social categorisation, stereotypes and prejudice Flashcards
personal vs social identity, categorisation, stereotypes, behavioural assimilation, stereotype threat, prejudice and discrimination, causes of prejudice, frustration-aggression hypothesis, authoritarian personality, social learning, group process, bringing it together (49 cards)
what is personal identity?
personality characteristics
what is social identity?
groups you are a member of
what is stereotyping?
widely shared and simplified evaluative image of a social group and its members
what is a category?
collections of instances that have a family resemblance organised around a prototype
what are prototypes (theory)?
cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category
standards against which resemblance is assessed and category membership defined
what is categorisation?
the process of understanding what something is by knowing what other things it is equivalent to and what other things it is different from
are categories rigid or fuzzy?
fuzzy
more or less typical of the category
depending on the prototype
categorisation of less typical members more difficult
what are the reasons to categorise?
save cognitive energy - saves time and cognitive processing, simplify how individuals think about world
clarifies and refines perception of the world - once category activation tend to see members as possessing all traits of that stereotype, reducing uncertainty, predict social world
maintain a positive self-esteem - motivational function for social identity and self-concept
what is an illusory correlation?
negative stereotypes may occur when people inaccurately pair minority groups with negative events and behaviours because they are both distinct
what was Hamilton and Sherman’s (1996) study into illusory correlation?
asked White American participants to estimate the arrest rate of various types of American
African Americans were estimated to have a higher arrest rate than they did
what are the effects of stereotyping?
behavioural assimilation
stereotype threat - threat of negative evaluations can actually lead to poor performance
prejudice and discrimination
what is behavioural assimilation?
stereotypes don’t just influence our perceptions of others, they can influence our own behaviour
who investigated behavioural assimilation and when?
Bargh et al
1996
what was Bargh et al’s (1996) study on behavioural assimilation?
“scrambled sentence” task - making sentences out of randomly ordered words
IV = word types (“elderly” = task used words associated with elderly stereotypes, neutral = words unrelated to age)
DV = participants directed to exist and hidden confederate timed how long it took them to leave room
participants primed with elderly words behaved in a way related to an “elderly stereotype” - moved more slowly to leave the room (even though “slow” wasn’t primed specifically - it was part of stereotype activated)
what did Papies (2015) find about whether people need to cared about what’s being primed?
found people who want to become thinner and more likely to make healthy food choices if they are primed with words on the menu like “diet”, “thin” and “trim figure”
only works for people for whom a healthy diet is a central goal, doesn’t make everyone avoid fattening foods
what is stereotype threat?
when negative stereotypes define our groups and we behave in line with them
feeling that we will be inadvertently confirm these stereotypes through our behaviour
negative impact is not inevitable, reframing low expectations as a challenge instead of a threat can eliminate the effect
who investigated stereotype threat and when?
Tan and Barber
2020
what was Tan and Barber’s (2020) study on stereotype threat?
examined whether age-based stereotypes impact older Chinese adults
tested older Chinese participants’ memory recall under a stereotype threat condition or control condition
results demonstrated poorer memory recall in the stereotype threat condition vs control
should be noted participants immigrants residing in United States - as shown in other studies, could effects of stereotype threat be different in Asian participants who still reside in an Asian country
what is prejudice?
strong, highly accessible negative attitude
dominated by cognitive bias and negative stereotypes
what is discrimination?
behaviour based on unjust treatment of certain groups
reluctance to help
tokenism
reverse discrimination
what was reluctance to help?
participants more reluctant to help a minority member (than their own group) when faced with an emergency
only when others were present
what is tokenism?
process of favouring a member of a minority group in isolated episodes
what was Monin and Miller’s (2001) study into tokenism?
participants who were given opportunity to hire well-qualified minority candidate were willing to discriminate against other minorities in future hiring because had already “proven” that they were not prejudiced
what is reverse discrimination?
openly displays pro-minority behaviour but as well to detect accusations of prejudice
