Reducing Prejudice and Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Reducing Prejudice and Stereotypes Essay Prejudice is an opinion or judgement without due examination toward one side of a question from other considerations than those belonging to. Or we can say that prejudice is a bias on the part of judge, juror or witness which interferes with fairness of judgement. Prejudice involves negative feelings when they are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. Prejudice often involves stereotypes, suggesting that all members of a group behave in certain ways and have certain characteristics. Therefore, prejudice has both cognitive and affective components. Affective component is the positive or negative attitude/ feeling. Beside the cognitive component contains stereotypes. Prejudice will be dealt as a single set of dynamics that function to dehumanize people who are identifiably different in some way from the people whose perceptions are limited by the dysfunction we called prejudice. This approach is taken for two reasons. First, it is easily defensible through the uderstanding of the dynamics of prejudices and second the continued separation and classification of prejudices according to the superficial categories of those who are prejudiced is a disservice to those who are the targets of discrimination and a distortion of reality. Much of prejudice stems from our pre-judging other people’s habits, customs, ways of speaking and value. We often do this with no basic for the judgement other that the fact that they (the customs, values, ways of speaking, etc) are different form our own. When we are confines to a single culture, it’s incredibly difficult to see that one’s way is not the only way, that one’s truth is not the only possible way in which things are done. To travel around the world and seeing the variousity of culture may become the nicest thing to do for reducing prejudice. There is no better way to be convinced of this than to go to another country where millions people are doing something different from you. Another way to reduce prejudice is to make a friend with many background culture. From that, we can learn that we are all different and we have to accept that differences. By accepting and learning that differences, the number of prejudicing people will be decrease. Prejudice reduction refers to a collectionof techniques designed to break down these destructive stereotypes. Most often prejudice reduction programs take place on a small scale for example in workshops which bring together people from different groups to help them develop a better mutual understanding. At times, efforts are made to reduce prejudice among the general population. This can be done with wide spread media efforts and public education programs often implemented during the grade school years. In both small scale and large scale efforts, a first step which is critical to the success of these programs is an ability to overcome the many communications problems cited elsewhere in this training program. This is because a great deal of prejudice arises from simple misunderstandings and the tendency to make worse case assumptions in the absence of reliable information. At the workshop level, facilitators can help people explore their stereotypes, and learn to communicate with eac h other in a more open, trusting, and receptive way. At the community or societal level, misunderstandings can be addressed through carefully crafted public media campaigns and/or education programs designed to counter common stereotypes and present all groups in their best possible light. Still, correcting poor communication may is not usually enough to overcome prejudice. Better communication may simply prove that the parties do, in fact, hold each other in mutual contempt, or that they are, indeed, trying to undermine each others interests. Often such hostility is the result of escalation processes which transform relatively minor provocations into intense confrontations. For this reason strategies for limiting escalation are also an essential component of effective prejudice reduction. This also can be attempted in workshop settings or at the larger, community level. On the other hand, we will talk about stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of all members of a grup based on image that often wrong about what people in that group are like. Most stereotypes probably tend to convey a negative impression. By stereotyping we infer that a person has a whole range characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Researches have found that stereotypes exist of diffe rent races, cultures or ethnic groups. Although the terms race, culture and ethnic groups have different meanings, we shall take them to mean roughly the same thing at the moment. Not surprisingly, racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle other races. It is probably true saying that every ethnic group has racial stereotypes of other groups which can be seen to benefit each group because it helps in the long run to identify with one’s own ethnic group and so find protection and promote safety and success of the group. A brief description of stereotyping includes: grouping people together based on their race, ethnicity, religion, languange, customs, appearance, gender or culture; denying people rights because of the group belong to; believing that one’s own group is superior beside other groups are inferior. And the ways to reduce stereotyping includes: promoting first hand knowledge through personal experiences; putting one self in another’s shoes and considering multiple perspectives; working toward a meaningful goal with others when all share equal status. It will naturally be difficult to change stereotypes and prejudice, because such change will need to overcome all of the cognitive processes such as biased information search, interpretation and memory behavioral confirmation, as well as social processes, such as pressures to conform to the beliefs of others, all of which work to maintain stereotypes intact. Nevertheless, social psychologists have developed numoerous theories about when and why stereotypes will or won’t change and some interventions have been effective at changing stereotypes. In general, there are three types of change in beliefs that can help reduce negative intergroup encounters. Perhaps the most obvious change involves creating more positve perceptions of the group as a whole. When we reduce an individual’s level of prejudice or change his or her stereotypes to be more positive. But change does not always have to involve becoming more positive about the group. If we change the perceptions of the variability of a group such that the individual no longer believes that all of the group members are the same, we have also reduce stereotyping, even if the beliefs have not become more positve overall. Finally, we will have been succesful if we have been able to reduce the tendency for an individual to use social categories when judging others, with the result that they are more likely individuate others instead.

