PY4102 - Perspectives on Behaviour: Prejudice Essay

This essay explores the complex question of whether prejudice is inevitable, delving into its deep roots in human history and its profound impact on individuals and society. The essay examines the concept of prejudice, defining it as an unjustified attitude towards individuals based on their social group membership, and explores how it manifests through stereotyping and discrimination. Drawing on social psychological theories, the essay investigates the psychodynamic approach, highlighting the influence of unconscious motives and early childhood experiences, and the socio-cognitive perspective, emphasizing the role of cognitive limitations and environmental factors in shaping prejudice. The essay also discusses the social identity theory, which suggests that prejudice arises from the human tendency to categorize and favor in-groups, ultimately arguing that while prejudice can be reduced, its complete elimination may be an ongoing challenge. The essay concludes by summarizing the key arguments and emphasizing the enduring presence of prejudice in society.

Running head: PREJUDICE IS INEVITABLE
PREJUDICE IS INEVITABLE
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1PREJUDICE IS INEVITABLE
Prejudice is deeply rooted in the history of humankind of every human society. For years
people are struggling to combat prejudice of various kinds through various ways for it can have a
severe impact on groups who are the victim of prejudice (Jahoda, 2018). Even though there have
been revolutions in order to eliminate prejudice from society, it seems a never-ending process
when one prejudice ends another is noticed. The question that arises is if there will ever be a
society without prejudice behavior. Why is it difficult to eliminate prejudice from society? Is
prejudice inevitable? In a similar discourse, the essay aims to discuss if that prejudice is
inevitable along with the support of social psychological theories. The essay will discuss the
concept of prejudice and the way it is inculcated in human nature which makes it inevitable in
society.
According to Whitley and Kite (2016), prejudice can be defined as an unjustified or
incorrect attitude towards an individual that emerge due to the individual’s membership of a
social group. Prejudice certainly have the ability to impact on the way people behave, treat or
interact with other people, specifically with the people who are different than them. Prejudice is
commonly the negative behavior of a person towards the other person solely for identity.
Prejudice is interlinked with other aspects of society. It is baseless yet very profoundly found in
society. Some of the typical features of prejudice are stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings and a
tendency to discriminate against members of the group. The process of prejudice involves
stereotyping and discrimination (Fishbein, 2014). The process of stereotyping includes
perception and categorization. The most common view about prejudice is the fact that it holds a
predetermined perspective, prejudgments that are often negative or abusive in regards to a group
for its identity. It is usually when the people hold any prejudicial attitudes towards others, they
have the tendency to view all the people who fits into a specific group as being the same. They

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consider every individual of that particular group holding the same characteristics. Various forms
of prejudice include racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, nationalism, ageism, religious
prejudice and xenophobia (Hamilton, 2015).
Developed from the theories of Sigmund Freud, the psychodynamic approach has been
formed. According to the psychodynamic theory, human feelings and behavior are powerfully
affected by unconscious motives. These unconscious motives certainly have some root sources
which shapes the attitudes and behavior (Basham et al., 2016). The unconscious mind comprises
mental process are not accessible to consciousness, but they are influential on judgments,
emotions and feelings. According to Freud, the primary source of human behavior is the
unconscious mind and it is the part that cannot be seen. Human feelings, motives and decisions
are genuinely powerful which effects through past experiences that are stored in the unconscious
mind. Perceiving from the psychodynamic perspective, there is an internal conflict stemming
from the practice of child-rearing that induces hostility and anger (Dicks, 2014). Many parents
willingly or unwillingly treat their children with frustration and oppose their attempts to become
independent. They take out an excessive amount of anger and frustration. The children in return
are overwhelmed by feelings of guilt and anxiety for the fact that aggression is inappropriate
which make them suffer hostility towards their parents. Since they cannot manifest this hostility
against their own parents, they direct their hostility to a minority group. The parents of the
children are as they have identified them as parents and interjected some characteristics of the
anxiety object they fail to take out the developing anger and aggression on the groups that are
considered weak in that specific society. They change themselves from being threatened to
aggressors which help them overcome the fear of punishment they undergo for their parents.

