The Social Psychology of
Prejudice
Prejudice Defined
Aronson…a hostile or negative attitude
toward a distinguishable group of people
based solely on their membership in that
group.
Blaming the Victim and the Culture
of Poverty
• What is blaming the victim?
– ''justifying inequality by finding defects in the
victims of inequality” (William Ryan)
• What is a culture of poverty?
– A manufactured portrait of poor people as a
group, ascribing to them many negative
characteristics that can be used to hold them
responsible for their economic situation.
• Ability to delay gratification-70% vs. 65%
• Don’t value education-91% vs. 68%
This one idea…
…illustrates how firmly entrenched a belief
can become, and then how the belief
contributes to our cognitive habits that
maintain or perpetuate prejudice,
discrimination, and unfair treatment of
clients.
How does prejudice show up in the
Human Services Context?
•
•
•
•
Frequent targets?
Frequent perpetrators?
Consequences?
Causes of?
Some context
• Culture, diversity, multicultural, crosscultural
– What do these words mean?
– What are their implications?
• Agents and Targets
• Internalzied “ism”
• Institutionalized “ism”
– In what ways do our institutions maintain or perpetuate racism,
classism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, etc.?
Link between context and social
psychology???
You tell me…
Take a minute and come up with an
example illustrating the connection
between the concept on the left and the
population on the right.
Think of an example of how the concept may occur
in re: to the population
Confirmation bias
Hindsight bias
Self-fulfilling prophecy
People with mental
disorders
People with felonies
Attribution error/biases
People with chronic
illness
Poor people
Heuristics: representative,
availability, attitude
People with mobility
issues
Causes of Prejudice
•
•
•
•
•
Economic and Political Competition
Displaced Aggression
Maintenance of Self-Image and Status
Dispositional Prejudice
Prejudice Through Conformity
Social Class is Dead. Long Live
Social Class!
• Write a definition of stereotype threat,
compare with the person next to you.
• What are the class-based stereotypes
cited in the article?
• What are others you’re aware of?
• Do these affect your clients? If so, how?
• How might clients unintentionally be made
aware of these stereotypes?
Social Class is Dead. Long Live
Social Class!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What were the hypotheses?
What were the independent variables?
The dependent variables?
What were the conclusions?
What questions, hypotheses, next steps
are generated by this research?
Privilege and Ability
• “PWDs must demonstrate that we have
merit as humans.” (p. 7) What does the author
mean by this?
• What are some of the ways “gatekeepers”
demonstrate ableism?
• How might benevolent ableism show up in our
work as human service professionals?
• Link the causes of prejudice from the text to
prejudice toward people with disabilities. Find
one example of the cause you are assigned.
Reducing Prejudice
•
•
•
•
•
•
Behavior leads to attitude change
Clear inevitability leads to attitude change
Economic conflict blocks progress
Competition can block progress
Interdependence helps
Equal status familiarity helps
Consider SES
• What differences exist between SES
groups?
– Worldview
– Locus of Control
– Locus of Responsibility
– Time orientation
• Are these situational or dispositional?
Sharon Wachsler, 2007. The Real Quality
of Life Issue for People with Disabilities.
Journal of Progressive Human Services,
18(2), 7-14.
In SocINDEX