Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotypes

criticism of authoritarian personality theory

-little evidence found that supports the original theory -theory did not predict which groups will become the targets of prejudice and discrimination -theory did not predict when something like the holocaust will occur.

21. Describe the three personality scales developed by Adorno et al. What are they supposed to measure?

1. F-scale (fascism) to measure authoritarianism 2. E-scale (ethnocentrism) to measure the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture. 3. A-S scale (anti-semitism).

8. What is the difference between benevolent and hostile sexism?

1. benevolent sexism: a chivalrous attitude toward women that feels favorable but is actually sexist bc it casts women as weak creatures in need of men's protection. 2. hostile sexism: an antagonistic attitude toward women.

3. What is the difference between implicit and explicit prejudice? Give examples of each

1. implicit- automatic: ex: being surprised the boss is a woman. 2. explicit- conscious ex: believing men are better leaders.

the e-scale

1. negroes have their rights, but it is best to keep them in their own district and school and to prevent too much contact with whites. 2. certain religious sects who refuse to salute the flag should be forced to conform to patriotic action. 3. the worst danger to real americanism in the last 50 years has come from foreign ideas. 4. we should have the biggest army and navy and the atomic bomb.

the f-scale

1. obedience and respect for authority are most important virtue children should learn. 2. what this country needs most more than laws and political programs, are a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put faith in. 4. criminals ought to be publicly whipped for sex crimes. 5. homosexuals are not better than criminals and ought to be punished.

the a-s scale

1. persecution of the jews should be largely eliminated if the jews would make really sincere efforts to rid themselves of their harmful and offensive faults. 2. I can hardly imagine myself marrying a jew. 3. jewish leaders should encourage jews to be inconspicuous to keep out of professions and activities already overcrowded with jews, and to keep out of public notice.

1. What is the difference between prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes? Give examples of each. Pg 244

1. prejudice= a preconceived negative JUDGEMENT of a group and its individual members.. ex:weight discrimination 2. discrimination= unjustified negative BEHAVIOR toward a group or its members (generalization). ex: not hiring an overweight person. 3. stereotype= a belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. ex: overweight people are lazy.

3 general causes of prejudice and discrimination

1. the specific situation 2. indivudals' personality traits 3. humans' natural thinking process.

7. Summarize Gaertner and Dovidio's (1977) experiment on aversive racism and helping behavior.

75 white female students who scored a very high or low on overt measure of racial prejudice were chosen to participate in an experiment supposedly on telepathy (ESP). -During the experiment, a black/white confederate will play the role of "sender" and the real participant plays the role of solitary receiver or one of 3 receivers. -IV 1= the number of receivers (1 or 3). -IV 2= whether the "sender" is black/white. (manipulate via photo and tape). -during ESP task itself, sender lets the real participant know via intercom that there is a large stack of chairs next to table- looks like its going to fall. -then an "accident" occurs and researchers measure percent of participants who try to hep. -Zener cards

5. Summarize the method and results of Weitz' experiment on subtle racism.

Covert (things are covered up/hidden). vs. Overt (things are out in the open) Measures method: 80 northern male undergrads who had completed measure of general racial attitudes. -participants first practiced reading instructions for paired-associate task. -then they read term-27the same instructions again to a stimulated "partner" who was described as back/white (confederate). -participants also gave their1st impressions of their "partners" on several dimensions like friendliness, trustworthiness, etc. -results: participants who rated their black partners as more friendly (overt) were actually colder while talking to them (covert). -at the very end of study, participants were asked if they would like to volunteer time to work with their partner in another study the following week (covert). more results: number of hours volunteered to work with a black partner (covert) was correlated with vocal warmth and admiration (but not 1st impression ratings which were overt) -first impression rating, vocal characteristics, and number of hours volunteered were not correlated with response on general attitude measure. -this study illustrates problem with relying on overt measures of prejudice/discrimination.

