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GCSE Psychology Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination

Student: ________________ Tutor: __________________________

Unit 1: Making sense of other people

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What is Stereotyping?

A stereotype is a shared belief about the characteristics of those who belong to a particular social or physical group.

When you have completed Activity 1, compare it with others – did you have similar ideas about the nationalities listed?

Activity 1 Complete the table below by selecting three characteristics from the box below it, which in your opinion best describe people of each nationality. You can use the characteristics more than once. Irish people English people German people American people Japanese people Italian people

Eat lots of pasta Do well in business Are intelligent Eat lots of fish Have large cars and houses Are strict Are jolly Are hard working Are friendly Drink Guiness Are grumpy Wear suits Are generous Eat a lot Have blonde hair Drink a lot Have dark hair Are short Watch football Are miserable Dress scruffily Watch baseball Have blue eyes Dress smartly

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Activity 2 Can you think of some examples of stereotypes to do with occupation? List 3, and describe what they are like. 1 2 3

Activity 3 Imagine you are reading a newspaper and the main headline is that two girls, aged seven, have been expelled from school for aggressive behaviour. Why do you think this would cause more controversy than if it were about two boys of the same age? .........................................................................................................................

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What type of stereotype is shown in each picture?

This is Tiffany. She wants to marry a footballer. What type of stereotype does she have?

Tracy’s mum tells her not to worry, ‘I will take you to the doctor, you can tell him how you feel and where it hurts, he will have a look at you and tell you what is wrong. What type of stereotype does Tracy’s mum have?

‘Cats!’ says Mrs Grimsdale. ‘They’re a right nuisance, come in your garden and scratch up your flower beds and scare the birds off the bird table. They’re trouble, every one of them!’ What kind of stereotype does she have?

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A disadvantage of stereotypes is that they can lead to people not being treated as individuals, but being treated in a negative way because it is assume that they have characteristics linked to a group they are a member of, such as ‘English tourists who drink too much and have bad manners’

More disadvantages include: They are usually oversimplified They lead us to make assumptions about others when we know very little

about them They affect what we remember and forget about other people They lead us to view members of out-groups (groups we don’t belong to)

in a negative way, leading to prejudice and discrimination.

Activity 4 Imagine you are on holiday. You are in the swimming pool with your friends/family and you start to splash each other. Another holidaymaker who is sitting at the edge of the pool, who is foreign but speaks very good English, does not look happy at you splashing each other. You hear her say to her friend: ‘Typical English.’ Is this fair? Are you going to be treated fairly? ......................................................................................................................... Where might this stereotype have come from? ......................................................................................................................... How can this lead to problems with the use of stereotypes? Is she treating you as an individual?

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However, stereotypes can have advantages too: One advantage of a stereotype is that it can enable us to respond quickly

to situations because we may have had a similar experience before Using stereotypes is a simple way of organising and remembering

information about other people It reduces the amount of cognitive effort we need to make (for example,

thinking) They help us to interpret unknown information about someone else They provide us with a sense of belonging to a group, because of our

share beliefs about people in other groups

Holding a stereotype about a person can lead to prejudice, and can allow the person being stereotyped to be treated unfairly. This can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

EXAM STYLE QUESTION Read the conversation below: Boy A: I was speaking to my granddad the other day on the telephone and told him that I was going to start supporting my favourite football team and going to watch them play. He said he was worried that I would change as a person. Boy B: Why did he say that, do you think? Boy A: Because he said he thought that I was going to turn into a football hooligan. What is meant by stereotyping? Refer to the example above in your explanation.

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What are prejudice and discrimination?

Prejudice can be positive or negative, but psychologists have mainly concerned themselves with the negative aspects of prejudice, because of their damaging effects, such as racism, the holocaust (the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews during World War II) and other more recent cases of genocide since then

Activity 5 Can you pick out the positive stereotypes and the negative stereotypes from the list below?

