When it comes to prejudice many situations are caused by stereotypes. Stereotype is when someone makes an assumption about a group because of their own thoughts on the group. Stereotypes either are positive or negative for example; “Women are warm-hearted” or “All teenagers are bad influences on society”. Stereotypes can lead to false beliefs and views; this can result in both decimation and prejudice. Society categorises individuals into groups based on age, sex and race, this relates to individuals mind set.
Discriminatory behaviour results in unfair, unjust treatment. It could be done against those who are different with respect to their age, sex, nationality, ethnic background, religion, ability, financial status and size. 1.2 Describe the potential effects of discrimination. Effects of discriminatory practice: - Low self-esteem - Negative behaviours Negative behaviours Negative behaviour is being aggressive and violent towards a person or a thing. For example if someone is getting discriminated for any reason such as age, culture, sex, appearance or many more their behaviour may become negative towards themselves or others.
Labelling is where a teacher (or another adult) will give a student a name that is in relation to their personality or ability. This can be positive or negative, for example, bright boy or troublemaker. Underachievement can be said to be anything under a C grade for GCSE’s or not meeting your target grade. Some sociologists agree with the statement as they say that students feel that teachers will determine their future. If they are labelled as being ‘stupid’ early on in their career then they will be placed in the lower sets and streams.
Many sociologists have linked labelling in school, especially by teachers, with the difference in achievements in terms of ethnicity. Negative stereotypes and labels may cause teacher to treat students from an ethnic minority differently, which could in turn, disadvantage them and ultimately, result in them underachieving. Studies from different sociologists back up and support this. Gillborn and Youdell (2000) found in their studies that teachers were more likely to discipline black students quicker than they would with their white counterparts, due to the fact that teachers held “racialised expectations”. They argued that they stereotyped and expected black students to present behaviour such as threatening and challenging authority, which leaves the student feeling underestimated and picked on.
It is then repeatedly used but often has a damaging effect on the person. This can be identified as being deliberate or intentional behaviour that has a clear, definite or probably negative effect. People are more likely to have a self-defeating or destructive manner when either there are threats made to their egos or when they have low self-esteem. When people have low self-esteem they are more likely to be susceptible to having depression, anxiety and emotional distress, which are problems that are usually directly related to low self-appraisal. There are many examples of self-defeating behaviours like, being needy, guilty, envious, angry, obsessive, rebellious, addictions, eating disorders, procrastination, controlling, gossiping, self-doubt and depression.
This is a potential effect of discrimination because they may feel that they have had enough of being discriminated and become aggressive towards the person who is discriminating against them. When a person has negative behaviours because of discrimination they may feel angry and feel that everyone is being discriminative towards them and may feel that they need to do something to stop people from discriminating them. For example in the questionnaires I collected my information from a person was discriminated about their race in a setting which made them upset and angry so they became violent and aggressive towards the person that was discriminating them. This is a clear example of negative behaviours. Low self esteem Low self-esteem is when a person is pushed out and feels unwanted.
Assess the importance of school factors such as racism and pupils responses to racism in creating ethnic differences in educational achievement. Many sociologists would argue that internal factors are the most important factors when referring to racism and responses from the pupils as the school is where most of this would take place where different ethnicities are treated in different ways. However, some sociologists would disagree and say that external factors are more important than the internal factors which have an effect creating pupils to face racism at school and their responses in a particular way. Firstly, to start with, labelling in school factor and teacher racism is the first internal factor. Gillborn (1990) found that teachers were quick to discipline black pupils than any other raced pupils for the same behaviour.
2). Instead of searching for a better educational environment, students look for better tests numbers. Lang Wood goes on by stating “Students can easily become discouraged and negative about education in general, which affects their learning ability” (par. 2). In addition to what Lang Wood believes, Stephens claims, students who are taking the test suffer from stress in result of worrying about passing it.
Appendix B Part I: Define the following terms Stereotypes A stereotype is a generalization of a particular group based upon race, ethnicity, gender, or religious beliefs. Prejudice Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or idea about a certain group of people. An opinion or idea that is resistant to change. Labeling Theory Labeling theory is a social theory which suggests that the reactions of society to certain behaviors plays a major role in defining or “labeling” people a certain way. For example, people get labeled as deviant based on certain behaviors (thief, prostitute, homosexual) and often begin to perform that role based on their “label”.
(Zimbardo Ted Talks) This experiment has shown how average students can be driven to abuse their fellow citizens when they are in roles of superiority. The presence of the power given by the roles allows the individual to abuse the power, creating an influenced environment. The same effect was also apparent in a segregation experiment done by an elementary teacher. During the experiment children with blue eyes were labeled as superior to those with brown eyes. Over the course of the experiment the blue eyed students began to exclude and taunt their classmates by calling them names such as “brown eyes”.