Prejudice and discrimination

Lesson objectives:To learn and be able to:

• Answer an exam question concerning stereotyping• Outline what is meant by prejudice and discrimination• Explain Adorno’s study into authoritarian personalities• Evaluate Adorno’s study into authoritarian personalities

Starter

• Read through the questions on your sheet

• Answer either ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ for each one

• Count up how many you answered ‘agree’ to

What is meant by stereotyping? Refer to the example above in your answer.

Exam style questionBoy A: I was speaking to my granddad the other day on the phone and told him that I was going to start supporting Milwall FC and I was going to watch them play. He said he was worried that I would change as a person.Boy B: Why do you think he said that?Boy A: Because he said he thought I was going to turn into a football hooligan.

Prejudice

• An attitude, usually negative, towards a particular group of people, based on characteristics that are assumed to be common to all members of the group

Examples

• All black people are good at basketball• All unemployed people are lazy• All Chinese people are clever• All girls like pink

Discrimination

• Treating people unfavourably on the basis of their membership to a particular group.

Examples

• Nazi’s mass murder of the Jews• Not employing a woman on the basis of her

gender• Sacking a man of 55 because he no longer fits

into the ‘young’ crowd at work

Adorno – authoritarian personality

• Prejudice happens because of a person’s personality

• Certain personality types can lead to a person becoming prejudiced

• Interviewed former Nazi soldiers at the end of World War II

Key study

• A: to test the idea that a person may be prejudice because of their personality

• M: interviewed hundreds of Nazi soldiers. Used a personality scale (F-Scale, F stands for Fascist)

• R: found a particular set of characteristics, which they called the authoritarian personality

Authoritarian personality

• Negative towards those beneath them, obedient towards those of higher status

• Rigid in their opinions• Not willing to accept any new ideas or new situations• C: these characteristics make those who have them

likely to categorise people into ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups, seeing ‘us’ group superior

• People with this type of personality were more likely to have had a strict upbringing

Evaluation

• Not all prejudiced people had harsh upbringings

• Only some prejudiced people show authoritarian personalities

• He found only a correlation between authoritarian personality and upbringing

• Doesn’t explain why people are prejudiced

Exam questions

1. What is meant by the term prejudice (2)2. What is meant by the term discrimination (2)3. Explain what is meant by ‘authoritarian

personality’ (3)4. Outline two criticisms of Adorno’s

explanation of prejudice (4)

Adorno’s F-Scale (1950)

AIM: Is there a relationship between authoritarian personalities and beliefs?

METHOD: 100’s of US adult males completed F-scales

RESULTS: They found a relationship between authoritarian personalities and prejudicial beliefs

CONCLUSION: people with authoritarian personality characteristics are highly likely to think prejudicially

Evaluation

Sample: All male and from the USA Does not explain why? Is it families, NO not everyone with a strict

upbringing is a ‘fascist’ !!! The attitude ‘statements’ in the scale are

very limited (Closed Q’s… RM evaluation) Correlation, so no cause and effect