All black people are great baseball players

All immigrants in the UK are on benefits

All Latinos dance well

KEY TERMS Prejudice – an attitude, which is usually negative, towards a particular group of people, based on characteristics that are assumed to be common to all members of the group. Discrimination – treating people unfavourably on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

AQA Examiner’s Tip It is important to learn what is meant by practical implications. In the exam you are very likely to be asked to give the practical implications of a theory at least once. ‘Practical implications’ means ‘if this research is true, what does it suggest about behaviour in real life’.

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What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination? Prejudice is a negative attitude, and discrimination as the resultant behaviour.

Explanations of and research into Prejudice and Discrimination

Aim:

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Method: …………………………………………………………………………………………..

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Give an example of a prejudiced attitude

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Hint If you find this difficult, think of the example of the Nazis’ mass murder of the Jews – what was the attitude of the Nazis, and how did they discriminate against

them?

Key Study: Adorno et al (1950) – Authoritarian Personality

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The Adorno study is an example of an interview – a description of the features and its strengths and weaknesses can be found on p 178 of the textbook – write this in your Research Methods workbook. Also fill in the definition of a correlation, and give one advantage and one disadvantage of using a correlation.

Evaluation

Adorno’s identification of child-rearing style does not appear to be widely applicable

because ………………………………………………………………………………………………… , and some

prejudiced people show ……………………………………………………………………………………………....

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between child-rearing style and the authoritarian personality.

The authoritarian personality also fails to explain ……….. many people are prejudiced, nor

does it explain why we are …………………………………………………………………………………………….…

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Research Methods

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Social Identity Theory We categorise people into our own group (the in-group) and the other group (the out-group). Henri Tajfel called this social categorisation and it is the first step in the stereotyping process. He says that we focus on the differences between our in-group and the out-group.

KEY TERMS Self-esteem – how we think and feel about ourselves. Self-image – how you see yourself and how you believe others see you.

Activity 6 There may be a number of groups of which you are, or are not a member. Decide which of the groups below is an ‘in-group’ and which of the groups is an ‘out-group’. Tick as many as you like.

In-group Out-group

Psychology students

Hairdressing students

GCSE students

People who live in Grimsby

People who live out of town

Sporty

Not sporty

Trendy

Group of friends

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What’s good about in-groups? Tajfel says that the groups we belong to are an important source of pride and self-esteem, they give us our social identity, a sense of belonging in the social world.

In order to increase our self-image, we raise the value of the groups to which we belong – in other words we believe our own groups are the best, because then we feel better about being in our group. When our group is successful, we believe it is because our group is the best. When our group fails, we believe that was due to some reason outside of our group eg the other group cheated, or the wind was against us.

basketball players Gill (1980) studied the reasons people gave for success and failure by asking female basketball players what they thought caused their wins and losses. The players said wins were due to the ability of the team, but they blamed failure on the other team. Gill concluded that people give reasons for failure that protect their self-esteem. Tajfel explains prejudice as being due to competition between groups, especially when resources are rare, e.g. when jobs are scarce people are more prejudiced against immigrants. This can be explained by the idea of inter-group conflict or by scapegoating?

Key Study Sherif et al (1961) ‘Robbers Cave Study’ – inter-group conflict’ Aim:

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Evaluation

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Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination

Key Study: Aronson et al (1978) ‘Jigsaw Classroom Study’ Aim:

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EXAM STYLE QUESTION Using your knowledge of psychology, give one explanation for prejudice/discrimination.

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Another question might ask you to ‘describe and evaluate one study in which

prejudice and discrimination were investigated’ – which study would you use?

Make sure you know the key studies, and their strengths and limitations.

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Results: …………………………………………………………………………………………….

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………………………………………………………………………………………………………… What is empathy? Empathy is the ability to consider the emotions and feelings of another person.n For example if you saw someone being bullied and you could sense how they feel about being hurt and humiliated, then you are able to ‘put yourself in their shoes’, and feel empathy. Jane Elliott wanted her class of American nine-year-olds to experience prejudice and discrimination, so that they would feel empathy with black people.

