tell me how prejudice(race, gender, etc.) is reinforced by the concepts of conformity,self-fulfilling prophecy, and cogniive dissonance.
2006-07-20 23:18:50 · 4 answers · asked by sharky 1 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
ok... prejudice is reinforced by conformity because conformity keeps you from questioning things. if you are surrounded by prejudiced people, conformity makes it so you follow their lead and behave as they do, believe as they do, and perpetuate the prejudice.
the self-fulfilling prophecy is the most dangerous of the elements here. it works like this.... if someone tells you often enough that you're a waste of skin, it drags you down. after a while you start to believe it. because you believe it, you don't try to accomplish things. after all, you're so worthless you are bound to fail, so why try, right? and because you believe them, and you stop trying, you become the waste of skin they said you were all along. this, of course, they see quite clearly. what they don't see is that the reason you're a waste of skin is that they put that idea in your mind. instead theycongratulate themselves on how they knew you were worthless right from the start, and they point you out as proof to any open minded people there may be. because you see, now it is a fact that you are a waste of skin, and so their prejudice is justified.
i'm not quite sure i can explain the cognitive dissonance part properly, but i'll try...
cognitive dissonance is basically about contradicting ideas. like say, prejudiced parents and the new kid in school you kinda like. your parents keep telling you his kind is responsible for everything that has ever gone wrong with the world, yet this kid seems to be a nice, decent type. you can't reconcile your parents opinions with this kid, and this causes you to be stressed out. in order to reduce the stress, you "talk yourself into" believeing your parents. you might notice that this kid smiled at the girl you like, and even though she doesn't even know your name, you tell yourself that that double crosser just stole your girlfriend and your parents were right the whole time. thus reinforcing prejudice, because now you feel it is justified.
2006-07-20 23:54:49 · answer #1 · answered by gwenwifar 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nobody on the planet has any idea what you are talking about.
2006-07-20 23:26:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
huh?i only knew that no matter how good the person is,someone will gossip about him
2006-07-20 23:22:47 · answer #3 · answered by Nickname 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
WHAT?
2006-07-20 23:33:59 · answer #4 · answered by polly 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