Predjudice and Discrimination, Psychology, College Term Papers.com


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Predjudice and Discrimination

Predjudice and Discrimination Prejudice and Discrimination are an all to common part of our cognitive social being, but many social psychologists believe that it can be stopped, but only with the help of social conditioning. In this writing I hope to explain and point out some key terms and points made in my assigned chapter. Prejudice refers to a special type of attitude, usually something negative toward any group or ethnicity that is not of one’s own social class. Attitude plays a very important role in ones cognitive framework, in that it forces our minds to process information on certain social groups differently making a cognitive earmark for that individual group (stereotypes). Racially prejudiced persons take significantly longer than other persons who are not racially prejudiced to decide whether strangers whose racial identity is ambiguous belong to one racial category or another(Ch.6 Pp.211). Why does prejudice exist? Individuals hold prejudice views because doing so allows them to bolster their own self image(Ch.6 Pp.213). By doing this a person is making themselves believe that they are better than another, giving them a feeling of greater importance. A second reason for holding prejudice views is that doing so can save us considerable cognitive effort(Ch.6 Pp.213). In sorts prejudice views are a form of collective representation because a person forms views of certain social groups through analyzing the individual traits of one group member, forming one opinion for the whole group. Now when prejudice is acted upon by an individual it is called discrimination. In recent years discrimination has decreased, yet it has all but vanished from our society. Early on in our history people were less subtle than they are today when it comes discrimination. Everything in our society was segregated, every group had their own facilities and were not to be used by members of a different group. At this time people felt less remorse for expressing openly racist views. They would state that they were against school desegregation , that they viewed minority groups as inferior in various ways , and that they would consider moving away if persons belonging to these groups took up residence in their neighborhood(Ch.6 Pp.215, Sears 1988). These days many people wouldn’t dare express these views because of the way social conditioning has made it so that the person would be looked down upon by his peers. “New “ racism opposed to the “old fashion’ kind is far more subtle these days because of the enlightenment of our time, yet it still exists. Some examples of this modern racism are that of Tokenism and reverse discrimination. Tokenism is the performance of trivial or small scale positive actions for people who are the target of prejudice (Ch.6 Pp.216) These are just ideological terms used today to explain social One of the oldest explanations for prejudice in our society is that of the realistic conflict theory. According to this view, prejudice stems from competition among social groups over valued commodities or opportunities. In short, prejudice develops out of the struggle over jobs, adequate housing , good schools, and other desirable out comes (Ch.6Pp.219). As competition steadily increases social class label their opposition as “Enemies” , viewing their own group as the superior power. The outcomes of these confrontations can sometimes lead to violent clashes. The end result being From a dialectical standpoint such prejudices are not innate in form yet taught at an early age. According to the social learning view , children aquire negative attitudes toward various social groups because they hear such views expressed by parents , friends, teachers, and others, and because they are directly rewarded for adopting these views (Ch.6 Pp.222). Yet another theory on the existence of prejudice is one of simplicity, people generally divide the social world into two distinct categories: Us and Them. In other words you either belong to the in group or the out group. Such behavior is described as social categorization. We may not know it but everyday we use certain cognitive mechanisms too hold prejudice or discrimination. Such mechanisms, like stereotypes, are often used. A stereotype, often used to delegate views a social group is based on the traits or attributes of a few members of that group. Cognitive frameworks are often laid because of stereotypes, this is a dangerous thing because of the opinions that people set on groups which are unfairly represented. Even worse are the stereotype-threats, these are the threats perceived by the Finally I am brought to gender based prejudice, this is one of the most widespread prejudices of all. It affects more than half of the human race. At the core of this prejudice are gender stereo types, cognitive framework suggesting that males and females posses sharply different patterns of traits and behavior(Ch.6Pp241) Females remain as the main target of gender based prejudice. This type of discrimination is mainly brought about because of gender role expectations. For some reason or another females tend to hold lower expectations about their everyday lives. To achieve a higher social status a high level of self confidence is often positively enforced for a woman wanting to obtain higher than average success. Sexual harassment, another form of gender prejudice is most seen in the work place because of the constant interactions between males and females on a frequent basis. The sex role spill-over theory makes some very curious predictions . According to this framework, women working in certain environments-ones which most employees are male-will be more likely to experience sexual harassment than ones working in more traditional environments(ch.6Pp.245). Yet people will tend to view such harassment, when it occurs as less threatening or coercive than it would be in traditional environments. This is because they are perceived as role deviates-people who From the dialectic point of view we have come a long way in diminishing racism and discrimination. However, we still have a way to go before our world truly reflects our ideologies. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1007