Psyc 331 #3

Imagined contact

"The mental simulation of a social interaction with a member or members of an outgroup" (Crisp & Turner, 2009) Mentally simulating a positive contact experience activates concepts normally associated with successful interactions with members of other groups i.e. feeling more comfortable and less apprehensive about the prospect of future contact with the group This reduced anxiety should reduce negative outgroup attitudes Turner, Crisp, and Lambert (2007) Participants spent a minute imagining a positive interaction with an elderly stranger, while participants in a control condition were asked to imagine an outdoor scene instead Subsequently, participants were asked how keen they would be to take part in a successive study involving an interaction with an elderly person or young person Results While participants in the control condition were biased in favour of young people, preferring to interact with a young person rather than an elderly person, those who had previously imagined interacting with an elderly person were equally happy to interact with an elderly person or a young person

Theories of aggression

1. Biological Psychodynamic theory Evolutionary approach 2. Social Frustration-aggression hypothesis Cathartic hypothesis Cognitive neoassociationalist model Excitation-transfer model 3. Learning theories Social learning theory 4. Meta-Theory General Aggression Model

Forms of aggression in society

1. Domestic violence 2. Sexual aggression 3. Terrorism Domestic violence Verbal or physical aggression towards any member of one's family Police receive 570,000 calls for help a year (Stanko, 2000) Committed by women as well as men People are more likely to be killed or physically assaulted by members of their own family than by anybody else (Gelles, 1997) Causes of sexual aggression Violent pornography Zillman & Bryant (1985) Male participants exposed to low, medium, or high levels of pornography Measured attitudes towards rape and violence Why does pornography increase tolerance for rape? Perpetuates the "Rape Myth" Women secretly enjoy being sexually assaulted Malamuth & Check (1981) Terrorism Why do people become terrorists? Traditional view Targeting individuals Criminal profiling Ali Moghaddam (2005) Need to look more broadly at the conditions that lead to terrorism Staircase to terrorism Staircase to terrorism Potential terrorists go through several stages before a terrorist act is committed At each floor the number of options that an individual can pursue reduces until there is no option remaining apart from the destruction of others

Person-centred determinants of aggression

1. Gender differences 2. Personality 3. Alcohol

Improving intergroup relations

1. The common in-group identity model 2. Crossed categorization 3. Multiple categorization

Percentage of respondents in recent national surveys who admitted being racially prejudiced...

1987 -- 39% 2001 -- 21% 2002 -- 31%

crowding

A high density of ppl can result in aggression. Leads to physiological arousal. Ppl also feel more anonymous and less accountable for their actions when in a group- deindividuation. Inmates who experienced crowding were more likely to interpret the behavior of others as being aggressive. According to the reciprocity principle- ppl are more likely to behave aggressively if they feel they have been provoked.

Authoritarian Personality

Adorno et al. (1950) Designed to explain fascism (the "F-scale") Based on Freudian theory Authoritarian individuals proposed to have unique characteristics Limitations Methodological problems Scepticism of Freud Lack of evidence Can't explain changes in prejudice over time Social dominance orientation Sidanius (1993) The extent to which individuals accept ideologies that attenuate intergroup status hierarchies Individuals high in SDO favour intergroup hierarchies, believing that high status groups deserve their dominance over low status groups

Disinhibition and aggression

Aggression exists despite Universal social norm that aggression and anti-social behaviour is bad Society punishes aggression via disapproval / law Rewards pro-social behaviour with approval, monetary rewards etc. Why? Disinhibition - weakening of the normative constraints which usually lead to avoidance of aggression 2 causes of disinhibition Deindividuation Dehumanization Failure to see others as unique human beings Reduced likelihood of empathy, guilt or shame Actions legitimized E.g. Abu Ghraib (2004) American soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad Sandbags put over head: anonymity Treated like animals: dehumanization What causes dehumanization? Delegitimization When groups develop extreme hatred of outgroup Outgroup seen as a threat to norms, values, very way of life of the ingroup (Bar-Tal, 1990) Allows dehumanization to be justified

