Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination Essay

Most people have experienced prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination at some time in his or her life. There is no doubt social discrimination, prejudice, and hostility still create serious problems and challenges, even in today’s apparently more and more individualized and â€Å"enlightened† society. This paper will discuss prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in the context of social psychology; what the consequences of stereotyping and discrimination are; and strategies to improve attitudes, judgments, and behaviors. Social psychologists recognize prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination â€Å"by focusing on whether they involve feelings (affect), cognition, or behaviors. † (Feenstra, 6. 1 Prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, para 1). Prejudice is a negative belief or feeling (attitude) about a particular group of individuals. Prejudices can be passed on from one generation to the next. Cognitive schemas can cause stereotyping and contribute to prejudice. Stereotypes are beliefs about individuals involving their membership in a particular group. These beliefs can be positive, negative, or unbiased. Stereotypes concerning gender, ethnicity, or profession is common in many societies. â€Å"Discrimination is negative behavior toward individuals or groups based on beliefs and feelings about those groups. A group you are a part of is called your ingroup. Ingroups might include gender, race, or city or state of residence, as well as groups you might intentionally join. A group you are not a part of is called your outgroup. † (Feenstra, 6. 1 Prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, para 1). Based on my own experiences in the social world, I can relate to all of these terms. The era in which I grew up ushered in the civil rights movement, anti-war protests, hippies, the Cuban missile crisis, and political and feminist activists. The world was a changing place; many times, we saw and heard prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination at its worst. Unfortunately, we are seeing the same types of prejudices, stereotyping, and discrimination going on today; especially since the â€Å"9-11† attacks and with the â€Å"Occupy or 99%† movement going on today. Social identities depend on the groups to which people belong. Any group a person belongs to is an ingroup, and those that they do not belong to are considered an outgroup. Social cognitive research suggests that outgroup discrimination and prejudice are a result of basic and functional cognitive processes such as categorization and stereotyping. â€Å"Our prejudice and stereotypes come not only from the way our systems process information but also from the world around us. Societal origins of prejudice involve the norms in the world around us, the competition that exists between groups, and the social inequalities that exist in the world. Ingroup favoritism leads to unequal treatment of those we have categorized as in the outgroup. And outgroup homogeneity bias blinds us to the differences within the outgroup. † (Feenstra, 6. 1 Social Cognitive origins of prejudice and stereotypes, para 2). â€Å"Immediate social contexts do shape individual responses to individual outgroup members. This exemplifies a social psychological analysis, that is, how actual, imagined, or implied other people influence and individual’s stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. † (Fiske, 2000, P. 303). Categories help us deal with large amounts of information. They make it possible for us to process more information and save cognitive energy, so we use categories copiously. â€Å"That might not be a problem if all we did was categorize people, but it turns out that along with quickly and easily developing categories, we use them to make later decisions (Tajfel, 1970). † (Feenstra, 2011, 6. 2 Categorization, para. 4). Competition for resources can also create prejudice. This competition could be economic interests, political or military advantage, or threats to the safety or status of the group. People can become angry if they feel that a rival group is taking resources or prestige from their ingroup; and anger is a strong motive for prejudice (Feenstra, 2011). â€Å"Social discrimination results from the generalization of ingroup attributes to the inclusive category, which then become criteria for judging the outgroup. Tolerance, on the other hand is conceptualized as either a lack of inclusion of both groups in a higher order category or as the representation of the inclusive category in such a way as to also include the other group and designate it as normative. † (Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999, P. 158). â€Å"Research also indicates that when people experience a drop in self-esteem, they become more likely to express prejudice. An unfortunate implication of this research is that for some people, prejudice represents a way of maintaining their self-esteem. At the same time, the link between prejudice and self-esteem suggests a hopeful message: it may be possible to reduce prejudice with something as simple as a boost in self-esteem. † (Plous, n. d. , P. 10). Stereotyping and discrimination can powerfully affect social perceptions and behavior. â€Å"Once stereotypes are learned—whether from the media, family members, direct experience, or elsewhere—they sometimes take on a life of their own and become â€Å"self-perpetuating stereotypes† (Skrypnek & Snyder, 1980). One way this can happen is by people experiencing a stereotype threat that lowers their performance. Stereotypes can also become self-perpetuating when stereotyped individuals are made to feel self-conscious or inadequate. † (Plous, n. d. , P. 19). Since all of us are part of a social group, we all have the possibility of having our performance disturbed by stereotype threat. â€Å"The roots of prejudice are many and varied. Some of the deepest and most intensively studied roots include personality factors such a right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, cognitive factors such as the human tendency to think categorically, motivational factors such as the need for self-esteem, and social factors such as uncharitable ingroup attributions for outgroup behavior. Research on these factors suggests that prejudiced attitudes are not limited to a few pathological or misguided individuals; instead, prejudice is an outgrowth of normal human functioning, and all people are susceptible to one extent or another. † (Plous, n. d. , P. 11). The most important question is, what can we do to improve attitudes, judgments, and behaviors in order to reduce prejudice and discrimination? â€Å"The contact hypothesis proposes that contact between members of groups that hold prejudice against one another may reduce prejudice. Contact can reduce prejudice when a number of conditions are satisfied. Common goals, called superordinate goals, are particularly helpful in bringing groups in conflict together. † (Feenstra, Ch. 6 Summary). Looking at the world today with all of the large bank and corporate bailouts, the state of our economy, continued protesting, and the discontent of the majority of the American people; I do believe that we are inadvertently creating self-fulfilling prophecies in our society. In Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Michael Biggs states, â€Å"A theory of society could, in principle, prove self-fulfilling. Marxism predicts that capitalism is fated to end in revolution; if many people believe in the theory, then they could forment revolution (Biggs, 2009). † It seems that now would be a good time for everyone to learn and practice the Seven Pillars of Mindfulness (Kabat-Zin, 2010). People throughout the world live with prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, and the consequences of the resulting actions every day. There is no doubt social discrimination, prejudice, and hostility still create serious problems and challenges, even in today’s apparently more and more individualized and â€Å"enlightened† society. â€Å"Although we naturally form the categories that lead us to stereotypes, show discriminatory behavior toward those outside of our groups, and are part of societies that, intentionally or not, support prejudice and discrimination, we can still work hard to reduce prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination through our interactions with others. † (Feenstra, Ch. 6 Conclusion). References Biggs. M. (2009). Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. Retrieved from http://users. ox. ac. uk/~sfos0060/prophecies. pdf Feenstra, J. (2011). Introduction to social psychology. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Fiske, S. T. (2000). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination at the seam between the centuries: evolution, culture, mind, and brain. European Journal of Social Psychology (30), 299-322. Retrieved from http://www2. psych. ubc. ca/~schaller/Psyc591Readings/Fiske2000. pdf Kabat-Zinn, J. (2010). Mindful Attitudes. Retrieved from http://mindfulworkshops. com/? tag=non-judging. Mummendey A. & Wenzel, M. (1999). Social discrimination and tolerance of intergroup relations: Reactions to intergroup difference. Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, 158-174. Retrieved from http://dtserv2. compsy. uni-jena. de/ss2009/sozpsy_uj/86956663/content. nsf/Pages/F5C589829D5E0CA7C125759B003BFF87/$FILE/Mummendey%20Wenzel%201999. pdf Plous, S. (n. d. ). The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination: An overview. Wesleyan University. Retrieved from http://sscholar. google. co. uk/scholar? start=10&q=Prejudice, +stereotype,+discrimination+ingroup+vs. +outgroup&hl=en&as_sdt=0,3.