Lecture 33
Social 3
- Prejudice
- Defined
- Modern Prejudice
- Sources of Prejudice
- Reducing Prejudice
- Aggression
- Definition
- Origins
- Media Violence and Aggression
Overview
Prejudice is an attitude toward a group and its members. By definition, prejudice involves making overgeneralizations. Instead of treating people as individuals, we treat them as (interchangeable) group members, glossing over or ignoring their differences.
Prejudice has declined in the last 60 years; people's attitudes toward prejudice itself have changed as well, with most people believing it is wrong to be narrow-minded. Despite these advances, prejudice still exists, manifesting itself in more subtle and covert ways than in days gone by. Modern prejudice (as it is known) reveals itself when people are not monitoring their actions or can justify, excuse, or rationalize their bigotry.
Intergroup contact can reduce prejudice, provided four conditions are met. These conditions do not eliminate prejudice, but they do lead to improvements.
Within social psychology, aggression is a voluntary behavior intended to hurt another person. There are many different theories about the origins of aggression, but they fall into two camps: Those who argue that aggression is innate (i.e., part of human nature), and those who argue that it is either learned or the result of biological mistakes (i.e., a tumor or damage to some area of the brain).
Many psychologists believe that media violence promotes aggression, but the research on this point is inconclusive. The ready availability of guns and a culture that promotes their use are more likely causes of violence.
Specifics
- Define prejudice and identity its three components.
- Discuss "modern prejudice" and identify two ways it is measured, including the procedures and findings of the study discussed in class by Kleck and others.
- Contrast realistic group conflict theory and Tajfel's motivational model, and be familiar with Tajfel's research and findings using the Minimal Intergroup Procedure.
- Be familiar with four factors that are necessary (though not sufficient) if contact is to reduce prejudice.
- Define aggression and discuss its origins with respect to whether it is learned or innate.
- Identify three research strategies (and their respective findings) relevant to the association between media violence and aggression.