Gender Differences In Prejudice

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GCSE Psychology

Coursework

Gender Differences in Prejudice

This investigation offers an insight on the differences between males and females when it comes to prejudice.

Abstract                                                        page 3

Introduction                                                page 3

Aim                                                                page 4

Hypothesis                                                page 5

Method                                                        page 5

Results                                                        page 7

Discussion                                                        page 8

References                                                page 9

Appendix                                                        page 10

Abstract

        This study aims to determine the differences, if any, between male and female members of society when confronted with the idea of having contact with people of different sexual identities/orientations, using Bogardus social distance scale. The results show a slightly higher rate of prejudice among men, but an overall irrelevant trend, proportionally to the scale.

Introduction

        This investigation is into prejudice. Prejudice can be defined as “an attitude towards a particular group or member of the group, based on characteristics which are assumed to be common to all members of the group”. There are three sides to prejudice: the affective side (feeling negative things towards a group), the behavioural side (discrimination) and the cognitive side (stereotyping and expectations). Prejudice can be positive or negative, but the type which is potentially degrading or 4harmful to society is negative. Some of the most common kinds of prejudice are: sexism (discrimination on the grounds of sex), heterosexism (regarding gay men and lesbian women as abnormal), racism (a negative attitude towards someone of another race), ageism (discrimination on the basis of age), etc.

        Previous research in this area includes Adorno’s authoritarian personality, Tajfel’s social identity theory and Sherif’s competition theory.

        In America’s 1950s, Adorno suggested the idea of a personality type which is more likely to be prejudiced. His research was inspired by the behaviour of Nazi soldiers in World War II. After interviewing hundreds of people, he and his colleagues found a pattern of personality characteristics which they called the authoritarian personality. People belonging to this type of personality tend to be hostile to those who are of inferior status, obedient and servile to those of higher status, fairly rigid in their opinions and beliefs, intolerant of uncertainty or ambiguity, conventional, upholding traditional values. The cause of all this, Adorno suggested, was an unconscious hostility towards their parents who, apparently, gave them a harsh upbringing and faced them with criticism. The hostility which had built up was displaced and redirected towards weaker people who could not harm them.

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        A criticism of this theory is that it is only a correlation, therefore it is unknown whether one condition caused the other. The children might well have observed and imitated their parents, through social learning.

        21 years later, Tajfel suggested that social categorisation is the first step in the stereotyping process. He based this on the fact that one of the basic cognitive processes is categorisation, we tend to divide people into the in-group, us, and the out-group, them. The most important findings he made were: we favour the in-group over the out-group, we exaggerate the differences between groups, we ...

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