4 Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination:
Scapegoat Theory hold that prejudice results from frustrations among people who
are disadvantaged themselves.
Key Components:
 Members of the dominant group have harbored frustrations in their desire to
achieve success.
 As a result of frustration, they vent their anger in the form of aggression.
 The aggression is directed toward members of minority groups who serve as
scapegoats.
 They unfairly blame their troubles on a scapegoat—often a racial–
ethnic or religious minority—and this person or group becomes a
target on which they vent their frustrations.
 Gender and age are also common targets of scapegoating
 Scapegoat theory is also often used in politics and is a current scheme
being used in order to get the existing president out of office by the
next election.
Authoritarian Personality Theory views prejudice as a personality trait in certain
individuals. Theodore Adorno, created an experiment to test personalities and
determine who is more likely to have prejudice attitudes.
Key Components: Characteristics of authoritarian personalities make them likely to
be prejudiced:
 Tendency to categorize other people
 Rigidly conform
 Intolerance of ambiguity
 Inclined to superstition
 High respect for authority
 Difficult to accept change and intolerant of difference
Symbolic Interactionism: Explains that prejudice and discrimination are learned
attitudes and behaviors that are socialized through association with others who
hold these same attitudes and behaviors.
Key Components:
 Role of social interaction in reducing racial and ethnic hostility.
 How race and ethnicity are socially constructed.
 Selective Perception: labels we learn affects the way we perceive different
racial and ethnic groups.
Social Conflict Theory: Prejudice and discrimination are used a justifiable means
for the dominant group to oppress minority groups.
Key Components:
Interaction between whites and minorities will reduce prejudice if 3 conditions are
met:
 Contact is between individuals of equal status.
 Contact is sustained.
 Participants agree upon social norms favoring equality.
 Class-based conflict is an inherent and fundamental part of social interaction.
 Class inequality must be reduced to lessen racial and ethnic conflict in
society.
 Gender and race are intertwined but neither is separable from the effects of
class.