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Early Adulthood:
Stereotypes and Prejudice
Dialectical Thought, Moral Reasoning, College Cognitive
Growth
Cognitive Development – Ch. 18
Mar 22-26, 2010
Class #22-22
Postformal Thought
Adult thinking and adolescent thinking
differ in 3 ways, with adult thinking
more:
practical
flexible
dialectical
A Fifth Stage of Cognitive Development?
Postformal thought often viewed as
fifth stage of Piaget’s theory
In it, adults consider every aspect of a
situation
Use of intellectual skills for real life
work and relationships
Better understanding that conclusions and
consequences matter
Flexible Problem Solving
Adult thought requires flexible
adaptation, which allows adults to:
Cope with unanticipated events
Come up with more than one solution to
problem
Stereotype Threat
The possibility that one’s appearance or behavior will be
misused to confirm another person’s oversimplified,
prejudiced attitude
3 ways young minority people cope with prejudice:
Identification
Identifying with their own group
Disidentification
Deliberately refusing to identify with their own group
Counteridentification
Identifying with majority and believing stereotype to be accurate
Stereotype threat…
Can you see how a stereotype threat can
develop…
You go to ATM and woman in front looks at
you and seems nervous
Stereotypes and Prejudices
Stereotypes
The generalized perceptions, beliefs, and expectations
a person has about members in some group
Schemas about entire groups of people
Effects of stereotypes on behavior can be automatic
and unconscious
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward an individual based solely
on the person’s membership is some group
In one word…prejudgment
Can race influence how a given behavior
is interpreted?
Bottom-up processing
Perceptions influenced by the visual field itself
Can be referred to as “true object” perceptions –
making sense from our sensations
Top-down processing
These perceptions are influenced by what the person
expects or has experienced before
Our experiences memories, and expectations are what's
important here
Can lead to biases and misperceptions…
Duncan (1976)
See next slide
“The ambiguous shove”
Duncan (1976)
Participants were divided and placed randomly in
on of two groups
These white undergraduates viewed two nearly
identical videos
Group 1:
A black person is seen shoving a white person
Group 2:
A white person is seen shoving a black person
“Please tell me what is going
on here”
Instructions: On a scale of 1-5 rate the
behavior…
1 = “Horsing around”
5 = Violent behavior
Other examples (flaws) of top-down
processing…
Allport (1954)
Found evidence for the stereotype that “fat
people are jolly”
Dion et al. (1972)
Attractive people are perceived as being more
honest than unattractive people
Who has the razor???
Allport and Postman (1947)
Subjects were shown a picture depicting two men, one
black and one white, confronting each other on a
subway car
The white man has a straight razor in his hand
See next slide 
Adapted from Allport & Postman, 1947.
Categorization
The classification of persons into groups
on the basis of common attributes
Can bias our perceptions
Stone (1997)
Radio broadcast
Shown a photograph of the player to be analyzed
Either a black player or a white player
“The biggest thing I don't like about
New York are the foreigners”
Motivational Theories of
Prejudice and Stereotyping
Prejudice serves to meet certain needs and
increases one’s sense of security
Prejudice especially more likely among those high
in authoritarianism who have:
An acceptance of very conventional or traditional values
A willingness to unquestioningly follow orders of
authority figures
An inclination to act aggressively towards those
identified by authority figure as a threat to one’s values
or well-being
Cognitive Theories of Prejudice
and Stereotyping
People use schemas and other
cognitive shortcuts to organize
and make sense of their social
world
Sometimes these processes
lead to inaccurate stereotypes
For example:
We tend to simplify our
perceptions by seeing group
members as similar to one
another
We also see illusory correlations
between an individual’s behavior
and group membership
Need For Structure
Some people like their lives to be simple
and organized…
Can this attitude lead to stereotyping?
Who is more likely to get harassed at
an airport security check???
Learning Theories of Prejudice
and Stereotyping
Prejudices can be learned…
Classical Conditioning
Suggests that our parents and media may have started an
early process that has now become automatic
Might explain how one can develop negative attitudes towards
never encountered groups
Operant Conditioning
One can be directly reinforced for expressing prejudice
Social Learning Theory
Prejudice can be the result of observational learning
(Bandura’s theory again)
Realistic group conflict
theory
Competition for valuable but limited resources
breeds hostility…
Loser: becomes frustrated
Winner: becomes threatened
Result: Much conflict
Example: Women and immigrants joining the
workforce
When conflict arises there is a higher tendency to
rely on stereotypes…“they’re all the same”
How Stereotypes Form:
In-groups vs. Out-groups
Strong tendency to divide people into ingroups and
outgroups
Such group identifications can promote an ingroup
bias…
Often it becomes an “Us vs. Them” attitude
Consequences
Exaggerate differences between ingroups and
other outgroups.
