PSY322 Reading 1

Topics §

• DUE 2023-01-25
• WEIGHT: $10\%$

Contents §

• Instructions:
  • Pay attention to any figures or graphs in the articles, even if they are not directly referred to below. Make sure you can identify the major elements of the figure and explain them.
  • These guides are intended to help you with studying the readings and preparing for the Quiz. Most Quiz questions about these readings will relate to the topics below, but there may be questions on the Quiz not directly addressed below, so be sure that you have read the whole article.
  • These guides will also help you prepare for the discussion groups. Having the questions answered (or at least some) for the article that is the focus for discussion that day will help you be able to contribute to discussion. It will also help you create discussion groups when you are facilitating.
  • Note that other, shorter assigned readings like the APA sections will also be assessed on the Quiz

Ambivalent Sexism §

Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). Ambivalent sexism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 115-188. [115-123]

1. What is ambivalent sexism theory, and what are the two overarching types of sexism that this theory identifies?
   • Ambivalent Sexism Theory: highlights the coexistence of power differences and intimate interdependence between the sexes.
   1. Hostility sexism (HS)
      • Sexist antipathy toward women
   2. Benevolence sexism (BS)
      1. subjectively favorable, yet patronizing beliefs about women
2. What are the three domains of ambivalent sexism, and how are they related to social structures?
   1. Patriarchy
      • Evolution: men are more strongly oriented toward obtaining social status and resources
      • Male dominance continues via gendered divisions of labour
      • Cultural differences
        • Nonhierarchical culture: male status striving is minimized
        • Steeply hierarchical cultures, male status striving is exacerbated
      • Dominative paternalism (家长): the belief that men ought to have more power than women and the corresponding fear that women might manage to usurp men’s power
   2. Gender differentiation
      • Gender constitutes the most fundamental group distinction (first dimension of Social categorization)
        • Produce in-group favoritism and intergroup competition, generating hostility toward out-group
      • Competitive gender differentiation: underlying belief that as a group women are ultimately inferior to men on competence-related dimensions (HS)
      • Complementary gender differentiation: the belief that women are the better sex, but only in ways suiting lower status, gender-conventional roles (BS)
   3. Heterosexual reproduction
      • Sexuality can be a tool of domination
        • In a society in which sexual violence is common, women find it in their self-interests to procure male protectors by forming exclusive romantic attachments to a male partner
        • Men often view women proprietarily, and affection can turn to violence, particularly given suspected infidelity
        • Perpetrators use traditional notions stressing wives’ obedience and fidelity to justify violence toward domestic partners
        • Men’s fearful and hostile attitudes toward seductive women or ” femme fatales” is pervasive.
      • Heterosexual hostility: a component of HS that fuses sex with power and express the belief in women’s sexuality as dangerous to men
      • Heterosexual intimacy: heterosexual romantic relationships are essential for true happiness in life for both sexes
3. What are some of the consequences of hostile sexism and benevolent sexism?
   • Subjectively benevolent beliefs about women serve to justify promote, and maintain gender inequality, still, many women find BS attractive.
   • Cultural level: interlocking beliefs that reflect a system of rewards (BS) and punishment (HS) that forces women to accept, rather than challenge the power differences.
   • Individual level: HS predicts hostility toward women (challenging men’s power), BS predicts benevolence toward women (enact gender roles, fulfill men’s needs)
4. Describe and differentiate between competitive and complementary gender differentiation, with an example for each.
   • Competitive gender differentiation: belief that as a group, women are ultimately inferior to men on competence-related dimensions
   • Complementary gender differentiation: belief that women are the better sex, but only in ways suiting lower status, gender-conventional roles

Social identity theory §

Hornsey, M. J. (2008). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory: A historical review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 204-222.

