Australian multicultural society involves the cultural and linguistic diversity, which allows lots of advantages in regard to economic, developmental, and other aspects. Undoubtedly, the coin has two sides. Racial, political, and educational issues emerged above a multicultural context which includes individual and society as a whole. All individuals have the rights to express their own culture and beliefs, as a result, intergroup frictions seems to be the grey side of diversity.
The expected improvement on attitudes towards minority groups and prejudice issues are always the topic (7). Addressing negative consequences of diversities is a challenge and various strategies are available. Recently, imagined contact becomes one of the solutions, and was particularly designed for reducing negative attitudes toward outgroups (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006).
The meta-analysis conducted by Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) proposed that extensive evidences support the intergroup contact, which based on actual contact experience, produces the effective influence on reducing both affective and cognitive forms of prejudices and bias, regardless of target group, age group, geographical area. However, Allport (1954) (cited in Pettigrew & Tropp, p.752, 2006) who introduced first intergroup contact theory, specified that effect of reducing intergroup negative attitudes could be maximally yield under the four optimal conditions: equal group status within the situation, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and authority support. Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) revealed that those conditions just facilitate the effectiveness but not necessary for the contact process.
Based on the operative and effective intergroup contact theory while facilitatory conditions may...
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...e pre- and post-tests are recommended, rather than a single posttest on manipulated participants, which will make more sense of how imagine contact works on participants with different individual characteristics, while still share same identity.
Overall, the imagined contact is an effect strategy on reducing negative attitude and desegregation, and raise the likelihood of future contact through cognitive way (3). It elicits the indirect impacts of social contact, which allows it to be an effective tool for practitioners and policy makers to promote tolerance to multiculturalism.
The future research direction could focus on different forms of administration which can be applied widely on different situations and populations, and address strategies to implements imagine contact more effectively on multicultural population to enhance tolerance of social diversity.
The modern society is increasingly becoming more intelligent. The progress against stigmas and stereotypes has been accelerating, but there will always be ignorance with every community to combat this acceleration. Despite the availability of education, the unaware and unfamiliar will always be present to a certain degree. It is universal truth, always an opponent to progress.
stage for the development of Australian cultural identity and the values, attitudes and beliefs of
Reynolds, H. (2005). Nowhere People: How international race thinking shaped Australia’s identity. Australia: Penguin Group
The integrated threat theory model consists of four types of threats that can lead to prejudice. These threats are: realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes. Realistic threats are posed by the outgroup and have several types of consequence and impact. They can either be threats of war, threats to political and/or economic power of the ingroup, and threats to physical and/or material well-being of the ingroup and its members. Symbolic threats is usually based on perceived group differences in morals, values, standards, beliefs, and attitudes. Symbolic threats are also threats to the ingroup’s worldview and these threats arise because the ingroup believes that its system of values are morally correct.
As said earlier, in one study researchers used different conditions to assess the differences in people’s behavior. The two conditions were the prejudice condition and the no prejudice condition. The prejudice condition involved one’s religion being mentioned. The participants were in a casual setting and thought that all the other men in the room were Gentiles and knew they were Jewish. After interacting and the experiment concluded, the men were asked to fill out a mood adjective check list, and rated themselves on positive and negative Jewish stereotypes and self- esteem traits. On the other hand, in the no prejudice condition religion and ethnicity were not mentioned which left the men with attribution to prejudice (Dion & Earn,
The most essential technique in overcoming and even unlearning bias is being educated. Learning that everyone has their own difference and it is difficult to “know” someone by looking at them. Intergroup contact is a common way to have all cultural and racial backgrounds collab and is a way to be comfortable around these diverse backgrounds. Treating one as an equal is essential to establish because it has been shown to reduce prejudice and discrimination. This is known as the equal status contact and has a positive effect on groups who desire to have no power over each
Much of the research on false consensus has demonstrated that people tend to over project how many members of their in-group are likely to share their attitudes and behaviors. This effect diminishes when comparing to an out-group. It is thought that this occurs because people feel that people who they do not consider to share a group identity with will likely have different basic attitudes and behaviors than they.
