Chapter Three
Prejudice and
Discrimination in the
Individual
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice is the tendency of individuals to think and feel in
negative ways about members of other groups.

Discrimination is actual, overt individual behavior.

Although related, they do not always occur together

Don’t necessarily have a causal relationship with each
other.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Prejudice and Discrimination
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Prejudice

Two dimensions:
– The affective dimension refers to the feelings, generally negative,
that we associate with other groups.
– The cognitive dimension of prejudice refers to the ways we think
about other groups.

Stereotypes are generalizations about groups of people that
are exaggerated, overly simplistic, and resistant to
disproof.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Cognition and Categorization

Cognition is the thinking process by which people categorize
and analyze information.

Our “knowledge” that skin color can be used to judge others and
our sensitivity to this characteristic reflect our socialization into
a race-conscious society with a long history of racial
stratification.

Selective perception, the tendency to see only what one expects
to see, can reinforce and strengthen stereotypes to the point that
the highly prejudiced individual simply does not accept
evidence that challenges his or her views.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Attribution Theory

Developed to describe how humans perceive and judge one
another.

Based on the premise that we try to make sense of our
observations of others and explain to ourselves why people
behave as they do.

Sometimes we explain behavior by attributing actions to
personality traits or internal dispositions.

At other times, we may see behavior as a response to a
particular situation or to external factors.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Cognitive and Emotional
Dimensions of Stereotypes

Robert Merton
analyzed stereotypical
perceptions of
Abraham Lincoln,
Jews, and Japanese
and found that
stereotypes can be
identical in content but
vastly different in
emotional shading.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Types of Stereotypes

Two general stereotypes of minority groups (Pettigrew, 1980).
– Inferiority tends to be found in situations, such as slavery, in which a
minority group is being heavily exploited and held in an impoverished and
powerless status by the dominant group—rationalizes and justifies
dominant group control, discrimination, and/or exclusion.
– When power and status differentials are less extreme, particularly when
the minority group has succeeded in gaining some control over resources,
had some upward mobility, and had some success in school and business,
their relative success is viewed in negative terms—too smart, too
materialistic, too crafty, too sly, or too ambitious.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
The Content of American Stereotypes
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Gender and Minority Group Stereotypes

Weitz and Gordon (1993) questioned
several hundred undergraduate white
students at Arizona State University about
their perceptions of women and found sharp
distinctions between “women in general” (a
label that, to the students, apparently
signified white women) and African
American women in particular.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Theories of Prejudice

Theories that focus on personality needs as a cause of
prejudice

Theories that view prejudice as primarily a result of
being raised in a racist society and interacting in many
social situations in which discrimination is approved

Theories that view prejudice as arising out of
intergroup conflict
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Personality-Centered Approaches to Prejudice

Projection is seeing in others characteristics or
feelings we can’t admit we have ourselves.

Scapegoat hypothesis links prejudice to the
individual’s need to deal with frustration and
express aggression.

Authoritarian personality states that certain kinds
of people require prejudice to function effectively.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
The Authoritarian Personality
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Limitations of PersonalityCentered Approaches

The scapegoat hypothesis is overly simplistic.
– Frustration does not necessarily produce aggression
– Displacement varies widely for different types of individuals

Authoritarian personality studies methodologically flawed.
– Design biases
– Researcher biases
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Limitations of PersonalityCentered Approaches

Perhaps the most important limitation of
personality-based theories is that they tend
to focus on the individual in isolation and
do not take sufficient account of the social
setting or the context and history of group
relations (Brown, 1995, pp. 31–36).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Culture-Based Approaches to Prejudice

See individual prejudice as the predictable result
of growing up in a society that incorporates racist
ideology, extreme racial and ethnic inequalities,
and systems of exploitation based on group
membership.

Rather than being an indicator of personality
disorder or emotional maladjustment, prejudice is
the “normal” result of conforming to racist
environments.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
The Vicious Cycle
Culture-Based Approaches to Prejudice

Research on the development of prejudice in children
shows that racial attitudes are “caught and not taught.”

Research using social distance scales demonstrates that
prejudice exists apart from individuals and that it is passed
from generation to generation.

The importance of the social situation in which attitudes
are expressed and behavior occurs is also important as
what people think and what they do is not always the same.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Limitations of Culture-Based Approaches

No two people have the same socialization experiences or
develop exactly the same prejudices.

Socialization is not a passive process; we are not neutral
recipients of a culture that is simply forced down our
throats.

We also learn egalitarian norms and values as we are
socialized.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Focus on Prejudice and Sexism
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Focus on Prejudice and Sexism
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Focus on Prejudice and Sexism
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Power Conflict Theories

Power conflict theories tell us something
about the origins of prejudice.

Stress the idea that prejudice flows from
competition between groups and then serves
as a rationalization for exploitation and
racial and ethnic stratification.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Power Conflict Theories

In the Robber’s Cave experiment, prejudice was the result of a
conflictual situation between groups.

Marxist analysis argues that ideologies and belief systems are shaped
to support the dominance of the elites—numerous situations in which
prejudice was used to help sustain the control of elite classes.

Split labor market theory—higher-priced labor (usually consisting of
members of the dominant group) will attempt to exclude cheaper labor
from the marketplace whenever it can.

Prejudice exists because someone or some group gains by it.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Limitations of Power-Conflict Theories

Individuals who have no material stake in minority group
subordination can still be extremely prejudiced.

The sources of prejudice can be found in culture,
socialization, family structure, and per-sonality
development as well as in politics and economics.

Prejudice can have important psychological and social
functions independent of group power relationships.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003
Types of Prejudice

Prejudice caused by personality needs—more
constant and resistant to change.

Prejudice learned in response to socialization in a
racist community—can be unlearned.

Prejudice that arises during the heat of intergroup
competition—reduce competition.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2003