2015).

           The first process  is  social  categorization,  as people assign categories to others (such as black, white, student, teacher, and so on) to help organize information about those others, people also  assign themselves to social categories to help determine how they should behave.

             The second element social identity is the part of the self-concept that includes the view of oneself as a member of a particular social group within the social category—typically, the in-group.

          The third aspect  social comparison, Festinger’s (1954) concept in which people compare themselves favorably to others to improve their  own self-esteem: “Well, at least I’m better off than that person.” Members of the outgroup make handy comparisons.

STEREOTYPE  VULNERABILITY  refers to the effect that a person’s knowledge of another’s stereotyped opinions can have on that person’s behavior (Osborne, 2007; Steele, 1992, 1997).when people are aware of stereotypes  that are normally applied to their own group by others, they may feel anxious about behaving in ways that might support that stereotype. This fear results in anxiety and self-consciousness that have negative effects on their performance in a kind of  SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY, or the effect that expectations can have on outcomes.

         Stereotype  vulnerability  is highly related  to stereotype threat,  in which members of a stereotyped group are made anxious and wary of any situation in which their behavior might confirm a stereotype (Abdou et al., 2016; Hartley & Sutton, 2013; Hyde & Kling, 2001; Steele, 1999).Similar effects  of stereotype threat on performance have been found in women (Gonzales et al., 2002; Steele, 1997; Steele et al., 2002) and for athletes in academic settings (Yopyk & Prentice, 2005).

OVERCOMING  PREJUDICE

 The best weapon against prejudice is education: learning about people who are different from you in many ways. The best way to learn about others is to have direct contact with them and to have the opportunity to see them as people rather than “as outsiders or strangers.”  Intergroup contact is very common in college settings, for example, where students and faculty from many different backgrounds live, work, and study together.

EQUAL STATUS CONTACT, in which they were all in the same situation with neither group holding power over the other. Equal status contact has been shown to reduce prejudice and discrimination, along with ongoing, positive cooperation.  It appears that personal involvement with people from another group must be cooperative and occur when all groups are equal in terms of power or status to have a positive effect on reducing prejudice (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2000; Robinson & Preston, 1976).

JIGSAW CLASSROOM : “students have to work together to reach a specific goal. Each student is given a “piece of the puzzle,” or information that is necessary for solving the  problem and reaching the goal (Aronson et al., 1978; Clarke, 1994). Students then share their information with other members of the group. Interaction among diverse students  is increased, making it more likely that those students will come to see each other as partners and form friendly relationships rather than labeling others as members of an out-group and treating them differently. This technique works at the college level as well as in the lower school grades (Johnson et al., 1991; Lord, 2001).