PSYC 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: System Justification, Shooting Of Amadou Diallo, Subtyping
PSYC104 Chapter 5 Reading Notes: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
- The nature of the problem: persistence and change (154)
oDefining terms (155)
Racism: prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s racial background, or
institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group
over another
Sexism: prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s gender, or institutional
and cultural practices that promote the domination of one gender over another
Stereotypes: beliefs or associations that link whole groups of people with certain
traits or characteristics
Prejudice: negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in certain
groups
Discrimination: behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a
particular group
oRacism: current forms and challenges
Racism has faded since the 1900s, but still prevalent and escapes recognition
Modern racism (156)
Old-fashioned racism: taunting, blatant, explicit, and unmistakable
Modern racism: subtle form of prejudice that tends to surface when it is
safe, socially acceptable, or easy to rationalize
oEx: umpire tend to call more strikes when pitcher was same race, but only
when there wasn’t computerized system to check umpire’s accuracy, when
there was a small crowd, and when the call wouldn’t be the final ball or strike
of the player
People want to see themselves as fair, but still harbor feelings of anxiety
and discomfort about other racial groups
Aversive racism: ambivalence between individuals’ sincerely fair-minded
attitudes and beliefs and their largely unconscious and unrecognized negative
feelings and beliefs about other races
Microaggression: everyday, typically subtle but hurtful forms of
discrimination that are experienced frequently by members of targeted groups
(157)
Occurs during court cases when evidence is ambiguous
People tend to establish moral credentials of not being racist by saying
they have good friends of the race in question, showing they’re not prejudiced
Implicit racism: racism that operates unconsciously and unintentionally
Skews judgments, feelings, and behaviors, without inducing guilt that
more conscious, explicit forms of racism would trigger
Can use IAT to measure extent to which 2 concepts are associated (158)
As people age, they show less explicit racism, but still have same amount
of implicit racism
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Implicit racism correlates with variety of attitudes and behaviors
Interracial interactions (159)
Division between racial and ethnic groups stronger than division that is
made from gender, appearance, and age
Could be caused by lack of interaction between different races
People change personality to try not to seem racist, causing others to
think they are racist (160)
Exp: people engaging in interracial interactions activate metastereotypes
or thoughts about the outgroup’s stereotypes about them, and try to seem
consistent with those stereotypes. These concerns can cause cardiovascular
reactions associated with feelings of threat
People avoid interracial interactions for fear of looking racist
Exp: white person play guess who with either black or white confederate.
If with black person, far less likely to ask of the person’s race, though it helps
them win
oWhen comparing children of different ages, older children less likely to bring
up race, so less likely to win
Some people try to adopt “colorblind” mentality, in which race is not
even perceived, but this makes others even more uncomfortable (161)
oSexism: ambivalence, objectification, and double standards
Gender stereotypes are prescriptive rather than merely descriptive. They indicate
what many people in a given culture believe men and women should be, not how
they see men and women in reality
Involves more of an overt ambivalence between positive and negative feelings and
beliefs since men and women interact with each other much more
Ambivalent sexism
Overall, stereotypes of women tend to be more positive than those of
men, but are less valued in dominant places like business world
Ambivalent sexism: characterized by attitudes about women that reflect
both negative, resentful beliefs and feelings, and affectionate and chivalrous but
potentially patronizing beliefs and feelings
oHostile sexism: negative, resentful feelings about women’s abilities, value
and ability to challenge men’s power
oBenevolent sexism: affectionate, chivalrous feelings founded on the
potentially patronizing belief that women need and deserve protection (162)
People from countries with the greatest degree of economic and political
inequality between sexes tend to exhibit the most hostile and benevolent sexism
Objectification
Women experience objectification much more frequently than men, in
which they are treated as mere bodies or objects
Negative effects of objectifying: mental and physical health, academic
performance, and social interaction behavior
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Sex discrimination: double standard and pervasive stereotypes
Sex discrimination in early school years can pave way for diverging career
paths in adulthood (164)
Business professionals favor men for masculine and women for feminine
jobs
Harder for women to rise to top positions in a company: if they’re seen as
dominant, they’re also seen as having less social skills
Women are paid less in equal jobs
People who worked in jobs that were traditionally for the opposite
gender were more scrutinized for making mistakes (165)
Beyond racism and sexism: age, weight, sexuality, and other targets
Other forms of discrimination: physical disabilities, political ideology,
economic class, being unmarried, or religion
There’s much prejudice and discrimination against overweight people
Prejudice and discrimination through sexuality is very overt and blatant
oPeople who support open sexuality are discriminated against in workplace
oBeing stigmatized (166)
Individuals are stigmatized if they are targets of negative stereotypes, perceived as
deviant, and devalued in society because they are members of a particular social
group or because they have a particular characteristic
People who recognize mean behavior as due to racism are less hurt by the
implications. However, if nice behavior is due to racism, they feel worse
People who are stigmatized are at increased risk for serious/long-term physical and
mental health problems (167)
oStereotype threat
Stereotyping can have effects on intellectual performance
Stereotype threat: experience of concern about being evaluated based on negative
stereotypes about one’s group
This can increase anxiety and trigger distracting thoughts, directly interfering with
performance
If the threat is associated with academia, the individual can disidentify from
academia, dismissing the domain as no longer relevant to their self-esteem and
identity
Original experiments (168)
Exp1: had black and whites take hard verbal test. To some, it was
introduced as a test of intellectual ability. To others, it was introduced as a
problem-solving task unrelated to ability. If related to intellectual ability, blacks
feel threat in addition to struggling with test. If not related to ability, threat
reduced and blacks less impaired while taking test
Exp2: had black and whites take hard test but varied if they needed to
report their race just before taking the test. This impaired blacks, but not whites
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Document Summary
Psyc104 chapter 5 reading notes: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. The nature of the problem: persistence and change (154: defining terms (155) Racism: prejudice and discrimination based on a person"s racial background, or institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one racial group over another. Sexism: prejudice and discrimination based on a person"s gender, or institutional and cultural practices that promote the domination of one gender over another. Stereotypes: beliefs or associations that link whole groups of people with certain traits or characteristics. Prejudice: negative feelings toward persons based on their membership in certain groups. Discrimination: behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group: racism: current forms and challenges. Racism has faded since the 1900s, but still prevalent and escapes recognition. People want to see themselves as fair, but still harbor feelings of anxiety and discomfort about other racial groups.
