Prejudice and Discrimination in Society: A Sociology Assignment Report

This sociology assignment explores the concepts of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. It defines stereotyping as overgeneralizing beliefs about groups, categorizing it into explicit and implicit types, and explains its formation and function, including how it can lead to prejudice. The assignment then defines prejudice, discusses various types like racism, sexism, classism, and lookism, and analyzes their impacts on individuals. It further examines the relationship between prejudice and discrimination, including examples of racial and gender discrimination. The assignment also touches upon theories associated with prejudice, such as the well-earned reputation theory and the convergence theory, and concludes by referencing psychoanalytical perspectives.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
1. In social psychology, stereotyping can be defined as the process of over –generalizing
belief over a particular category of individuals. Stereotyping a group or a specific type of
individual is the act of assuming that the particular though is true for each and every
individual in that specific group. Such generalizations are specifically made for making
quick decisions. However, stereotyping may become erroneous while applied too specific
individuals. Stereotyping can be categorises into two types, namely, explicit stereotyping
and implicit stereotyping (Herek 2016). While explicit stereotyping is the act of
generalizing a group of individual consciously, implosive stereotypes are those that lay
on individuals' subconsciousness, that they have no control or awareness of. One of the
implicit examples of stereotyping are boys are more likely to play video games’. Police
officer buying doughnuts and coffee is an example of explicit stereotypical behaviour in
North America. According to researchers, stereotypes are formed by several ways
(Whitley Jr and Kite 2016). One of the most common reasons behind the formation of
stereotype includes the tendency of people to categorize information.
Categorization saves processing time in the brain. Secondly, stereotyping concept
s passes through generations. The process of repeatedly passing social information from
one individual to another leads to unintentional as well as spontaneous formation of
cultural stereotypes. When it come to the function of stereotyping, the chief function of it
to make it easier for people to memorise the features and characterising of a specific
group of individual without considering their individual features. Prolonged negative
stereotypes can lead to prejudices. Some of the common features of prejudice involve
negative feelings, tendency to discriminate against a specific member or a group.
Prejudices are basically based on stereotyped beliefs (Pincus 2019).

2SOCIOLOGY
2. Prejudice refers to an unjustified or incorrect attitude shown towards an individual which
is solely based on the individual’s membership of a social group. The feelings or
concepts developed due to prejudice are not based on a certain reason or actual
experience but on the presumption that are influenced by culture as well as society.
Prejudice does impose a highly negative impact on the victim. Individuals subjected to
prejudice often feel undervalued (Scacco and Warren 2018). They suffer from lack of self
esteem and this in turn stops the process of self improvement. Individuals subjected to
long term prejudice also become the victim of discrimination. They feel unacceptable in
the society and this in turn often leads to physiological issues like depression, anxiety and
social isolation. The mentioned the four major type of prejudices includes racism,
classism, sexism and lookism. Classism prejudices are based on socioeconomic status of
an individual and the chief victims of classism prejudices includes impoverished
individuals. One of the common prejudices associated with classism includes ‘crime and
violence majorly take place in poor communities’. The second type of prejudices in the
society includes racism. It includes a belief that all members of an ethnic group possess
characteristics and abilities that are specific to that ethnicity. For instance one of the
examples of racism prejudices includes “Indians know witchcrafts”. Such prejudice often
creates a wrong completely imaginary and negative perception about a certain group of
people which impose adverse affect on both the personal as well as professional life of
the victim. Additionally, racism prejudice also involves the belief that there exist inferior
and superior groups within human race based on ethnic background.
When it comes to the prejudices associated with sexism, it involve a belief that a
particular gender is naturally superior to another. In spite of the fact that sexism has the

