Paternalistic Prejudice Ideas In Society

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In society, today people have solely relied on prejudices to determine their attitudes and social status of certain groups of people. There are many factors that contribute to why people form prejudice ideas. These factors include a specific outgroup, the beliefs people have of that outgroup, and the emotions that occur when thinking or interacting with that group. This is all the factors that have lead people to treat others in society in a different manner.
Many people form prejudice ideas toward a specific group in society and use this attitude as a basis of their interaction. The specific outgroup that I have formed prejudice ideas about are the elderly. This specific outgroup has caused me to have consciously held awareness of my prejudicial …show more content…

The first belief that I formed about the elderly is that as they get older, they tend to get more set in their ways. The next belief that I have about the elderly outgroup is that they can be a burden because of their non- ability to be able to do tasks necessary for daily living. My beliefs toward the elderly can be classified as one of the three forms of prejudice based on a group’s relationship with mainstream society. Paternalistic Prejudice is categorized as the disrespect, condescension, elderly, disabled and traditional women. Although this form of prejudice contributes to society, they are seen with low social status and often others feel like they must take care of them. Through this form of prejudice, I have found that my beliefs can fit directly under this category. These beliefs about a certain outgroup also bring out the thoughts and emotions people can have when they experience an interaction with the …show more content…

My prejudice came from the social influence of others through conformity. My ingroup helped to maintain my prejudice beliefs of the elderly through social norms. Social norms caused me to stay within the standards of the ingroup and behave in the way expected. So, I may have prejudices against the elderly believing that I am more physically capable than them, but to stay within my ingroups social norms I must feel obligated to help them with any task at hand to maintain the groups standards. I think that there was a normative social influence involved. Normative Influence has me conform to gain rewards or avoid punishment from another person or group. Through normative influence I feel the need to have these thoughts and feelings about the elderly that some of my peers have for me to maintain a place in my ingroup and avoid any punishment or criticism they have. This prejudice was not required as part of the group membership, but I feel like it was

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