User:MandaG/Tutorial and lecture 5

Prejudice

 * Prejudice: A negative feeling toward an individual based soley on his or her membership in a particular group.
 * Racism: An example of prejudice aimed towards members of a certain race.[[Image:AfricanAmericans2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|some prejudices are tackled by courageous leaders]]
 * Aversive Racism: Simultaneously holding egalitarian values and negative feelings. This means that a person believes that all are created equal, should be treated the same and should get the same. I guess its kind of like cognitive disonance internally.

Who experiences Prejudice?
Given the definition of prejudice I'm sure that anybody can be a victim of prejudice and that a large part of who is effected is based around culture. Groups who have been or are effected by prejudice include: African Americans, led to the civil rights movement in the 60's led by Martin Luther King Jr. subsequently assasinated. The prejudice was so severe that until Rosa Park http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-mbg1SLjw made a stand (or in her case a sit...) african americans could not even have a seat on the bus if there was a white person standing. The prejudice was so deep in some people they joined a group called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)a radical group of white supremeists who also persecuted catholics and Jewish people by lynching and terrorising them. People who are overweight are prejudiced against and I think a large part of that is due to our new hollywood culture where to be overweight is treated as if its the end of the world, hell normal sized people are criticised for being overweight. Religious groups are also victims of prejudice, usually due to be associated with a very small minority of extremeists. Homosexuals are also prejudiced against and have been for a long time. Though the prejudice on the surface appears to have lowered, I think they still suffer basic rights afforded to the rest of us. One of the main ones often debated in the church and the legislative assembly as well as parliament is whether or not they should be allowed to get married. Seriously??? Why not, the rest of us can and a lot of people say marriage is just a piece of paper anyway (not that I'm down on marriage at all...mines been planned since I was 14), as far as I'm aware though more than happy to be corrected, couples straight or homosexual have the same rights under de facto law (that is couples that have been together for over 2 years meeting a certain criteria) so what difference to outsiders would it make if homosexual couples get married or not? One of the questions in the leccture was whether if we had the cognitive resources would we still have stereotypes and prejudices. I think this is a question that will never be answered because we do have this cognitive miser that right or wrong creates shortcuts and stereotype for us to be able to be more effective in our day to day functioning. However in saying this, I think just knowing everyone is a unique individual is not enough to eliminate the problem, we should all know that already. I think it is the experience we have with people that will lead to a decrease (or increase) in our own personal preudices and stereotypes.

Why Does Prejudice Exist

 * Ingroup favoritism- Simply put you favour group more than another. I think this happens all the time and is only natural. Of course you are going to like people you associate with more, or that you talk to or have more in common with more. The problem arises when you develop a prejudice. I like my softball team more than some others because I am in that team, but that does not mean I dislike the others. You don't have to like everyone equally but you should not be prejudiced over differences! This becomes particularly problematic when looking at say neo-nazi's or extremeists (probably not so much in sport).
 * Rationalisation for Opression- Powerful groups get and maintain power through stereotypes and prejudices (and if that fails a few assasinations). An example of this can be seen in a number of political and violence fuelled conflicts. In Japan it used to be anything that was not fully Japanese including people was trashed, Hitler used his prejudices for an ethnic "cleansing" as was the conflict in Serbia Croatia and Rwanda. SLAVERY!!!!

Hope is not lost!
Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination can be devastating so I feel it is really important that we try to minimise as much as possible the occurence of such things. One idea on how to do this is the contact hypothesis. To start with we must be aware of any prejudice beliefs held. Once we are aware we as individuals can conciously make an effort to override such attitudes. We must not be cognitively lazy as implicit attitudes can be indicative of behaviour when faced with what we are prejudiced against. The notes talk about 2 reasons one might be motivated to change their attitude, first up is that internally they feel they are morally wrong and the other is that they fear it will garner societal diasaproval. While it is of course better to have internal motivations I think I would be ok with reducing prejudice attitudes and behaviours for whatever reason.
 * The contact hypothesis- Under favourable conditions, regular contact between group members of different groups reduce prejudice. It is important that the conditions are favourable as otherwise it may reinforce the negative attitude that was first held. The critisicms of the contact hypothesis state that there are a number of necessary conditions for this theory to work such as: Equal social status and percieved similarity. However, I think it would depend on the motivations and situation for overcoming the prejudice in the first place. The reason for this is because maybe you decide to have contact with the poor and hungary by working at a soup kitchen. Your previous prejudice is that all the homeless are that way through lack of trying to get a job and are basically leeches on hard working taxpayers. After a few weeks at the kitchen you realise that most of these people are trying desperatly to find employment and get out of their present situation. You, a succesful private practise $200 an hour psychologist have nothing in common with them and are certainly well above them in socioeconomic status still change your attitude towards them.