My Reflection on Prejudice

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1. These are four of the main prejudices I have got:
People that come from the “Kulu” area in Turkey.
Extreme macho-men
Atheists
Narrow-mindedness

2. I express the prejudices very similarly, but in whatever situation or condition, I always try to avoid the behavioral part of prejudice i.e. discrimination, but I have to say that it sometimes occurs. For people that come from the “Kulu” area in Turkey and extreme macho-men, I usually express my prejudice in a cognitive way, where I believe that they are all the same in their values and traditions and in an affective way. I feel very uncomfortable being with them and I feel that their traditions/actions are upheld and portrayed in specific, “Kulu” people as general Turkish traditions, because that is what I feel, they inform people. In addition, their traditions of that females are less worthy than men, as well as men are authoritative over everyone – women, children and just everything. Sometimes, I can tend to express my prejudice towards them in a behavioral sense, where I use avoidance towards the group to show that I am not a part of them and that I am not interested or am going to be a part of them ever. Also, I use avoidance to make clear to everyone else that I don’t belong there, because I come from a family with different values and beliefs.
My expressions towards narrow-mindedness is similar; I use the cognitive and affective way where I believe that narrow-mindedness is a results of either brainwashing or incapability of believing that there can be more than one answer and the answer that you behold in might not be correct. As for affective ness I don’t feel hostile towards the group but it can upset me pretty easily when people are narrow-minded because this reminds me of selfishness.

My prejudice towards atheists is different. I respect people’s beliefs and non-beliefs for that matter, but I feel that atheists look down on religious people as stupid, incompetent, or old-fashioned because they believe in a “mythological supernatural beings” or however the concept of God or divine could be described. I therefore, only express my prejudice towards atheists in a cognitive sense. I personally respect atheists for their non-belief and I understand that religion or God might not appeal to everyone, because we are all different. However, my feeling is that atheists have prejudice towards religious people, some more then others of course.

3. I think that I acquired my prejudice through operant conditioning and observational learning, depending on the specific prejudice. To go even in more detail, most of these prejudice are traces from the interpersonal approach (except for the issue with atheists and narrow-mindedness, which I have upheld through the individual approach). The reason for why I observe in this way is because, I am thinking that the prejudice that I do have are all technically voluntary actions and they have been supported by both negative and positive reinforcement. By that, I mean that I have been remarked as wise, independent, personal and determined because of my standpoint, which has of course had an impact on what I feel is right/wrong and what I feel is more right and more wrong. Nevertheless, I would not say that operant conditioning was how I acquired my prejudice totally. I think that most prejudice are acquired through observational learning since learning through watching others has got a lot of impact on us and how we reason. Regarding my prejudice towards the people from the “Kulu” area in Turkey, I can say that this was a typical observational learning, where I was very much influenced by my parents’, whom have got the same kind of prejudice towards the group. As for the macho-men prejudice, I would think that even though my mother was a significant factor, it does not feel like she was what influenced me most. My father has avoided the macho-image and has let my mother be more authoritative, which I have always looked up to, but I get the feeling that I have acquired it through my own reasoning and by watching those in the society. Although, I think it is worth mentioning that my parents raised us (the three eldest of the siblings, which are all females) in equality and emphasized a lot on our acquisition to control. This I reckon, is also a huge factor, because all of us three sisters are against the macho-men standards (even though I am the most “extreme” so to say) and we are all in total need of some kind of control within the relationship between a male and a female. This is also a part of the social identity theory, that suggests that it is not only the result of group members but also that we categorize people, including ourselves.

I feel that the narrow-mindedness prejudice is similar to my acquisition of the atheist prejudice, which are both determined by individual explanations of prejudice. This is when individual differences occur, and when these differences become conflicts between these groups. According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, we displace aggression (i.e. being underestimated because of being religious) on to minority groups (i.e. atheists) when we are frustrated. These are then also called scapegoats. It sounds to me as a sensible hypothesis, but I would not call my prejudice that extreme. I reckon that I have acquired both of these prejudices through personal experiences of dissatisfaction and in some cases, even frustration, which might have been repeated over and over again (partly classical conditioning) as well as being a personal identity theory because of my personal relationships and experiences with these people. However, these prejudices are not reflexes and involuntary, therefore I have got difficulty saying that they totally emerged from classical conditioning, but parts of it are true. I would also state that these prejudices are all dispositional attributions, as they lie within me, and not within the situation.

4, 5, 6. It is difficult to determine the exact roots of my prejudices, but the most general and common factors that I do think of are social factors (my parents), my values as well as stereotyping. My parents’ stereotyping has led me to favor certain group than others, because a child is aware about its parents’ favors and values and this seems right to the child, as children see their parents as role models. It is not fair to say that I inherited my parents’ prejudice, because my own values and reasoning has had at least as much influence, if not even more, than my parents’. I can make that statement because I have certain prejudice that they do not have, as they have prejudices that I do not have, but we have got similar prejudices as well. The way I value life, people and everything else have great impact, i.e. I value women to be equal to men. This causes conflict with the Kulu people and their traditions, as I and women in general are not seem as worthy to them, and that women should be restricted from certain things that men should have freedom in doing. This kind of prejudice is therefore two-sided – I am not the only one having a prejudice towards the group, but as the group has prejudice towards me (as women like me are considered to be “loose”) and both groups are opposite in terms of values, it will not be easy to avoid this kind of prejudice. The same goes for my prejudice towards macho-men as well as atheists. We all stereotype and I think that even stereotyping has its trace in my prejudice. It is as you stereotype a certain group and are determined that your stereotyping is the way it really is (although that might not be the case) so you start having prejudice towards a specific ...