Social Bias Paper Psych/555 Social Bias Paper Social bias is defined in the glossary of education as having prejudicial attitudes toward particular groups, races, sexes, or religions, including the conscious or unconscious expression of these attitudes in writing, speaking, etc. Social biases has become a continuous problem within our society as individuals of a certain social class look down on others simply because he or she feels that they are better or because they are less fortunate. Social status can generate and influence common biases that could be damaging and may delay the interaction among people. “Just as aggression research reveals the basic social psychology of the processes that can prove deadly, the research on bias reveals processes that are demonstrably unhealthy and sometimes deadly for both agents and targets of bias” (Fiske 2010, p. 428). Social bias depicts a precise opinion or view of something.
Racism devalues specific members of the community. It promotes the idea that some people are better or more entitled to our nation's liberties by simple virtue of having a "preferred" ethnicity or race. If it is accepted that one race is superior, it must then be accepted that another race is inferior. As a result of these ideas, people are subjected to ridicule, harassment, racial propagation, vilification and even physical abuse. These attitudes are exclusive and exploitive.
Discuss the factors that contribute to prejudice and discrimination and identify some techniques for reducing the development of prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice and discrimination have been prevalent throughout human history. Prejudice has to do with a negative attitude held by a person about members of a particular group, while discrimination refers to behaviors directed differently against people because of prejudice toward the social group they belong to. Prejudice is the attitude and discrimination is the behavior that can result from the attitude. Discrimination can be controlled by laws, but the prejudicial attitude can’t be easily controlled.
Why do people label and group other people? I think people label and group other people because they are discomfortable with themselves. People tend to speak negative of others to make themselves stand out and give other peoples a bad reputation. This help them feel better about themselves. Some people try to place other people in the same group as them even if wrong.
In the article “Causes of Prejudice” by Vincent N. Parillo identifies the psychological and sociology causes of prejudice. Parillo introduces many theories to back up his claims. The author states, “People tend to be more hostile towards others when they feel that they
Crime can affect the way individuals perceive others generally creating bias and prejudice within a person’s frame of thought; hopefully we can make someone think a little differently. Social structure theories generally put forth that the disadvantaged economic class is a primary cause of crime. It states that neighborhoods which are “lower class” create forces of strain, disorganization, and frustration that lead to the action of crime, they have used these to put them into classes; social disorganization, strain theory and cultural deviance. Social disorganization theory suggests that slum dwellers violate the law because they live in areas where social control has broken down. The origin of social disorganization theory can be traced to the work of Shaw and McKay, who concluded that disorganized areas marked by divergent values and transitional populations produce criminality.
The downplaying of racism may be a consequence of an incorrect understanding of the former’s relation to race. It may have been assumed that race was the primary phenomenon, and racism a secondary effect occurring subsequently.
This basically means that racism is legitimised in our legal systems and institutions to foster discriminatory outcomes. One could argue that in effect this would mean that the government is racist. It is a fact that there is discrimination against people with mental illness. It is also a fact that there is discrimination against people who are black. Another fact is that there is discrimination against people who are women.
Even if after the initial judgment takes place and their base opinion is changed, because this person is ‘different from the norm’ the initial judgment did occur, and that person did assume personality qualities to that person for know reason other than race, and personal beliefs that people have about that specific ‘kind of person.’ I have met people of all different races who judge others by their skin color or by their culture unintentionally. Racism is everywhere and it is a hidden evil that people choose to ignore for the time being. Most people in today’s society are at least slightly racist, probably on accident. Which is awful, because the concept of race is something that the human mind created, and not something that has any truth to it, because there is only one race, the human
There is a general acknowledgment that without a racial identity you my struggle to have an identity at all. This is due to how people use racial categories to provide an idea to what another person is like. Such assumptions on personalities is tied into preconceived notions that different race’s act differently. This is a great stereotyping which helps reveal what race is in society. It shows how it could be used to fuel racism, it also shows how people use it as a way to gauge other people.