The Controversy of Standardized Testing Essays -- Standardized Testing

The Controversy of Standardized Testing â€Å"No issue in the U.S. Education is more controversial than (standardized) testing. Some people view it as the linchpin of serious reform and improvement, others as a menace to quality teaching and learning† (Phelps). A tool that educators use to learn about students and their learning capabilities is the standardized test. Standardized tests are designed to give a common measure of a student’s performance. Popular tests include the SAT, IQ tests, Regents Exams, and the ACT. â€Å"Three kinds of standardized tests are used frequently in schools: achievement, diagnostic, and aptitude† (Woolfolk 550). Achievement tests can be used to help a teacher assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses in a particular subject. Diagnostic tests are typically given to elementary school students when learning problems are suspected. Aptitude tests are designed to predict how a student will perform in the future. For example, the SAT predicts performance in the fi rst year of college. Standardized tests give educators a standard measure or â€Å"yardstick† because such a large number of students across the country take the same test. These tests are used to tell how well school programs are doing or to give a picture of the skills and abilities of students. Standardized tests; however, are problematic at all ages and levels of schooling. Standardized aptitude tests measure students’ abilities to learn in school, how well they are likely to succeed in future education. Rather than measuring knowledge of subjects taught in school, these tests measure a broad range of abilities or skills that are considered important to succeed in school. The classroom setting and teacher are the key to assessment. â€Å"Pressure to produce higher scores leads teachers to focus on material that will be covered by the tests and to exclude everything else. The curriculum is thereby narrowed, which means that some subjects are ignored. Within those that are taught, lower order thinking skills are emphasized. As a result, test scores get inflated while real learning suffers† (Phelps). Performance based assessment guarantees an increased understanding of the growth of individual child. Such understanding reduces the need for currently used standardized tests. Standards for Education and Psychological Testing (American Psychological Association) states the ... ... tests are counterproductive. Meaning that instead of leading to stronger academic achievement, it is said to interfere with teaching and learning. Teachers should use test results to improve their instruction, not to justify lower expectations or to stereotype students. Bibliography: Works Cited American Psychological Association. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1985 Goodwin, W.L., and Driscoll, L.A. Handbook for Measurement and Evaluation in Education. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980 Phelps, R.P. â€Å"Why Testing Experts Hate Testing.† Fordham Report, Jan. 1999: Available online: http://www.ed.excellence.net/library/phelps.htm Sacks, P. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America’s Testing Culture and What we Can do to Change it. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Books, Feb. 2000: Available online: http://www.fairtest.org.k12/psacks.html Wiseman, D.L., Cooner, D.D., and Knight, S.L. Becoming a Teacher in a Field-Based Setting: an Introduction to Education and Classrooms. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1999 Woolfolk, A. Educational Psychology. Needham

