Download Chapter 3 Theories of Prejudice

Quote
“We lived in a neighborhood that was I guess, about a mile and a half from a
black neighborhood. So I can remember early on, during my youth, we had a
black park…I used to enjoy [going] there, and the idea was that it was
somehow dangerous now to go there. We had a swimming lake there and I
was ten or eleven, and blacks were allowed then to go to that park. It was
just overnight that, “Well son, you’re not allowed to go there now.” Basically
we had to go twenty miles out to a different lake to go swimming. They just
said, “You don’t want to go there because it’s dangerous. Black people are
there. You never can tell what they might do to you.”
-Anonymous white research participant quoted by Joe Faegin and Hernan
Vera (1995, p. 158)
Origins
Questions
1. Will prejudice naturally develop, or is prejudice something that is taught?
*Toward person of another race?
*Other gender?
*Other ages?
2. Provide a list of factors that could influence a child to be prejudice
3. Is prejudice in children fundamentally different experience/concept than
prejudice in adults?
4. Is a 3 year old the same as a 7 year old?
5. Is a 5 year old the same as a 2 year old
6. Is a 4 year old the same as an 11 year old?
Take Home Message
• As children develop they change, and these changes influence how and why
they can develop prejudice attitudes
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
A Quick Note on Categories
Take Home Message
• The mind creates a category to
represent an person, object, or idea
• Categorization makes processing
information (thinking) more efficient
• The categories can represent something
physical like: tree; Or categories can
represent social groups: conservatives,
athletes, etc.
• Categorization, by social group, is
also the origin of prejudice
• Categories make thinking more
efficient
* Example: restaurant
Question
Once a child is capable of categorizing
by social grouping, some children go on
to develop prejudice toward out-groups,
others do not?
What is the difference and why?
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Big Picture
• Two types of category awareness
1. Implicit: category is not
consciously known
2. Explicit: category is thought of
in a conscious manner
Infant Implicit Categorization
• Infants can recognize categories
even before they can verbalize them
• Infants spend longer amounts of time
looking a pictures of distinct categories
• Ability to do so suggests that it’s an
innate propensity to organize the social
world by categories
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Three Month Olds, but not Newborns Prefer Own-Race Faces
Kelly, J.J., Quinn, P.C., Slater, A. M., Lee, K., Gibson, A., Smith, M., et al.
(2005)
Findings
• Awareness of racial groups (at least awareness of skin color and physical features)
may develop at an early age
• In their study, newborn White children (ages 16 to 120 hrs) showed no preference
for looking at pictures of adults from various racial groups. However, White 3month-old children preferred White adult faces over those of Black, Middle-Eastern,
and Asian adults
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Emergence of Explicit Awareness
Take Home Message
• p. 282 quote
• By 3-years-old children are capable
of correctly apply gender as a social
category
Big Picture
• Categorization changes as children
develop
Gender Identification
• Thompson (1975): young children were
shown photos of people and ask: is this a
male or female?
• 75% of 2-yr-olds could correctly
identify males and females
• 90% of the 3-yr-olds could
correctly identify males and females
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Racial Identification
Research Question: When do
children develop a sense of racial
identity?
Doll Studies
• Two dolls are presented (one white one
black, etc.) and the child is asked: which
looks like a black (or white) child)?
• 3 year olds 25% accurate 4-5 year
olds 75% accurate (Clark, 1947)
• 5 – 9 make distinctions between
Native American’s, Chinese, and
Latinos
• p. 283 Box 8.2 Kenneth and Mamie
Clark’s Doll Studies
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Learning to be Prejudice: Growing up in Multi-Ethnic Britian
Davey, 1983
“Other researchers have used more open-ended tasks to examine children’s
early awareness of gender and racial categories. In one such task, children
are given a set of photographs and are asked to group the ones that “look
alike” or “belong together.” Sometimes children are allowed to use only a
preset number of categories; other times they are free to create as many
categories as they would like. The photographs usually vary on several
dimensions such as age, sex, and ethnicity. In one study that used this
procedure, 7-to 10-year-old White children primarily used the dimension of
ethnicity to sort the photos and seldom used gender.
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
“Learning to be Prejudice: Growing up in Multi-Ethnic Britain
Davey, 1983
However, when given more specific instructions, such as to match two pairs
of photographs to play together, the results were different. Children used
gender as the category of choice; for example, children were more likely to
match a Black boy and a White boy together than a boy and a girl of the
same race. Thus, the context in which children sorted the photographs
influenced the way in which children categorized them. When children were
asked to simply sort the photos, they focused on ethnicity; however, when
they task was extended to the broader cultural context (in this case,
playmate choice), then they did not focus on race. Such results suggest
intergroup attitudes and intergroup behaviors may develop along multiple
pathways.
Origins
Awareness of Social Categories
Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s Doll Studies
• p. 283, Box 8.2
• Video
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
Big Picture
White Children’s Attitudes
• A child may have an awareness of
social categories, but may not be
prejudice
• White children begin to develop
racial attitudes, both pos. and neg.,
between ages 3-4
• A child may become prejudice by
making a value-judgment
(good/bad) toward a social group
• In-group favoritism is strongest at
5-7
Research Question: What are children’s
attitudes towards different racial groups
• At age 5, out-group prejudice also
emerged, but was less strong
(Aboud, 2003)
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
A Cognitive Development Approach to Racial Stereotyping and
Reconstructive Memory in Euro-American Children
Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L.S. (2006)
Purpose
• To assess different age groups of White children’s racial stereotyping of
Blacks and their own race
Age Groups
• 4-5 yr-olds and 8-9 yr-olds
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
A Cognitive Development Approach to Racial Stereotyping and
Reconstructive Memory in Euro-American Children
Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L.S. (2006)
Methods
• Assigning positive and negative traits (such as, clean, smart, ugly, and sick )
to “only Black people,” to “only White people,” or to “both Black and White
people.”