Outgroup homogeneity effect
Reducing Prejudice
Contact Hypothesis
Stereotypes and prejudice toward a group will
diminish as contact with the group increases
Getting to know and hopefully to understand a
group
Get two groups to work towards a common goal
Cooperation helps; competition hurts
Adult Moral Reasoning
Ethical issues often present themselves
Taking responsibility for one’s own
actions perceived by young adults of all
ethnic groups as marker of adulthood
Addressing Specific Dilemmas
Life Choices
parenthood
life events
New and different qualities of moral reasoning
appear
Gilligan (1981, 1990) took into consideration
that life experiences contribute to a broader
understanding of moral reasoning
Addressing Specific Dilemmas
Every young adult must make choices about
sexuality
reproduction
marriage and child rearing
issues caused by increasing globalization and
immigration
Dilemmas also arise from popular culture
television
The Internet
popular music
Measuring Moral Growth:
Lawrence Kohlberg
(1927-1987)
Lawrence Kohlberg was, for
many years, a professor at
Harvard University
He became famous for his
work there beginning in the
early 1970s
He started as a
developmental psychologist
and then moved to the field
of moral education
Adolescents and Morality:
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Kohlberg believed...and was able to
demonstrate through studies...that people
progressed in their moral reasoning (ethical
behavior) through a series of stages
He believed that there were six identifiable
stages which could be more generally classified
into three levels
Level I:
Preconventional Morality
Level I:
Typical of most children under the age of nine – behavior tends to
be selfish in nature
Stage 1:
Moral values reside in external events (bad acts)
The child is responsive to rules and evaluative labels, but
views them in terms of pleasant or unpleasant
consequences of actions, or in terms of the physical power
of those who impose the rules
Very selfish – may do things just to stay out of trouble
Obedience and punishment orientation or to gain concrete
rewards
Stage 2:
Basically the same as in stage one as bottom line is to
satisfy one’s own needs but occasionally others as well
Level II: Conventional Morality
Level II:
By early adolescence, moral values reside in performing the right
role, in maintaining the conventional order and expectancies of
others as a value in its own right – uphold laws and social order
Stage 3: Good-boy/good-girl orientation
Orientation to approval, to pleasing and helping others
Conformity to stereotypical images of majority or natural role
behavior
Action is evaluated in terms of intentions
Stage 4: Authority and social-order-maintaining
orientation
Orientation to "doing duty" and to showing respect for
authority and maintaining the given social order for its own
sake
Level III:
Postconventional Morality
Level III:
Abstract reasoning that not everyone develops…
Stage 5:
Morality is defined in terms of institutionalized rules that
have a rational basis
Society vs. Individual (any conflict favors society)
Stage 6:
The standards conformed to are internal, and actiondecisions are based on an inner process of thought and
judgment concerning right and wrong
Social laws are very important but conscience is what
dictates behavior – not what others might think
Society vs. Individual (any conflict favors individual)
The Heinz Dilemma:
Scenario 1
A woman was near death from a unique kind of cancer.
There is a drug that might save her. The drug costs $4,000
per dosage. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every
legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000.
He asked the doctor scientist who discovered the drug for a
discount or let him pay later. But the doctor scientist
refused.
Should Heinz break into the laboratory to
steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
The Heinz Dilemma:
Scenario 2
Heinz broke into the laboratory and stole the
drug. The next day, the newspapers reported the
break-in and theft. Brown, a police officer and a
friend of Heinz remembered seeing Heinz last
evening, behaving suspiciously near the
laboratory. Later that night, he saw Heinz running
away from the laboratory.
Should Brown report what he saw? Why or
why not?
The Heinz Dilemma:
Scenario 3
Officer Brown reported what he saw. Heinz
was arrested and brought to court. If
convicted, he faces up to two years in
prison. Heinz was found guilty.
Should the judge sentence Heinz to
prison? Why or why not?
Dilemma II:
The case of the promised rock concert…
Scene 1:
Judy is a 16-year-old girl. Her mother promised her that she could go to a special
rock concert coming to their town if she saved up from baby-sitting and lunch money
to buy a ticket to the concert.
Judy managed to save up the fifteen dollars (the ticket cost) plus another twenty
dollars and proudly told her mother she had enough saved to have a “good time at
the concert”. Her mother said great, this shows what you can do when you put your
mind to it.
But later that same evening her mother read a front page article on the dangers of
the upcoming concert…how there would be a “bad element” present doing drugs. It
was also mentioned that tattoos and piercings would be taking place as well.
She called Judy and Judy’s 17 year-old sister in for a “family meeting” and for nearly
an hour lectured on the evils of drugs, sex, and rock and roll.
She told Judy that she had to spend the money on new clothes for school instead.
What Kohlberg stage is Judy’s mother at??? Why??
Dilemma II:
The case of the promised rock concert…
Scene 2:
The next day Judy screamed at her mother calling her a liar that
should never be trusted
The strong-willed Judy later decided to go to the concert anyway.
That Saturday she told her mother she was forgiven that she was
spending the day with a friend going shopping.
In reality, Judy and her friend went to the performance and had a
great time
A week passed without her mother finding out.
In confidence, Judy then told her older sister, Louise, that she had
gone to the concert and had lied to her mother about it. Louise
wonders whether to tell their mother what Judy did.
What Kohlberg stage is Judy at??? Why???
If Judy’s sister was at the top level what would her
actions be??? Why???
Limitations to Kohlberg’s
Theory
Cross-Cultural Studies
Levels 1 and 2 appear universal; Level 3 does
not
Moral judgments in some cultures do not fit into
Kohlberg’s stages
Gender and Morality
Men concerned with the abstract, impersonal
concept of justice
Females concerned with protecting enduring
caring relationships and fulfilling human needs
Measuring Moral Growth
Defining Issues Test
developed by James Rest
respondents rank their priorities, from
personal benefits to higher goals; this in
contrast to Kohlberg’s open-ended questions
ranking items leads to number score
scores generally rise with age and education
which make people less rigid and more
flexible
The Effects of College
Education powerfully influences
cognitive development
improves verbal and quantitative skills, and
specific subject knowledge while enhancing
reasoning, reflection, and flexibility of
thought
Change in the Students
The sheer numbers have increased greatly,
worldwide
In all nations, increased student diversity
more women students
more older students
more culturally diverse students in United
States
more low-income students
more working students
Changes in the Institutions
Structure of higher education changing
with student population changes
Almost twice as many U.S. institutions of
higher learning today than in 1970
community college enrollment up 144 percent
more career programs
more part-time faculty
more women and minority instructors
Credits
Portions of slides on Kohlberg taken from:
http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/kohlberg.dilemm
as.html