The Global Business Crisis and Consumer Behavior

The Global Business Crisis and Consumer Behavior: Kingdom of Bahrain as a Case Study Durra Mansoor & Akram Jalal January 2011 Summary: This research aims to learn how Bahrain consumers affected by global financial crisis since 2007. Additionally, it focuses on changes in consumer behavior after global crisis. The result of this research is based on questioner analysis which tries to measure knowledge about global crises to randomly selected consumers in Bahrain. The World is facing with economic challenges. America, powerful Europe and Asia affected by financial crises in some different levels.The global financial crisis affected all consumers in the World not only economically but also psychologically. This new financial situation increased panic and uncertainty on consumers in globe. In hard and stressful times such as economic crises, consumer behavior changes have occurred. Because of FC, consumers changed their behaviors by reducing their consumption. People became money-minded and they don’t want to spend money for premium products anymore, and they prefer cheapest products. They redefine â€Å"necessities† and â€Å"luxuries†. Also you can read  Business Ethics ComprisesSo, they only buy the things which are taking place on their shopping list. They’re comparing products and making their choices by compromising quality. Some of them started to manage their income by searching on e-commerce websites to catch best price. They are planning their purchasing by postponing expenditures like discretionary expenditure to make savings. Thus, their total expenditure amount decreased because of global crisis. According to Mansoor and Jalal (2011), the role that consumers play in these days is very crucial to business’ survival.It is driving force behind the success of many businesses, because most of the contemporary consumers spend major time on buying decisions. Consumers buying decision is changing person to person. However, after economic crises, consumer started to spend much time for information and decision making. By predicting consumer’s behavior, a business can understand consumerâ₠¬â„¢s needs, and can work on fulfilling the needs and meeting the expectations of their customers (Mansoor and Jalal, 2011). Businesses should work hard for success of their businesses and try to strengthen their long-term strategies.They should personalize their products to earn consumers’ loyalty. Making investment to their brand and differentiating themselves against to their competitors are also crucial. Businesses should add new and irreplaceable products to their portfolios and build tight relations with their consumers to survive in financial crisis. Consumers in Bahrain adapted to new trends after financial crisis. They preferred to purchase less priced and substitute products compared by expensive products. They though that expensive products are not that much worthy by considering their high prices.

Tragedy in Chinua Achebe´s Things Fall Apart Essay

Set in Africa in the 1890s, Chinua Achebes ‘Things Fall Apart’ is about the tragedy of Okonkwo during the time Christian missionaries arrived and polluted the culture and traditions of many African tribes. Okonkwo is a self-made man who values culture, tradition, and, above all else, masculinity. Okonkwo’s attachment to the Igbo culture and tradition, and his own extreme emphasis on manliness, is the cause of his fall from grace and eventual death. Within the Obi tribe, Okonkwo is an important man, who has risen from nothing to a man of great wealth and social status. Okonkwo is obsessed with masculinity, and he has a very narrow view of â€Å"manliness†. Okonkwos relationship with his dead father is the root of his violent and ambitious†¦show more content†¦Ikemefuna, a ‘surrogate son’ of Okonkwo’s exemplifies all that Okonkwo wants his own son to be like and almost loves him because he imparted ideas and actions of masculinity into Nwye. In the story, Ikemefuna must die by the hands of the Obi men and in spite of his affections for the boy Okonkwo goes along with the group. Okonkwo’s fear of appearing weak and unmanly causes him to not only volunteer to join the party that will execute his surrogate son but also violently stabs him with his machete. He delivers the killing blow, even as the boy calls him Father and asks for his help. Okonkwo is determined to prove he is unshakeable. We see such an attitude in Okonkwo even in chapter XI, where the priestess of Agbala caries Ezinma to her cave. Because he considers any show of feeling to be a weakness and as a way of affirming his masculinity, Okonkwo does not follow the Priestess immediately, but instead waits for a suitable manly interval. Okonkwos seven-year exile from his village only reinforces his notion that men are stronger than women. He keeps reminding himself that his maternal kinsmen are not as war-like and fierce as he remembers the villagers of Umuofia to be. During Ezeudus funeral in chapter XIII, Okonkwos gun explodes, killing one of Ezeudus sons. Even though the death is accidental, the act is an abomination to the Igbo. Okonkwo is to be exiled for sevenShow MoreRelatedRedefining The Tragic Tragedy Of Chinua Achebe s Famous Things Fall Apart2188 Words   |  9 Pagesreader. Through pain and suffering, heroes of tragedy fill the audience with not only terror and pity, but also relief through a cathartic experience. Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle first defined what characteristics make up a tragic hero. He claimed that heroes of tragedy must be fundamentally decent, of noble status, and eventually destroyed by a situation that exposes their one tragic flaw. 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