Realist Conflict Theory: Prejudice And Discrimination In Society

Hayley Taylor

PSY 100

April 8, 2017

Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice and discrimination has been developing and prevailing throughout history, and even still exists today. Prejudice is a prejudgment form of an opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience while discrimination refers to the unjust treatment of different groups of people, especially with race, age, or sex. When someone is prejudice, it usually means that their opinions are preconceived about other groups or cultural practices. Prejudice views are presented as a cognitive and emotional role. Within society, there are a variety of factors that contribute to the development of prejudice and discriminating behavior.

Prejudice and discrimination is often the central root of human conflict. This conflict is what results in crime or war that happened throughout history and continues today. Prejudice and discrimination affect everyone in society. There are 3 major factors that contribute to this wedge in society. One theory is the realist conflict

theory. This theory states a conflict between groups that increases prejudice and discrimination. Theory is based off of a notion that when people are competing for survival, they will then want people that are similar to them to survive so their genetics will be passed onto the next generation. When two or more groups are competing against each other over limited resources (real or perceived) prejudicial feelings and harsh stereotypes arise between the groups.
Another factor is the social cognitive theory.

This explains that prejudice is learned through direct instruction, modeling, and social influences. Children are extremely susceptible to learning this type of behavior. They learn and develop values and beliefs from peers, family, friends, teachers, media, and others. Socialization is vital key to the development of a kid. Prejudice is a social norm of a group in which some individuals live. Socialization is how people learn this social norm of prejudice. Prejudice acquisition is an important role that parents play in. The kind of relationships that parents have toward members of outgroups is dependable. Children can grow into their parent’s prejudice attitudes just by observing them. Since the United States is becoming very diverse, it is crucial for children to “get along” with people from various backgrounds and know how to effectively respect and communicate with differentiating

races.
The last factor is social identity theory. The theory states that we form out identity within a social group by 3 different ways: social categorization, social identity, and social comparison. Groups that people belong to tend to give themselves a sense of self-esteem and dignity. It is this feeling of belongingness to a very social world that people strive to have or feel. People tend to be prejudice to views against the out group because by enhancing the status of the group they belong to; it increases their self-image. This then leads to a divide society of “them” and “us” based on social categorization. Therefore, in-groups (us) and out-group (them) are formed. Social identity theory states that the people in the in-group will discriminate and have prejudice views again the out-group to enhance their self-worth.
Everyone belongs to some type of group whether it is based off of your race, gender, sexism, your college, anything. People gravitate towards their in-group member because they share similar characteristics and feel wanted. The in-groups create this warmth and emotional connection that soon they develop in-group bias: tendency to favors one’s own group. The in-group bias is what results to prejudice attitudes and discrimination behaviors because the out-group is perceived as not the same and less preferred. Although these groups causes an abundance of conflicts toward each other, there are forces that can help promote equilibrium between the groups.
Equal status contact is one of the key components to removing prejudice views. Non-competitive contact between the in and out groups can result to equal status’. Finding the pursuit of common goals that are attainable is another strategy to keep the groups sane. With the removal of prejudice attitudes, the pursuing of common goals come into play and become vital. In an experiment developed by Aronson, the “jigsaw classroom” technique represented that each person only has one piece of what is needed for the jigsaw puzzle. Individuals had to work together to find the solution. Furthermore, this interaction/ technique increases the liking between differing race groups and show effective communication of in-groups and out-groups