PSY 274 Inquizitive Week 11: Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination

cognitive perspective.

According to the cognitive perspective, the necessity of using categorization to take in and process the incredible volume of stimuli around us makes stereotyping a necessity in our lives. It is a natural result of the way our brains are wired to store and process information.

Which of the following statements about stereotyping are accurate and which are not?

Accurate Statement(s) A stereotype involves projecting what you think you know about a group onto your expectations about members of that group. A stereotype involves thinking about people in a particular group not as individuals, but as members of that group. Inaccurate: Stereotypes are always entirely false. Stereotypes can be negative, but not positive.

Which of the following statements about so-called positive or benevolent stereotypes and ambiguous "isms" (sexism, racism, ageism, heterosexism) are accurate and which are not?

Accurate Statement(s) A study found that benevolent sexism in individuals often exists alongside hostile sexism. Many people believe that as long as a stereotype isn't negative, it cannot be harmful. Inaccurate: Ambivalent sexism, ambivalent racism (and any other ambivalent "ism") occurs when a person possesses neither positive nor negative attitudes about these specific groups.

Which of the following statements about the outgroup homogeneity effect are accurate and which are not?

Accurate Statement(s) People tend to think that outgroup members are far more similar to each other than members of their own group are. The more people think of outgroup members as homogeneous, the more likely they are to stereotype them. One likely cause is that we tend to have more contact with ingroup members than with outgroup members. Inaccurate: We tend to think of a fellow ingroup member as representative of our group, but of an outgroup member as an individual. Although we tend to think about members of the outgroup as all being the same, we will treat them as individuals if we actually meet them.

Which of the following statements about the motivational perspective on stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are accurate and which are not?

Accurate Statement(s) The mere fact that there are two groups can result in an "us versus them" attitude and poor intergroup relations. The minimal group paradigm explains that members of arbitrary groups prefer members of their own group to members of the other group. Social identity theory explains that members of a group obtain their self-esteem from the group's performance via acts of ingroup favoritism, such as denigrating those in an outgroup. inaccurate: It calls into question, and in some cases refutes, core aspects of the economic and cognitive perspectives.

Match each example to the corresponding motivational theory.

Boosting Ingroup Status Correct label: Laura is proud to be a member of her cooperative house and devotes many hours to its upkeep. Basking in Reflected Glory Correct label: When a fellow Canadian is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Jeff says it is a great achievement for all Canadians. Correct label: Eddie and Cady go to a football game. After their team scores, they feel great and cheer, "We're number one!" Denigrating OutgroupsSELECT A LABEL Correct label: Marcy gets a higher grade than Marian. Marian makes a derogatory comment to Lee about Marcy's sorority house.

The contact hypothesis—the idea that bringing together people of different races and ethnicities will lead to reduced prejudice and discrimination—does appear to have support, but only when certain conditions occur in addition to the straightforward bringing together of groups. Which of the following are among these conditions and which are not?

Condition(s) One-on-one interactions between members of different groups are encouraged. The different groups have a shared goal. A community's broader social norms support intergroup contact. Not: One group has a higher status than the other.

Match each example to the corresponding key group dynamic as related to the Robbers Cave experiment.

Intergroup Conflict -Greg gets increasingly angry and bigoted as his restaurant is losing more and more business to the restaurant next to his that is owned by Muslims. -Diane complains to her friend that minority students get too many scholarships, leaving less money for "people like us." Ingroup Cohesion -Adam frequently attends social events at the campus Catholic Center. He enjoys becoming closer to other Catholic members of his school community. -The members of Stella's sorority regularly participate in bonding exercises that bring them closer to one another. Superordinate Goals -Clint and Mike are the stars of their respective teams, which are bitter crosstown rivals, but they appear side by side at a "Christian Day at the Ballpark" event. -Brianne and Tess belong to rival high school cliques. Their cliques become friendlier after an event in which they visit residents of a local nursing home together.

Match each concept related to membership in stigmatized groups to the appropriate example.

Whenever his conservative coworkers try to set him up on dates with women, Gordon—who is gay and closeted—anxiously makes excuses to get out of them.cost of concealment Correct label: cost of concealment Accepted to a top university, and he wonders if he was accepted only because he belongs to a minority.attributional ambiguity Correct label: attributional ambiguity As she's taking the SATs, Denise notices that she's one of the few women there. She gets nervous and does poorly on the math section.stereotype threat Correct label: stereotype threat