The social environment of a person plays a very important role in the formation of the personal beliefs of an individual. The beliefs are usually based on the different social situations faced by the individual and the different psychological factors such as stereotyping prejudice and discrimination has an important role to play in the attitude formation. The attitude in general is the point of view or the perception of an individual with which he assesses the different social situations. The experiences in life along with the different factors has an important impact as the behaviors are accultured in the individual based on the different the various life experiences if the individual. The stereotyping prejudice and discrimination faced or taught to the individual helps in the formation of his ideologies and therefore their attitudes are formed (Jost, and Krochik 2014). The stereotyping and prejudice have very different roles to play in the attitude formation but they are very much dependent on each other as ideologies. These behaviors in an individual lead to the behavioral pattern of the different societies and these factors are often due to the sense of social identity among individuals. The attitude formation of an individual depends on the 3 components of attitude affective behavioral and cognitive.
Figure 1: Relation between stereotyping prejudice and discrimination
(Source: opentextbc.ca)
Figure 2: Relation between Identity and Stereotypes
(Source: Jostand Krochik2014)
Stereotype is defined as attributing a certain set of beliefs to some people or a group based on their shared social behaviors, habits, norms ethnicity or physical attributes. The stereotype about a set of people may be positive or negative. The stereotypes are just a set of beliefs which becomes a stereotype about a set of people if they are believed and promulgated for a long term. They have a strong influence on the attitude formation of the individual and based on the stereotypes these effects too may be positive or negative (Mackieand Hamilton2014). The stereotyping has all the three components of attitude formation; Affective: The Asians are intelligent, Behavioral: I respect their intelligence, Cognitive: I believe all of them are intelligent.
Figure 3:Stereotype Mind map
(Source:Mackieand Hamilton2014)
According to social identity theory, states that a member of the society perceives themselves as they are part of a relevant social group. However, in the modern society the stereotypes lead to the social categorization of the individuals, affecting their overall development in the society. The different social factors that are affected by the stereotyping leading to the attitude formation among the individuals is the sense of social identity. The individuals tend to align themselves with a certain group and there is a sense of social competition among these social groups. Any individual who aligns themselves to any social groups will have a number of stereotypes relating to the other social groups called outgroups. According to Tajfel and Turner, (1979), the continuous engagement of the individuals in their social ingroups leads to the formation of the different stereotypes about the outgroups of the society. The social identity of the individual with the certain group leads them to follow the norms and the cultures of the group or ethnicity leading to the formation of the stereotypes about them and they tend to follow the attitudes of the social groups they follow (Tajfel and Turner1979). For example, if a person follows Islam they tend to follow the different actions that help them to identify with the religion and their attitudes develop according to their social acculturation. It is also seen that the person will adhere to certain norms of the in groups which leads to the formation of the stereotypes about the group among the different outgroups. The different behaviors and the practices practiced by the different groups reinforce the stereotypes of the people such as the majority of the people coming from oriental countries to the large universities for education reinforce the fact that south Asians are more intelligent than the average population which is usually because only the best of the students go the west for further education and therefore shows the world that that south Asians are generally intelligent.
Figure 4:Discrimination mind map
(Source: Tileag?, 2015)
The prejudice is one of the most important driving factors behind the formation of a number of negative attitudes among the people about the certain societies. The prejudice in general is a strong negative notion about social outgroups which makes the individual abiding by a certain cultural identity biased towards the group. The prejudice about a social outgroup or a society is formed after much time and due to a number of affecting factors that involve the different groups in the society. The prejudice too is very important in the inculcation the social behavior of discrimination (Kiteand Whitley 2016). The prejudice to a certain group or idea is often the cause of discrimination against it. Discrimination in general is the unjustified negative behavior towards a certain outgroup the discrimination is often based on the different prejudices held by the individual or the society towards a certain group.
The prejudice is often the result of reinforcement of the negative stereotypes among people. When the people choose to act on their prejudices hampering the other groups development of the ‘other’ group or individual, the behavior is known as discrimination. The discriminated group in turn may become prejudiced against the discriminating groups which leads to discrimination from their side as well (Fishbein2014). The prejudices and the discriminative attitudes are not dependent on the majority or the minority of the group but the conflict in the in the group dynamics of the different individuals as a result of the personal belief systems. The prejudice also has all the three components of attitude formation and they help in the formation of strict prejudiced behavior according to the belief system of the individual (Smith and Haslam 2017). The discrimination is often the conscious or the subconscious but is always a result of the prejudice in the individual.