Extended contact

An "indirect" form of contact Just knowing ingroup members who have outgroup friends can reduce outgroup prejudice Ingroup and outgroup members can get along well Lowers intergroup anxiety Leads to more positive expectations Wright, Aron, McLaughlin-Volpe, & Ropp (1997) Inspired by Sherif summer camp studies Stage 1: Ingroup solidarity Stage 2: Intergroup competition Stage 3: Extended contact 1 person selected from each group to work together Returned to original group to discuss experience Results At each stage of the experiment, participants were asked to divide $500 between the two teams. Participants showed intergroup bias after phase 1 Intergroup bias was even greater following the introduction of competition in phase 2 However, after learning about the positive intergroup contact experience of one group member in the final phase of the experiment, even participants not directly involved in the closeness-building task showed a reduction in intergroup bias Explanation - intergroup anxiety Like cross-group friendship, extended contact improves outgroup attitudes by reducing intergroup anxiety (Paolini et al., 2004; Turner, Hewstone, Voci, & Vonofakou, 2008) This is because observing a positive relationship between members of the ingroup and outgroup is likely to reduce negative expectations about future interactions with the outgroup Limitation? Extended cross-group friendship may be especially useful in situations where there is less opportunity for contact, as an individual does not need to personally know an outgroup member in order to benefit from it However -- what about very highly segregated settings, where people may not know anyone who has outgroup friends

cognitive neoassociationalist model

An explanation for aggression that also takes into account environmental conditions, or 'cues', that are generated by a frustrating situation and subsequently lead to aggressive behavior. Frustration generates anger, which in turn increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior would only arise if there were appropriate cues in the environment. Any object or person can provide a cue for aggression if it has been linked repeatedly with anger and aggression in the past, for example, a disliked person. People angry gave more shocks in the presence of weapons.

Gender differences in aggression

Appears to be the case that men are more aggressive than women Hormonal explanation Men have higher testosterone Berman et al. (1993) - men with higher levels of testosterone were more likely to show aggression Gender socialization Björkqvist et al. (1992) - while boys show a higher level of physical aggression, girls show a higher level of indirect aggression Self-esteem: people with low self-esteem are thought to use aggression and violence as a means of enhancing their self-esteem E.g. Gelles and Straus (1998) found that domestic violence frequently occurred after the perpetrator perceived there to be a threat to their perception of self-worth Alcohol consumption More alcohol = more aggressive A number of studies have shown that people under the influence of alcohol are more aggressive Giancola and Zeichner (1997) Participants believed they were playing a competitive game with participant in next room Told they won half the trials and lost half Delivered shocks to other participant after each trial Found that men who had drank alcohol delivered shocks of greater intensity to their opponent; they were more aggressive However, this effect only emerged when blood alcohol concentration was ascending lcohol expectancy theory Alternative explanation Suggests that drunken people behave aggressively because of their expectations about how alcohol will affect their behaviour Out-of-the-ordinary behaviour while under the influence will often be excused Lang et al. (1975) found that people who think they have consumed alcohol, but actually haven't, also behave more aggressively

Social learning theory

Bandura (1977) Based on operant conditioning principles of rewards and punishments shaping behaviour We are not born with innate behaviour We learn how to behave over time Observational learning rather than direct experience Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) 3-5 year old children play with toys - large inflatable doll (a "Bobo doll", a toy set, a mallet etc. Adult model enters while children watch either male or female, aggressive or non-aggressive model The aggressive model is physically and verbally abusive to the Bobo doll, while the non-aggressive model quietly assembles a toy set Social learning theory may help to explain the negative impact of the media Anderson & Bushman (2001): violent video games = aggression Evidence in society Jackass "Happy Slapping"

Cognitive neoassociationalist model

Berkowitz (1969; 1989) Frustrations leads to aggression only if there are appropriate cues in the environment Any object or person can provide a cue for aggression if it has been linked repeatedly with anger and aggression in the past Berkowitz & LePage (1967) Participants were given electric shocks by a confederate (increasingly their anger) and then given the opportunity to give the confederate electric shocks in return In the situational cue condition, a shotgun was placed on the table, while in the control condition there was nothing on the table Participants who were angry gave more shocks in the presence of weapons the weapons effect Weapons provide a cue increasing the likelihood that an act of violence will occur

Optimal distinctiveness theory

Brewer (1991) An elaboration on the idea that people have a need to differentiate their social identities People are motivated to satisfy the need for assimilation and the need for differentiation, and seek out groups that provide a balance in satisfying these two motives. Bias will result when the need for differentiation is not fulfilled

The contact hypothesis

Bringing together members of different groups should reduce prejudice (Allport, 1954), but only if there is: Co-operation Common goals Equal status Institutional support However, Pettigrew and Tropp's (2006) meta-analysis of 500 studies found that although contact which met Allport's original conditions led to the greatest reductions in prejudice, prejudice reduction still occurred in their absence

Self-anchoring theory

Cadinu & Rothbart (1996) The self can be used as an informational base in social judgement - social projection Social projection is stronger when the target person is similar to self people will project self attributes onto the ingroup to a greater extent than the outgroup Projection of positive self-beliefs onto others in one's ingroup leads to a perception that the ingroup possesses more favourable attributes than the outgroup

Skinner's operant reinforcement

Changes in behavior result from the response to stimuli in a person's environment. When a particular stimulus-response pattern is positively reinforced, by rewarding it rather than punishing it, the link between the stimulus and the response is strengthened.

