PSYC1004 Study Guide - Final Guide: Realistic Conflict Theory, Nazi Propaganda, Scapegoating
Stereotyping and Prejudice
• Prejudice - an unfavourable attitude directed towards groups based off incorrect or insufficient
information.
• Prejudice requires a distinction between ingroups and outgroups - people who belong to the group and
those who do not.
• Thus, individuals whose identities are based largely on the groups to which they belong will have more
of a need to maintain positive feelings for their in-group and negative feelings for the outgroup.
Different Explanations for Prejudice:
1. Socio-Cultural (Sherif)
• Summer camp in USA, all middle-class, Caucasian, 12 year olds. Separated into two groups - Eagles and
Rattlers.
1. Stage 1: Build group cohesion (eg: treasure hunt, name and logos).
2. Stage 2: Introduce the other group - competitive goals.
3. Stage 3: Non-competitive activities (eg: bringing boys together - failed).
4. Stage 4: Common independent goals (created a sense of emergencies, eg: lack of water, that could
only be handled if both groups worked together - after 6 days of this cooperation, the tensions
were wiped).
• Sherif developed his realistic group conflict theory to explain results. Key points:
- Negative stereotypes and prejudice reflect the pattern of shared and competing goals that
characterise group life.
- When groups have conflicting and mutually exclusive goals this will foster ethnocentrism.
- Action based on belief that their in-group is superior to other outgroups (which in turn are
perceived as inferior).
- Sherif argued that this can only be overcome by creating higher-order shared goals.
Critique Socio-Cultural
1. Major advance stereotypes (and prejudice) could change to the extent that features of the social
world did not → stereotypes not rigid and fixed.
2. Approach more descriptive than explanatory (it doesn't tell us much about what was going on in
people's heads).
3. Analysis of psychological process was relatively imprecise.
2. Psychodynamic
Prejudice from
an Intergroup
Perspective
• "Prejudice" as an intergroup attitude is meaningful and functional, rather than
'irrational'.
• "Prejudice" results from intergroup relations → change intergroup relations to
increase or reduce "prejudice".
Psycho-
Dynamic
Approach
• Well-integrated psychological analysis.
• Prejudice related to frustration.
• Prejudice due to a distinct personality syndrome which they called
authoritarianism.
Frustration →
Aggression
Hypothesis
(Dollard et al. 1944)
• Psychodynamic origins (i.e. Freud).
• Experience of frustration (eg: goals not achieved).
• Sources of frustration beyond reach, eg: more powerful.
• Displacement of aggression onto less powerful targets → "scapegoating".
Supporting evidence:
• Hovland & Sears (1940) found that the number of lynchings of Black people in the
American South increased when economic conditions worsened.
Frustration → Aggression
• It is not the sum of individual frustrations and 'irrational' displacements that leads
to collective aggression.
• A shared theory or collective understanding of group relations often leads to a
collective response (eg: attack on another group).
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• "Scapegoating" of Jews in Nazi Germany - Jews stereotyped as a threat to
Germany, eg: dangerous, by the Nazi propaganda machine.
• Ceatig a 'the' to eate a 'us': Jes ae eethig that Geas aet.
3. Personality
• Some aspects of personality are more likely to foster prejudicial attitudes.
Authoritarian
Personality
• (Adorno, 1950) – characterised by tendency to hate different outgroups and
minorities → therefore, personality causes prejudice.
• Authoritarianism characterised by:
A. A rigid adherence to conventional values.
B. An exaggerated need to submit to, and identify with, strong authority.
C. Anti-intraception (dislike for sensitivity or tender mindedness).
D. Generalised hostility.
E. A mystical, superstitious cast of mind.
F. Stereotyped thinking and a tendency to represent the world as 'black and white'.
Prejudiced
Personality
• Resulting from punitive and harsh early life experiences.
• Insecurity and fearfulness.
• Inability to cope with inner tensions or conflicts.
• Inability to cope with uncertainty, change and ambiguity in the external world.
Tolerant
Personality
• Resulting from permissive parenting and unconditional acceptance.
• Security and maturity of ego
• Inner confidence and ability to cope with threat and uncertainty.
RWA & SDO
Right Wing Authoritarianism
• (Altemeyer, 1981) - 3 dimensions:
1. Authoritarian submission: high degree of submission to legitimate authority.
2. Authoritarian aggression: general aggressiveness towards various groups seen to be encouraged by
the social or political order of the day.
3. Conventionalism: high adherence to social conventions as endorsed by society or established
authority.
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) –
• Its ok that some groups are more privileged than others.
• SDO Scale - eaple uestios: "Its ok if soe goups hae oe of a hae i life tha othes".
• RWA/SDO - personality traits or social attitudes?
Critique Psycho-Dynamic
• Prejudiced people = psychologically challenged (frustration, personality).
1. How can it explain the shared beliefs of large groups of people that emerge at particular points in
history, eg: 1930s in Germany?
2. Ist it the ase that lieal-minded people also have black-and-white, stereotypical (and sometimes
prejudicial) beliefs?
3. “tudies like “heifs idiate that ee the ost oal people ill oe to hold pejoatie
stereotypes and act with extreme prejudice in certain social situations.
4. Cognitive Approach
• Human mind has limited cognitive capacity – ogitie ise.
• Social world is highly complex → information overload.
• We use categorisation as a mental shortcut.
• Stereotyping is part of 'normal' or universal cognitive processes rather than 'abnormal' personalities.
• Stereotypes are learned through socialisation and therefore are relatively enduring across contexts.
• Help us to understand what to expect from our surroundings - including other people.
Lippmann (1922)
• Human's information processing capacity is limited by virtue of the fact that the social world is far too
complex to make sense of in detail.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Prejudice - an unfavourable attitude directed towards groups based off incorrect or insufficient information. Prejudice requires a distinction between ingroups and outgroups - people who belong to the group and those who do not. Thus, individuals whose identities are based largely on the groups to which they belong will have more of a need to maintain positive feelings for their in-group and negative feelings for the outgroup. Summer camp in usa, all middle-class, caucasian, 12 year olds. Sherif developed his realistic group conflict theory to explain results. Negative stereotypes and prejudice reflect the pattern of shared and competing goals that characterise group life. When groups have conflicting and mutually exclusive goals this will foster ethnocentrism. Action based on belief that their in-group is superior to other outgroups (which in turn are perceived as inferior). Sherif argued that this can only be overcome by creating higher-order shared goals. prejudice as an intergroup attitude is meaningful and functional, rather than.
