Prejudice

Explain social learning theory

According to social learning theory, we learn prejudice the same way we learn about attitudes and values - primarily though association, reinforcement and modeling Often starts in childhood Children are not born with prejudiced attitudes or with stereotypes. they learn vlaus and beliefs from their family, peers, the media and others around them Children learn prejudice through socialization - learn from social situations and what we see happening to other people. Copying these behaviours is a big part of social learning Socialization is the process by which children learn the social norms of their surroundings

What are the 3 components of attitude? explain these

Affect, Behaviour, Cognition Affect = refers to an emotional response, or how a person feels towards the stimuli: can be pleasurable, happy, sad, unhappy Behaviour = set of overt actions directed towards the stimuli; can be supportive, favorable, hostile Cognition = compromises a set of beliefs, knowledge structures and thoughts that a person may have towards the stimuli and these can vary from favorable to unfavorable - in order to form an attitude need to deveop these 3 components (how you think, feel and behave towards the stimulus)

What is an attitude?

Attitude can be defined as the predisposition or the tendency of a person to respond in a particular way towards a specific stimulus these stimuli vary but include events, people, social issues, social groups, or objects attitudes can be positive or negative; favourable or unfavorable Made of 3 components - affect, behaviour, cognition

What is an "in group"

In group members share similar interests and attitudes, have feelings of solidarity, community and exclusivity

What is the relationship between prejudice and attitude?

Prejudice is an attitude, not just a statement of opinion or beliefe. Attitudes are firmly entrenched in our thoughts.

Define Prejudice

Prejudice, in the literal sense, means pre-judgment It is usually a negative attitude based on a persons membership to a particular group, or their personal characteristics; the holding of derogatory attitudes or beliefs/the expression of a negative feeling towards a group or individual These judgments can be based on a persons gender, social class, illness status, ethnicity, age, religion, sexuality, level of disability This prejudice, whilst often negative, can function as a means of organising inforamtion about members of a group

What is an "out group"

Social unit or group of people that an individual neither belongs to nor identifies with

Explain Social Identity Theory

To do with understanding where you fit in a social sense, how you belong and identify to a social group Social identity is a persons sense of who they are based on their group membeship. These groups give us a sense of social identity - a sense of belonging to the world we tend to adopt a process of "social categorisation" in order to help us make sense of the world and assign people around us into groups This helps us form impressions quickly and use past experiences to guice new interactions. This leads to "them" (out group) and "us" (in group) In group members promote their own benefits and strengths in ways that favour themselves, and to increase self image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong to, which makes the out group as inferior to us