26. According to Tajfel, what causes prejudice and discrimination

Tajfel concluded that the mere categorization intro groups is sufficient to produce ingroup bias. -used "minimal groups" to demonstrate how little it takes to trigger prejudice and discrimination. ingroup bias= more points were given to the ingroup members than the outgroup members. -other researchers have used other methods of making minimal groups assignments such as "preference for the paintings of Klee or Kandinsky or random assignment of "Group A" or "Group B" with similar results -other researchers have also used evaluative ratings (friendly-unfriendly) to measure ingroup bias -other researchers have shown a positive correlation between ingroup bias, positive affect and self-esteem during minimal experiments.

20. What are the characteristics of the Authoritarian personality?

a personality characterized by 3 major behavioral tendencies: submission to authority, discipline toward those who defy authority, and the tendency to conform to conventional beliefs. 1. rigid adherence to conventional, middle class values. 2. submissive, uncritical attitude toward idealized moral authorities of the ingroup 3. tendency to be on the lookout for and to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional values. 4.opposition to the subjective, the imaginative, the tender-minded 5. the belief in mystical determinants of the individual's fate; the disposition to think in rigid categories. 6. preoccupation with the dominance-submission, strong-weak, leader-follower dimension; identification with power figures. 7. generalized hostility, vilification of the human. 8. the disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go o in the world; the projection outward of unconscious emotional impulses. -exaggerated concern with sexual "going ons"

19. According to Authoritarian personality theory, what causes prejudice and discrimination?

a. Adorno et. all developed theory to help explain anti-semitism during WWII. b. those prone to developing an authoritarian personality were thought to have a rigid superego, a primitive id, and a weak ego. c. a harsh childhood upbringing was thought to make a person prone to developing an authoritarian personality as an adult. d. theory based on Freudian Ideas.

11. How do "shared distinctiveness" and "illusory correlations" help explain how stereotypes might develop?

a. Chapman and Chapman found that "shared distinctiveness" can lead to "illusory correlation" -shared distinctiveness: seems to share unique qualities. b. illusory correlation= the belief that two things are associated when in fact there is little or not actual association; caused by associative meaning and shared distinctiveness (seem to share unique qualities). -ex: a man holds the belief that people in urban environments tend to be rude. therefore, when he meets someone who is rude, he assumes that the person lives in a city. c. shared distinctiveness works for the most part as a potential explanation -however, it does not account for the selectiveness of stereotypes (e.g it is unusual to be a ballet dancer but that isn't part of the stereotype for blacks).

25. What is stereotype threat? How does it affect people? Give an example

a. a disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype by forming a new stereotype about the subset of the group. b OR self-confirming apprehension that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. c. if you are expected to do poorly, you will confirm the belief.

6. What do Gaertner and Dovidio propose in their theory of aversive racism?

a. an inconsistency in white American's racial views. b. many see themselves as liberals who disavow racism but hey experience discomfort and even fear around blacks. -many whites have egalitarian values but unacknowledged negative feelings about blacks. -aversive racism only affects behavior in situations with ambiguous/weak norms- otherwise you dont see it.

2. Describe the procedure used by Jane Elliott to create prejudice and discrimination. How did Jane Elliott's "demonstration" affect the children?

a. eye color determined superiority. having a different eye color is akin to having different skin color. ex: blue eyed people are smarter. b. to foster prejudice and discrimination, she gives the "superior" group privileges. c. then gave them standardized tests at the end of the day. d. the "superior" children outperform the "inferior" on standard tests.

13. What is the difference between an ingroup and an outgroup? Give examples of each.

a. ingroup= any group you belong to is your 'in-group'. for instance: I am in the age group of 20 year olds (a membership I didn't choose), a member of UCF'S student body, and a psychology major. -ingroup heterogeneity: tendency for individuals to see diversity among their in-groups. b. outgroup= any group in which you do not belong to. I am not in the age group of th baby boomers, I am not a member of FSU's student body, and I am not a music major. -outgroup homogeneity: perception that all members of a particular outgroup are identical to each other.

18. Give an example that illustrates how the "jigsaw classroom" can be used to reduce prejudice

a. originally used to improve the self-esteem of children from minority groups. these kids wouldn't raise their hands, and the others thought they were dumb but in reality they just had low self-esteem. b. children from "expert groups" to learn one component of the overall lesson, then they would come together at the end and each would be an "expert" at something. c. results: positive. everybody was an expert about something, so everybody gets to be seen as being highly knowledgeable about SOMETHING which improved the minority kids self-esteem.