Figure 5: Prejudice Determinants
(Source: Kite and Whitley Jr2016)
There is various reason of the prejudiced behavior of the individuals in the modern society but they mostly are the result of the age-old belief which is the result of a number of implicit biases in the society. According to the behavioral theories of B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson, personality is a consequence of communication between the individual and the environment in the society. Hence it can be said that the race gender religion of the sexual orientation is one of the major issues affecting the social behaviors. Prejudice is usually the precognitive judgement of the individual without complete and proper ideas of the situation which may be the result of the past experiences by the society (Killen, Rutland and Yip 2016). For example, the situation of the acceptance of the Muslims around the world greatly changed after the 9/11 attack. From this scenario it can also be seen that the discrimination can affect the people who might not belong to the same social group as it was seen that this attack created a scene of prejudice and discrimination against the Sikhs who share the visual similarity to the Muslims. Therefore, it can be said that often the prejudice and the discrimination is the result of the misinformed ideologies. These ideologies help in the formation of a negative attitude about the different individuals.
Figure 6:Prejudice Mind map
(Source:Fishbein2014)
Figure 7: Stereotype Prejudice and Discrimination Relationship
(Source: Killen, Rutlandand Yip2016)
The stereotyping and the prejudice may be different in their definitions but they are closely related to each other. The cause effect relation between the stereotyping prejudice and discrimination helps in the understanding of the social identity of the individual and how it helps in the formation of the different attitudes among the people in the society. The presence of the stereotypes in the society about the different outgroups affect their ideologies about those outgroup.
The negative stereotype about the different outgroups leads to the formation of the prejudice about them. The prejudice therefore leads to the enactment of behavioral and attitudinal discrimination against a group. In turn the discriminated groups form their own groups based on the mutual dislike of mutual identification among themselves as the prejudiced ones (Tileag?2015). These groups in turn have their own ideologies and form attitudes about the previous group based on which they discriminate against them. It is therefore seen that the stereotyping prejudice and the discrimination is the result of the social identity among the different inclusive group having different ideologies and is reinforced by the different behavioral and attitudinal discrimination against each other. The different groups also tend to have a set of ideals which will be further reinforced by the different ideological beliefs father affected by the competitive behavior among the different groups. Thus, it can also be said that the attitude of the different groups depends on the behaviors and the intergroup dynamics (Vogeland Wanke2016).
Conclusion
It can therefore be said that the stereotyping prejudice and discrimination are a result of the social identity of the individuals. The three factors have interdependence among each other and often are the result of each other. The formation of the attitude of an individual depends on the society or the group they identify with and the attitude of the group is dependent on the dynamics of these subgroups. The attitude of a group is therefore dependent on the performance of a number of subgroups and the ethnic and the cultural ideologies they adhere to. The different attitudes of the society according to the different groups in the modern society is also affected by recent incidents relating to the group and how the society perceives them.
References
Fishbein, H.D., 2014. Peer prejudice and discrimination: The origins of prejudice. Psychology Press.
Jost, J.T. and Krochik, M., 2014. Ideological differences in epistemic motivation: Implications for attitude structure, depth of information processing, susceptibility to persuasion, and stereotyping. In Advances in motivation science (Vol. 1, pp. 181-231). Elsevier.
Killen, M., Rutland, A. and Yip, T., 2016. Equity and justice in developmental science: Discrimination, social exclusion, and intergroup attitudes. Child development, 87(5), pp.1317-1336.
Kite, M.E. and Whitley Jr, B.E., 2016. Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Psychology Press.
Mackie, D.M. and Hamilton, D.L. eds., 2014. Affect, cognition and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception. Academic Press.
Smith, J.R. and Haslam, S.A. eds., 2017. Social psychology: Revisiting the classic studies. Sage.
Tajfel, H. and Turner, J.C., 1979. An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The social psychology of intergroup relations, 33(47), p.74.
Tileag?, C., 2015. The nature of prejudice: Society, discrimination and moral exclusion. Routledge.
Vogel, T. and Wanke, M., 2016. Attitudes and attitude change. Psychology Press.
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