Regulation of prejudice through socially interactive dialogue

Condor and colleagues (2006) Societal regulation of prejudice does not only happen at an individual level, but is a dialogic process, that involves between two or more people. While research typically focuses on strategies adopted by individual actors, these findings suggest that prejudice suppression may occur in a collaborative, interactive manner

realistic group conflict theory

Conflict between 2 groups is the result of the perception of scarce resources. The theory says that under conditions of economic deprivation intergroup conflict would increase. Supported by Sherif's summer camp experiment.

Limitations on cross-group friendship for reducing prejudice

Cross-group friendships only arise when there is the opportunity for contact (Turner, Hewstone, & Voci, 2007)Not useful in segregated settings! Hard to incorporate into a prejudice-reduction intervention

minimal group paradigm

Describes an experimental context that creates a formed basis for categorization and includes measures of evaluation of, and discrimination between the groups involved. why ppl award their group more money in random groups.

Multiple categorization

Encouraging people to use many different ways of categorizing people, rather than thinking about others all the time in terms of race, gender or age Rather than applying a negative stereotype to someone just because they are a member of a stigmatized group, people come to realize that social categories are fluid, flexible and dynamic, and that there are many different (and positive) ways in which anyone can be described Crisp, Hewstone and Rubin (2001) Asked university students to think about a number of different categorizations that they could use to describe someone from a rival university, other than this simple out-group status Thinking about the multiple different ways that others can be construed did indeed reduce intergroup bias Explanation The increased complexity of the intergroup context created by multiple categorization means that perceivers may be unable to use, or combine, social categorizations in any meaningful ways, creating a shift towards an individuated mode of processing, reducing stereotyping and alleviating intergroup bias

Implicit and explicit prejudice

Explicit attitudes: conscious, deliberative and controllable measured using self-reports influenced by social desirability Implicit attitudes: unintentionally activated by the mere presence of an attitude object, whether actual or symbolic measured using the implicit association test less likely to be influenced by social desirability than are explicit measures There is evidence that explicit and implicit prejudices influence behaviour in different ways (e.g., Fazio et al., 1995; McConnell & Leibold, 2001) Explicit prejudice conscious and deliberative behaviours e.g. being blatantly unpleasant to outgroup members Implicit prejudice subtle, indirect and spontaneous biased non-verbal behaviours e.g. avoiding eye contact, increasing physical distance from outgroup members, and hesitating during speec

Psychodynamic theory

Freud (1930) 2 innate instincts - Eros, an instinct for life and Thanatos, an instinct for death Aggressive behaviour is a result of the displacement of self-destructive tendencies onto other targets

authoritarian personality

Freud says this arises as a defensive reaction against over-strict parenting methods. The child is unable to express any natural hostility towards their parents and as such transfers this aggression elsewhere (to weaker, easier targets). Although it looks like this does not predict racism.

Emotional Sources of Prejudice and Discrimination

Frustration and prejudice- scapegoat theory Perceived competition for resources- realistic group conflict theory Self-enhancement motivation (blue eyes)- social identity theory A unifying model- integrated threat theory (Stephan & Stephan, 2000

The common in-group identity model

Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000 Introduce a superordinate category that encompasses both groups Changes "Us" versus "Them" distinctions to a more inclusive "We" Former outgroup members become ingroup members Gaertner, Mann, Murrell, and Dovidio (1989) Minimal group paradigm experiment Three conditions: two-groups versus one-group versus individuals Either sat round a table in a segregated (AAABBB) or integrated (ABABAB) pattern. Problem-solving exercise requiring either the original (segregated seating) group's decision, a decision to be given by each individual (integrated seating), or an aggregated group's decision (integrated seating) Participants in the two-group (segregated seating) condition retained their original group names (A vs. B) In the individuals condition participants had individual nicknames In the one-group (integrated seating) condition participants were given a new single name than included everyone who had been in the original two different groups Results Reduced bias was observed in both the one-group and individuals conditions compared to the baseline condition In the individuals, condition bias was reduced due to a decrease in the evaluation of the in-group decategorisation Bias was reduced in the one-group condition due to an increase in the evaluation of the out-group common in-group identity Bias is reduced because former out-group members come to be seen as new in-group members in the recategorized common in-group Limitations Hewstone (1996) questioned whether recategorization can overcome powerful ethnic and racial categorizations on more than a temporary basis May also be strong resistance to changes in category boundaries where the two groups differ in size, power or status (Brewer & Gaertner, 2001) Moreover, applying a common in-group identity to two groups may be particularly problematic for individuals who highly identify with their initial group membership, because they have a desire to maintain the distinctiveness of this group

