Psychological Theories of Prejudice
The first experiment I would like to look at is Adorno et al (1950).
In this experiment Adorno hypothesised that a child's personality
especially their level of prejudice came from the way in which they
were raised by their parents. Adorno argued that if children were
brought up in an authoritarian environment, where the children were
not allowed to express themselves they would aim there anger towards
other parties. Adorno calculated that the most likely targets or
scapegoats for this pent up aggression would be weaker minority
groups, and would use these minorities as an ego-defensive prop. He
tested his, white, middle class, non-Jewish, American, male subjects
on two scales, the F scale that measured people's authoritarian and
anti democratic personality traits and the PEC scale that measured
peoples reluctance to social change. Adorno et al found that people
who scored highly on the PEC scale usually scored highly on the F
scale. Adorno concluded that this meant people who were raised in an
authoritarian manner were more likely to be prejudiced.
If this experiment was correct an obvious way to reduce prejudice
would be to ensure children were not brought up in strict
environments, as this would allow them to vent their frustrations
towards their parents and not towards scapegoats and minority groups
in later life. However there are too many criticisms in Adorno's
experiment for this to be correct. There is no explanation why some
people brought up in authoritarian households are not prejudice, also
there is no explanation for why people brought up in non-authoritarian
households can also b...
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... between the groups before the experiment starts. Sherif only has to
destroy a few weeks of bad feeling between the groups, where as in
Star and Minards experiment the pressure form social acceptance and
years of prejudice is too great for a common goal to unite the black
and white people after the goal is achieved. So we need society as a
whole to embrace super-ordinate goals and equal status contact, and
for society to frown upon and punish prejudice to reduce its impact.
Everything and everyone must be de-segregated and it must be seen as
the norm for every race creed and culture to play, learn and work
together. A good example of this comes from Bogatz and Ball (1971) who
found that white children who watched mixed race television programmes
like 'Sesame Street' had better attitudes towards blacks and
Hispanics.
Parrillo, then provides the last two theories of psychological prejudice: frustration and authoritarian personality as a closing statement. Bestowing upon sociologist Theodor W. Adorno and a few of his colleagues from University of California, Berkeley, they reflect a multitude of characterizations as to why these two factors has the greatest contribution to how a person’s chain of thought reflects based on where they were raised and also the experiences that they had encountered during their early childhood. While other influential sociologists and researchers like Edward Shils, he challenged the question that there is more to it than just the problems from early childhood experiences. We must also reconsider the social conflicts that have been happening without having to ignore what is actually affecting
In 1995, the Carnegie Corporation commissioned a number of papers to summarize research that could be used to improve race relations in schools and youth organizations. One way to fight against racism is to “start teaching the importance of and strategies for positive intergroup relations when children are young”(Teaching Tolerance,). Bias is learned at an early age, often at home, so schools should offer lessons of tolerance and
Two Ways to Reduce Prejudice Two ways in which prejudice can be reduced are Equal status contact and the pursuit of common goals. Deutsch and Collins (1951) carried out an early study of equal status contact. They compared two kinds of housing projects, one of which was thoroughly integrated with blacks and whites who were assigned houses regardless of their race, and the other was segregated. The residents of both housing projects were intensively interviewed and it was found that both casual and neighbourly contact were greater in the integrated housing with less prejudice among whites towards blacks.
There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that prejudice is a human flaw. According to Les Goodman, “You were so quick to kill, Charlie, and you were so quick to tell us who we had to be careful off. Well maybe you had to kill. Maybe Peter there was trying to tell us something. Maybe he’d found out something
Today, Americans may not recognize the substantial impact of integration, or at least at times, I don’t. In this way, racism and segregation are combatted. However, some people may still believe in segregation. The importance of integrating children’s education systems was, and still is, pivotal in combatting racism because in school, all children are equal regardless of personal beliefs.
While racial prejudice and racism may seem and sound similar, they are different. According to the Oxford Dictionary racism is “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races” (Racism); whereas, prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience” (Prejudice). An important difference between racial prejudice and racism is that prejudice is a part of individuals, and racism is a part of a society. Racism is far more powerful than racial prejudice, even though it takes racial prejudice for racism to exist. Racism is where a “racial group has the social power to act on racial prejudice and negatively impact the lives of another racial group” (Harvey & Allard, 2012, p. 72). Racism is far more impacting and damaging than racial prejudice, even though racism cannot exist without some form of racial prejudice being present. An example of racial prejudice would be to assume that African American teenagers tend to be thieves. An individual store owner may have such racial prejudice simply based on an unfounded preconceived opinion. The store owner may be more suspicious of African American teenagers when they shop at his store that that of White teenagers. Racial prejudice can also happen when a person sees a group of African American teenagers, and automatically views them as gangsters and trouble makers simply based on an unfounded preconceived opinion. An extreme example of racism is when African Americans were not treated as equals in many parts of America before and duri...
