Discrimination
Discrimination refers to the unjust or prejudicial treatment of individuals or groups based on certain characteristics such as race, gender, or age. In psychology, discrimination is studied in the context of understanding its impact on individuals' mental health and well-being. This includes exploring the psychological mechanisms underlying discriminatory behavior and its effects on the targets of discrimination.
6 Key excerpts on "Discrimination"
eBook - ePubYouth in India
Aspirations, Attitudes, Anxieties
- Sanjay Kumar(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge India(Publisher)
...9 EXPERIENCES OF Discrimination Shreyas Sardesai Discrimination, a prejudicial treatment of people based on negative stereotypes about the communities to which they belong, is detrimental to the harmony and integration of any society. It is generally understood as biased behaviour that harms or disadvantages a specific member of a group or the group as a whole. It stems from deeply entrenched beliefs of superiority vis-à-vis others and can be perpetrated on the basis of a range of factors such as caste, religion, race, region, class, sex, sexual preference, age or disability. While all these types of Discrimination can be experienced by a person belonging to any age group, the impact of Discrimination on the young can be particularly severe. As they grow up, the young have increasingly greater interactions with others in their micro-system and are therefore at a higher risk of witnessing Discrimination or being recipients of it. Such experiences at a young age can not only have terrible consequences for their health, self-esteem and inclusion in society, but can also lead to alienation or violent behavioural tendencies. It is therefore essential that stereotypes and prejudices are confronted with evidence based on the youth’s actual attitudes and experiences of Discrimination. Measuring Discrimination faced by India’s youth Keeping this in mind, the CSDS-KAS Youth Study 2016 asked young respondents five questions regarding their encounters with bias. The questions probed whether they had in a span of five years faced Discrimination because of their region, caste, gender, religion or their economic status. Based on their answers, it was found (see Appendix II to find out how the Index of Experience of Discrimination was constructed) that about 2 per cent thought they had faced Discrimination either on all five grounds or on four of the five grounds; 7 per cent had faced Discrimination on two or three grounds and 8 per cent on just one out of the five grounds...
eBook - ePub- Glenn C. Gamst, Christopher T. H. Liang, Aghop Der-Karabetian(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...The term acknowledges how individuals from minority groups may act on their prejudice toward other groups but do so without the power to institutionally influence the lives of others. Internalized racism, on the other hand, denotes how an individual from a marginalized group may incorporate into his or her own self-schema the dehumanizing messages of his or her own in-group made by others. This individual may, as an outcome of exposure to negative stereotypes, denigrate his or her own in-group and act to distance himself or herself from members of that group. In essence, regardless of the form, racism is the behavioral manifestation of held beliefs and attitudes of a group. 7.2 BRIEF HISTORY OF RACISM RESEARCH IN AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY According to Duckitt (1992), there are seven distinct stages in the psychological study of race evident from the early 1900s to the 1990s. Duckitt explained that the field emerged from studies in which the main focus of research was to examine racial differences. The findings of these studies, interpreted within a widely held framework of White racial superiority, perpetuated held assumptions of the inferiority of other racial groups. The interpretation of empirical findings both reflected prejudice that was prevalent at that time and helped to support negative stereotypes of the intellectual ability and hypersexuality of African Americans. The focus of study during the 20th century was also analyzed by Dovidio (2001). In his analysis, Dovidio collapsed several of the periods identified by Duckitt into three “waves” of research. According to Dovidio (2001), there are three overlapping waves of prejudice research. During the first wave, psychologists viewed prejudice as a form of individual psychopathology or as a result of a pathological personality or defense mechanism (e.g., displacement)...
eBook - ePubSocial Psychology in Christian Perspective
Exploring the Human Condition
- Angela M. Sabates(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- IVP Academic(Publisher)
...This law bans Discrimination toward persons with disabilities in the areas of employment, public accommodations and federally funded programs. In this context, a disability can include any condition that impairs the ability of the individual to interact with their social and physical environment. Thus, it includes a very wide range of medical and psychiatric conditions. Smart (2001) noted that persons with disabilities are often excluded from the economic and social mainstream due to barriers that are formed as a result of negative attitudes, architectural restraints and policy barriers. These barriers often limit access to employment, education, public transportation and so on. Discrimination and stigmatization of the disabled is especially prevalent with the mentally ill. Golden (1991) recounts a case reported to the U.S. Senate in 1990 involving a New Jersey zoo that refused admittance to a group of children with Down syndrome because it was feared that they would “upset the chimpanzees.” A relatively high percentage of people who are homeless also have mental illness. As a result of visual and auditory hallucinations, they may sometimes appear to be conversing with imaginary people. Consider the reactions you have had or have observed in others when this occurs. One specific medical condition that has elicited much stigmatization research is HIV. As Crandall, Glor and Britt (1994) note, individuals with HIV are often the victims of Discrimination in employment, housing and medical care. Often, these negative reactions are related to how much the person with HIV-AIDS is thought to be responsible for contracting the disease. Remember from the social perception chapter that this attribution is the just-world phenomenon at work (“They deserve what they get!”). Gender. At this point in your life, you likely have developed some relatively consistent and deeply held beliefs regarding males and females...