23. What is the difference between personal identity and social identity? Pg 260

a. personal identity: our sense of our personal attributes and attitudes. b. social identity: "we" aspect of our self-concept; comes from our group membership.

14. How are religiosity and prejudice related? Pg 257-258

a. those who benefit from social inequalities while avowing "all are created equal" need to justify keeping things the way they are-- believing that God ordained the social order.

12. How do selective encoding and selective recall maintain stereotypes? Give examples of experimental evidence that support the hypothesis that selective remembering maintains stereotypes.

differential remembering can maintain stereotypes. -rothbart- stereotype maintenance ex: someone who believes that women are more nurturing than men might tend to remember only instances in which women were nurturing and forget instances they weren't. differential remembering (selective/biased retrieval) can result from: 1. selective encoding of stereotype- consistent information. 2. selective recall of stereotype-consistent information. -participants read 50 behavior descriptions: 17 were friendly, 3 were unfriendly, 17 were intelligent, 3 were unintelligent, 10 were unrelated to friendliness/intelligence. each behavior description corresponded to a single male group member. condition 1: participants are told the group of 50 males is unusually friendly. condition 2: participants are told the group of 50 males is unusually intelligent. - a surprise recall task showed that participants were biased in their remembering of the behavior description.

17. Describe the Sherif's Robbers Cave Experiment in detail. How did Sherif measure ingroup favoritism in his experiment? How did Sherif reduce intergroup conflict in his experiment?

location: Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma participants: 22 white protestant 11 year old boys who were well-adjusted and average in school work. field experiment itself resembled a summer camp. -two groups were formed and introduced to campsite separately. -researchers served as camp counselors and took extensive notes. stage 1- formation of ingroup: -first week of experiment -groups engaged in typical camp activities -in each group, a leader emerged along with a group hierarchy, group norms and each group choose a name. (Eagles/Rattlers). -Rattlers: acted tough and cussed a lot. -Eagle: liked skinny dipping, homesickness was taboo. -at the end of the week, groups were made aware of each other's existence. stage 2- competition over scarce resources: -second week of experiment -a grand tournament was staged. -12 events: 10 sports events plus cabin neatness and song and skit contest. -prizes were a huge trophy, medals, and pocket knives. winner take all, losers get nothing= scarce resources. -both groups were required to eat at the same time in the mess hall- giant thermometers displayed the points each day. tournament: -first event was a baseball game- Eagles lose, boy cries, eagles ruin rattlers flag. -rattlers discover burned remnants of flag, confronts eagles and fight ensues. -Eagles win the next game-decide to stop talking to rattlers and give them the silent treatment. -during tug of war, eagles dig feet in- rattlers claim its cheating. -rattlers raid eagles' cabin, overturn beds, rip netting. -eagles raps ratters' cabin while carrying baseball bats and sticks-afterwards guard their cabin with rocks in socks. -eagles "win" tournament (points are contrived by counselors)- rattlers steal their medals and knives while they are having a celebratory swim. end of stage 2- quantitative data collection: -friendship preferences (93% prefer ingroup members) -bean-pickup game was devised as a measure of discrimination. -boy gets to judge how many beans were piked up in the jar. if its a fellow eagles member= a lot of beans. If member from opposing team= small amount, biased. -stereotypes were assessed (in group: brave, tough, friendly; outgroup: sneaky, stinkers, smart-alecks). -rattlers thought engages were "crybabies". -eagles thought rattlers were "cotton cussers" stage 3- conflict resolution: -3rd week of experiment -two types of activities were attempting: noncompetitive intergroup contact and superordinate goals. -superordinate= overarching higher category. eagles and rattlers want to accomplish this. -contact situations included watching movies together, filling out questionaries together, eating meals together. -superordinate goals= goals included truck "breaking down", a "water leak" that needed to be found, money that had to be pooled to rent Treasure Island. End go stage 3- quantitative Data reassessed -on the last day, the Boys decided to return to Oklahoma City in one bus and their choice of seats suggests that little intergroup hostility remains. -friendship preferences were reassessed (65% in group preferences) -stereotypes reassessed.