Stereotypical Response: assigning positive traits to “only white people”
Counterstereotypical Responses: assigning positive traits to “only Black
people” and negative traits to “only White people”
Non-Stereotypeical Responses: Positive and negative traits assigned to
“both White and Black people”
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
A Cognitive Development Approach to Racial Stereotyping and
Reconstructive Memory in Euro-American Children
Bigler, R. S., & Liben, L.S. (2006)
Results
• 4- and 5-year-olds gave the largest number of stereotypical responses and
the fewest counterstereotypical responses and non-stereotypical responses
• The older children, 8- and 9-year-olds had the lowest degrees of racial
stereotyping
Conclusions
• Racial stereotyping and prejudice declined between 4 and 9 years of age
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
Black Children’s Attitudes
Take Home Message
• Black children also begin to
develop racial attitudes around ages
3-4
• Between ages 4-7, Black children
(compared to White children) show
more variability in their racial
preference patterns
• Between ages 5-7 there are a mix
of attitudes, some pro-Black, some
pro-White, some un-biased
• Between 7 and 10 pro-White bias
disappears, and Black children
typically either express more proBlack attitudes or no bias
• Between ages 6-10 racial minorities
develop more complex attitudes
towards race, prejudice, and
discrimination (p. 290 graph)
Other Groups
• Mexican American, Asian
American and Native America
children show attitudinal patterns
similar to those displayed by Black
children
Awareness of Social Categorization
And the Development of Prejudice
Conclusions
Later Grades
• Children appear to develop racial
preferences and attitudes between 3
and 5 yrs
• It seems that racial segregation, in
terms of best friend choice, is at its
peak in 6th to 8th grades, with few
students naming peers of another
race in these three grades
Intergroup Behavior Notes
Jarrett & Quay (1984): Roster
analysis: Who is your best friend?
• Kindergarten: no race-preference
• 1st Grade: Slight race preference
developed
Gender
Development of Gender Prejudice
Origins
• Children as young as 2 can readily associate
which toy is appropriate for their sex
• Same-sex preferences emerge at 3-4
Changes in Older Children
Martin (1989) Examined how much children
would like gender typical/atypical children and
the associated labels
• Two groups
*4.5-yr-olds
*8.5-yr-olds
Results: 4.5-yr-olds disliked the label tomboy
the most, where as 8.5-yr-olds disliked the label
sissy the most
Theories of Prejudice Development
Big Picture
Types of Theories
Cognitive Development Theories
Social Learning
• Examines how a child’s cognitive
abilities influence their prejudiced
attitudes
• Children learn to be prejudice from
the environment
Inner State Theories
• Prejudice attitudes develop because
of something within the person
(personality traits)
• Prejudice develops in ways that
roughly parallel the stages of
cognitive development
Theories of Prejudice Development
Background
Piaget’s Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth – 2)
• Proposed a theory that children develop
through cognitive stages
• Children explore their world using
their senses
• In each stage, children have different
limitations on their cognitive abilities
• Move from simple motor tasks to more
complex
Stages
Object Permanence: Knowledge that
1. Sensorimotor
an object exists, even when it is not in
sight
* important for the development of
symbolic thought (use symbols to
represent meaning…i.e., words)
2. Preoperational
3. Concrete Operations
4. Formal Operations
Theories of Prejudice Development
Background
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7)
3. Concrete Operations (7-12)
• Symbolic thinking continues to develop
– a wooden block can represent a “train”
• Centration no longer occurs
• Limit in ability to think logically –
Santa is real
Centration: Tendency to focus on only
one feature of an object, while ignoring
other relevant features
* Liquid/glass experiment
* Penny experiment
Egocentrism: inability to see the world
through another’s eyes
• Logical thought develops (question
Santa)
• Difficulty dealing with abstract
concepts, such as “freedom”
4. Formal Operations (12-adult)
• Abstract thinking becomes possible
• Hypothetical, critical thinking develop
* Ability to view things from several
perspectives
Theories of Prejudice Development
Aboud’s Theory
Big Picture
• 3 stages with no set age
boundaries – dif. children progress at
dif. rates
1st Stage
• Children prejudice is based on an
emotional response to others and a
focus on the self
Infant Stranger Distress: infants
become distressed by anyone who
does not look like their caregiver
• Around age 5 children assume that
everyone else sees the world as they
do
• Thus, prejudice is not hostile, but
usually comes in the form of
expressed avoidance or negative
evaluations
Theories of Prejudice Development
Aboud’s Theory
2nd Stage
3rd Stage
• Perceptions of other people
develop relative to oneself
• Conceptual understanding develops
• Children begin to distinguish
physical similarities and
dissimilarities
• Because of limited cog. ability,
children then overemphasize obvious
perceptual differences to belie inner
traits and personality characteristics
• In the process of categorizing,
children are more capable of looking
at inner qualities
• Children categorize both by social
group and by individual qualities
• Children are capable of
understanding individual differences
IDEAS
The Development of Prejudice
•Preference
Methodology
•Prejudice
Forced Choice
•Discrimination
Choose the one that you like –
problematic because it doesn’t
necessarily indicate prejudice,
children could have positive attitudes
towards both pictures
Continuous Measures – similar to
likert scales
Sociometric Measures
Best friends, observations of who
children play with