ATTRIBUTION MEANING,HEIDER THEORY, CAUSE AND BIAS IN PSYCHOLOGY

ATTRIBUTION MEANING,HEIDER THEORY, CAUSE AND BIAS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

ATTRIBUTION

    The process of explaining one’s own behavior and the  behavior of others.

CAUSES OF BEHAVIOUR  : Attribution theory  was originally developed by social psychologist Fritz Heider (1958) as a way of not only explaining why things happen but also why people choose the particular explanations of behavior that they do. There are basically two kinds of explanations— external and internal causes.

   1)When the cause of behavior is assumed to be from external sources, such as the weather,  traffic, educational opportunities, and so on, it is said to be a situational cause.For example, if John is late, his lateness might be explained by heavy traffic or car problems.

  2) if  the cause of behavior is assumed to  come from within the individual, it is called a  dispositional cause. In this case, it is the person’s internal personality characteristics  that are seen as the cause of the observed behavior.

    There’s  an emotional component  to these kinds of attributions  as well. When people are happy in a marriage, for example, researchers have found that when a spouse’s behavior has a positive effect, the tendency is to attribute it to an internal cause (“He did it because he wanted me to feel good”). When the effect is negative, the behavior is attributed to an external  cause (“She must have had a difficult day”). But if the marriage is an unhappy one, the opposite attributions occur: “He is only being nice because he wants something from me” or “She’s being mean because it’s her nature to be crabby” (Fincham et al., 2000; Karney & Bradbury, 2000).

The best-known attributional bias is the  FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR, which is the tendency for people observing someone else’s actions to overestimate the influence of that person’s internal characteristics on behavior and underestimate the influence of the situation. In explaining our own behavior, the tendency to use situational attributions instead  of personal is called the actor–observer bias because we are the actor, not the observer. In other words, people tend to explain the actions of others based on what “kind” of person they are rather than looking for outside causes, such as social influences or situations (Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007; Harman, 1999; Jones & Harris, 1967; Leclerc  & Hess, 2007; Weiner, 1985).

         One study has found that attribution of motive may also create conflict between groups (Waytz et al., 2014). The study compared Israelis and Palestinians in the    Mideast as well as Republicans and Democrats in the United States. Obviously, these groups continue to experience a great deal of animosity, conflict, and an unwillingness to shift from long held beliefs. Over the course of five studies, in which participants were asked to rate the motives of others for engaging in conflict, researchers found that each side felt that their side  was motivated by love more than hate but that the other side’s motivating force was hate. Calling this idea motive attribution asymmetry, the researchers suggest that this is at least one reason compromise and negotiation are so difficult to obtain—if the other side hates you, you believe them to be unreasonable and negotiations impossible.

    

IMPRESSION FORMATION IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

IMPRESSION  FORMATION IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

IMPRESSION  FORMATION :When one person meets another for the first time, it is the first opportunity either person will  have to make initial evaluations and judgments about the other. That first opportunity is a very important one in  impression formation, the forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person. Impression formation includes assigning the  other person to a number of categories and drawing conclusions about what that person is likely to do—it’s really all about prediction.

  There is a  primacy effect  in impression formation: The first time people meet someone, they form an impression of that person, often based on physical appearance alone, that persists even though they may later have other contradictory information about that person (DeCoster & Claypool, 2004; Lorenzo et al., 2010; Luchins, 1957; Macrae & Quadflieg, 2010).

SOCIAL CATEGORISATION  One of the processes that occur when people meet someone  new is the assignment of that person to some kind of  category or group. This assignment is usually based on characteristics the new person has in common with other people or groups with whom the perceiver has had prior experience. This  social categorization is mostly automatic and occurs without conscious awareness of the process (Macrae & Bodenhausen, 2000; Vernon et al., 2014). Although this is a natural process (human beings are just born categorizers, sometimes it can cause problems.

STEREOTYPE, a belief that a set of characteristics is shared by all members of a particular social category (Fiske, 1998).  Stereotypes (although not always negative) are very limiting, causing people to misjudge what others are like and often to treat them differently as a result.

          Social categorization does have an important place in the perception of others. It allows people to access a great deal of information that can be useful about others, as well as helping  people remember and organize information about the characteristics of others (Macrae & Bodenhausen, 2000). The way to avoid falling into the trap of negatively stereotyping someone is to be aware of existing stereotypes and apply a little critical thinking: “Okay,  so he’s a guy with a lot of piercings. That doesn’t mean that he’s overly aggressive—it just means he has a lot of piercings.”