1. What are “social identity theory”, “self-categorization theory”, and “the social identity approach”?
   • Social Identity Theory
     • Human interactions ranges on a spectrum from being purely interpersonal to purely intergroup.
       • Interpersonal: people relating entirely as individuals, with no awareness of social categories (rare)
       • Purely intergroup: people relate entirely as representatives of their groups(你是五班的人 出去代表的就是五班)
     • Sliding from the interpersonal --> intergroup results in shifts in how people perceive themselves and each other
   • Social categorization
     • Categorization occurs as a function of both accessibility and fit
     • Categorized identity as operating at different levels of inclusiveness
       1. Human identity: superordinate category of the self as human being
       2. Social identity: intermediate level of the self as a member of a social group as defined against other groups of humans
       3. Personal identity: subordinate level of personal self-categorizations based on interpersonal comparisons
2. How are social identity theory and self-categorization theory the same? How are they different?
   • Social identity theory focuses on how group memberships guide intergroup behavior and influence an individual’s self-concept.
   • Self-categorization is an individual’s evaluation of the in-group. To reach positive evaluations of one’s own in-group, people engage in processes of social comparison
3. What is the minimal group paradigm? Why is it used in research? ^81fcce
   • Minimal group paradigm: participants were allocated into groups on the basis of meaningless and arbitrary criteria.
   • Reason: participants were obeying a predictable pattern of responding, and one that was difficult to explain according to traditional theories of intergroup relations.
   • Allow people to examine intergroup behaviour in highly controlled way
4. What are some strategies people use to create a positive social identity when their group is low status, according to social identity theory?
   • Leaving the group (physically or psychologically)
   • Making downward intergroup comparisons, focus only on dimensions to make the in group look good, devaluing dimensions that reflect poorly on the in group
   • Engaging in social change to overturn the existing status hierarchy
5. What is depersonalization, according to the social identity approach?
   • People cognitively represent their social groups in terms of prototypes. When a category becomes salient, people come to see themselves and other category members less as individuals and more as interchangeable exemplars of the group prototype.
6. What is deindividuation, according to the social identity approach?
   • A shift in identity from the personal to the social level
7. What are some ways that social identity research has changed over time?
   • The motivation for distinctiveness and self-definition has replaced self-esteem as the most researched motive for group behaviour
8. What are major criticisms of the social identity approach, according to this article?
   • The theory has become so broad and powerful that it ceases to be falsifiable, as virtually any experimental outcome can be interpreted within its overarching framework
   • Its focus on individual processes and social cognition, the theory suffers from some of the flaws it points out in others; namely being too reductionist and individualistic
9. What do you think are the social identity approach’s strengths and weaknesses?
   • Strength
     • Good way of understanding human behavior, i.e. ethnocentrism, favoritism, conformity, serotyping.
     • Assumes intergroup conflict is not required for discrimination to occur (Tajfel, 1970)
     • Established + of in-group by establishing the – of the out-group
   • Weakness
     • Describes, but does not accurately predict human behavior.
     • Why is our personal identity stronger than our group identity at times?
     • It fails to take into account the environment
       • Cultural expectations
       • Rewards
       • Social constraints (poverty)

Dehumanization §

Kteily, N. S., & Bruneau, E. (2017). Darker demons of our nature: The need to (re) focus attention on blatant forms of dehumanization. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(6), 487-494.

1. What is blatant dehumanization? Why do authors believe that we should re-focus our attention on this?
   • The overt and explicitly communicated belief that a person(s) is less human than another
   • Especially pernicious because those who express it are aware that they are denying targets full humanity
   • Anecdotal evidence suggests that such dehumanization remains relevant in modern societies.
2. Describe the method that is commonly used to measure blatant dehumanization.
   • Implicit Association Test (cognitive association with in-group vs. out-group)
   • Ascent (asses active brain regions during judgements)
   • Feeling thermometers (asses emotional response during judgement)
3. What are the four factors that drive blatant dehumanization?
   1. Status
   2. Sense of threat/presents of conflict
   3. Individual differences
   4. Degree to which people believe that a target group denies humanity to their own
4. How does meta-dehumanization differ from outgroup dehumanization?
   • Meta-dehumanization: people believe that a target group denies humanity to their own
   • Outgroup dehumanization: denies huamnity toward outgroup
5. What are some (individual and contextual) moderators that predict differences in the levels of blatant dehumanization?
   • Individual difference moderators: Social Dominance Orientation Right Wing Authoritarianism System Justification
   • Contextual moderators: Perceived legitimacy Perceived threat History of conflict Intergroup contact Group status