PSYC 351 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Social Dominance Orientation, Social Identity Theory, Sexual Orientation
Chapter 9 Prejudice
- How we perceive situations and act towards one another
- Look at the crime or incident and look to the victim as to the cause
Blaming the Victim
• People have a tendency to pay attention to the victim’s behavior in a crime,
instead of just the perpetrator’s.
• In studies: Rapists are blamed less if:
• The woman was divorced as opposed to married
• The woman was topless dancer instead of a nun
• The woman had past sexual experiences instead of being a virgin
• Or if she “asked for it” (e.g., forgot to lock her car, dressed sexy)
• Or if she was “obliged.”
Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination
• ABC’s
• Affect
• Behavior
• Cognition
• Stereotype (C) a thought
• Apply to 100% of the population
• Belief about the personal attributes of a group of people whereby all the
people in that group are thought to possess those attributes
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• Problems arise when they are:
• Overgeneralized
• Inaccurate and/or exaggerated
• Inflexible to contrary information
• Varieties of stereotypes
• Gender
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• Class
• Weight
• Prejudice (A) a feeling
o Hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group of people,
based solely on their group membership
▪ Negative stereotype leads to feelings of illegal aliens
• Discrimination (B) an action
o Unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group
because of their membership in that group
o Can be personal or institutional
▪ Negative feeling and thought leads to action, harmful negative
behavior
Why do we have stereotypes and prejudices?
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• Existing social structures
• Realistic Conflict Theory
• Frustration--Aggression Theory
• Social Identity Theory
• Cognitive Misers
Existing social structures
• Stereotypes and prejudices can stem from existing social inequalities
• Social Dominance Orientation
• People high on the hierarchy tend to promote hierarchies, embrace
prejudice, and support political positions that support the
hierarchy
• Tax cuts for the wealthy
• Against affirmative action
Realistic Conflict Theory
• Sherif’s (1966) Robber’s Cave study
• 22 unacquainted boys taken to bunkhouses ½ mile apart in separate vans
• Week 1: unaware of each other’s existence
• Each group became cohesive: “Rattlers” & “Eagles”
• End of Week 1: Rattlers discovered Eagles on their baseball field
• Counselors proposed week-long tournament
• Win-lose situation with prizes, such as access to equipment,
medals, goods
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Document Summary
How we perceive situations and act towards one another. Look at the crime or incident and look to the victim as to the cause. Blaming the victim: people have a tendency to pay attention to the victim"s behavior in a crime, instead of just the perpetrator"s. Why do we have stereotypes and prejudices: existing social structures, realistic conflict theory, frustration--aggression theory, social identity theory, cognitive misers. Sherif"s result: conflict began with name calling during game, escalated to flag burning, cabin ransacking, fistfights, and garbage wars , boys described other group as sneaky , smart alecks , stinkers , etc, described their group as brave , tough , friendly . Introduce a common superordinate goal: and they succeed. Aggression when insulted (rogers & prentice-dunn, 1981: u. of alabama white participants, told to give shocks to other participant in learning experiment, could choose level and duration. Iv#1: race of confederate: black or white. Iv#2: behavior of confederate: friendly or insulting.