IMPLICIT  PERSONALITY  THEORIES  The categories into which people place others are based on something called an  implicit personality theory. Implicit personality theories are sets of assumptions  that people have about how different types of people, personality traits, and  actions are all related and form in childhood (Dweck et al., 1995; Erdley & Dweck,  1993; Plaks et al., 2005).

       E.g.- idea that happy people are also friendly people and people who are quiet are shy.  Although these assumptions or beliefs are not necessarily true, they do serve the function of helping organize  schemas, or mental patterns that represent what a person believes about certain “types” of people.The schemas formed in this way can easily become stereotypes when people have limited experience with others who are different from them, especially in superficial ways such as skin color or other physical characteristics (Levy et al., 1998).

       There is a test designed to measure the implicit attitudes that make up one’s implicit personality theory, called the Implicit  Association Test, or IAT (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995; Greenwald et al., 1998). The test, taken by computer, measures the degree of association between  certain pairs of concepts.

Attitude meaning, components, formation and change in psychology

Attitude meaning, components, formation and change in psychology

ATTITUDE  can  be defined  as a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, person, object, or situation ( Triandis, 1971). This tendency, developed through people’s experiences as they live and work with others, can affect the way they behave toward those ideas, people, objects, and situations and can include opinions, beliefs, and biases. Attitudes influence the way people view these things  before they’ve actually been exposed to them (Petty et al., 2003).

THE  ABC MODEL OF  ATTITUDES

Attitudes are actually made up of three different parts,  or components,

AFFECTIVE  COMPONENT  The  affective component  of an attitude is the way a person feels toward the object, person, or situation.  Affect is used in psychology to mean “emotions” or “feelings,” so the affective component is the emotional component. For example, some people might feel that country music is fun and uplifting.

BEHAVIOUR  COMPONENT  The  behavior component  of an attitude is the action that a person takes in regard to the person, object, or situation. For example, a person who feels that country music is fun is likely to listen to a country music station, buy country music MP3s, or go to a country music concert.

COGNITIVE  COMPONENT  The  cognitive component  of an attitude is the way a person thinks about himself or herself, an object, or a situation. These thoughts, or cognitions, include beliefs and ideas about the focus of the attitude. For example, the country music lover might believe that country music is superior to other forms of music.

ATTITUDE  FORMATION

 Attitude formation is the result of a number of different influences with only one thing in common: They are all forms of learning.

DIRECT  CONTACT One way in which attitudes are formed  is by direct contact with the person, idea, situation, or object that is the focus of the attitude. For example, a child who tries and dislikes brussels sprouts will form a negative attitude about brussels sprouts.

DIRECT  INSTRUCTION  Another way attitudes are formed is through direct instruction, either  by parents or some other individual. Parents may tell their children  that smoking cigarettes is dangerous and unhealthy, for example.

INTERACTION WITH  OTHERS  Sometimes attitudes are formed because the person is around  other people with that attitude. If a person’s friends,  for example, all hold the attitude that smoking is cool, that person is more likely to think that smoking is cool as well (Brenner, 2007; Eddy et al., 2000; Hill, 1990; Shean et al., 1994).

VICARIOUS  CONDITIONING (OBSERVATIONAL  LEARNING)  Many attitudes are learned through the observation of other people’s actions and reactions to various objects, people, or situations. Just as a child whose mother shows a fear of dogs may develop a similar fear.

ATTITUDE CHANGE:  THE ART OF PERSUASION

The art of persuasion : the process  by which one person tries to change the  belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument,  pleading, or explanation.

    Persuasion is not a simple matter. There are several factors that become important in predicting how successful any persuasive effort at attitude change might be. These factors include the following:

• Source: The  communicator  is the person delivering the message. There is a strong tendency to give more weight to people who are perceived as experts, as well as those who seem trustworthy, attractive, and similar to the person receiving the message  (Eagly & Chaiken, 1975; O’Keefe, 2009; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986, 1996; Priester & Petty, 1995).

• Message: The actual message should be clear and well organized (Booth- Butterfield, 1996). It is usually more effective to present both sides of an argument to an audience that has not yet committed to one side or the other (Crowley & Hoyer, 1994; O’Keefe, 2009; Petty & Cacioppo, 1996; Petty et al., 2003). Messages that are directed at producing fear have been thought to be more effective if they produce only a moderate  amount of fear and also provide information about how to avoid the fear-provoking consequences (Kleinot & Rogers, 1982; Meyrick, 2001; Petty, 1995; Rogers & Mewborn, 1976). More recent research suggests that fear messages with a higher amount of fear may be very effective when they not only provide information about how to avoid the consequences but also stress the severity of those consequences, particularly among women (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).

