GCSE Pychology Unit 1 Steroetyping, Prejudice and Discrimination

GCSE Pychology Unit 1 Steroetyping, Prejudice and Discrimination Revision Cards

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What are they?

Stereotyping - holding beliefs about characteristics of groups and assumes each individual of that group has those characteristics.

Prejudice - "an attidtude that predisposes us to think, feel, percieve and act in an favourable or unfavourable way towards its group or members." It can be postive or negative.

Disricimination involves the unequal treatment of individuals or groups based on arbitrary characteristics.

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Prejudice

3 components

Affectiveness - Feelings

Behavioural - Actions

Cognitive - Beliefs

Types of prejudice

Sexism - based on their sex

Ethnocentrism - belief one's own ethnic, nation or religion is superior to other's

Racism - based on their race or ethnic group. Often related to ethnocentrism.

Ageism - based on age. Usually against the elderly

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Studies of Prejudice and Discrimination

The "Robbers" cave - SHERIF ET AL (1961)

Aim - to look at the effects of group competition on prejudice and to investigate ways of reducing it

Method - 22boys aged 11-12years old. All white and from lower-middle class homes. They were there for 3weeks. The study was divided into stages.

Week1: boys were separated. at the end of the week it was arranged that they would become aware of each other

Week2: series of competitions for prizes and a team trophy

Week3: deliberately set up a few emergencies that could be sorted out by cooperation. They had the opportunity to work towards a super-ordinate goal.

Results - Week1: boys formed their own identity group

Week2: team identity increased while unoleasentness between groups got worse

Week3: boys worked together cooperatively. cross0group friendships had been formed by the end of the week

Conclusion - inter-group competition can result in the formation of the in-groups and out-groups with prejudice and disrimination. Super-ordinate goals can reduce prejudice

Evaluation - Small sample size.

- ethical problems. being placed in psychologically stressful situations

+ High ecological validity because it reflects everday behaviour

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Explanations of Prejudice and Discrimination

Realistic group conflict theory

States thar prejudice is the direct result of competition for valued resources. It can be real (e.g money) or symbolic (e.g cultural idea's).

Evaluation + research supports everyday life behaviour.

- It can't account for all instances of prejudice

Social Identity Theory

States that prejudice results from people's motivation to boost their self-esteem through a positive social identity.

Evaluation + There is support from research includin Tajfel et al

- It can't account for cultural variations in prejudice

- It can't account for all instances of prejudice

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