Exam 1 Stereotyping and Prejudice
Fascism
A political system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and racism and no tolerance of opposition
Which ethnic immigrant groups were identified as inferior? How/why?
African-Americans, Latinos, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Jewish people, lower socioeconomic classes; IQ tests were designed under racist motivations to label anyone non-white as intellectually inferior
Ethnocentrism
Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.
discrete
Distinct, separate
racial categories as socially constructed
N/A
Differences between the F scale and the RWA scale, similarities (Adorno et al. 1950)
RWA is skeptical about psychodynamic roots that F-scale supports; found to identify basically the same kinds of bigots and prejudice attitudes
Which two personality variables are most strongly linked to prejudice?
SDO and RWA
Role of social dominance orientation (SDO)
SDO is a measure of someone's desire to support group-based hierarchies and domination of 'inferior' gorups by 'superior' groups
Social dominance orientation (SDO) as an individual difference
SDO measures one person's sway towards group-based hierarchy, suggesting that one person can have more than the other
Authoritarian personality
a personality that is disposed to favor obedience to authority and intolerance of outgroups and those lower in status
SDO7
a recent revision of the SDO scale that specifically measures a person's preference towards power and resource inequality; measures dominance and egalitarianism
response set
a tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions
SDO-Egalitarianism (SDO-E)
anti-equality; preference for intergroup inequalities maintained by a network of hierarchy-enhancing ideologies, resource inequality; legitimizing ideologies
why and when did eugenics become less popular?
around world war 2 when nazis became big supporters of the eugenics movement, people started realizing how terrible it was
how do asian-americans categorize asian-white biracial individuals? why?
asian-americans view asian-white biracial individuals as white because asians view asian-white people's ability to pass as white as a threat becuase they fear they will be disloyal to asians
Results—average "mental age" of white draftees, immigrants' scores, comparisons with "Negro" scores
avg mental age of white draftees was 13, analysis of the test's results 'proved' that white americans were smarter than black americans
Why does Altemeyer (1996) refer to high RWA individuals as "equal opportunity bigots"? In what other theoretical frameworks is the same basic idea/result found regarding prejudice/oppression?
because they were equally prejudice towards anyone who wasn't a straight white male; the F-scale, or facism scale, was able to measure individuals who were anti-semetic and ethnocentric; the ethnocentrism scale and subscales related were, while incredibly offensive, accurate in detecting individuals with prejudice towards specific groups
How did approaches to researching prejudice change after the 1950's?
began to focus more on individual differences over psychodynamic
Assumed causes of individual differences and average group differences in intelligence
believed that intellect was heavily influenced by someone's ancestry, especially the fact that ancestries commonly viewed as inferior were less intelligent
What are the most commonly studied dichotomous categories? How is this inaccurate? Who is left out? (Dunham & Olson 2016)
black & white, male & female; anyone who doesn't identify with these categories or those who identify as somewhere between these categories
how do black americans categorize black-white biracial individuals? why?
black americans categorize black-white biracial individuals as black because of the common experience of discrimination they share.
historical background regarding race/ethnicity in each country - similarities and differences (Chen et al. 2018)
both brazil and US have histories of Native American displacement, European colonialism, and African slavery; america enforced hypodecent; believed that racial identity was biological and discrete; after slavery was abolished prejudice was heavily prevelant, 'separate but equal'; focus on ancestry brazil leaned more toward the root of encouraging interracial marriage after slavery to 'dilute' and disempower the large African brazilian population; encouraged self-whitening; focus on skin color and socio-economic status
Why are discrete dichotomous categories appealing to perceivers? (Dunham & Olson, 2016)
categories reduce uncertainty and simplify complexity for percievers
social dominance theory
complex societies and communities with excess resources ALWAYS organize themselves into hierarchies
Where were these studies conducted? What was the ingroup? What were the ethnic outgroups? (Guimond et al. 2003)
conducted in France; ingroup was white french people, outgroups were North Africans
dimensions/subscales of the f-scale (Adorno et al. 1950)
conventionalism: adherence to middle-class values authoritarian submission: obedience to idealized moral attitudes of the ingroup authoritarian aggression: anger towards people not following conventional values anti-intraception: opposition to the subjective and imagined superstition and stereotypy: using god to justify shit power and 'toughness': love of hierarchy and power figures destructiveness and synicism: general hostility projectivity: belief that wild crazy things happen in the world that are out of human control sex: belief that there are too many sexual 'going ons'
RWA scale
developed by Bob Altemeyer in 1981; Right Wing Authoritarianism scale; measures authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission, and conventionality
What is the modern scientific consensus on discrete racial categories?