• Target  Audience: The characteristics of the people who are the intended target of the message of persuasion are also important in determining the effectiveness  of the message. The age of the audience members can be a factor, for example. Researchers have found that people who are in  the young adult stage of the late teens to the mid-20s are more susceptible to persuasion than are older people (O’Keefe, 2009; Visser & Krosnick, 1998).

• Medium: The form through which a person receives a message is also important. For example, seeing and hearing a politician’s speech on television may have a very different effect than simply reading about it in the newspaper or online. The visual impact of the television coverage is particularly important because it provides an opportunity for the source of the message to be seen as attractive, for example.

THE  ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL  OF PERSUASION : assumed that people either elaborate (add details and information) based on what they hear (the facts of the message), or they do not elaborate at all, preferring to pay attention to the surface characteristics of the message (length, who delivers it, how attractive the message deliverer is, etc.).Two types of processing are hypothesized in this model:

CENTRAL ROUTE PROCESSING type of information processing that involves attending to the content of the message itself.

PERIPHERAL ROUTE PROCESSING type of information processing that involves attending to factors not involved in the message,  such as the appearance of the source of the message, the length of the message, and other non content factors.

COGNITIVE  DISSONANCE:  WHEN ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR CLASH

cognitive dissonance sense of discomfort or distress that occurs  when a person’s behavior does not correspond to that person’s attitudes.(Dissonance  is a term referring to an inconsistency or lack of agreement.)

        When people experience cognitive dissonance, the resulting tension and arousal are unpleasant,  and their motivation is to change something so that the unpleasant feelings and tension are reduced or eliminated. There are three basic things that people can do to reduce cognitive dissonance:

1. Change their conflicting behavior to make it match their attitude.

2. Change their current conflicting cognition to justify their behavior.

3. Form new cognitions to justify their behavior.

AGGRESSION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN PSYCHOLOGY

AGGRESSION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN PSYCHOLOGY

AGGRESSION Unfortunately, violence toward others is another form of social interaction. When one person hurts or tries to destroy another person deliberately, either with words or with physical behavior, psychologists call it  aggression.

             One common cause of aggressive behavior is frustration, which occurs when a person is prevented from reaching some desired goal. The concept of aggression as a reaction to frustration is known as the    frustration–aggression  hypothesis  (Berkowitz, 1993; Miller et al., 1941). Many sources of frustration can lead to aggressive behavior. Pain, for example, produces negative sensations that are often intense and uncontrollable, leading to frustration and often aggressive acts against the nearest available target  (Berkowitz, 1993). Loud noises, excessive heat, the irritation of someone else’s cigarette smoke, and even awful smells can lead people to act out in an aggressive manner (Anderson, 1987; Rotton & Frey, 1985; Rotten et al., 1979; Zillmann et al., 1981).

     Sigmund  Freud (1930),  believed that aggression  was a basic human instinct, part of our death instinct. Famed sociobiologist Konrad Lorenz (1966) saw aggression as an instinct for fighting to promote the survival of our species. In evolutionary terms, those early humans who were most successful in protecting their territory, resources, and offspring were probably more aggressive and so survived to pass on their genetic material (Buss, 2009b; Cosmides & Tooby, 2013). Modern approaches include explanations of aggression as a biological phenomenon or a learned behavior.

AGGRESSION AND BIOLOGY

some evidence that human aggression has, at least  partially, a genetic basis.certain areas of the brain seem to control aggressive  responses. The frontal lobes, amygdala, and other structures of the limbic  system, have been shown to trigger aggressive responses when stimulated in both animals  and humans (Adams, 1968; Albert & Richmond, 1977; LaBar et al., 1995; Scott et al., 1997;  Yang et al., 2010).

 There are also chemical influences on aggression. Testosterone, a male sex hormone, has been linked to higher levels of aggression in humans (Archer, 1991).This may help explain  why violent criminals tend to be young, male, and muscular. They typically have high levels of testosterone and low levels of serotonin, another important chemical found in the brain (Alexander et al., 1986; Brown & Linnoila, 1990; Coccaro & Kavoussi, 1996; Dabbs  et al., 2001; Robins, 1996). Glutamate and serotonin, neurotransmitters found in the brain, may also play a part in aggressive behavior (Takahashi et al., 2015).