3SOCIOLOGY
potential to affect all genders, it is often observed that women as well as the members of
the LGBT community are its chief victims. Sexism prejudices are demeaning in nature
and are linked with gender roles and stereotypes (Scacco and Warren 2018). Lookism
prejudices refers to the discriminatory treatment towards an individual on the basis of
their physical appearance as well as attractiveness. An individual whose appearance
matches a sociocultural group often leads to negative evaluation. Lookism is basically
prejudices that are based on race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality and disability.
3. According to researchers, negative prejudices leads to discrimination. However, it must
be remembered that a prejudiced individual may not act on their attitude (Hatzenbuehler
2016). Therefore an individual can be prejudiced towards a certain group but not
discriminate the same. However, one of the roots of discriminatory act is prolonged
believed prejudices. For instance, racial discrimination against the black individuals
initiated with the prejudices like” black people are half human’. Discrimination is defined
as the unjustified and native activities performed against a specific group of people based
on illogical beliefs and prejudices. One of the mention worthy example of racial
discrimination includes racial segregation that was enforced in Africa from the year 1948
to 1994. The mention segregation prevented no white individual from voting and forced
them to live in separated and non-facilited communities.
Along with racial discrimination, another type of discrimination that are widely
faced by the members of the society includes gender discrimination. Like the previous ne,
gender discrimination is also highly influenced by the prolonged prejudices believed
from time immemorial (Goodwin et al. 2017). In western societies, while female workers
are discriminated in the workplace, it has been seen that men are discriminated in social

4SOCIOLOGY
and family environment. For instance, in several countries women are paid less than men
in spite of the fact that they both possess similar job roles. However, divorced women are
subjected to receive primary custody of the children far more often than men. Gender
related prejudices that are prevalent in the society are one of the chief reasons that are
preventing eradicating such discrimination.
4. The two major theories associated with prejudice include the well earned reputation
theory and the convergence theory. The well earned reputation theory has been designed
by Zawdaki, and this theory have put emphasis on the inference of group and society. For
instance, the members of a group having bad reputation are victimised by other groups
(Richeson and Sommers 2016). For instance, the Jews were made the victim of
prejudicial aggression since their characteristics were not acceptable to the out-groups.
The second theory of prejudice includes the convergence theory that has been
devolved by integrating the facts of the previously mentioned theory. Prejudices possess
specific subjective aspects, that is, the assortment of a minority group can be explained
on the basis of well earned reputation theory. But the social aspect of prejudice from age
to age points out that prejudice is a social phenomena. The conflicting aspect of it is
developed on the basis of economic, political or religious consideration, that may
motivate an individual to be aggressive, displace his aggression and become prejudiced
towards the out group.
According to Psychoanalysis as well as clinical findings, prejudiced individuals
have repressed their hostility to a great extent and are dominated by castration anxiety
According to the Psychoanalytical Theory, prejudice can be defined as a function of
collective group structure and hence should not be considered as personality dynamics.

5SOCIOLOGY
Reference list
Bethlehem, D.W., 2015. A social psychology of prejudice. Psychology Press.
Goodwin, R., Kaniasty, K., Sun, S. and Ben-Ezra, M., 2017. Psychological distress and prejudice
following terror attacks in France. Journal of psychiatric research, 91, pp.111-115.
Hatzenbuehler, M.L., 2016. Structural stigma: Research evidence and implications for
psychological science. American Psychologist, 71(8), pp.742.
Herek, G.M., 2016. The social psychology of sexual prejudice. Handbook of prejudice,
stereotyping, and discrimination, 2, pp.355-384.
Pincus, F.L., 2019. Race and ethnic conflict: Contending views on prejudice, discrimination, and
ethnoviolence. Routledge.
Richeson, J.A. and Sommers, S.R., 2016. Toward a social psychology of race and race relations
for the twenty-first century. Annual review of psychology, 67, pp.439-463.
Scacco, A. and Warren, S.S., 2018. Can social contact reduce prejudice and discrimination?
Evidence from a field experiment in Nigeria. American Political Science Review, 112(3),
pp.654-677.
Whitley Jr, B.E. and Kite, M.E., 2016. Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Routledge.