Social Psychology Assignment: Prejudice, Racism, and Contact

This assignment explores the concept of prejudice within a social psychology context. It defines prejudice and its components, including gender, racial and ethnic identity, and religion, providing examples of how these can lead to division. The solution draws analogies to Jane Eliot's work and the Robbers Cave study to illustrate racism and the need for cohesion. It discusses the contact hypothesis and the jigsaw technique as methods to improve intergroup relations and foster understanding among students with different ethnicities. The assignment emphasizes the importance of respect, disciplinary mechanisms, and empirical work, diagnostic, and aptitude tests for understanding and addressing potential issues within a classroom setting. The author uses the references to support the arguments and claims presented in the assignment.

Running head: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 1
Social Psychology
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1. Prejudice is defined as an aggressive attitude and treatment directed at people in a distinct
group given the membership of that particular group (Whitley Jr & Kite, 2016).
The components of prejudice are:
a. Gender- this is simply the state of being male or female. In this particular scenario the
children are composed of both genders. Gender can be a source of prejudice if the male
children look down upon the female children.
b. Racial and ethnicity identity- this is in relation to a race on the racial part while ethnicity
is the fact of belonging to a particular social group owing to similarity in nationality or
cultural practices. This can cause division in the class as other children may disrespect
others based on their ethnicity identity. An example of this is that the class has both black
American students and Asians.
c. Religion- this is the belief and worship of a superior being and controlling the universe
especially as God or gods. Different children profess different religion and others may
start to see their fellow as different and may not want to associate with them and this
brings prejudice. The class has children of different origin from Asians to first nations
who profess different religions.
(Meeusen & Dhont, 2015)
2. Drawing an analogy to Jane Eliot’s work I would illustrate how superficial skin color can
create division between groups of persons and it all narrows to racism. Some people
portrays to be superior than others because of their skin color and looks down upon those
whose skin color is not close to anything like theirs. This has been a huge topic between

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the Africans and the whites because until lately racism is still occurring especially when
some people refuse to shake hands with others of another race. They harbor the strong
feelings and negative reactions towards such people because of their skin color.
3. In comparison to Muzafer Sherif and colleagues’ classic robbers cave study it would be
prudent to be keen at all times not to turn the children of different ethnicities against each
other owing to this study’s view. Cohesion is needed among this students and given that
they are young they have to be taught on how to work together and that the skin color
does not matter as we are all human beings. This will be very important so that we can
build our nations. Racism is a thing of the past many countries and states have put it at
their back including Canada.
4. Contact hypothesis has been defined in different fields including criminology, sociology
and psychology a one of the most reliable ways of upgrading among groups arguing or in
conflict. This ensures that their differences are solved so that they can be united and work
towards a common course. It is also known as the intergroup contact theory and Gordon
W. was credited for its development.
5. The jigsaw technique is a method of strategically organizing the students such that they
all depend on one another. If the contact hypothesis is employed in such setting it will
come to succeed because this will aid in the process of uniting the students. The students
with different ethnicities have to communicate with each other so as to get to access some
things or even answers to. The students are organized into groups and they are able to
coordinate with each other so as to achieve success. I would establish several conditions
in the jigsaw class such mandatory respect among all the children and also ensuring there
is disciplinary mechanism to regulate the actions of all the children.

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6. Empirical work is way of gaining knowledge by direct and indirect observation or what
people go through, diagnostic test is any method used to collect clinic information.
Aptitude tests gages a person’s core potential of common skills such as verbal and
numerical. There then problem emanated from the children’s reactions and after the
aptitude test it was kind of clear that they were not that good at the test hence going for
the diagnostic tests so as to understand the children’s need and see if they can cooperate
together given that they have a problem with working together so other measures have to
put in place necessitating the need for diagnostic test.
(Whitley Jr & Kite, 2016)

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References
Meeusen, C., & Dhont, K. (2015). Parent–child similarity in common and specific components
of prejudice: The role of ideological attitudes and political discussion. European Journal
of Personality, 29(6), 585-598.
Whitley Jr, B. E., & Kite, M. E. (2016). Psychology of prejudice and discrimination. Routledge.