Throughout history, and in today’s society, race has been a debated topic. Even today the question about whether race influences intelligence, athletic ability, and creativeness is still discussed. Through scientific research it is known that race contributes nothing to how a person thinks, feels, or acts and that is it society that creates these standards. When looking into the past there was much controversy about blacks and their self worth. According to the Thomas Jefferson’s article “Notes on the State of Virginia” blacks and whites are naturally different and fixed by nature. In other words blacks are naturally not as intelligent as whites, but today’s knowledge argues, and proves, otherwise. There is also argument about the possibility that blacks are inferior to whites because of their environment. In the movie “Race, the Power of Illusion” teenagers of many different races and ethnic backgrounds were tested to determine how different they really are from one another. In the end, everyone finds out they may not be as different as originally thought. Society as a whole needs to realize we, as Americans, are more alike than we think. If everyone can get over skin color as a classification, then society will have overcome a huge barrier and the future for equality will become clearer.
Prejudice, the act of judging someone based on outward appearance or social standing. In the 1960’s Harper Lee wrote a book called To Kill a Mockingbird, about prejudice and how hard the times were. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many examples of prejudice showing how morally wrong it was. There are several examples of prejudice in the book: Tom Robinson because he is African American, Boo Radley because of his standing in their society, and the Cunningham Family because of how poor they were. The following paragraphs will discuss these examples.
Jr., Bernard E. Whitley and Mary E. Kite. The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination. Belmont: Cengage Learning, 2010. Web.
We live in a culturally diverse society where there are many differences among various racial and ethnic groups. When these different groups come into contact with one another they interact in many different ways. Prejudice and discrimination are key factors in understanding intergroup relationships. Competition, religious ideas, fear of strangers and nationalism are elements that contribute to prejudice. Many expressions of negative prejudicial attitudes, stereotyping and discriminatory behavior can have negative impact on the social relationships between dominant and minority groups. Many prejudices are passed along from child to parent and the influence of television and movies perpetuate demeaning portrayals about specific groups. Although prejudice continues to flourish, education plays an import role in combating prejudice and racism by providing courses and programs that help to recognize the distinction between various ethnic groups and develop an appreciation of these cultural differences.
Segregation has and still affects perceptions of Blackness inside and outside the Black community by making Black people see themselves as White people see them. Many of Black people have accepted the fallacy that they were inferior to White people at a young age, and Whites learned that Blacks were lower then Whites at a young age as well.
Racism and prejudice has been present in almost every civilization and society throughout history. Even though the world has progressed greatly in the last couple of decades, both socially and technologically, racism, hatred and prejudice still exists today, deeply embedded in old-fashioned, narrow-minded traditions and values.
If a young girl is walking alone through a park late at night and encounters three senior citizens walking with canes and three teenage boys wearing leather jackets, it is likely that she will feel threatened by the latter and not the former. Why is this so? To start off, we have made a generalization in each case. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Often, these stereotypical generalizations are not accurate. We are succumbing to prejudice by ?ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts?1.
Four main things that play into prejudice are the different levels of prejudice, self-justification, personality, and one’s frustration. There are different severities to each prejudice; some take it more seriously than others. Maybe it is a form of feeling good for some, feeling better than those around you. Having a prejudice is not the best way to go about handling a tough situation, but many have them. Personal experiences, jealousy, and hatred are just a few of the attributes that lye behind prejudices. Some may have been learned, and some may be just out of pure ignorance. No one was born to have negative feelings towards a group of “different” individuals. Yes, we are human and no one is perfect, but if prejudice were an innate behavior, all people of the same kind would feel the same way towards the other “excommunicated” individuals. Different people have been raised with different belief systems and cultural practices. If one was raised their whole life being told that people of this specific group were bad, they would obviously have the same feelings towards them. Whether it is back in the 1800s or now, people still have prejudices against those of other sexes, race and ethnicity, and religions. All in all, many prejudices stem from others’ pride, stubbornness, fear, hatred, or maybe even their own