Exam 5 lecture notes 11 26 Social Psych Social Categorization over tendency to put people in groups based on shared characteristics generally automatic and unconscious age skin religion job sex etc can be anything in groups and out groups we quickly decide next what group we are in in group us social groups that we identify with out group them groups that we don t identify with in group hertero unique out group homo geneity same geneity recognizing that there are differences in OUR group we are we assume that everyone in the OTHER group are all the ex when someone from our group makes a mistake we blame it on their personal flaw when someone from the other group makes a mistake we blame that entire group as being flawed stereotype belief characteristics you believe all group members share can be positive negative or neutral preconceptions things you think before meeting can be wrong for group often wrong for individual prejudice prejudgement an attitude or evaluation about members of a social group JUST because of their group generally negative ex sexism racism etc origins or prejudice 1 cognitive roots we categorize and stereotype automatically 2 social roots 1 in group bias people tend to prefer their own group 2 belief in a just world most people believe you get what you deserve once groups form a more powerful group will emerge we say that these groups deserve the power without feeling bad for the other groups this allows us to justify our advantages without feeling the need to balance the groups out 3 emotional roots negative emotions nourish prejudice ex after 911 americans were terrified and blamed all arab cultures realistic conflict theory when two groups fight over the same thing they will end up dis liking each other ex germans and jews colonists and natives scapegoat theory when we have those negative emotions we find the lesser groups and dump on them 4 learning theory we model those around us we copy them especially if we are little kids and we get reinforced for our behavior education laws about positives and similarities stopping prejudice 1 2 if you get people to ACT more fair you see attitudes shift to more openness 3 non competitive equal status conflict against discrimination putting people together in neutral groups with equal power especially if they share common problem EXAMPLES robber s cave study wanting to reduce discrimination and prejudice took 22 healthy middle school boys to summer camp they were split into 2 groups of 11 boys the two groups were separated for two weeks and strong group identities were formed between each group finally they took part in competitions against each other and strong animosity and prejudice was evident then they did activities together that were non competitive yet still animosity was shown then a crisis developed forc ing the boys to work together for a common goal and the boys started to peacefully work together and gelt along jigsaw classroom in order for one kid to get the puzzle right they all had to work to gether
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