The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

1
The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination

• From Prejudice to Discrimination
• Chapter 10

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What is Discrimination?

• Discrimination consist of behaving differently
  towards people based solely or primarily on their
  membership in a social group
• Prejudice is an attitudedeals with how people
  think and feel about members of other groups.

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What is Discrimination?

• Discrimination
• Can manifest itself in may ways and in many
  settings
• Verbally
• Behaviorally

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Socially Approved and Disapproved
PrejudicesApproved
Disapproved

• Mentally retarded people 3
• Native Americans 6
• Black Americans 6
• Jews 6
• Catholics 6
• Whites 7
• Hispanics 7
• Asian Americans 7
• Canadians 7
• Ugly people 10
• Interracial couples 11
• People with AIDS 11
• Fat people 11

• Rapists 98
• Child abusers 98
• Child molesters 97
• Wife beaters 97
• Terrorists 95
• Racists 92
• Members Ku Klux Klan 91
• Drunk Drivers 91
• Members of the American
• Nazi Party 90
• Pregnant women who
• drink alcohol 89
• Men who refuse to pay
• Child support 89
• Negligent parents 86
• People who cheat on
• their spouses 82

Groups for which prejudice and discrimination had
the highest and lowest approval ratings
5
Forms of Discrimination

• Denokraitis and Feagin (1995) developed system to
  classify forms of discrimination and to show how
  they related to one another.
• Three forms of discrimination
• Blatant
• Subtle
• Covert

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Forms of Discrimination

• Blatant Discrimination
• Unequal and harmful treatment
• Typically intentional
• Quite visible
• Easily documented
• Also occurs in everyday contexts
• Some forms against groups are illegal and
  generally condomned

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Forms of Discrimination

• Subtle Discrimination
• Unequal and harmful treatment
• Typically less visible and obvious than blatant
  discrimination
• Often not noticed because people have
  internalized subtle discriminatory behaviors as
  NORMAL, NATURAL, or CUSTOMARY
• Harder to document
• Often unintentional
• Can be manifested in everyday speech

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Forms of Discrimination

• The Language of Prejudice
• Some of the most common examples of subtle
  prejudice can be found in everyday speech.
• Hostile humor
• Patronizing
• Vanishing
• Abnormalization
• Linguistic devices

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Forms of Discrimination

• Covert Discrimination
• Consist of unequal and harmful treatment that is
• Hidden
• Purposeful
• Often maliciously motivated
• Behavior that consciously attempts to ensure
  failure
• Very difficult to document

10
Forms of Discrimination

• Covert Discrimination
• Employment context
• Tokenismhiring one or a few members of group as
  evident that organization does not discriminate
• Containmentrestricting members of group to
  limited number of job categories
• Sabotagearranging for members of a group to
  fail assigning them low volume territories but
  setting sales quotas very high

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Levels of Discrimination

• Interpersonal discriminationbehaviors
  individuals direct at other individuals
• Passive behavior
• ignoring behavior
• Active
• Hostile stares
• demeaning remarks and commands

12
Levels of Discrimination

• Institutional discrimination norms, policies,
  and practices associated with a social
  institution such as the family, religious
  institution, the educational system, and the
  criminal justice system, result in different
  outcomes for members of difference groups.

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Levels of Discrimination

• Organizational discrimination is the
  manifestation of institutional discrimination in
  the context of a particular organization.
• Work organizations
• SES neighborhoods

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Levels of Discrimination

• Cultural discrimination consist of
  discrimination and inequality, built into our
• literature,
• art,
• music,
• language,
• morals,
• customs,
• beliefs,
• practices, and
• ideology...
• Define a generally agreed-upon way of life

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Relation between Prejudice and Discrimination
• Personal stereotypes
• Attitudes-Behavior correspondence
• Perceived social support

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Motivation to Control Prejudice
• Motivation to control prejudice reaction
• Concern with Acting Prejudiced
• Restraint to Avoid Dispute
• Internal Motivation
• External Motivation

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Motivation to Control Prejudice
• Motivation to respond without prejudice
• Social Norms
• The development of motivation to conrol prejudice
• The Normative Context and Motivation to Control
  Prejudice

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Regressive Prejudice
• Regressive racism
• Control over behavior
• Cognitive demands
• Disinhibitors
• Priming as a releaser of regressive prejudice

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Regressive Prejudice
• Regressive racism
• Control over behavior
• Cognitive demands
• Disinhibitors
• Priming as a releaser of regressive prejudice

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Interpersonal Discrimination

• Reactions to having acted in a Prejudice Manner
• Differences between people
• High and low implicit prejudice
• Guilt
• Those who point out behavior that is prejudice

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• Which of the following is not an example of
  blatant prejudice?
• threatening Muslims outside their mosque
• refusing service to a Jewish person
• denying housing to a lesbian
• using baby talk when speaking to an older person

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• Which of the following is not an example of
  blatant prejudice?
• threatening Muslims outside their mosque
• refusing service to a Jewish person
• denying housing to a lesbian
• using baby talk when speaking to an older person
  (p. 398)

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• Sukja tells her friends that gay mens behavior
  is out of step with what men should be like.
  Which linguistic device describes her action?
• abnormalization
• vanishing
• patronizing speech
• hostile humor

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• Sukja tells her friends that gay mens behavior
  is out of step with what men should be like.
  Which linguistic device describes her action?
• Abnormalization (p. 399)
• vanishing
• patronizing speech
• hostile humor

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• If a person who is high in external but low in
  internal motivation to control prejudice acts in
  a prejudiced manner, he or she is likely to
• feel guilty.
• experience lower blood pressure.
• criticize others.
• feel threatened.

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From Prejudice to DiscriminationStudy Questions

• If a person who is high in external but low in
  internal motivation to control prejudice acts in
  a prejudiced manner, he or she is likely to
• feel guilty.
• experience lower blood pressure.
• criticize others.
• feel threatened. (p. 407