discrete racial categories are a social construct developed to justify prejudice, colonialism, and oppression
Minimal groups research by Tajfel and others—typical methods, results (attitudes and resources)
divided groups based on minimal personal differences; caused people to like their group more than others; potential explanation for ethnocentrism
dichotomous
divided or dividing into two parts or classifications
hypodescent
encouraged in america; those who are mixed race are likely to be categorized as the outgroup
'self-whitening'
encouraged in brazil; the encouragement of interracial marriage and working to become whiter in order to move up in the racial hierarchy
Experiment 2—what dimensions were experimentally varied in the faces presented? How did Americans and Brazilians differ in which dimensions were given most weight in categorizing the faces? (Chen et al. 2018)
experiment 1 was only mixed race individuals shown to participants, experiment 2 varied in skin color and facial features brazilians relied more on skin tone to make categorizations, while americans relied more on facial features
Study in which researchers examined children's reactions to characters described with binary vs. graded trait labels (Dunham & Olson, 2016)
found that children would over or underestimate people based on which extreme they were more closely tied to
What are two similarities between Social Dominance Theory and the authoritarian personality explanation for prejudice?
found that people oriented towards power and hierarchy were more likely to be prejudice
Circumstances/methods, number of participants (Mass IQ testing of WWI draftees)
going into WW1, Robert Yerkes (psychologist and eugenics supporter) convinced the military that it would be helpful to make draftees take an IQ test; 2 million men were tested
ethnocentrism scale
has a bunch of subscales that are really offensive but also good at identifying those with prejudices towards specific groups
How is SDO linked to prejudice? Within which groups?
high SDO = high prejudice; high-status groups more likely to have higher SDO
Group differences in SDO?
higher status groups more likely to have higher SDO than marginalized groups (ex. fkn white people)
Historical and current examples of dehumanization
historically rationalized genocide, colonialism, and slavery; ex. calling marginalized groups of people animals, objectification of people based on race and gender
Unique experiences of multiracial individuals based on how they are perceived and how they perceive others (Dunham & Olson 2016)
hypodescent often occurs; multiracial individuals feel forced to choose a racial category despite preferring to be viewed as multiracial; they are judged more heavily than monoracial individuals; multiracial adolescents have been found to have a more positive well-being
Goals and assumptions of eugenics movement
improving society by encouraging people of 'superior' genes to reproduce and preventing those with 'inferior' biological traits from doing so
Experiment 3—what is the historical background regarding response to perceived potential threats to the social order by Black Americans vs. Brazilians? How did Americans with high SDO vs. Brazilians with high SDO alter their racial categorizations under "threat" to the racial status quo? (Chen et al. 2018)
in america, hypodescents becomes more prevelent in high SDO white americans when they feel the racial status quo is threatened thus enforcing the racial hierarchy. in brazil, racial fluidity allows for people to move up in social classes which are determined by race. high SDO brazilians, under threat, made fewer black categorizations (makes sense in relation to self-whitening encouragement); high SDO americans, under threat made more black categories and engaged in hypodescent to assert their dominance
Experiment 1—how did Americans and Brazilians differ in their categorization of multiracial faces? What influenced their categorizations? (Chen et al. 2018)
in brazil, people of all racial categorizations identified multiracial faces as 'mixed' most commonly (likely due to the flexible racial categorization that occurs in brazil) in america, black citizens identified them as black more commonly, white citizens viewed them as 'other' most commonly, and black-white citizens viewed them as mixed more commonly
How does the need for positive social identity lead to prejudice?
ingroup favoritism that that is associated with social identity causes people to favor the ingroup more than the outgroup; us-versus-them thinking
traits assumed to be inherited by eugenics movement
insanity, feeble-mindedness, criminal tendencies, alcoholism, epilepsy, and povery (pauperism)
When was Social Dominance Theory introduced? Who were the two psychologists who created it and conducted
introduced by Jim sidanius and felicia pratto in 1980s
Why are discrete dichotomous categories appealing to researchers? (Dunham & Olson 2016)
its easier to study and helps us understand why others like them so much
How did psychology students and law students differ in SDO? In prejudice? (Guimond et al. 2003)
law students had higher SDO (3.07 vs 2.4) and prejudice (2.59 vs 1.72) than psych students
Mack and Larry—life history, level of ethnocentrism, and opinions representative of high and low F scale scorers; what reasons does Mack give for disliking Jews; researchers' psychodynamic interpretations of Mack's ethnocentrism (Adorno et al. 1950)
mack high, larry low; mack used discrete categories and stereotypes; mack said to be lower-mid social class and very dependence, explaining his dependence for discrete categories that explain his prejudice, hostility against father, fear of weakness
Studies cited on p. 701 Guimond et al. (2003) about effect of academic major and increasing social status on attitudes toward immigrants
major and high social status makes you more/less prejudiced
views of women by early well-known psychologists
many early psychologist believed that women were biologically weaker and dumber, these beliefs were held until sort of recently (1955 at least)
social consequences of discrete, dichotomous categories; Problems with discrete, dichotomous categories in research (Dunham & Olson 2016)
many people do not fit into these categories, plus studying these categories as discrete only reinforces them rather than tackling theoretical approaches that view them as problematic
influence of eugenics movement in psychology
many who were involved in creating measures of IQ were supporters of the eugenics movement and their racist and political motives produced biased measures of intellent up until at least mid-1970s; many early psychologists were strong factors in continuing the impact of racism and sexism rather than viewing them as societal issues
F scale
measure of the likelyhood that someone finds facism appealing
How do people often react to unearned or random advantages or privilege?
