Prejudice.

Prejudice.

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  Running Head: PREJUDICE1 Prejudice Name Institution Date
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  PREJUDICE 2 Introduction Allport (1954)gives the earliest definition of prejudice as a hatred based on a defective and rigid generality that is directed towards certain groups of people as a whole or an individual because they are members of that group. It is possible for prejudice to be expressed or felt since it entails particular cognitive beliefs and critical social attitudes, adverse expression effect or the display of discriminative behavior directed to followers of a group on account of them being members of that group. In this regard, an essay giving a social psychological explanation of why prejudice continues to occur, despite social action against it, focusing mostly on concepts of prejudice. The essay will reference social cognitive processes such as categorization and stereotypes while concentrating on psychological theories, concepts and research evidence from a social psychology perspective. Why prejudice still exists According to Allport (1954), to change someone's opinion about prejudices takes a lot more than real exposure and the notion that people can change from their ideas to accommodate others immediately is not that easy. Nonetheless, it is suggested that the only way to change a person's opinion about something or someone is to increasingly expose them to the positive interaction experience (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). In other words, it seems easier to remove the attitude of prejudice towards individuals or groups of people by exposing the perpetrator to the group's positive side or activities if any. However, it is quite a challenge trying to remove this attitude from individuals who hold these thoughts about others or a group, but this is brought about partly because of stereotypes. The stereotypes that are responsible for this behavior and negativity are quite prevalent in all societies and make it worse for any positivity to
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  PREJUDICE 3 develop fromany situation (Jackie, David & Myers, 2014). Besides, nowadays, people are not in any way aggressively looking for means to substantiate themselves from any wrongs. In the real sense, the prejudice of most individuals is firmly held together when other people try to disgrace them, and in this regard, stereotypes have a significant role in it. There are different prejudices meted towards different groups, and all these prejudices come with very different emotional mechanisms to them. For example, bias towards some groups is accompanied by disgust; while others are characterized by anger, and some by fear. Stereotypes are responsible for the need to incline to search for or necessity to deduce information in a manner that approves somebody's prejudices. The authoritarian concept of prejudice Smolík (2008) describes an authoritarian person as having a type of personality that possesses a mentality towards authority that is at all times important and this type of individual adores authority and has a habit of subjecting their self to it. Also, these individuals wish themselves to be in power to submit other people, and as far as they are concerned, there are two stands in their life: the powerless and powerful. An authoritarian individual is more than comfortable to be the mighty ruler, and if they are not the strong leader, then they will show complete submission to any other influential figure that might be in authority. In either of the cases, there is minimal tolerance towards non-conventional thinking and individuals whose character is set up in an authoritarian personality mostly obey the existing authority. The individuals trust that total obedience to the rules is mandatory, and any nonconformity to these rules is to be met with harsh repercussions. Authoritarian personality often ends up with people having hostile feelings towards individuals, minorities, including ethnic and religious groups.
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  PREJUDICE 4 The authoritarianpersonality is believed to arise from childhood according to the psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud who put forward the argument that experiences from childhood lead to individuals' characters when they become adults (De Sousa, 2011). In this regard, prejudice continues to be an issue because of the mentality of this theory and the individuals who possess this character do not intend to rectify their behavior but instead continue perpetrating this evil. One of the other traits that are common in all authoritarian aspects is the belief that life is determined by external powers that are not inside a person, plus are not in his wishes or interests, and in the end, the only probable joy involves submitting to those forces (Smolík 2008). Dogmatism concept of prejudice Hanna et al. (2012 quote dogmatism as a reasonably closed mentality of beliefs concerning the reality that focuses around a primary set of ideas about the total authority that in turn offers a structure for designs of prejudice and qualified open-mindedness toward other people. The amount of information concerning this concept is not as much, or its literature research and results are not in large forms, compared to the large texts on the idea of authoritarianism. The psychological concept of dogmatism was presented by Milton Rokeach to criticize Theodor Adorno and his other colleagues' authoritarian theory of personality and contends that matters of opinion are imposing or unquestionable (Crisp & Peker, 2018). Also, he was also challenging the authoritarian theory of personality rigidity and its denial to change a person's views about an argument or realities that contest an individual's beliefs. Also, dogmatism has been observed to be a behavioral characteristic describing a narrow-minded and inflexible opinion in someone's personal beliefs, and individuals who have a greater sense in dogmatism generally have a political orientation that is narrow and readily conform to authority
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  PREJUDICE 5 (Crisp &Peker, 2018). The individuals have a tendency to be prejudiced towards people who are dissimilar from them and do not appreciate points of view challenging their own opinions. Dogmatism is related to a narrow-minded way of thinking, and it is associated with overall extremist behaviors and does not prescribe to any specific system of belief. Categorization and stereotypes Social categorization is the way in which an individual's mind groups together people who share significant characteristics and is essential to human understanding since it functions as a primary function for the organization and structure of individuals understanding of ideas concerning the world (Bodenhausen, Kang & Peery, 2011). People mentally recollect others depending on their demographics such as gender, age, culture, race, and religion, or interests and personalities such as if one is an extrovert and also the profession of individuals. This procedure has some significant functions that provide an individual with a method of organizing and structuring their comprehension of the social domain. Social categories have also been observed to serve a necessary purpose of identity in shaping the person's sense of belonging, including a connection to others or alienating from them. When individuals are placed in a social category, there is a likelihood of considering our status in regards to that same category whether as a member or not (Bodenhausen, Kang & Peery, 2011). In this regard, social categorization gives room for us to associate with them that we share memberships in the group with but it also likely to have the potential to create psychologically divisive lines between the individual and their target. There is the active desire people hold when they feel the world is just and also fair, and this desire can lead an individual to develop negative stereotypes which might offer an apparent