Terror management theory

Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, (1986) Humans have a strong survival instinct but also possess the intellectual capacity to realize that one day we will die - a fact that can paralyze us with fear To manage our terror, we adopt a cultural worldview, allowing us to transcend death, either literally, through a belief in an afterlife, or symbolically, through lasting cultural achievement Reminders of our mortality will increase their need for that worldview, and therefore increase efforts to protect it from those who violate it Greenberg et al. (1990) Asked Christian participants to form impressions of Christian and Jewish individuals after heightening "mortality salience" Mortality salience predicted a more positive evaluation of the Christian individual and a more negative evaluation of the Jewish individual Limitations 1. It has been argued that the observed effects are due to general threat, rather than threat specifically related to death, which would make the theory's predictions more difficult to distinguish from social identity theory 2.It is context dependent: It can only explain negative outgroup evaluations when mortality is made salient

Implicit association test (IAT)

Greenwald, McGee & Schwartz (1998). Identify positive and negative words presented on computer Masked primes of in-group vs. out-group designated pronouns (i.e., 'we' 'us' vs. 'they' 'them') Measured accessibility (activation) of positive vs. negative affect via identification response times Typically demonstrates that people show an implicit intergroup bias - easier to associate their own group with positive stimuli, and the outgroup with negative stimuli

Subjective uncertainty reduction hypothesis

Hogg (2001) Elaboration of the motivational component of self-categorization theory Social categorization clarifies and defines social situations, providing a means for predicting how outgroupers will behave, and providing a set of prescriptive ingroup norms to guide perceivers The reduction of uncertainty caused by ingroup identification imbues people who are associated with this reduction (i.e. ingroup members) with a positive valence. Ingroup favouritism is explained as a reflection of the resulting perceived differences in intergroup positivity

terror management theory

Humans have a strong survival instinct but we also possess the intellectual capacity to realize that one day we will die. To manage this fear we adopt a cultural worldview that provides us with a sense of meaning. People who believe they are meeting the values of their cultural worldview have higher self-esteem because they are more confident about attaining immortality in some form. People in the threat Muslim study rated Muslims worse in how much they liked them but in the control and annihilation they rated them the same. learning about the out-group death led to less death anxiety in the in-group

frustration-aggression hypothesis

If aggression cannot be directly targeted at the cause of the frustration because they are too physically or socially powerful, or because the cause is a situation rather than a person, it may be redirected onto a more realistic target. Hovland and Sears proposed that the frustration caused by economic downturn (a situational) would produce aggressive impulses that would be directed at vulnerable targets like minority groups.

Social disadvantage - relative deprivation

If an individual or group feels that they are being unjustly disadvantaged compared to others, and believes they cannot improve this through legitimate means, they may instead act aggressively E.g. riots

relative deprivation

If an individual or group feels they are being unjustly disadvantaged when compared to another group or individual and believes they are unable to improve their disadvantaged position they may instead act aggressively.

Ambivalent sexism

Involves holding both hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes towards women simultaneously May help to explain why sexism has been hard to counteract; it may be harder to show someone that their negative stereotype is unjustifiable when they argue that they do have a positive view of women

cultural influence on aggression

It is easier to investigate the effects of culture on aggression within a particular society rather than between societies. culture of honor- the deep seated belief that men need to protect their assets, including their property and integrity, by resorting to violence.