once peopel have power they become very motivated to keep it, their SDO likely increases, they believe that they worked hard to earn their place (monopoly study)
Main ideas about the origins of prejudice
people who are more engaged in hierarchies, specifically those that give power to high-status groups which is used to control low status groups, are more likely to be prejudice
Why is the field of law considered hierarchy-enhancing? (Guimond et al. 2003)
people who intend on going into a career with higher power are hypothesized to have higher SDO
reasons that perceptions of race have real consequences and specific examples of those consequences - especially see ta-nahisi coates reading
perceptions of race force us to place people into pre-existing categories that empowers those percieved to be white and disempowers those percieved to be non-white; specific example is how our government enforces these categories and perceptions through police brutality that affects POC
Prejudice as a hierarchy-enhancing belief
prejudice is a hierarchy-enhancing belief because it justifies group-based hierarchies that work to keep marginalized groups as 'inferior'
Psychodynamic approach to understanding causes of prejudice—main ideas; When was it popular? When and why did this line of research fade in popularity?
prejudice is caused by inner conflict due to childhood experiences, defense mechanism; authoritarian personality and ethnocentrism; popular in 1940s-50s, was the first time that psychologists viewed prejudice as a problem and were just beginning to theorize
What has Altemeyer (1996) found is correlated with high RWA?
prejudice towards people viewed as an outgroup in the given culture of the individual (ex Russian prejudice against: capitalists, jews, women, youth, democracy advocates, non-russian minorities)
Problems with the F scale (Adorno et al. 1950)
psychodynamic approach is not accurate; response set issues
What are some common frameworks for understanding the psychology of prejudice? (WWII through the present)
psychodynamic, 1940s-50s(childhood experiences influence adult prejudice); social processes, 1950s-present (identity, norms, conformity, hierarchy); symbollic/modern racism, 1980s-90s (hidden reasons for attitudes on racial issues; implicit biases, 1980s-present;
Methods (Adorno et al. 1950)
questionnaries about ethnocentrism and ideology, in-depth interviews, clinical interviews
basic ideas in statement on race by american association of physical anthropologists
race is not an accurate depiction of biological variation, we share 99.9% of DNA together, the definitions of race are based around policies of discrimination
What are the broader implications of this study regarding racial categorization? (Chen et al. 2018)
racial categorizations are largely affected by the histories of different cultures and how they utilized racial categories to achieve their agendas
How was social position manipulated in 3rd and 4th study? What were the effects on SDO? Prejudice? Why? (Guimond et al. 2003)
randomly assigned and told that they had high vs avg leadership skills; SDO increased, which in effect increased prejudice
According to the Adorno et al. psychodynamic explanation for prejudice, how could prejudice be reduced?
repression, displacement, and rejection
Correlations—anti-Semitism, F scale scores, and ethnocentrism (Adorno et al. 1950)
strongly correlated with anti-semitism and ethnocentrism
SDO-Dominance (SDO-D)
support for overt oppression and aggressive intergroup behaviors designed to maintain the subordination of one or more groups; aka power; forceful oppression
'one-drop' rule
suzie guillory phillips was unsuccessful in changing her racial categorization from black to white in accordance to a law that stated anyone who was 1/32 african-american was to be categorized as black
eugenics
term invented by francis Galton in 1883, 'improving society by preventing 'inferior' people from reproducing and promoting the reproduction of 'superior' people
terms used historically: imbecile, feeble-minded
terms used by science to label those who scored low on IQ tests
Identification of a cluster of opinions labeled "Authoritarian" (Adorno et al. 1950)
the F-scale, or facism scale, measured the likelyhood of someone finding fascism appealing
Group socialization model
the GSM suggests that SDO is a mediator between someone's social position and how prejudiced they are; states SDO can vary according to social context; those in dominant social positions especially susceptible
How did the Nazis and the holocaust change views of eugenics? Spark interest in understanding racial and religious prejudice as a problem to be solved?
