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Prejudice and discrimination. Factors contributing to the development of prejudice Factors that may reduce prejudice . Factors contributing to the development of prejudice. Ingroups Outgroups Intergroup conflict. Factors contributing to the development of prejudice .
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Prejudice and discrimination Factors contributing to the development of prejudice Factors that may reduce prejudice
Factors contributing to the development of prejudice • Ingroups • Outgroups • Intergroup conflict
Factors contributing to the development of prejudice • Attribution is the process of trying to explain observed behaviour in terms of a particular cause. • Attribution can be either internal (from within the person) or external (from the environment)
If we attribute behaviour to internal factors, we tend to blame one or more characteristics of that person for causing the behaviour. • If we attribute behavoiur to external factors, we tend to blame the situation or circumstance as the cause.
For example: A teenage crashes his car. His parents could either blame… • His reckless driving • Internal attribution – why?? • The slippery road conditions • External attribution – why??
The fundamental attribution error • Occurs when people overestimate the influence personal characteristics and underestimate the influence of the situation they are in when explaining a person’s behaviour. • For example: you met a blonde girl on the weekend who had never heard of Tony Abbott so you might conclude that all blondes are naïve and do not care about politics. You might not consider that she has been out of the country for 2 years and this is her first weekend back!
The just world hypothesis • Is the tendency for individuals to believe that they live in a world where people generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get. • For example: this explains why so many people believed Carl Williams ‘deserved’ to be sentenced to life imprisonment - the victim is blamed.
Factors that may reduce prejudice • Intergroup contact • Sustained contact • Mutual interdependence • Superordinate goals • Equality of status • Cognitive interventions
Intergroup Contact • Sustained contact: it has been suggested that direct contact between members of different groups can reduce intergroup stereotyping prejudice. This is called the contact hypothesis. • However, there are exceptions to this. Can you think of any groups that are still discriminated against today, despite sustained contact? Muslims and Christians Males and females Europeans and Aboriginals Older people and younger people
In order for sustained contact to be effective in reducing prejudice, one condition which must be present is: • mutual interdependence. This means that the two different groups must have contact which makes them dependent on each other. • Tug of war example – two groups who may not have like one another need each other if they are going to win.
Sherif (1956) Robbers Cave Experiment • 3 main stages: • Promote development of cohesion between the group (got the group to ‘bond’) • Intergroup competition (tug of war competition) • Aimed to improve relations by increasing contact through intergroup cooperation in non-competitive situations (provided social interactions between the two ‘rival’ groups) – but this didn’t work! • In order to overcome rivalry and negative attitudes, made the groups mutually interdependent on each other (created situations where members of one group alone could not accomplish the task) (superordinate goals)
Sherif (1956) Robbers Cave Experiment • Create a flowchart or a comic strip of this experiment including: • the main stages of the experiment • the results obtained by Sherif • The way rivalry and negative attitudes were overcome • Make sure you include the key terms and concepts! • Make it pretty because you will presenting this to the class! • (Pg. 351-354)
Sherif(1956) Robbers Cave Experiment • Create a cartoon flowchart of this experiment including the main stages of the experiment and the results obtained by Sherif.
Superordinate goals are goals which cannot be achieved by any one group alone and overrides other existing goals which each group might have. • For example,you may have two groups of people who seriously dislike each other and place them in the bush. The only way they can find their way out is to work together – this would be their superordinate goal!
Another example is the film, ‘Remember the Titans’ • This breaks down barriers, encourages people to see each other as just people and not as part of "that other group that we dislike", and can help overcome differences between the groups.
Equality of statusis another condition of the contact hypothesis. in order for prejudice to be reduced, each group must have equal status in the contact situation. • When status between two groups is not equal, the group members tend to view the other group members differently, and may also treat them differently.
Cognitive Interventions • Cognitive intervention involves changing the way in which someone thinks about prejudice. • If people can be encouraged to understand others based on their individual characteristics rather than generalising some of their characteristics to stereotype them, then prejudice may be lessened.
Learning Activity 8.22 (pg. 357) • Questions 3, 4 & 5 • These need to be completed for homework by next lesson (Thursday Pd. 5 & 6)