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  PREJUDICE 6 justification forthe group's poor social status (Jost, Banaji & Nosek, 2004). It is indeed likely that if some sets of groups have different opinions from one another in noticeable ways, these issues might not be noticed by individuals whose beliefs they reflect on, although it is true that many stereotypes reflect authentic group differences. It is a fact that when individuals stop associating with stereotypes in their social groups, they are likely to face criticism from other members who operate with a view of discouraging the counter-stereotypic activities that might happen in the future (Phelan & Rudman, 2010). However, stereotypes can indeed be a reflection of social realities if not the fundamental character and potential in the group, though an exact depiction of group issues is not automatically an accurate image of why they exist. Interestingly, stereotypes may be comprehended using two different fundamental areas namely; competence and warmth. The first aspect is warmth, and it entails traits such as warm, tolerant, sincere plus good-natured and is concerned with the group's objectives regarding in-group or the person. The aspect is concerned with the need to know if a person or out-group is a friend or an enemy and whether the stranger plans to compete or cooperate (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick & Xu, 2002). It is worth noting that stereotypes in most cases use their judgments mostly indirectly to influence their effect on processing evidence, instead of a manner that is more direct. Why prejudice continues to occur despite social action against it Since human beings highly depend on other people in their groups, they tend to invest in them to have continuing historical ties of fair and reciprocal relations and the levels of prejudice and stereotyping are greater between older adults (von Hippel, Silver & Lynch, 2000). The relationships between adults are meant to also treat each other rationally, by creating and following a laid down set of agreed norms which are a result of build up trust over a period. In this regard, humans view other unfamiliar beings as outsiders and a threat to the investment they
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  PREJUDICE 7 have alreadyset up in themselves as individuals or as a group. For this reason, human beings tend to assume that foreign individuals who are unknown to them are likely to pose possible threats. Hence, they believe these foreign individuals might be interested in taking their resources, or likely to swindler them in business or violate the values and norms. Besides, these reservations or fears are connected to negativities regarding emotions like anger and disgust towards other people, and they end up contributing to prejudices. Cultural differences also often drive people towards prejudice due to their different practices either ethnically or religiously. The fact that a person dislikes a particular community's way of life might push them to develop hatred and disgust for the said community or specific religions. In considering the effect of professed prejudice upon stereotypic self-assessments, it was found that apart from the above-discussed causes, self-esteem is also part of the reasons and also affects the perpetrators of prejudice (Dion, Earn & Yee, 2007). To this end, stereotypes comprise reports that are correct or some that sometimes may be understood as the truth, while others are impossible to validate altogether. Conclusion Prejudice is the display of discriminative behavior directed to followers of any group because of them belonging to that group. The effects have been found to be an underlying issue in society, and the causes, factors, existence and continuous perpetration go on even with the advocacy through social action. There is a need to eliminate this vice in society and at the end of the day have a prejudice-free world. The fact that it is possible for prejudice to be expressed or felt since it entails particular cognitive beliefs leads to critical social attitudes and negative expression.
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  PREJUDICE 8 References Bodenhausen, G.,Kang, S., & Peery, D. (2011). Social Categorization and the Perception of Social Groups. The Sage Handbook of Social Cognition. Crisp, R., & Peker, M. (2018). Dogmatism. Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. doi: 10.4135/9781412972017.n68 De Sousa, A. (2011). Freudian theory and consciousness: A conceptual analysisFNx08. Mens Sana Monographs, 9(1), 210. doi: 10.4103/0973-1229.77437 Dion, K., Earn, B., & Yee, P. (2007). The Experience of Being a Victim of Prejudice: An Experimental Approach. International Journal of Psychology, 13(3), 197-214. doi: 10.1080/00207597808246625 Fiske, S., Cuddy, A., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878-902. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.82.6.878 Hanna, J., Cazenave, T., Ayalon, M., Even, R., Jackson, M., & Brewka, G. et al. (2012). Dogmatism. Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-1428- 6_856 Jackie, F., David, S., & Myers, A. (2014). Social Psychology (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill International (UK) Ltd.
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  PREJUDICE 9 Jost, J.,Banaji, M., & Nosek, B. (2004). A Decade of System Justification Theory: Accumulated Evidence of Conscious and Unconscious Bolstering of the Status Quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881-919. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2004.00402.x Kolb, W. (1954). The Nature Of Prejudice. By Gordon W. Allport. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1954. Social Forces, 33(1). doi: 10.2307/2573151 Phelan, J., & Rudman, L. (2010). Reactions to ethnic deviance: The role of backlash in racial stereotype maintenance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(2), 265-281. doi: 10.1037/a0018304 Schneider, F., Gruman, J., & Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Smolík, J. (2008). The Influence of the Concept of Authoritarian Personality Today. Central European Political Studies Review, 10(1). von Hippel, W., Silver, L., & Lynch, M. (2000). Stereotyping Against Your Will: The Role of Inhibitory Ability in Stereotyping and Prejudice among the Elderly. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(5), 523-532. doi: 10.1177/0146167200267001