Crossed categorization

Making two bases for group membership simultaneously salient E.g. for a British White person, rather than thinking about their relationship with the Asian community as just White versus Asian, they might be encouraged to think of both groups along a second categorical dimension, for example nationality Results in four groups: the double in-group, which is an in-group on both dimensions; a double out-group; and two crossed conditions (mixed in-group/out-group and out-group/in-group) Categorization on one dimension leads to accentuation of differences between, and accentuation of similarities within categories (Doise, 1978) Thus, when categories are crossed, these processes should work against each other (Deschamps & Doise, 1978) leading to a reduction in differentiation One cannot be biased against "them" if "they" are not seen as psychologically distinct from "us" Limitations For every shared identity that is made salient, a non-shared identity might also be highlighted, resulting in a potential exacerbation of prejudice towards "double out-groups" The approach suggests that the in-group and out-group share just one additional basis for categorization. However, this may not be an accurate reflection of the increasingly multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial world in which we now live, where many different and varied ways of defining ourselves and others are available

Subculture of violence

More specific minority groups within a mainstream culture who show particularly high levels of aggression and violence Perceive aggression to be a legitimate lifestyle choice which will enable them to improve their status and power within wider society Aggression is directed at both outgroup members and ingroup members E.g. Sicilian Mafia in Italy

Excitation-transfer model

Non-specific arousal (i.e. not just anger) can inadvertently influence aggression We differentiate arousal by labelling it depending on external cues Arousal in one situation can transfer to an unrelated situation - residual arousal - increasing the likelihood that we will behave aggressively in another situation

Belief similarity

One criticism of the original Tajfel et al. (1971) minimal group paradigm experiment was that allocation to the two groups was not, in fact, entirely minimal, but that there was a basis for belief similarity that could have accounted for liking Billig & Tajfel (1973) replicated the minimal group studies, investigating categorization by coin-toss (truly minimal) vs. similarity (you all liked the same painters)

alcohol expectant theory

People hold certain expectancies about how alcohol affects behavior; we generally believe that alcohol leads ppl to be more extraverted, less inhibited and more aggressive. For this reason we are aware that out-of-the-ordinary behavior while under the influence of alcohol will often be excused; alcohol is to blame instead of the individual. Ppl think they can get away with it. Although recent literature casts doubts on this effect.

Situation-centred determinants of aggression

Physical environment Temperature Crowding Noise Social disadvantage Cultural influence Temperature Heat = Hot weather = increase in violent crimes (Anderson & Anderson, 1984, Carlsmith & Anderson, 1979; Cohn, 1999) Curvilinear relationship Cohn & Rotton (1997) - the hotter the weather, the more assaults there were, but as temperature topped 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the number of assaults began to decrease Relationship does not hold for all types of crime - the link between aggression and heat is likely to be stronger for affective aggression than instrumental aggression (Anderson et al., 1997) Crowding High density of people can result in aggression Increases physiological arousal, stress, irritation and frustration People feel anonymous and therefore less accountable for their actions when in a crowd, decreases accountability Lawrence and Andrews (2004) looked at crowded prisons and found that inmates who experienced crowding were more likely to interpret behaviour of others as aggressive - changes in perceptions may contribute to the outbreak of aggression (reciprocity principle) Noise The presence of unwanted sound, particularly when it is too loud or unpredictable, can lead to aggression Like heat and crowding, noise increases physiological arousal and feelings of stress Glass and Singer (1973) Maths task under noisy or quiet conditions Participants in the noisy condition made more mistakes on a proof-reading task and felt more frustrated

Social identity complexity

Roccas and Brewer (2002) Related to the concept of multiple categorization, social identity complexity refers to the degree of overlap perceived to exist between groups of which a person is simultaneously a member Brewer and Pierce (2005) have shown that higher levels of social identity complexity (more cross-cutting category memberships) are associated with greater outgroup tolerance, including greater support for affirmative action and multiculturalism Applications The multiple categorization approach has been applied to educational settings The categorization process is somewhat rigid during early childhood (Piaget, 1965). In order to try to better develop the ability to see others as being potentially classifiable along multiple dimensions, Bigler and Liben (1992) created a task through which primary school children were taught to classify along multiple dimensions Every day for one week, children were given 12 pictures of men and women engaging in stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine occupations Children then practiced sorting these pictures along both gender and occupation dimensions. Results showed that participants who had acquired multiple classification skills through the intervention showed significantly less gender stereotyping than participants who had not acquired multiple classification skills

Realistic conflict theory

Sherif's findings supported Realistic conflict theory (Levine & Campbell, 1972) which suggests that conflict between groups is the result of the perception of scarce resources - i.e. once competition had been introduced at Stage 2, conflict and examples of ingroup bias dramatically increased

subjective uncertainty reduction hypothesis

Social categorization clarifies and defines social situations, providing a means for predicting how outgroupers will behave, and providing a set of prescriptive ingroup norms to guide perceivers. Group members are thus motivated to maintain the distinctiveness of their own groups from others in order to reduce subjective uncertainty,

cathartic hypothesis

Somewhat Freudian idea that when faced with a frustrating or irritating situation we experience a build up of negative emotions. In order to rid ourselves of these emotions, we need to act them out. Only then will we be able to return to our normal balanced stage.