    Alcohol does have an impact on aggressive behavior. Psychologically, alcohol acts to release inhibitions, making people less likely to control their behavior even if they are not yet intoxicated. Biologically, alcohol affects the functioning of many neurotransmitters and in  particular is associated with a decrease in serotonin (Virkkunen & Linnoila, 1996).

SOCIAL  LEARNING  EXPLANATIONS FOR  AGGRESSION

The social learning theory explanation for aggression states that aggressive behavior is learned (in a process called observational learning) by watching aggressive models get reinforced for their aggressive behavior  (Bandura, 1980; Bandura et al. the, 1961).

THE  POWER  OF SOCIAL  ROLES :  Some evidence suggests that even taking on a particular  social role, such as that of a soldier, can lead to an increase in aggressive behavior.  A social role is the pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is in a particular social position. For example, “doctor” is a social role that implies wearing a white coat, asking certain types of questions, and writing prescriptions, among other things. A deeply disturbing experiment was conducted by famed social psychologist Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971. The experiment  was recorded on film from the beginning to its rather abrupt end. About 70 young men, most of whom were college students, volunteered to participate for 2 weeks. They were told that they would be randomly assigned the social role of either a guard or a prisoner in the experiment. The “guards” were given uniforms and instructions not to use violence but to maintain control of the “prison.” The “prisoners” were booked at a real jail, blindfolded, and transported to the campus “prison,” actually the basement of one of the campus buildings. On Day 2, the prisoners staged a revolt (not planned as part of the experiment), which was quickly crushed by the guards. The guards then became increasingly more aggressive, using humiliation to control and punish the prisoners. For example, prisoners were forced to clean out toilet bowls with their bare hands. The  staff observing the experiment had to release five of the prisoners who became so upset that they were physically ill. The entire experiment was canceled on the sixth day (Zimbardo, 1971). The conclusions of Zimbardo and his colleagues highlighted the influence that a social role, such as that of “guard,” can have on perfectly ordinary people. Although history is full of examples of people behaving horribly to others while filling a particular role, one need not travel very far into the past to find an example.

VIOLENCE IN THE  MEDIA AND AGGRESSION :  Bandura’s early study in which small children viewed a video of an aggressive model was one of the first attempts to investigate the effect of violence in the media on children’s aggressive behavior (Bandura et al., 1963).

    social psychologist Craig  Anderson and colleagues found clear and consistent evidence that even short-term exposure to violent media  significantly increases the likelihood that children will engage in both physical and verbal aggression as well as aggressive thoughts and emotions  (Anderson et al., 2003).

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

social interaction is prosocial behavior, or socially desirable behavior that benefits others rather than brings them harm.

ALTRUISM  One form of prosocial behavior that almost always makes people feel good about other people is altruism, or helping someone in trouble with no expectation of prosocial behavior socially desirable  behavior that benefits others. altruism prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself. reward and often without fear for one’s own safety.

         Sociobiologists, scientists who study the evolutionary and genetic bases of social organizations in both animals and humans, see altruistic behavior as a way of preserving one’s genetic material, even at the cost of one’s own life. This is why the males of certain species of spiders, for example, seem to willingly become “dinner” for the female mates they have just fertilized,  ensuring the continuation of their genes through the offspring she will produce (Koh, 1996).

       A brain region known as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is larger in individuals  who make altruistic choices,  particularly in the right hemisphere  (Morishima et al., 2012). This area was also more active during decision making that involved a greater cost of helping the individual.

THE  BYSTANDER EFFECT  refers to the finding that the likelihood of a bystander (someone observing an event and close enough to offer help) to help someone in trouble decreases as the number of bystanders increases. If only one person is standing by, that person is far  more likely to help than if there is another person, and the addition of each new bystander decreases the possibility of helping behavior even more (Darley & Latané, 1968; Eagly & Crowley, 1986; Latané & Darley, 1969).

         Diffusion of responsibility is the phenomenon in which a person fails to take responsibility for  either action or inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility (Leary & Forsyth, 1987). Diffusion of responsibility is  a form of attribution in which people explain why they acted (or failed to act) as they did because of others. Contrary to popular belief, bystanders who fail to act do not typically do so out of apathy (a lack of caring about the victim) but instead may care quite deeply.

