Perceiving groups

Question 1

Define stereotype

Answer 1

Beliefs that associate groups of people with certain traits or characteristics

Question 2

Give an example of a group stereotype

Answer 2

Americans are loud and the french are rude

Question 3

Define prejudice

Answer 3

Negative feelings towards persons based on their membership of certain groups

Question 4

Define discrimination

Answer 4

Behaviour directed against persons due to their membership of a particular group

Question 5

What did Broverman et al. ask participants - what were their findings ?

Answer 5

Asked 79 males and females nurses to describe men and women on the basis of 122 items. No difference emerged between the descriptions. Men were described as independent, competitive, dominant etc . Whilst women were described as talkative, gentle and interested in own appearance.

Question 6

What percentage of automechanics in the uk are men?

Answer 6

99%

Question 7

What percentage of secretaries in the Uk are men?

Answer 7

5%

Question 8

What percentage of men said they were very confident they could safely land an airplane in an emergency with only help from air control?

Answer 8

20%

Question 9

What percentage of females said they were very confident they could safely land an airplane in an emergency with only help from air control?

Answer 9

7%

Question 10

What percentage of females said they were very confident they could safely land an airplane in an emergency with only help from air control?

Answer 10

7%

Question 11

What percentage of females said they were not at all confident they could safely land an airplane in an emergency with only help from air control?

Answer 11

55%

Question 12

What percentage of males said they were not at all confident they could safely land an airplane in an emergency with only help from air control?

Answer 12

28%

Question 13

Define social categorisation

Answer 13

The classification of persons into groups on the basis of common attributes for example race, gender, age

Question 14

What is in ingroup?

Answer 14

Our own group

Question 15

What is an outgroup

Answer 15

other group we don’t belong to

Question 16

What does Social Identity Theory suggest?

Answer 16

people favour ingroups because they believe their own group/culture/language to be better and more deserving than others. This is to enhance their self-esteem. Therefore self esteem is determined by personal identity and social identity.

Question 17

Who are conspiracy theories especially appealing to?

Answer 17

people who find their in-group threatened

Question 18

What leads to negative evaluation of outgroups?

Answer 18

Emphasising differences between in and out groups (implication

Question 19

Describe the stereotype content model

Answer 19

Proposed by Fiske - many group stereotypes vary along the dimensions of competence and warmth. High competence = high status , more warmth = less competition

Question 20

how are elderly/females assessed according to the stereotype content model

Answer 20

high in warmth (less competition) and low in competence (low status)

Question 21

how are immigrants competing for jobs assessed according to the stereotype content model

Answer 21

low in competence (low status) and low in warmth (high competition)

Question 22

When is there a trade off according to the stereotype content model?

Answer 22

For groups low on one and high on other dimension . For example successful business women - high in competence and low in warmth

Question 23

How do stereotypes form according to outgroup homogeneity effect?

Answer 23

Outgroup homogeneity effect - the tendency to assume that there is greater similarity among members of outgroups than of ingroups

Question 24

List the causes of outgroup homogeneity

Answer 24

1) Lack of personal contact (familiarity) with the outgroup
2) lack of diversity in experiences with the outgroup
3) when perceiving unknown faces of ingroup and outgroup members, greater neural activity in the brain when perceiving the ingroup members
4) Dehumanising outgroups - ppts less likely to infer that racial outgroup members were experiencing remorse and mourning than racial ingroup members

Question 25

How do stereotypes form according to illusory correlations?

Answer 25

An overestimation of the association between variables that are only slightly correlated or not at all. For example the overestimation of distinctive words such a 'black person commits a crime'.

Question 26

How do stereotypes form through generalising ?

Answer 26

By generalising from one example to the whole group

Question 27

Why do stereotypes endure?

Answer 27

(1) Through overestimation of distinctive events (e.g., black person commits a crime) (2) Through overestimation of meaningful pairs(e.g., black person commits a crime) (3) Through sub-categorisation (4) Through explaining away positive behaviour

Question 28

How can prejudice be tackled?

Answer 28

using well known black atheletes. But campaigns can be unsuccessful for example, a dutch campaign that showed a typical day of a black police officer had no effect

Question 29

How is positive behaviour of an ethnic minority explained away?

Answer 29

The exceptional case, luck, high motivation or effort , manipulated

Question 30

Descrive the procedure and results of thr prejudice mass media campaign study

Answer 30

Participants were exposed to (i) existing posters, (ii) newly developed posters, or (iii) no posters, and were then asked to fill in a prejudice questionnaire. Highest prejudice score in original posters, then no posters then newly developed posters.

Question 31

What are the features of a good campaign?

Answer 31

Explicit, positive, uses many examples

Question 32

What are some factors that reduce prejudice policy?

Answer 32

A lack of insight of what works Costs money Policy makers don't think campaigns work however they probably do not communicate with researchers Campaigns can harm people and have to be tested before being implemented

Question 33

How are stereotypes used to evaluate people?

Answer 33

Through automatic stereotype activation - Stereotypes can bias our perceptions and responses even when we don’t personally agree with them (Devine, 1989) Confirmation bias - the tendency to seek and interpret information that seems to support existing beliefs Self-fulfilling prophecies

Question 34

Give research evidence of confirmation bias

Answer 34

Students listened to a college basketball game Some were led to believe that a particular player was black, others that he was white How did the student evaluate his performance in terms of physical ability? Ppts that thought the player was black gave him a much higher physical ability rating than ppts who thought he was white.

Question 35

How do self-fulfilling prophecies work?

Answer 35

Your own ideas guide your behaviour, your behaviour influences the other person’s behaviour in such a way that your ideas are supported

Question 36

Provide research support for self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 36

Female applicants were interviewed by a male interviewer. Prior to the interviews, the applicants (i) were or (ii) were not told that the interviewer holds traditional female stereotypes The interviews were videotaped and behaviour and appearance of applicants were measured. The female applicants had greater eye contact and spoke for longer when they were not told the interviewer holds traditional female stereotypes

Question 37

Why might bringing ethnic groups together not solve all problems?

Answer 37

Too simplistic

Question 38

What does the contact hypothesis suggest can solve discrimination?

Answer 38

1) equal status 2)personal interaction 3)co-operative activities 4)social norms

Question 39

Give evidence of cooperative activities helping to solve discrimination

Answer 39

Boys at a summer camp were after one week divided into two groups with the best friends in different groups Then competition was introduced (football and the winners received a present). The percentage of unfavourable outgroup members hugely increased. Then super ordinate goals were introduced: Truck was stuck in the mud and everyone had to help to push the truck out of the mud. The percentage of unfavourable outgroup members quartered.

Question 40

What did Davies find that supports the contact hypothesis?

Answer 40

Developing friendships across groups is one of the best ways to fulfil the four criteria

Question 41

Give an example of the indirect contact effect

Answer 41

People who do not have a friend from another group can benefit from their friends who do

Question 42

What are some possible solutions to overcome discrimination ?

Answer 42

- The jigsaw classroom , pupils need others to succeed - Learn about variability amongst outgroup members - Multiculturalism includes everyone, including the majority group - Take the perspective of a person from a stereotyped group

Question 43

Explain the search and you will find prinicple

Answer 43

Take a white police officer who believes that black people are more likely to violate the law.The officer will focus on searching black people but if you search people, you will find law violations. The white officer’s idea of ‘black people violate the law’ is virtually always confirmed.

Question 44

What are the implications of the search and you will find principle?

Answer 44

Under labour government, a voice stress analyser was introduced to detect false claims. A pilot study was claimed to be successful but it involved scrutinising those who failed the test. No control group of people who passed the test was added.