the extremism of Nazi's support of the eugenics movement made psychologist rethink it's motives, specifically with how psychology viewed racial and religious prejudice
IQ scores of immigrants who had lived in the U.S. for longer vs. shorter lengths of time
the longer you lived in the US, the 'smarter' you were
Were there psych vs. law differences in SDO among first-year students? Among upper-year students? Why? (Guimond et al. 2003)
the more years they studied their field, the more that both majors went towards the different extremes on the SDO scale, although law first years were still higher than psych
Main ideas of social identity theory—role of group membership in self-esteem and identity, reasons for ingroup favoritism
the self-esteem of an individual is not only based on personal status and accomplishments, but the status and accomplishments of the group they are in as well; an individuals need to increase self-esteem can motivate ingroup favoritism bc they see their group as contributing factor and dislike outgroups to boost themselves
essentialism
the view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are
Age system, gender system, arbitrary-set system
these are the three types of group-based hierarchies that were studied to understand how hierarchies are linked to prejudice
Role of hierarchy-enhancing beliefs/myths, legitimizing ideologies
these myths are basically how we are socialized to believe that certain groups are more inferior than others through stereotypes and prejudices
In what way do these studies test the group socialization model of SDO? (Guimond et al. 2003)
these studies tested how people's social positions were related to their SDO and their prejudice in order to see how they were connected
Role of psychologists Lewis Terman, Henry Goddard, Robert Yerkes; how influential were these psychologists in the field at the time? In the nation? What uses of IQ testing did they advocate?
these three men were incredibly influential in the creation of the first IQ tests, they were all professors who were highly esteemed for their work in the field; these men advocated for the use of IQ testing to spot who should not be able to reproduce and immigrate into the united states. they also believed those who scored low on IQ tests should be sterilized
Why is psychology (currently) considered hierarchy-attenuating? (Guimond et al. 2003)
they ahve a better understanding of how/why pwoer exists idk this seems easy enoguh to udnerstand
How/why did psychologists examine IQ score differences between groups? Race, nationality, social class
they believed that these were strong determinants of intellect bc they thought it was inherited
How do people who identify strongly with a group react to criticism of the group?
they view criticism to their group as a personal attack due to the close ties to their self-esteem
IQ testing of immigrants at Ellis Island—circumstances, results, interpretation of results given at the time
those from 'whiter' countries were deemed intelligent by these IQ tests that were designed to appeal to white people and anyone else wasn't allowed to immigrate into the country
Impact of early IQ testing on immigration laws, public opinion, forced sterilization laws
those in 'inferior' racial classes were unable to immigrate to America, white americans viewed racial outgroups as stupid, 30 states advocated for sterilizing those who were labelled by these racist IQ tests as 'mentally r*tarded'
How were the ideas of eugenics used by the Nazis?
those who were viewed as inferior were murdered by nazis
Trends in the proportion of multi-racial individuals in the U.S. population (Dunham & Olson 2016)
today 1 of every 10 children born are of multi-racial ancestry, a fact that is not reflected through research
Trends in the visibility of trans and intersex individuals (Dunham & Olson 2016)
today 2-3% of children do not fall into M/F categories
What did the researchers intend to measure with the F scale (Adorno et al. 1950)
wanted to measure how likely a person would find fascism appealing
Initial purpose of the study, personal motives of researchers (Adorno et al. 1950)
wanted to see in personality determines fascist ideologies and ethnocentrism; wanted to especially understand anti-semitism
Henri Tajfel—life experiences that led to interest in prejudice, his criticisms of the authoritarian personality explanation for prejudice
was born in poland and lost all his immediate family and friends to the Holocaust, got him interested in prejudice and intergroup relations; he believed that the authoritarin personality perspective was too limited because the majority of Germans supported Nazis
why were/are racial categories constructed?
we created racial categories to justify colonialism and continued to use them to justify discrimination
minimal group effect
when people are divided into groups, ingroup favoritism emerges
why does coates feel pessimistic
when people ask him if he has hope that America will pull through it basically enforces the idea that people think america has exceptional moral standing when in reality it is things such as american history that created the racial power hierarchy and this hierarchy is continued through the continuation of discrete racial categories
specific assumptions about women and men in psychology
women are dumb, weak, inadequate, unachieving, women who achieve any power are deemed a threat, the only good women do is reproduction, ; men are incredible, intelligent, multi-fasceted, and the only reason why progress is ever made, feminine traits are a sign of weakness