The minimal group paradigm

Tajfel, Flament, Billig, & Bundy (1971) Participants allocated to two groups on an arbitrary basis Identities of people in other groups unknown Allocate money to people (via code numbers) in the two groups Could not allocate money to self Results A persistent tendency to allocate more points to their own group than the out-group Even though Meaningless categories No interaction between groups No past relationship

the three aspects of physical environment that have been shown to influence levels of aggression:

Temperature crowding noise

social dominance orientation

The idea that our societies are defined in part by implicit ideologies that either promote or attenuate (reduce) intergroup status hierarchies, and that ppl can vary in the extent to which they accept or reject these ideas that are ingrained in society.

Mere categorisation effect

This mere categorization effect has been replicated many times using many different ways to categorize people and many different measures of evaluation (Brewer, 1979; Mullen, Brown & Smith, 1992) Importantly, these findings suggest that there is a psychological component to prejudice, beyond any economic, political, or historical factor.

Self-categorization theory

Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell (1987) In a salient group context people depersonalize and take on the characteristics associated with the prototypic qualities of their groups Such self-categorization and intergroup discrimination are (a) context dependent and (b) involve a search for meaning

minimal groups paradigm

When people are split into two "minimal" groups, they have few means of differentiating themselves from the other group But... More money "Our group is better" more positive self-concept / social identity higher self-esteem In the minimal groups paradigm, category differentiation forms the cognitive basis for discrimination The desire to acquire a positive social identity provides the motivation to favour the in-group over the out-group However, despite the appeal of the social identity theory explanation, the strength of the mere categorization effect has meant a proliferation of theories as alternatives to the category differentiation and social identity perspectives

Prejudice and self-regulation

When someone becomes aware that they may have acted in a prejudiced way, they may feel guilty about this because it violates other beliefs based on shared egalitarian values Devine and Monteith (1999) argue that people who detect such discrepancies engage in a deliberate self-regulation process, to monitor and consistently inhibit prejudice-related thoughts replacing them with a low prejudiced response until ultimately they no longer think prejudiced thoughts or behave in prejudiced ways

Continuum of contact

While indirect forms of contact are more versatile because they can be used to improve attitudes even in segregated settings, attitudes based on direct experience are thought to be longer-lasting and more powerful than attitudes based on indirect experiences (Fazio, Powell, & Herr, 1983) Crisp and Turner (2009) propose a continuum of contact incorporating these different types of contact... In situations where there is high segregation, imagined contact may be the only viable intervention to help encourage attitude change When boundaries have begun to permeate, extended contact will work well to reinforce the impact of isolated contact encounters This may then lead to a cascade of positive direct interactions, with further benefits for intergroup relations

prejudice

a negative attitude or feeling held toward members of an outgroup. Intergroup discrimination is the behavioral manifestation of prejudice.

imagined contact

a type of indirect contact. The mental simulation of a social interaction with a member or members of an outgroup. ex. those who were told to imagine a positive interaction with an elderly person did not care about what interaction they were apart of later.

extended contact

a type of indirect contact. just the knowledge that other ppl in your group of friends have friends in the outgroup can reduce intergroup bias. the closeness building task with a member of the other group resulted in less intergroup bias in the splitting up of money.

aggression

a verbal or physical act intended to cause harm to people or property.

disinhibition

a weakening of the normative constrains which usually lead to the avoidance of a aggressive behavior.

General Aggression Model (GAM)

aggressive thoughts aggressive feelings physiological arousal Incorporates elements of other popular theories of aggression

psychodynamic theory

although the death instinct initially led to self-destructive behavior, it later become redirected from the self-towards others, as aggressive behavior. It was believed that aggressive behavior would occur as a result of a natural build up of tension in the body, which eventually needed to be released to restore balance. little evidence for this approach.

social identity complexity

an individuals subjective representation of the interrelationships among his or her multiple group identities. higher levels of social identity complexity are associated with greater output tolerance.

excitation-transfer model

arousal in one situation can carry over into a completely different situation. This is called residual arousal.