eBook - ePubPeer Prejudice and Discrimination
The Origins of Prejudice
- Harold D. Fishbein(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...This is especially the case for in-class or in-school academically oriented activities. Discrimination by sex appears much stronger than by race. For nonhandicapped/handicapped interactions, no comparable information is available. For both observational and sociometric methods, ingroup/outgroup behavioral differences—badging—underlie the Discrimination. This was most readily seen regarding the mentally retarded where degree of social competence could be assessed. But it was also notable with the other groupings. Regarding the genetic/evolutionary speculation concerning sex differences in Discrimination, there was no support for it in the opposite-sex literature and it was contradicted in the race literature. No reliable sex differences were identified for Discrimination toward mentally retarded or deaf peers. The cultural/historical predictions that Discrimination of subordinates would decline relative to that of dominant groups were either unsupported (opposite-sex and racial Discrimination) or were not investigated (deaf and mentally retarded). Finally, there was strong support for age-related shifts in Discrimination occurring in the first two periods that were predicted by the group identity and cognitive development literature. Parallel findings occurred for the development of prejudice. Additionally, for opposite-sex prejudice, two later-predicted age-related shifts were noted. These results suggest that the early development of prejudice and Discrimination are linked with social cognitive development. In summary, the early development of opposite-sex prejudice, race prejudice, and prejudice toward the mentally retarded is tied to group identity processes and social cognitive development. However, each of the three groupings has a unique pattern of development from preschool through junior high school. No consistent patterns emerge in senior high school. Badging mechanisms appear to underlie the various categories of prejudice...
eBook - ePubPsychology of Prejudice and Discrimination
3rd Edition
- Mary E. Kite, Bernard E. Whitley, Jr.(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...One man who was assigned to the lower-status group said, I think I learned from the experience a feeling like I was in a glass cage and I was powerless, there was a sense of hopelessness, I was angry, I wanted to speak up and yet I—at times I knew if I spoke up, I’d be back in a powerless situation, I’d be attacked, a sense of hopelessness. Depression. Hence, this exercise appears to have a powerful impact on adults as well as children. Although Elliott’s lesson on Discrimination was not an empirical study, it was a bold attempt to illustrate the devastating effects of prejudice and Discrimination in a classroom setting. This chapter describes theory and research on the development of prejudice in children. The first section covers children’s awareness of social categories. It is important to note that categorical distinctions based on race, gender, and other characteristics do not necessarily lead to prejudice in children; however, they provide the foundation for preferences, attitudes, and behaviors toward members of other social groups. The second section highlights research on the patterns of development of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation prejudice in children and adolescents. The third section discusses processes that have been postulated as underlying the development of prejudice: Genetic influences, cognitive developmental theories, social learning theory, and developmental intergroup theory. The final section discusses the prevention and reduction of prejudice in children. AWARENESS OF SOCIAL CATEGORIES As we saw in Chapter 3, adults use categories to help them organize, simplify, and make sense of the world around them. Some categories and their underlying concepts refer to particular social groups (such as conservatives, athletes, and Jews), whereas other categories are nonsocial in nature (such as tables, flowers, and snakes)...
eBook - ePubPromoting Equality
Working with Diversity and Difference
- Neil Thompson(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
...The interactions of these three levels produce a very complex and dynamic matrix which attests to the need to develop an understanding of Discrimination at a higher level than a simple focus on personal prejudice or bigotry. One of the main outcomes of Discrimination is oppression. The relationship between Discrimination and oppression can therefore be seen as largely a causal one: Discrimination gives rise to oppression – that is, Discrimination is the process (or set of processes) and oppression is the outcome. In this sense, anti-discriminatory practice and anti-oppressive practice can be used interchangeably, as they both address Discrimination (the process) and oppression (the outcome). Consequently, in order to challenge oppression, it is necessary to tackle Discrimination. It is for this reason that I shall now move on to examine some of the main processes that underpin Discrimination (Figure 4.1). I shall concentrate on themes that apply across a range of different forms of Discrimination, rather than on particular ones. Figure 4.1 Discrimination and oppression Processes of Discrimination In order to develop a clearer and fuller picture of how Discrimination occurs I shall present an exposition of eight processes that are closely associated with inequality, Discrimination and oppression. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor are the processes discussed here necessarily mutually exclusive – indeed, there is a very strong tendency for the processes to interact, combine and reinforce one another. Stereotyping The processing of information is a complex matter, with an extensive literature base of cognitive psychology. In order to deal with the masses of sensory information that we encounter at every moment, it is necessary for the sensory data to be filtered and simplified. One of the ways in which this is achieved is through ‘typification’. This involves establishing what is ‘typical’ of a particular class of things, events, people or phenomena...