Snyder and Uranowitz

participants read woman's biography and return to the lab one week later. -condition 1: participants told she is lesbian -condition 2: participants told nothing. participants take a test on biographical info participants' performance affected by stereotypes. ex: those told she is a lesbian tended to correctly remember that she didn't have a study bf, but forget she dated boys. those not told she is a lesbian tended to correctly remember both facts. -unlike in rothbart experiment, results of this experiment can only be explained by selective retrieval, not encoding.

22. Provide several examples of research supporting the idea that Authoritarian individuals are different from non-Authoritarian individuals

scores on the f-scale and e-scale are highly correlated. a. in a study with U.S undergrads, those who were more authoritarian were more likely to: have a punitive attitude toward those with AIDS, support very harsh treatment of drug dealers, hostile toward environment measures, oppose abortion rights, and believe that the homeless or homeless bc they are lazy. meanwhile, non-Authoritarian individuals do NOT hold these opinions. b. during the Cold War, the more the USSR threatened the US, the higher the f-scale scores in the US. c. authoritarian whites are more prejudiced against blacks d. authoritarian arabs are more prejudiced against jews e. authoritarian Israelis are more prejudiced against Arabs.

9. What are stereotypes? Give an example of a stereotype.

sets of beliefs (preconceptions) about another group. ex: white people like Starbucks, black people like watermelon, latinos like tacos.

24. What is the outgroup homogeneity effect? Give an example

the perception that all members of a particular outgroup are identical to each other. for instance: thinking that all blondes are dumb, all asians look alike, all sorority and fraternity members are obnoxious.

10. What did Katz and Braly (1933) find when they studying stereotype content?

verified that Princeton students help stereotypes. -looked at 4 groups over 3 different eras: Americans, Japanese, Jews, and African Americans. 1933: Americans: industrious, intelligent, materialistic Japanese: intelligent, industrious, progressive Jews: shrewd, mercenary, industrious Blacks: superstitious, lazy, happy-go-lucky 1969: Americans: materialistic, ambitious, pleasure-loving Japanese: industrious, ambitious, efficient Jews: ambitious, materialistic, intelligent Blacks: musical happy go luck, lazy.

16. According to realistic conflict theory, what causes prejudice and discrimination?

a. propses that prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes develop when two or more groups are in actual conflict over scarce resources. (e.g jobs, land, financial resources, etc). if there were plenty of resources then you would get this type of thing. ''-Robber's Cave experiment had 'scarce' resources.

15. What is the scapegoat theory?

a. the idea that prejudice is the result of one group blaming another innocent group for its problems. -frustration leads to aggression. we dont like to admit it when we make mistakes so its easier to blame others for our problems.

4. What evidence shows that explicit prejudice has decreased over the years?

evidence: Barack Obama election. blatant (overt) forms of prejudice and discrimination have decreased in recent years. (but haven't disappeared). -very difficult to detect prejudice and discrimination in the research studies because of demand characteristics: subject picks up cues during an experiment and modify their behavior, affecting the results of the study. -prejudice/discrimination are still rampant, but just more difficult to detect.

27. Describe the methods used to create "minimal groups" in detail

tajfel et all argued that actual competition over scarce resources is NOT necessary for prejudice and discrimination to form. -participants: British school boys (14-15 years old) -participants first completed "Dot estimation" task so they could be assigned to groups for the purpose of experimentation. -the two groups used were "overestimators" and "underestimators" -second task involved the allocation of points using matrices.

Measuring Overt Attitudes: The Modern Racism Scale

these items are answered using a 5 point scale (1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree). 1. over the past few years, the government and news media have shown more respect to blacks than they deserve to be shown. 2. discrimination against backs is no longer a problem in the US. 3. over the past few years, blacks have received more economically than they deserve. 4. fair housing and integration laws should be reversed in court. 5. blacks should not be allowed to marry whites 6. whites should be able to choose whether blacks can be their neighbors.