implicit attitudes

attitudes that are unintentionally activated by the mere presence of an attitude object, whether actual or symbolic. ex. seeing a person from another group, or seeing an object that reminds u of that group. these negative attitudes may lead to avoiding eye contact or sitting further away

explicit attitudes

conscious, deliberate and controllable and are usually captured by getting participants to report in a questionnaire how positive or negative their attitudes, feelings, or stereotypes are to members of another group. It is influenced by social desirability.

contact hypothesis

contact between members of different social groups under appropriate conditions can lead to reductions in intergoup bias. These factors must be in place: 1) social norms favoring equality must be in place. 2) contact must occur under conditions of equal social status. 3) contact must involve cooperation to achieve a common goal. Problems with the contact hypothesis 1) ex. a white and black person have a positive interaction but how can we be sure that they will be nice to other members of that ethnic group in other situations and they would have a more positive view of the other ethical group in general. 2) they might think one person is subtyping the other "they are an exception to the rule." This can be reduced by reminding participants of their group membership. 3) overly complex.

Evolutionary Approach

e.g., Simpson and Kenrick (1999) Aggression ensures we live long enough for our genes to be passed onto offspring Evident among animals Could also apply to humans? Limitations Difficult to test and prove We are not just aggressive to protect family member...

2 different types of sexism

hostile sexism- ex. the view that women are inferior, irrational, and weak. Benevolent- idealizing women into traditional roles like "homemaker" or "motherly". Ambivalent sexist men can simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes about different subcategories of women

category differentiation model

imposing a system of categorization on a series of previously unordered stimuli can lead to an accentuation of the differences between categories and a reduction of similarities within categories. We have an automatic reaction to think ppl in the same category are similar to one another and ppl in different categories to be different from one another. Ppl choose the maximum differentiation.

belief similarity

in the random assigning of groups paintings experiment they used a coin toss this time to completely randomize groups to test for belief similarity (they thought they had similar characteristic in the past experiment because they supposed preference for one of the artists) but even in coin-tossed groups there was still an ingroup bias and the individual gave their own group more money. (not as much bias as the previous experiment)

deindividuation

individuals see themselves as less identifiable and less accountable for their behavior than normal.

ethnocentrism

intensification of ingroup loyalty and increase in hostility towards the outgroup

personality's effect on aggression

irritability (the tendency to get angry very easily), rumination (the tendency to retain and dwell on feelings on those feelings of anger) and emotional susceptibility (the tendency to experience feelings of discomfort and inadequacy ) are consistent with aggression. There is also a link between aggression and agreeableness

crossed categorization

making two bases for group membership simultaneously salient. ex. instead of just white vs. Asians get other subtypes involved. white british vs. japanese asian. creates more intergroup biases because it reduces the amount of similarities between ppl. but if it is british asian and british white then there is something shared. When categories get too complex ppl may judge others but examining the person and not just their categories

Type A personality

may be particularly susceptible to aggression. usually ambitious, high achieving, perfectionists, always in a rush to achieve their goals and compete with others. Greater risk of heart disease, Type B is more relaxed, uncompetetive and creative. Type A administered a larger electrical shock. People with low self-esteem used to be seen as more aggressive but there is little support for this view. It seems that those with high self-esteem are more aggressive.

Alcohol on aggression

men who drunk more alcohol delivered shocks of greater intensity however this effect only emerged when blood alcohol concentration was ascending. When descending participants did not differ from the control participants. There is an increase in physiological arousal and this may lead to greater aggression. Also the impairment in psychological function may have resulted in an increase in aggressive behavior.

hardcore fans

more likely to start a violent confrontation with another fan. Less hardcore fans are likely to just feel sad.

dehumanization

occurs when ppl fail to see others as unique human beings.

2 types of racism

old-fashioned racism- blatant expression of negative and unfair stereotypes of others based on their category membership. aversive racism- defined by having both egalitarian attitudes and negative emotions towards members of a different group. (uneasiness, fear, discomfort). which result in feelings of shame and guilt. but black ppl were actually more willing to help a white caller in the experiment.

common ingroup identity model

one way of improving intergroup relations is through recategorization from a two group (us vs. them) to a one-group representation. To be reminded that we are truly a part of a overarching in-group

self-categorization theory

outlines how identity salience leads to depersonalization, assimilation to group norms, and self-stereotyping, and how these cognitive processes can impact on intergroup behavior such as prejudice and discrimination. People depersonalize and take on characteristics associated with the prototypical qualities of their groups. It is context dependent and involves a search for meaning

optimal distinctiveness theory

people are motivated to satisfy two needs which conflict with one another. These are the need for assimilation and the need for differentiation. Ppl seek out groups that provide a balance between these two things. Bias is seen when the need for differentiation is not fulfilled.