Key Study: Elliott (1977) ‘Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes’ – creating empathy Aim: …………………………………………………………………………………………….

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Method:

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………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Who did these key studies? Without looking back, see if you can match the psychologist’s name to the study: Elliott, Aronson, Sherif

Study Name of psychologist How was prejudice reduced in this study?

Robbers Cave Study

Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes’

‘Jigsaw Classroom Study’

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Test yourself

1. Define what is meant by the terms stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination.

2. State one example of a positive stereotype and one example of a negative stereotype.

3. Outline one difference between prejudice and discrimination.

4. What did Adorno say were the characteristics of a person with an

authoritarian personality?

5. What is the difference between an ‘in-group’ and an ‘out-group’ according to Tajfel?

6. What happened in Sherif’s Robbers Cave Study?

7. How can prejudice be reduced? Outline one explanation.

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KEY POINTS TO STRUCTURE REVISION -Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination Can you define these terms?

◊ Stereotying ◊ Prejudice ◊ Descrimination

Can you explain at least one advantage and at least one disadvantage of stereotyping? Can you describe the following studies of prejudice and discrimination?

◊ Adorno and the authoritarian personality (including the F-scale);

◊ Tajfel and his theory of in-groups and out-groups;

◊ Sherif and his theory of conflict between groups (Robbers Cave);

Can you evaluate the above-named studies? Can you describe ways of reducing prejudice and discrimination using the evidence from studies including the work of the following:

◊ Sherif

◊ Aronson

◊ Elliot

◊ Harwood

Examiner’s tip: When defining a term, for each extra mark you should add a new point in your answer.

Examiner’s tip: When asked to describe a study in the exam, you may be asked for: the reason why the study was conducted (the aim), the method used, the results obtained and the conclusion drawn, or you may be asked for a combination of these components.

Examiner’s tip: You do not need to remember the dates of studies.

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Can you evaluate the above ways of reducing prejudice and discrimination?

Can you explain at least two practical implications of research into stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination? What are the their benefits and drawback?

Acknowledging: Understanding Psychology, 3rd Edition by Barbara Woods,

Nigel Holt, Rob Lewis and Victoria Carrington, published by Hodder

Education.

GCSE Psychology, Mike Stanley, Karen Boswell, Sarah Harris, Dominic

Helliwell and Joanne McKenzie (23 Jul 2009), published by Nelson Thorne.

Examiner’s tip: Remember that evaluations can be positive, negative or both.

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Useful websites Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination ChangingMinds.org, the largest site in the world on all aspects of how we change what others

think, believe, feel and do. There are already around 5000 pages here, all free and with much

more to come!

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/stereotypes.htm accessed 28/10/10

UnderstandingPrejudice.org, a web site for students, teachers, and others interested in the causes and consequences of prejudice. http://www.understandingprejudice.org/ accessed 28/10/10

Information on: discrimination because of age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex and

sexuality; when is discrimination lawful or unlawful; taking action; discrimination in providing

goods, services, education and housing.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/discrimination.htm accessed

28/10/10

Show Racism the Red Card! Welcome to the website of Show

Racism the Red Card, the campaign that uses top footballers to educate against racism.

http://www.srtrc.org/ accessed 28/10/10

About Equal Opportunites is a website with information on discrimination

linked to age, gender, race, ability, religion, sexuality etc.

http://www.aboutequalopportunities.co.uk/ageism.html accessed 28/10/10

Scapegoating When problems occur, people do not like to blame themselves. They will thus actively seek scapegoats onto whom we can displace our aggression. These may be out-group individuals or even entire groups. Like bullies, we will often pick on powerless people who cannot easily resist. Scapegoating increases when people are frustrated and seeking an outlet for their anger. Once cast as a scapegoat it can be difficult to shake off the classification http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/scapegoat_theory.htm accessed

28/10/10

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Glossary – write a definition for these key terms

Stereotype

Prejudice

Discrimination

Self-esteem

Self-image

Empathy

Authoritarian personality

Social categorisation