Download Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination

Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
Gordon Allport (1954)
An adequate definition of prejudice must include two
essential elements:
•Attitude - favor or disfavor
•Belief - based on overgeneralization or erroneous
info
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
Walter Lippman (1922)
Labeled beliefs as stereotypes
“PICTURES IN OUR HEADS”
That are fixed or unchanging and are the same image
every time.
What each does is based not on direct and certain
knowledge but pictures made by the self.
Peoples experiences and perspectives color the
landscape of their beliefs and navigate their social
world
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
DEFINITION OF STEREOTYPES
Beliefs and opinions about characteristics ,
attributes, and behaviors of members of
various groups.
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
KEY ASPECTS OF STEREOTYPES
•Pictures in individual’s heads
•Shared beliefs that are part of cultures
•Are typically group consensus
•People learn stereotypes from;
•Media, peers, parents
•Classical and modern literature
•Gather information by observing the world
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
KEY ASPECTS OF STEREOTYPES
•Can be accurate or inaccurate
•A ‘Kernel of Truth’
•Descriptive (believed to be) and prescriptive
(should be like)
•Can be positive or negative
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
DEFINITION OF PREJUDICE
•An attitude directed toward people because
they are members of a specific social group
•The affect or emotion a person feels when
thinking about or interacting with members of
other groups
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE
•Attitudes are evaluations of an entire social
group or of individuals because they are
members of that group
•Reaction to general social category
•Can be positive or negative
•Positive attitude is considered bias in
favor of ones own group
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
EVAULATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS
•Strongly related to how a person treats those
group members
•May stem from purely emotional or gut
reactions to a social group as a whole or to an
individual member of group.
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
•Can be positive or negative or a mixture of both
•Mixed reactions—people can have an ambivalent
emotional response
•Can come from a group feeling threaten by another
social group (experience fear, anxiety, or hostility)
•Or perceived to interfere with the goals of one’s own
group--competition
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
DEFINITION OF DISCRIMINATION
•Treating people differently from others based
primarily on membership in a social group
•OR
•Results in someone’s being treated more
positively than he or she otherwise would be
based on group membership (Positive)
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
VIEWS OF DISCRIMINATION
•Interpersonal Discrimination—One person treats
another unfairly because of person’s group
membership. Resulting from,
•Stereotypic beliefs
•Evaluations of a groups
•Or combination of both that results in differential
treatment of that person
•Leads people to behave in ways implying own group
superior to other groups
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
VIEWS OF DISCRIMINATION
•Institutional Discrimination—Institutions or
governing bodies sanction beliefs about group
superiority
•Occurs in subtle ways
•Overt practices giving one group advantage over
others by limiting their choices, rights, mobility, or
access to information
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
VIEWS OF DISCRIMINATION
•Cultural Discrimination—Within a culture, one group
retains the power to define cultural values as well as
the form those values should take
•Maintaining dominance over other groups by rewarding
those values that correspond to its views and punishing
those values that do not.
•Minority ethnic groups and their cultural heritage are
marginalized
•Characteristics and contributions of the dominant group are
valued, not those of minority ethnic groups
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
VIEWS OF DISCRIMINATION
•Institutional and cultural discrimination
are both difficult to see and sometimes
their existence is difficulty to accept.
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
Relationships
•People can access stereotypic beliefs without
awareness
•Such beliefs influence behavior even of
people low in prejudice
•Implicit prejudices—reaction toward groups or
individuals outside conscious awareness
•Explicit prejudices—attitudes that people are
aware of and can easily control
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
ISMS—Racism, sexism, ageism—
synonyms for prejudice
•Belief system or ideology based on group
superiority and domination
•Set of behaviors reflecting that belief
system
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
ISMS—
Characteristics:
Desire to dominate and control members of
other racial groups
Power to define categories
Establish and enforce race-based social
norms and laws
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
ISMS—
Characteristics:
•Belief in the biologically based, superiority of
the group—moral and intellectual terms
•Reflected in behavior
•Behavior on part of members of group in
power that demeans or harasses members of
other group
Stereotyping, Prejudice
and Discrimination
ISMS—
Combine prejudice with a group-centered
worldview that emphasizes the superiority of
one’s own group over others.
Reflective in
•Laws
•Social customs
•Attempt to scientifically prove its validity