Social learning theory

people are not born with a ready-to use repertoire of behavior. Behavior could also be learnt indirectly by observing the behavior of others. Although behaviors can be learnt through direct experience, if people had to rely solely on their own previous behavior to inform them of how to act learning would be time-consuming, error-prone and limited to situations of which we have already had experience. (learning or modeling). In the toy study with an aggressive or non-aggressive model (teacher) boys showed more aggression than girls overall. boys were more likely to be more aggressive with a male model, girls more aggressive with a female model.

self-regulation process

people who are motivated to control their prejudices and inhibit prejudice-related thoughts replacing them with a low prejudiced response until ultimately they no longer think prejudiced thoughts or behave in prejudiced ways. People often defend absent others who are being accused of prejudice. And we make sure others present don't come across as prejudice.

self-anchoring theory

people's tendency to predict the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of others based on their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

emergent norm theory

ppl behave aggressively when they are in a group not because they ignore the societal norm of non-violence, but because they adhere to different group norm of aggression that may arise in a particular circumstance. When some members of a group start to behave aggressively, other members are likely to adhere to this behavior if they percieve it to be normative.

ingroup bias

ppl seeing their ingroup as more positive than their outgroup. also known as intergroup bias or ingroup favoritism.

cross-group friendship

ppl who have friends in an outgroup are likely to hold more positive attitudes towards that outgroup in general. reduces intergroup anxiety.

social identity theory

relationship between personal (an individual) and social (group membership) identity. People prefer to have a positive self-concept. If our groups are positively viewed and high status then we can view ourselves positively. We want to make our group better cause if they are better we are better. why we give more to our random assigned group.

evolutionary approach

social behavior exists to ensure that an individual's genes survive for long enough to be passed on to their offspring. The use of aggression in ensuring genetic survival is particularly evident in animals: male fight other males for mating rights and hunt for food to ensure their survival, while mothers protect their young by fighting off predators. This approach is hard to test because it has developed over thousands of years also people show aggression for other reasons than protecting loved ones.

implicit association test (IAT)

task that identifies the speed with which participants can categorize positive or negative things alongside ingroups or oldgroups. It is supposed to show an implicit intergroup bias. PPl find it easier to associate their own group with positive stimuli. Dr. Gibson had this experiment in class with old/young and positive negative words. Media coverage (such as seeing Barack Obama decreased anti-black bias and sometimes even led to pro-black bias

instrumental aggression

the aggression serve a different purpose. ex. a robbery.

positive distinvtiveness

the combined desire to be differentiated from outgroups, and to be differentiated in a way that is ingroup favoring.

temperature

the higher the temperature, the more aggressive ppl are- leads to physiological arousal. The hotter and humid the weather the more assaults. As temperature rises so does crime. But extreme temperatures do not result in extreme crime. even hot words like (roast, sweat) led to more aggressive fill-in-the-blanks than cold words. And ppl with hot words were also more likely to interpret an ambiguous behavior of a man as hostile or aggressive.

affective aggression

the purpose of the aggression is to cause harm

self-disclosure

the sharing of personal information between 2 ppl can explain why ppl who have cross-group friendships are less prejudiced. Helps generates trust and empathy.

The category differentiation model

used to explain the mere categorisation effect Doise (1978) Imposing a system of classification on previously unordered stimuli leads to accentuation of differences between categories and accentuation of similarities within categories (Tajfel & Wilkes, 1963) Category differentiation occurs for physical and social stimuli A basic cognitive organising principle designed to make sense of a complex world In the minimal group paradigm, participants use the only available basis to express differentiation (to simplify the context) - points allocationsParticipants prefer a maximal differentiation strategy over a maximal in-group profit strategy e.g., choosing 7/1 over 25/21 Differentiation from the out-group was most important Limitations? The category differentiation model cannot explain the consistent finding of in-group favouritism If all that was important was maximizing the difference between the ingroup and outgroup then why not allocate more points to the outgroup than the ingroup?

mere categorization effect

we have a bias towards our group even if it is by arbitrary categorizations. showed by labeling art pieces and giving ppl in your meaningless group more money.

stigmatization

when a person's social category puts them at a lower status than a dominant group and ascribe them to negative characteristics (or stereotypes)