In-Class Activity (Part I)

Read the article you have been assigned to, and be prepared to answer the questions associated with that article (see below).  Please at least skim the other articles.

These questions are drawn both from your textbook and the article you were asked to focus on for today. Some of the questions have “right” answers and some don’t. Every person in your group needs to understand and be able to explain the issues associated with this topic... In Part II of this exercise, each of you will be summarizing the main points for members of other groups.

Note that everyone will have to eventually read all 5 articles (after Part II of this exercise).

Assignments:

Dovidio, On the Nature of Contemporary Prejudice: The Third Wave (JSI: Journal of Social Issues)
Does prejudice still exist?

1. What is aversive racism? Focus on the helping study beginning in the 2nd column of page 68. Explain the study and the way in which it illustrates aversive racism. Focus on the selection decision study on page 69. Explain the study and the way in which it illustrates aversive racism.

2. Compare and contrast the following forms of prejudice: overt/blatant racism and aversive racism. Are all these forms of racism equally undesirable, or does one form seem more pernicious than another?

3. How is the second wave of aversive racism research different from the third wave of aversive racism research?

4. Which IAT studies did the members of your group choose to do (the course schedule asked you to go to the IAT website)? What were the results? Were you surprised? What do you think of the IAT as a measure of implicit attitudes?

5. Carefully read and discuss the Dovidio, Kawakami and Gaertner (in press) study presented beginning on page 72 (including Figure 1).

6. Answer question #3 at the end of the article. What conclusions can you draw about inter-racial interactions from this study?


 

Reducing Prejudice: Combating Intergroup Biases (1999) Dovidio & Gaertner
How can we reduce prejudice?

1. Is everyone prejudiced in some degree? Is it ever possible to not be prejudice towards anyone at all?

2. From the first page of the article (2nd column) and from your textbook, explain one motivational bias leading to prejudice, one cognitive bias, and one intergroup process.

3. What is “aversive” racism?

4. When trying to reduce overt, blatant forms of prejudice, what do Dovidio and Gaertner describe as typical strategies?

5. Using your textbook, explain social identity theory. How can an "us" versus "them" categorization lead to ingroup favoritism? What role might outgroup homogeneity play in such ingroup favoritism?

6. Explain the basics of the new technique to reduce prejudice in the article you read (the Common In-Group Identity Model). In particular, explain how this model actually takes advantage of people's predisposition toward ingroup favoritism.

 

Jigsaw Classrooms and the Desegregated Classroom: In pursuit of common goals. Aronson & Bridgeman (1979).
How can we reduce prejudice?

1. The original contact hypothesis argued that simply putting people from rival groups or different racial groups together would lead to reduced prejudice. This was not the case. Why, according to your textbook, was mere contact not enough? What are the necessary conditions for contact to be an effective means of reducing prejudice?

2. How are Allport’s three factors of sanction by authority, equal status contact, and pursuit of common goals present in the jigsaw classroom?

3. What are the underlying mechanisms responsible for the success of the jigsaw classroom?

4. Predict what the second half of this activity will be. In what way does this class activity illustrate the jigsaw classroom technique?

5. This Aronson article points out that simple contact is not sufficient to reduce prejudice toward outgroup members. Recent evidence (Postmes & Branscome, 2002) suggests that another important consideration in desegregation is acceptance by the ingroup. African-Americans who spent most of their high school years in desegregated environments reported feeling less accepted by their African-American ingroup. As a consequence, they feel that being African-American is a less important part of their identity. Disidentifying with their racial group has been linked to lower self-esteem and to depression. Postmes & Branscome write “Results suggest that environments that are segregated offer ingroup support and acceptance, thereby protecting self-esteem against possible perils of rejection by a powerful out-group. Findings suggest that the improvement of intergroup relations should not be at the expense of intragroup relations.” What are your opinions on these findings, and what suggestions do you have to balance a need for in-group identification with the importance of desegregation?

 

The non-verbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction. Word, Zanna & Cooper (1974).
What are the consequences of prejudice for members of stereotyped groups?

1. Explain what Word et al. meant by the term “immediacy.”

2. The entire cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy is demonstrated in this research by considering the two studies together. Walk through each of the steps of self-fulfilling prophecy and point out how the Word et al. research tests each step.

3. In the second study, all the participants are White. So, why should we conclude that prejudice is what will lead employers to create an unfair interview environment for African-Americans?

4. What other groups might face similar situations when they are interviewed for a job, internship or college admission?

5. Review stereotype threat theory in your textbook. What does this line of research suggest about the notion that SAT score or G.P.A. is a fair way to make college admissions decisions?

6. My father ran his own business. He once said to me “I am not a prejudiced person, I will hire the best candidate… I don’t need rules to force me to treat anyone more fairly. I am fair.” Thinking of the Word et al. study and stereotype threat research, predict what I (the eager social psychology professor) said in response.

7. In what ways could diverse school and work environments benefit people who are members of “majority” groups?


Johns et al. Knowing is Half the Battle… Psychological Science.

What are the consequences of prejudice for members of stereotyped groups?

1. One consequence of stereotypes for members of stereotyped groups is “attributional ambiguity.” Using your textbook, define attributional ambiguity, and discuss the logic of the study cited as an example.

2. Using your textbook and the reading, define stereotype threat. Some argue that stereotype threat is just a fancy name for “choking” or “evaluation apprehension” – phenomena that everyone faces; explain why this view is wrong. Some people argue that stereotype threat places the “blame” or responsibility for underperformance in the hands of the minority group member; explain why this view is wrong.

3. Johns et al. mention 2 hypotheses for the effect of telling women about stereotype threat prior to a math test. What were these 2 hypotheses?

4. Discuss the specific methodology of the study. What was the independent variable? Which condition was expected to display typical stereotype threat effects? How were the effects of stereotype threat measured? What was the key (unique, new) condition?

5. Explain what Figure 1 means – that is, what are the results of the study? How do the researchers know that it is specifically stereotypes that were interfering with performance (rather than general evaluation apprehension)? Some students are just nervous test takers – how can we be sure the results aren’t due to individuals being nervous about the test… Similarly, how can we be sure that the results aren’t due to women in the stereotype threat condition really just being worse at math than the men?

6. So, in summary – this study provides support for a simple but effective way to counteract stereotype threat. Explain what that technique is (that is, the overall conclusion of the study). Do you think this technique would also work for African-Americans who face stereotype threat on all sorts of standardized tests because of the stereotype that Blacks are less intelligent than Whites?