Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination Essay

Most people have experienced prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination at some time in his or her life. There is no doubt social discrimination, prejudice, and hostility still create serious problems and challenges, even in today’s apparently more and more individualized and â€Å"enlightened† society. This paper will discuss prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in the context of social psychology; what the consequences of stereotyping and discrimination are; and strategies to improve attitudes, judgments, and behaviors. Social psychologists recognize prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination â€Å"by focusing on whether they involve feelings (affect), cognition, or behaviors.† (Feenstra, 6.1 Prejudice, stereotypes, and†¦show more content†¦Social identities depend on the groups to which people belong. Any group a person belongs to is an ingroup, and those that they do not belong to are considered an outgroup. Social cognitive research sug gests that outgroup discrimination and prejudice are a result of basic and functional cognitive processes such as categorization and stereotyping. â€Å"Our prejudice and stereotypes come not only from the way our systems process information but also from the world around us. Societal origins of prejudice involve the norms in the world around us, the competition that exists between groups, and the social inequalities that exist in the world. Ingroup favoritism leads to unequal treatment of those we have categorized as in the outgroup. And outgroup homogeneity bias blinds us to the differences within the outgroup.† (Feenstra, 6.1 Social Cognitive origins of prejudice and stereotypes, para 2). â€Å"Immediate social contexts do shape individual responses to individual outgroup members. This exemplifies a social psychological analysis, that is, how actual, imagined, or implied other people influence and individual’s stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.† (Fiske, 2000, P. 303). Categories help us deal with large amounts of information. 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