University Psychology Essay: The Inevitability of Prejudice

This essay delves into the psychological underpinnings of prejudice, arguing for its inevitability through a combination of theoretical frameworks and real-world examples. It begins by defining prejudice as an extreme form of stereotype and highlights the human tendency to accept information at face value, making prejudice difficult to avoid. The essay then presents three key psychological theories: Social Identity Theory, the Robber's Cave Experiment, and the Behaviourist Theory of Learning. Each theory is substantiated with relevant examples, such as the prejudice against immigrants in Western countries, the dynamics of intergroup conflict as demonstrated by the Robber's Cave experiment, and the role of media in shaping prejudice through examples of Islamophobia. The essay concludes by emphasizing that prejudice is constructed through psychological manipulation and repeated exposure to specific phenomena, thereby solidifying its inevitability.

Running head: INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
In psychology prejudice is described as an extreme version of stereotype. Human beings
are as per psychology quite vulnerable to believing what they see at the face value and they
rarely make the effort to try to derive the true meaning and implication of a particular
phenomenon, which makes prejudice inevitable. Cultural and political reasons are the prime
motivators of prejudice in society and that leads to quite a lot of rivalry between the various
social groups. In this particular essay the chosen thesis statement that prejudice is inevitable shall
be substantiated by means of theoretical premise and by means of real life examples which shall
be showing that the psychological bias of prejudice is something which cannot be evaded. In the
following sections three psychological theories, the theory of the social identity, the Robber’s
Cave Experiment Theory and the Behaviourist Theory of Learning shall be discussed to argue in
favour of the chosen thesis statement. Each of the theories discussed shall be substantiated with
the help of appropriate examples.
Turner, Brown and Tajfel (1979) put forward the point that the construction of the self
and its identity is not autonomous, as it is majorly contingent upon the social set up in which an
individual is born into, and in which an individual resides. A human being can have multiple
identities and all the identities depend upon the social setting in which one is placed. However, it
is the primary identity which is something which is aloof of all the other forms of identity of an
individual, and that is the most basic identity of the family, which is a reflection of the ethnic,
racial, or religious community to which one belongs to. This is an ascribed set of identity and it
tends to determine whether a person shall belong to the in-group or if one shall belong to the out-
group. In this process, the “us” and the “them” mentality gets cultivated, which also gives rise to
the conception of the self and the members belonging to the in-group as more superior than the
members belonging to the out-group. The process of the formation of the identity of the self

2INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
takes place in a three fold process. Firstly, through the categorization of the people on the basis
of the particular collectivity one belongs to is done. Secondly, the individual starts to assume
certain behavioural patterns as a result of the internalization of the specific codes of conduct
those which are disseminated in the process of socialization. Finally, the sentiment of indulging
in the comparison of the self to the others with a view to assert the superiority of the self over
the others, and thereby safeguarding of the distinctiveness of the self from being destroyed by the
other forms of identity is nurtured. This is the sum and substance of the essence e of the Social
Identity Theory. This particular theory can be used to explain the prejudice that exists among the
ethnic white people of the developed western world about the immigrants who go to seek shelter
in the western countries. The wave of immigration had started in the 1970s and has been
increasing in number over the years. The basic reason behind the nurturing of the prejudice about
the immigrants is that they take away the jobs from the persons forming the majority in the
western nations and also that the indigenous population pays taxes while as section of the
immigrants live on welfare. The influx of immigrants to the western nations have caused the
dominance and sole prerogative of the white people to be disturbed and that has made prejudice
inevitable (Barker-Ruchti, 2019).
The scarcity of the resources in the society leads to conflicts between various groups. The
understanding of the inter group conflict is the appropriation of the central idea espoused by
social psychologist Muzafer Sherif in his Robber’s Cave Experiment. This theorization had been
used as the basis later on for developing conflict theories (Sherif 1954). He had derived the
theory on the basis of conducting a field experiment at the Robber’s Cave State Park, situated at
Oklahoma, in the United States America. He had chosen as his sample for experiment two
groups of young boys who were neither less nor more than twelve years of age, the total strength

3INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
of both the groups taken together had summed up to being twenty two in number. The chosen
boys were totally unfamiliar to each other though they had commonality between them. The boys
came from similar background, belonging to racially white community and were economically a
part of the middle class background. In terms of faith they followed Protestantism and were
members of nuclear families. The goal given to them was to bond with another member in the
collectivity and form a pair for the purpose of pursuing a common goal. It was natural that they
did not know much of each other in the initial period and that was the reason why they were
made to indulge in activities which would bind them together, by means of certain activities like
playing basketball, swimming et cetera (Fine 2004). Finally having realized of the commonality
and having developed a sense of bonding, the boys had formed themselves into two groups, the
Rattlers and the Eagles. They had got their respective emblems etched on to their t-shirts as a
mark of solidarity and group identity. Sheriff had conducted competition between them and he
had observed the kind of threats of both verbal and physical in nature were posed by each of the
groups towards the other groups. None of the boys belonged to a background which would have
driven to a behavior similar to a rogue or a street gang member, they belonged to cultured and
well bred background. However, the sense of competition and the urgency to safeguard the group
interest against the onslaught of another group had driven them to such uncouth and uncivilized
behavior (Sherif 1988). The example of the rivalry between the whites and the black with regard
to the latter taking away the jobs from former can be cited to demonstrate the validity of Sherif’s
experiment in the real world (Doede 2016). In this regard the example of Holocaust must be
provided to prove the inevitability of prejudice, which was a result of political rhetorical
propaganda of Adolf Hitler. The Jews were a minority and were extremely affluent, while the
non Jew Germans being the majority could not match up to the affluence of the Jews hence the

4INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
prejudice against the Jews became inevitable and they were dispossessed of their life, liberty and
property in Germany. Economic disparity is bound to breed prejudice and the Holocaust proved
it right (Sherif, 1954).
The Behaviourist Theory of Learning has been provided by Ivan Pavlov in the year 1927
(Biddulph & Carr, 2017). The basic premise of his theorization is that repetition and
acculturation when combined tends to be a profound facilitator of the process of learning. Pavlov
had reached the conclusion on the basis of an experiment which he had conducted on dogs. He
had trained his dogs to salivate on hearing the ringing of the bells, which had become the
indication that the time had arrived for the dogs to get their meals. He had subjected his dogs to
this repetitive process and they had become accustomed to salivating at the sound of the ringing
of the bells (Trepte & Loy, 2017). Pavlov had changed the method of feeding his dogs, even then
they tended to salivate at the sound of the ringing of the bells. The inference that could be
derived from this particular experiment was that repetitive occurrence of a phenomenon
facilitates and expedites the process of learning. The pattern of behaviour that is imbibed by
human beings are a result of repetitive experiencing of a particular sequence of events and that is
how according to Pavlov human beings get accustomed to behaving in a particular way. This
phenomenon has been termed as Classical Conditioning. In this regard the media led propagation
of islamophobia can be cited as an example proving that prejudice is inevitable. Media highlights
the negative activities and aspects of islam and muslim with specific reference to acts of
terrorism and the repeated occurrence of Islamic terrorism along with biased media
representation has turned the world islamophobic. Constant negative projection of the muslims
has created the prejudice against the muslims (Jenkins, 2014).

5INEVITABILITY OF PREJUDICE
At the concluding section it can be said that the discussion in the previous section have
dealt with the fact that prejudice is inevitable. From the above discussion it becomes clear that
the prejudice is constructed rather than being a natural endowment and is done by means of
immense amount of psychological manipulation thereby making it inevitable and also that
repeated occurrence of a particular phenomenon contributes to prejudice as well. Thus prejudice
is made inevitable and it can be a result of both indoctrination and acculturation at the same time.

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References
Barker-Ruchti, N., (2019). Existing theories of learning. Athlete Learning in Elite Sport: A
Cultural Framework.
Biddulph, F. and Carr, K., (2017). Learning theories and curriculum. Teachers and curriculum,
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Doede, M.S., (2016). Black jobs matter: Racial inequalities in conditions of employment and
subsequent health outcomes. Public Health Nursing, 33(2), pp.151-158.
Fine, G.A., (2004), December. Review Essay: Forgotten Classic: The Robbers Cave Experiment.
In Sociological Forum (Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 663-666). Springer Netherlands.
Jenkins, R. (2014). Social identity. Routledge.
Sherif, M., (1954). Experimental study of positive and negative intergroup attitudes between
experimentally produced groups: Robbers cave study.
Sherif, M., (1988). The robbers cave experiment: Intergroup conflict and cooperation.[Orig.
pub. as Intergroup conflict and group relations]. Wesleyan University Press.
Trepte, S., & Loy, L. S. (2017). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory. The
International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Turner, J. C., Brown, R. J., & Tajfel, H. (1979). Social comparison and group interest in ingroup
favouritism. European journal of social psychology, 9(2), 187-204.
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