The document summarizes several theories that attempt to explain prejudice and discrimination: 1) The frustration-aggression hypothesis argues that when goals are blocked, the resulting frustration leads to aggression, which is often displaced onto scapegoats like ethnic or religious minorities. 2) Adorno's authoritarian personality theory proposed that authoritarian child-rearing practices can lead to long-term clusters of prejudice by encouraging rigid thinking and identification with dominance. However, it does not fully explain rapid social changes in prejudice or its emergence on a societal level. 3) Social dominance theory attributes prejudice to acceptance of ideologies that legitimize social hierarchies and domination of some groups over others. People with a high desire for their own group

1. Explanations of Prejudice and Discrimination<br />Mere exposure effect<br />•Repeated exposure to an object results in greater attraction to that object.<br />Frustration-aggression hypothesis<br />•Theory that all frustration leads to aggression, and all aggression comes from frustration.<br />•Psychodynamic theory – assumption of a fixed amount of psychic energy for humans to perform psychological activities. Completed activity = catharsis. <br />•Dollard et. al (1939) argued if goal achievement is prevented, energy remains = disequilibrium.<br />•Can only be corrected by aggression.<br />•Target of aggression is usually the perceived agent of frustration, but sometimes the agent is amorphous (e.g. bureaucracy), indeterminate (the economy), too powerful, unavailable or someone you love.<br />•Therefore, it is displaced on to an alternative target scapegoat<br />Scapegoat theory<br />•If a group is frustrated in its goals by another group that is too powerful, the aggression is displaced on to a weaker group = scapegoat.<br />•E.g. The frustration-aggression hypothesis on the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany during 20s and 30s<br />Theoretical principlesHistorical eventsPersonal goalsPolitical and economic dominance of GermanyPsychic energy activatedEach and every German in a state of arousal (WWI)Frustration of goal achievementDefeat and Treaty of Versailles (1919)Disequilibrium. Instigation to aggressEconomic and political crisis (postwar to early 20s)Location of scapegoatAnti-Semitism of 20s and 30s<br />Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality<br />•Theory proposed that autocratic and punitive child-rearing practices were responsible for the emergence of clusters of prejudices from childhood to adulthood.<br />•Limitations: situational and sociocultural factors are underemphasised.<br />•E.g. Sth Africa and southern US > racist than Nth US – but had no differences in authoritarian personality<br />•Constructed California F-scale to assess tendencies towards fascism.<br />•9 variables in the F Scale: <br />1) Conventionalism: strict following of conventional, middle-class values <br />2) Authoritarian submission: submissive, uncritical attitudes towards idealised authorities of the ingroup; <br />3) Authoritarian aggression: condemnation and rejection of those who violate conventional values, and request for their severe punishment;<br />4) Anti-intraception: opposing to everything subjective, imaginative, not dealing with own inner psychic life and experience; <br />5) Rigid thinking, Superstition and stereotypy: tendency to think in rigid categories and belief in mystical causes of the individual's fate; <br />6) Power and quot;
toughness”: identification with those who own power, exaggerate importance of strength, toughness, discipline; <br />7) Destructiveness and cynism - rejection of compassion and empathy, generalised hostility;<br />8) Projectivity - projection of inner unconscious impulses onto the outer world, belief that world is dominated by secret and dangerous forces<br />9) Sex: overemphasised interest in sexual deviations, false morality<br />CRITICISM<br />•Problems with the theory:<br />•Prejudice within a society can change very quickly – e.g. Germany in 1930s, US following Pearl Harbor – not consistent with Adorno’s idea that prejudice always goes back to childhood.<br />•Cannot easily account for prejudice affecting large groups/whole societies e.g. South Africa under apartheid <br />Social dominance theory<br />•Theory that attributes prejudice to an individual’s acceptance of an ideology that legitimises ingroup-serving hierarchy and domination, and rejects egalitarian ideologies.<br />•Originally about desire for ingroup domination over outgroups. <br />•People who desire their ingroup to be dominant and superior to outgroups = high social dominance orientation and are more inclined to be prejudiced than those with low social dominance orientation.<br />Belief congruence<br />•The theory that similar beliefs promote liking and social harmony among people while dissimilar beliefs produce dislike and prejudice.<br />