Transcript Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Psychology of Prejudice
and Discrimination
Individual Differences and
Prejudice
Prepared by S.Saterfield
Whitley & Kite, (2006) The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination
Study of Individual Differences
Researchers began to study why people differ
from one another and related to variable such as
prejudice after World War II
•Nazi Anti-Semitism
•Holocaust
Individual differences theories of prejudice•Authoritarian personality
•Social dominance orientation
•Empathy
The Big 3
Authoritarianism Personality
•Fascism—political philosophy that those who
hold power know what is best for society,
people should do what their government tells
them to do
•Popular belief in the 1930’s
A personality type that is especially
susceptible to unthinking obedience to
authority
The Big 3
Authoritarianism Personality
-Nine characteristic patterns—5 related to
prejudice
-Ideologies—set attitudes and beliefs that
predispose people to view the world in certain
ways and to respond in ways consistent with
those viewpoints
-Rigid adherence to conventional thinking leads
people to view the world in stereotypical terms
The Big 3
Authoritarianism Personal
5 Characteristic patterns—related to prejudice
1. Conventionalism—rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class
values
2. Authoritarian submission—submissive uncritical attitude toward
idealized moral authorities
3. Authoritarian aggression—tendency to be on the lookout for, and
to condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional
values
4. Stereotypy—The disposition to think in rigid categories
5. Projectivity—The disposition to believe that wild and dangerous
things go on in the world: The projection outwards of unconscious
emotional impulses.
The Big 3
Authoritarianism Personality
Right-wing authoritarianism—RWA
Set of attitudes rather than as a personality type
Tend to be:
•Mentally inflexible
•See the world in simple terms
•Have a high need for closure
•Not interested in experiencing new things
•Place a high value on security
•Self-righteous
The Big 3
Authoritarianism Personality
Right-wing authoritarianism—RWA
Three Clusters of attitudes:
Authoritarian submission—high degree of submission to
authorities who are perceived to be established and
legitimate in society
Authoritarian aggression—general aggressiveness,
directed against various persona, that is perceived to be
sanctioned by established authorities
Conventionalism—high degree of adherence to social
conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society
and established authorities.
The Big 3
Social Dominance Orientation—SDO
Individual difference variable that reflects
“the extent to which one desires that one’s ingroup dominate and be superior to outgroups”
Reflects the belief that one’s group ought to be at the top
of societal ladder and that other groups ought to be on
the bottom
Opposition to equality reflects belief that group on bottom
ought to stay there
The Big 3
Social Dominance Orientations
•Concept of legitimizing myths—sets of attitudes and
beliefs that people used to justify their dominant
position in society
•Belief that groups they identify with (racial, ethnic,
professional, socioeconomic status) should have a
superior position in society and control over resources
The Big 3
Social Dominance Orientations/Prejudice
Motivational effect of social dominance orientation
Personal Characteristics:
•Competitive juggle characteristics
•Ruthless and amoral
•Winning is everything
•Tough-minded
•Low in empathy, sympathy and benevolence
The Big 3
Social Dominance Orientations/Prejudice
Legitimizing myths—set of attitudes and beliefs that
people high in SDO can use to justify their dominant
position in society
•Group stereotyping—used to denying equality to other
groups
•Endorse stereotypes of outgroups, especially negative
ones
•Tend to stereotype to a greater extent than other
people
•Use stereotypes to justify their prejudices
The Big 3
Social Dominance Orientations and
Authoritarianism
•Dominance over outgroups regardless of the views of
ingroup authority figures
•Focus on relations between groups
•Stronger group identity motivates people to make
stronger distinctions between their group and others
•Focus on quashing competition for resources from
other groups
•Maintaining ingroup’s dominance in society
The Big 3
Empathy—’an other-oriented emotional response
congruent with another’s perceived welfare
Affect prejudice through a three-step process:
(a)Adopting the perspective of a member of a
stigmatized group
(b)Lead to perception of increased valuing of this
individual’s welfare
(c)Assuming that this individual’s group
membership is a salient component of his or her
plight
The Big 3
Empathy—
Empathic feelings include sympathy, compassion,
tenderness—an individual difference variable
(a)Perspective taking—tendency to spontaneously adopt
psychological point of view of others in every day life
(b)Empathic concern—tendency to experience feelings of
sympathy and compassion for unfortunate others
(c)Personal distress—tendency to experience distress and
discomfort in response to extreme distress in others
The Big 3
Empathy—
• Oriented emotional response congruent with
another’s perceived welfare
• Affect prejudice through a three-step process:
(a)Adopting the perspective of a member of a
stigmatized group
(b)Lead to perception of increased valuing of this
individual’s welfare
(c)Assuming that this individual’s group membership is
a salient component of his or her plight
The Self
•Our awareness of ourselves as living beings
who interact with the world and the people in it.
•Our beliefs about what we are like, our
characteristic behavior, or abilities and
shortcomings
•Our evaluation of those characteristics as
good or bad, positive or negative
The Self
• Theorist relate the self to prejudice—
• People low in self-esteem use prejudice to
boost their self-images by looking down on
others
• People respond to threats to self-esteem with
prejudice as a way of warding off the threat
• Intergroup anxiety—feeling of discomfort while
interacting with or anticipating an interaction
with members of outgroups
The Self
Self-Esteem refers to people’s evaluation of their
personal characteristics and behavioral
patterns
• Self-enhancement: looking down on others
might make one feel better about oneself
• Self-protection—if one’s self-esteem is
threatened, looking down on others might again
made one feel better about oneself
The Self
Intergroup anxiety—the feelings of discomfort
many people experience when interacting with,
or anticipating and interaction with members of
other groups
Relates to minority group members’ attitudes
toward the majority group as well as majority
group members’ attitudes toward minority
groups/
Personal Values
Values Orientations
Individualism—values emphasizing importance
of self-reliance
Egalitarianism—emphasizes the importance of
all people being treated equally and fairly
Personal Values
Perceived Values Differences
• Values dissimilarity
•symbolic beliefs
•symbolic threats
• Family values
• Terror management theory
Social Ideologies
Ideologies—set attitudes and beliefs that
predispose people to view the world in certain
ways and to respond in ways consistent with
those viewpoints
Religion
• Religious involvement
• Intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation
• Religious fundamentalism
Social Ideologies
Political Orientation
•Conservatism
•Liberalism
•Social policy attitudes