Social Psychology: Prejudice and Social Identity

• Social psychology has explored the social issue of prejudices and their function in conflicts between groups, developing three theories.
• The theories include:
  • Adorno's focus on the authoritarian personality as a trait.
  • Blumer and McQuail's proposition that intergroup conflicts arise from scarcity of resources.
  • Devine's idea that prejudices are cognitive shortcuts from biased socialization.
• Attitudes are learned through family, friends, school, and media.
• Prejudice is important to identify because it can be counteracted if diagnosed.

Social Identity

• Socialization is the process where skills are acquired to be active in society.
• While animals are affected by their biology, humans need social and cultural experience.
• Socialization explains norms.
• Types of socialization include:
  • Primary, through parental imitation.
  • Secondary, through school and media influence.
• Social categorization eliminates the perception of diversity and it introduces order.
• It is important as it can help order the world.
• Social identity theory suggests self-perception is context-dependent.
• Individuals belong to various groups that can be interdependent.
• An out-group opposes the in-group.
• Social identity creates positive evaluations of one's social position and is part of self-concept.
• Defining belonging means defining non-belonging.
• Group membership is a crucial part of a person.
• To maintain positive self-esteem, a favorable comparison with other groups is needed.
• Key steps in mental evaluation under social identity:
  • Categorization
  • Social Identification
  • Social Comparison

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

• Stereotypes are the cognitive component that guides prejudice creation.
• Prejudices, with their evaluations, cause discriminatory behavior.
• A negative cognition leads to an exclusionary behavior toward a certain group.
• Stereotypes result from social categorization with socially shared origins rather than reality.
• They are shared beliefs about one's own or another group.
• Stereotypes are uniform and homogeneous notions about a social group, using common elements to simplify cognitive processes.
• Stereotypes justify attitudes and behaviors toward the stereotyped group to benefit the in-group by increasing self-esteem.
• The less the understanding of a group, the more influence stereotypes have to explain behavior.
• Stereotypes can lead to accommodation of expectations or fighting against them.
• Prejudices are opinions guided by stereotypes, learned through reinforcements.
• They often originate from secondary socialization sources.
• Prejudices are preconceived evaluations that use narrow information.
• Prejudices result from flawed rational judgment and have a negative evaluation of the object.
• Prejudices are commonly based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities.
• Prejudices can be both manifest and latent.

Strategies for prejudice

• Break prejudice cycles
• Make Intergroup contacts
• Recategorization

Combating Prejudice

• Media is a powerful agent of socialization, especially television.
• Models presented in audio and visual content transmit behaviors.
• Media serves as both manufacturer and reproducer of models.
• The double value of media includes:
  • Reproduction of reality through narratives and content.
  • Model generation as the audience actively incorporates content that makes one see life.
• Effective pedagogical tool due to relevance and popularity.
• It connect and highlight discourses in a society.
• Negative stereotyping in media leads to the groups fulfilling those expectations.
• Media tends to dramatize, skew, and reference stereotypes.
• Education and related policies are needed to change the situation.
• Needed steps include:
  • Public policies and self-regulation to facilitate change and break explanations of prejudice.
  • Intergroup relations to destabilize the division between "us" and "them".
  • Individual positioning and attention to language.
• Eliminating prejudice in media is possible.