From Theodice To Social Prejudice In The Robbers Cave Experiment

In today’s society, we face prejudice every day in many forms. Most people in today’s society have either been victims of prejudice or are guilty of exhibiting prejudice towards others.

It has been thoroughly thought over what current topic or issue that people experience in most environments today, at both a micro and macro level that would be able to be examined and have come to the decision of looking at the most widely discussed subject, prejudice. All people are affected by prejudice in one way or another and it can impact on people's lives depending on what form it has taken. Also to be able to acknowledge that all people can be prejudices and see this is the first step to overcoming it.. The question that has been decided upon is that of “What types of prejudice do we see commonly today and how do they affect an individual at a micro and macro level?”

Prejudice has presented itself in the world since the beginning of time. During the years leading up to the Second World War, the US and Germany

Prejudice is an opinion in which is not based on any reasoning, and may cause harm. Prejudice can be seen just about anywhere, and it affects our daily lives. There are many different ways a person can show prejudice beliefs, but why do they believe things they have never experience? Some may say it’s something personal with one’s self that causes prejudice thoughts, or some may think it their surroundings contribute as a motive.

Prejudice; the unjustified negative attitude towards an individual or group based solely on their position within certain societal groups. Prejudice is not merely a statement of opinion or belief, but an attitude that includes feelings of contempt, fear and loathing, which results from a preconceived cognition or stereotype. I.E. black people aren’t as smart as white people, all gay men are effeminate etc. These core beliefs more often than not lead to heavily discriminatory behaviour from the in-group in order to undermine the out-group/minority and force them to believe their own stereotypes. This idea can be clearly related back to the movie Remember the Titans where racism, sexism and homophobia were a regular occurrence backed up by

Prejudice is “an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge” (Merriam); according to Lystra Moore Richardson of Yale University: “prejudice… was part of the very fiber of Southern life [during the Great Depression].” With these two pieces of information, it is derived that people formed judgments and opinions of a person without just

Most common form of prejudice, in the United States at least, is in between racial groups. Unfortunately, racial prejudice is so prevalent in the Western society. I believe most people think of themselves as unprejudiced these days, even myself. Sometimes we didn’t realize that we have expressed indirect forms of prejudice, ones that are subtler. Example in the American society could be when white people

Prejudice is something which has affected everyone at one time or another. It is like looking out a frosted window and not seeing a clear picture. When people look through a frosted window they sometimes see a blurred vision of the world outside. Sometimes we see people as very different from ourselves when really they are just a very little bit different from us. We can even see someone as an enemy instead of for who they really are. These narrow minded views in our society are prevalent, even though most of the time they are

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. (Maya Angelou) By definition prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Prejudice to others is hate, judgement, and evil. The effects of prejudice are shown in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the play The Merchant of Venice, and the tragedy known as the Holocaust. Prejudice affected all people differently, but one thing is true for all; prejudice is crippling and disables those who experience it from being who they truly are and doing as they please.

Prejudice is a topic of interest to social psychologists and society as a whole. Prejudice can be defined as ‘an attitude that predisposes a person to think, feel, perceive and act in a favourable or unfavourable way towards a group or its individual members’ (Secord and Backman, 1974, p). Prejudice is often the cause of negative behaviour such as bullying and aggression. Discrimination such as; racism, ageism, sexism, nationalism, classism may occur as a result. Jane Elliot’s study: A Class Divided (1968) attempts to highlight prejudicial behaviour in children. Elliot divided her class into groups of eye colour. She told the children that blue eye colour defined people to be more intelligent and superior to those with brown eyes.

Robber Cave Experiment This experiment, designed by Muzafer Sherif, was to prove his “Realistic Conflict Theory”, and, indeed it did. This experiment’s merit was the proof of how people are not only influenced by their peers, but how they will start to behave in a manner that is acceptable by the group (Fine, 2004). This experiment involved taking two sets of adolescent boys from similar backgrounds; competitive, same religion and so on. Each set of boys was unaware of the other set of boys on the premises of what they were advised to be a summer camp.

The ‘Robbers Cave Experiment’ began in 1950 by social psychologist, Muzafer Sherif. He took two groups of 11 and 12-year-old boys from very similar backgrounds and formed two groups and placed the two groups in an encampment, without them knowing another group existed. In-group and Out-group is about groups having so must tension and what can be done about tension between groups. Muzafer Sherif called his staff together and made a decision to test In-group and Out-group outside of the lab. Muzafer Sherif called his staff together and created a fake summer camp. They had two groups of boys with 20 boys each in a group. There were two different camps, which focused on group bonding. The week of activity brought the individuals close together

The Robbers Cave Experiment was developed by famous social psychologist, Muzafer Sherif. Back in the 50th Sherif asked himself the question, what is it exactly about groups that makes for such tension between them and what can be done to reduce that tension. Well, Sherif and his collies decided to take this question outside the lab and outside to the ‘’real world’’ using preadolescent boys of age 11 and 12. He put on a fake summer camp with two different groups of boys containing about 20 boys each. The first week of this camp they separated the boys and the boys didn’t know the existence of the other group. They focused on group bonding and as expected about a week of activities brought these individuals together as a group. AT the second

Prejudice and discrimination are two of the biggest conflicts and problems that today’s society and humanity is facing. Prejudice is defined as holding an unfavourable opinion or attitude towards a specific social group and its members. When one social group hates another group of people so significantly that they can torture, murder and harass innocent members of society this is a serious concern. In this essay I’m going to discuss psychology’s explanations of prejudice and why these attitudes are formed.

Do you know what prejudice is? It refers to the attitude towards others based on evidences which is not concrete and might be wrong. In Malaysia context, this kind of pre-judgmental attitude still exists among races even though much positive information is provided.