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This is a coping method for the children and a defensive mean. These specific defensive means is
recognized by Freud as identification with the aggressor (Box et al., 2015).
Prejudice can be explained from the socio-cognitive domain following Piaget’s
suggestion on preferences by following cognitive stages. According to Piaget, at the beginning of
the child’s social life prejudice is inevitable for the cognitive limitation that follows a specific
development pattern. A child at the age of four grasps the world as egocentric which is
characterized by a fuzzy distinction between the portion and the whole. It is certainly becoming
difficult for the child to elaborate on the concept of the country in that period as well. During the
age of eight, the child starts making sense and begin to understand the members of different
countries and the way they may not share the same views. By the age of ten, the child may
understand the nature of a country when decantation and integration take place, it being to
understand parallels cognitive abilities. Therefore, it is built slowly and most of it depends on the
kind of environment it is exposed (Van Dijk, 2014).
Environment plays a significant role in the development of an individual’s perception
with regard to certain things. Prejudice may occur in children through basic observation and
imitation. From the Social Reflection Theory, it can be stated that parental verbal, as well as non-
verbal behavior, provides cues for biased training and identification. Children imitate their
parent’s behavior that may or may not be taught directly. In fact, the simplest explanation is most
often the parents’ behavior that turns the children’s innocence into prejudice. Children begin life
without prejudice however they acquire it gradually through learning over time (Santos, Roomi
& Liñán, 2016).

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Prejudice may be caused as the product of unsuccessful imprinting. These are the cases
where it is hard to identify the culprit that leads to prejudice behavior. When there is an absence
of examples that would manifest the unbiased interactions in early learning, there is a high scope
of learning prejudice behavior. Some orphanage children, who are deprived of environmental
examples and absent from early learning tend to develop the prejudice behavior for they have a
strong feeling of deprivation. The absence of early learning makes them isolated from examples
that discourage the development of prejudice. It illustrates a hostile face to the society that shows
a label stating ‘isolate them’.
One of the associated theories with prejudice is social identity theory. According to the
social identity theory, in order to increase the self-image, people often enhance the status of the
group. Groups provide a sense of social identity; it is a sense of belonging to the social world.
Therefore, people divide the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’ through the process of social
categorization. This is human nature and therefore, cannot be easily excluded from human
nature. Therefore, prejudice is inevitable.
People highly depend on the ability to place ideas, people and objects into various
categories. It is nothing more than a mental mistake as the categorization is done in order to style
the world simpler and easier to comprehend. It is one of the ways humans operate when there is
too many information. The urge to sort through all of it in a logical, rational and methodical
fashion, people is categorized. However, these categories are certainly easy to understand
however they are also prone to making mistakes. Prejudice is one of the mistakes that are
produced with the supporting concept stereotyping. Therefore, according to many scholars, it is
not inevitable. People who tend to develop prejudice behavior can be prevented when there is a
change in the early learning programs.

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The above discussion reflects the way prejudice is ingrained in the people’s behavior and
the way it is developed in the children. As discussed above, prejudice is deeply rooted in the
history of humankind of every human society. For years people are struggling to combat
prejudice of various kinds through various ways for it can have a severe impact on groups who
are the victim of prejudice. The theories discussed above provide pieces of evidence that make
the point that prejudice is inevitable. It can only be reduced with the enactment of laws that will
protect the minority groups from being deprived of their fundamental rights. However the
concept of ‘them’ and ‘us’ has remained in the society for centuries and it is to remain for
coming years as well. Considering the present status of existing prejudice, it is certainly difficult
to eliminate it from society. Although the subject of prejudice may change, the act of prejudice
will not be eliminated but only reduced and managed.

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References:
Basham, K., Byers, D. S., Heller, N. R., Hertz, M., Kumaria, S., Mattei, L., ... & Shilkret, C. J.
(2016). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in
contemporary multicultural contexts. Rowman & Littlefield.
Box, S. J., Copley, B., Magagna, J., & Moustaki, E. (Eds.). (2015). Psychotherapy with families:
An analytic approach. Routledge.
Dicks, H. V. (2014). Marital Tensions (Psychology Revivals): Clinical Studies Towards a
Psychological Theory of Interaction. Routledge.
Fishbein, H. D. (2014). Peer prejudice and discrimination: The origins of prejudice. Psychology
Press.
Hamilton, D. L. (2015). Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior.
Psychology Press.
Jahoda, G. (2018). Images of savages: Ancient roots of modern prejudice in Western culture.
Routledge.
Santos, F. J., Roomi, M. A., & Liñán, F. (2016). About gender differences and the social
environment in the development of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Small Business
Management, 54(1), 49-66.
Van Dijk, T. (2014). Discourse-Cognition-Society. Current state and prospects of the socio-
cognitive approach to discourse. Contemporary studies in critical discourse analysis,
121-146.

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Whitley Jr, B. E., & Kite, M. E. (2016). Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Routledge.