We live in a world of differences. Our world differs view with the people we encounter, the things we learn and the ways we perceive things . We are world of individuals where no person is exactly alike or no group of people is exactly alike. Society is made up of different cultures and religions. Most of us belong to some type of group, these groups give us comfort, we are always more comfortable with those who are similar to us. But when does this become detrimental? Our grouping and separation becomes detrimental when we are presented with someone with differences. The lack of integration within different cultures in today’s society is what keeps us grounded in our own ignorance. It is detrimental to the individual because it keeps us from
In our global economy requiring functional and respectful relationships between nations, prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially in diverse ones.
In today’s world, there are numerous places where people create a society that is full of diversity. Although these societies exist, we have people who do not have tolerance for others because of the differences among each other. These differences include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and more. In our society, there are also multiple prejudices which prevent us from understanding each other. The relationship between tolerance and prejudice is that if we promote tolerance, we slowly end prejudice. The only way in which we can live happier and healthier lives is if we let go of all the negatives and begin to understand one another.
Many often justify discrimination through the means of statistical evidence, claiming that groups that are stigmatized deserve their treatment by citing negative attributes about them. However, this paradox is frequently unresolved to even those who realize the fallacy in discrimination. Several researchers in social psychology, including Galen V. Bodenhausen and Jennifer A. Richeson, have offered potential reasons behind this happening; “It should come as no surprise that individuals’ attitudes and stereotypical beliefs affect the way intergroup interactions unfold. Indeed, individuals who harbor negative stereotypes about the group membership of their interaction partners often display behavior that conforms to their stereotypical beliefs”(Bodenhausen & Richeson, 361). This shows how those discriminated against are likely to adapt to their societal status, and thus often behave according to their respective stereotypes. From this, one can begin to infer that this paradox is a reinforcing cycle, and that prejudice forms as a result of discrimination. Building upon this trend, in the final chapters of the text, a Peters reflects on the trends and results derived from Jane’s exercises, and how it related to the act of discrimination itself; “But even more pernicious, [the exercise] also illustrates how the results of discrimination tend
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
After my first IAT in the beginning of the course, I attended an optional discussion with Dr. King and several other students where we had a chance to discuss the results of IAT and how we should go forward from there. During the discussion, we agreed that we should not feel guilty for having implicit biases towards certain people groups, but should acknowledge that we have those biases and strive to unlearn any negative preconceived notions that could potentially affect our interactions and relationships. Dr. King suggested that some things we could try are: 1) if bias is towards certain culture, get more exposure to that culture and learn more about it, 2) if bias is towards certain people group, get to know someone from that group on a personal level.
Multiculturalism has enabled the Australian society to underline the importance of higher values in life and idealism. It is caused by desire for a perfect social existence of the multicultural society in Australia.
In class, Professor Parker discussed that people who have contacts with people from various cultures tend to be more open-minded and less discriminating (Williams & Johnson, 2011). And I agree with it. There are different theories explaining how cross-group friendships play a role in enhancing the openness of people’s minds and in reducing discriminations. The first theory that Professor Parker mentioned in class is the self-expansion theory. It suggests that people have the motivation to expand their knowledge, and they can achieve this self-expansion by having moderate to close friendships with other people (Seger, Smith, Percy, & Conrey, 2014). I like to learn new things and always want to know more about people from different cultures. That is one of the reasons why I really enjoy hanging out with Beth. Even though Beth was born in the United States, her parents were from Nigeria, and she had been there before. So she knows a lot of Nigeria as well as the United States, and she loves to share with me. It increases my knowledge of African American, and gives me the sense of closeness towards them. The second theory is positive experiences, indicating that sharing with people from other groups to gradually realize that there are a lot of similarities between these groups (Seger, Smith, Percy, & Conrey, 2014), and thus it reduces discrimination. Since I had positive experiences with Beth, most of time I assume that