Stereotyping, Prejudice And Discrimination Flashcards
Describe prejudice
A rigid set of attitudes or beliefs towards particular groups of people.
Describe discrimination.
The way an individual behaves towards another person or group as a result of their prejudiced view.
Describe Adorno
Aim: To find out if there is a relationship between a person’s personality type and prejudiced views.
Method:Hundreds of people were interviewed and tested using the F-scale.
Results: They found a relationship between personality traits and prejudiced views.
Conclusion: There is an authoritarian personality and people with these characteristics are highly likely to be prejudiced towards others.
Describe Sherif
Aim: To find out if prejudice develops when groups are in competition for scarce resources.
Method: 22 boys went to a summer camp called ‘Robbers Cave’. The boys were split into two groups of 11 and they didn’t know about the other group. Both teams went into competitions against each other to win a silver cup.
Results: When it got competitive fights and name calling started
Conclusion: Competition is a cause of prejudice.
Describe Levine.
Aim: To see if people would be more likely to help a stranger if they believed they had something in common with the stranger.
Method: A situation was set up so that a stuntman fell over in front of Manchester United fans. Half of the time he was wearing a Manchester United shirt and the other half he was wearing a Liverpool shirt.
Results: When he was wearing the Manchester United shirt, he was helped to his feet every time. However, when he was wearing a Liverpool shirt, he was left to help himself up every time.
Conclusion: When we feel we have something in common with others, we are more likely to help them in an emergency. We are less likely to help out-group members,
Describe Tajfel
Aim: To show how easily people discriminate against their out-groups.
Method: 14-15 year old boys were randomly assigned to two groups. Each boy was given a game to play where he had to award pairs of points. They were told the points could be swapped for prizes at the end.
Results: The boys were rewarded points by choosing the pairings that created the biggest difference between the groups, not the pairings that gave them the most points.
Conclusion: People will discriminate against others just because they are members of an out-group
Aronson Jigsaw method
He sent people away into groups to become an expert of something
They then had to come back and tell the rest of the class what they had learnt
Describe Harwood
Harwood asked the children about their views on the elderly
Harwood worked out that children who had more contact with their grandparents had a better view on the elderly
Describe Elliott
She taught her class of 9 year olds what it felt like to be discriminated against.
She told the blue eyed people they were the superior and that they brown eyed people were inferior.
In the playground fights started between the blue eyed and the brown eyed.
Describe the F-scale
The questionnaire used by Adorno to measure personality characteristics.
What is stereotyping
An oversimplified, generalised set of ideas that we have about a groups of others.
Describe Rubin et al.
Aim: To find out if new parents stereotype their babies
Method: Parents were asked to describe their new babies within 24 hours of the baby being born
Results: They found that parents of baby boys dwarves their babies as being alert and strong, whereas parents of baby girls described their babies as soft and delicate.
Conclusion: Parents stereotype their children from a very early stage despite no stereotypical behaviour being shown. For a lot of parents who know the sex of their baby prior to birth, this stereotyping behaviour starts before the baby is born by painting a room pink for a girl, or blue for a boy.