   

FIVE  DECISION  POINTS IN HELPING  BEHAVIOUR

      

ROBERT STERNBERG'S TRIANGULAR THEORY OF LOVE IN PSYCHOLOGY

ROBERT STERNBERG'S  TRIANGULAR THEORY OF LOVE :LOVE IS A TRIANGLE

Dictionary definitions of love refer to a strong affection for another person due to    kinship, personal ties, sexual attraction, admiration, or common interests.

Robert Sternberg, a theory of what he determined were the three main components of love and the different types of love that combinations of these three components can produce (Sternberg, 1986, 1988b, 1997a).

The  Three Components of  Love

INTIMACY : refers to the feelings of closeness that one has for another person or the sense of having close emotional ties to another. Intimacy in this sense is not physical but psychological. Friends have an intimate relationship because they disclose things to each other that most people might not know, they feel strong emotional ties to each other, and they enjoy the presence of the other person.

PASSION  is the physical aspect of love. Passion refers to the emotional and sexual arousal  a person feels toward the other person. Passion is not simply sex; holding hands, loving looks, and hugs can all be forms of passion.

COMMITMENT  involves the decisions one makes about a relationship.  A short-term decision might be, “I think I’m in love.” An example of a more long-term decision is, “I want to be with this person for the rest of my life.”

THE  LOVE TRIANGLES  A love relationship between two people can involve one, two, or  all three of these components in various combinations. The  combinations can produce seven different forms of love, Attraction: Sternberg’s Triangular Theory.

    When intimacy  and passion are combined, the result is the more familiar  romantic love, which is sometimes called passionate love by other researchers (Bartels & Zeki, 2000; Diamond, 2003; Hartfield, 1987)

    When intimacy and commitment are the main components of a relationship, it is called  companionate love. In companionate love, people who like each other, feel emotionally close to each other, and understand one another’s motives have made a commitment to live together, usually  in a marriage relationship. Companionate love is often the binding tie that holds a marriage together through the years of parenting, paying bills, and lessening physical passion (Gottman & Krokoff, 1989; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1987).

       when all three components of love are present, the couple has achieved consummate  love, the ideal form of love that many people see as the ultimate goal.  This is also the kind of love that may evolve into companionate love when the passion lessens during the middle years of a relationship’s commitment.

INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION IN PSYCHOLOGY

INTERPERSONAL  ATTRACTION IN PSYCHOLOGY

There are some “rules” for those whom people like and find attractive. Liking or having the desire for a relationship with someone else is called  interpersonal attraction, and Several factors are involved in the attraction of one person to another, including both superficial physical characteristics, such as physical beauty and proximity, as well as elements of personality.

PHYSICAL  ATTRACTIVENESS : physical  beauty is one of  the main factors that  influence individuals’ choices for selecting people they want to know better, although other factors may become more important in the later stages of relationships (Eagly et al., 1991; Feingold, 1992; White, 1980).

PROXIMITY CLOSE TO  YOU : Proximity  refers to being physically near someone else. People choose friends and lovers from the pool of people available to them, and availability depends heavily on proximity.

             One theory about  why proximity is so  important involves the  idea of repeated exposure to new stimuli, sometimes called the  mere exposure effect.people are in physical proximity to each other, repeated exposure may increase their attraction to each other.

BIRDS OF A  FEATHER SIMILARITY : Proximity does not guarantee attraction, just as physical attractiveness does not guarantee a long-term relationship. People tend to like being around others who are  similar to them in some way. The more people find they have in common with others—such as attitudes, beliefs, and interests—the more they tend to be attracted  to those others (Hatfield & Rapson, 1992; Moreland & Zajonc, 1982; Neimeyer & Mitchell, 1998). Similarity as a factor in relationships makes sense when seen in terms of validation of a person’s beliefs and attitudes.

OPPOSITES  ATTRACT :Some people find that forming a relationship with another person who has complementary  qualities (characteristics in the one person that fill a need in the other) can be very rewarding (Carson, 1969; Schmitt, 2002). Research does not support this view of attraction,  however. It is similarity, not complementarity, that draws people together and helps them stay together (Berscheid & Reis, 1998; McPherson et al., 2001).

RECIPROCITY OF  LIKING : people  have a very  strong tendency  to like people who like them, a simple but powerful concept referred to as  reciprocity of liking.

INTERPERSONAL  RELATIONS ONLINE : No discussion of friendships and “liking” can be complete without some mention of the growing importance of social networking online. For example, which social network sites a college student selects may be related to racial identity and ethnic identity (Duggan et al., 2015).

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).