Prejudice: Attitudes about Race, Class, and Gender / Edition 1

by Von Bakanic

Overview

With an interdisciplinary social psychological perspective, Prejudice: Attitudes About Race, Class, and Gender examines the role of structural inequality and the cognitive dimension of prejudices. Bridging micro, mezzo and macro perspectives, this text considers the role of prejudice in individual cognition, in interaction between individuals and groups and its role in justifying inequality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130453303
Publisher:	Pearson
Publication date:	01/29/2008
Series:	MySearchLab Series 15% Off Ser.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Von Bakanic is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She grew up hearing the vernacular terms for the many ethnic and immigrant groups that came to work in the industrial mills that lined the Allegany and Monongahela Rivers. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina during her childhood where she had two new experiences. She learned she was a “Yankee”, even though she was not from New England and she interacted with African Americans for the first time. History conspired to peak her interest in prejudices early in her life. She attended high school in Mecklenburg County during federally ordered school desegregation.

She did her undergraduate and masters degrees at the University of South Carolina. There she met and married Floyd Roberts, a native of the South Carolina low country. From her new in-laws she learned that she would forever be “that Yankee gal he married” and that any norms she broke could be explained and forgiven by reference to the unfortunate location of her birth. Upon completing her master’s degree, she took her family north to the frozen tundra of the Illinois plains to pursue a doctorate at the University of Illinois-Urbana. After several years of shoveling snow, her husband had only one condition for her first academic appointment — it had to be in the south! Off they all went to the University of Southern Mississippi, where they learned there was more than one southern culture. Because she was an outsider in Mississippi, she noticed the prejudices expressed by the local population. They differed subtly from the ones she grew up with in Pittsburgh and in the Carolinas. That does not mean that the people of Mississippi had any more or any worse prejudices than people from other parts of the country. It was simply easier for her to recognize them as prejudices because they were different from her own. Mississippi has been rather hypocritically maligned in this regard. While at the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Bakanic undertook her first study of prejudices. She and a small research team interviewed nearly 400 residence of Philadelphia Mississippi about their racial attitudes and how they remembered the infamous murders that occurred there during the civil rights era.

In 1991 an opportunity to return to the South Carolina low country became available. Dr. Bakanic teaches at the College of Charleston and has expanded her study of prejudices to include gender prejudices, social class prejudices, regional and national prejudices and age prejudices. The topic continues to fascinate her both academically and personally. There is no shortage of subject matter in her area of interest. Despite the wide spread denial of prejudices, the expression of prejudices continues unabated.

Table of Contents

IN THIS SECTION:

1.) BRIEF

2.) COMPREHENSIVE

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: Introduction: What Is Prejudice?

Chapter 2: Prejudice and Attitudes

Chapter 3: Theories of Prejudice

Chapter 4: The Role of Stereotypes in Prejudice

Chapter 5: Prejudice and Discrimination

Chapter 6: Racism, Sexism, and Classism: Triple Trouble

Chapter 7: Groups, Intergroup Relations, and Prejudice

Chapter 8: The Role of Prejudice in Interaction: Anticipating and Interpreting Others

Chapter 9: Reducing Prejudice

COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

SECTION I: PREJUDICE

CHAPTER 1: Introduction: What Is Prejudice?

Common Sense and Social Psychology

Race, Gender, and Class Prejudices

Prejudice, Discrimination, and Three “isms”

Overview of the Book

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 2: Prejudice and Attitudes

What Is an Attitude?

Functions of Attitudes

Attitudes and Interaction: The Attitude–Behavior Link

How Are Attitudes Studied?

Measuring Attitudes

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 3: Theories of Prejudice

Early Concepts of Prejudice

Contemporary Theories of Prejudice

Summary

Key Terms

Key People

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

SECTION II: STEREOTYPES, DISCRIMINATION, AND THE “ISMS”

CHAPTER 4: The Role of Stereotypes in Prejudice

What Is a Stereotype?

Where Do Stereotypes Come From?

How Are Stereotypes Different from Other Generalizations?

What Use Are Stereotypes?

Are Stereotypes Inevitable?

When Are People Most Likely to Rely on Stereotypes?

When Are People Motivated to Suppress Stereotypes?

Three Levels of Explanation: Micro, Mezzo, and Macro

What Are the Consequences of Stereotyping?

Negotiating Reality:“Talking Past” One Another

Focus on Class:The Redneck Stereotype

How Can We Change or Reduce Reliance upon Stereotypes?

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 5: Prejudice and Discrimination

What Is Discrimination?

The Missing Link:Attitudes and Behavior

Why Are Behaviors So Hard to Predict?

Problems in Measuring Discrimination

What Best Predicts Discrimination?

Discrimination and the Law

Focus on Gender: Gender Discrimination or Gendered Choices?

Reducing Discrimination in Everyday Life

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 6: Racism, Sexism, and Classism: Triple Trouble

What Is Social Structure?

Racism, Sexism, and Classism

The Structure of Advantage

Building Prejudices into Social Structure

Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

SECTION III: THE DYNAMICS OF PREJUDICE

CHAPTER 7: Groups, Intergroup Relations, and Prejudice

Types of Groups

Group Dynamics and Prejudice

Intergroup Relations

Individualism Versus Collectivism

Leadership

Leadership and Sources of Authority

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 8: The Role of Prejudice in Interaction: Anticipating and Interpreting Others

Sociological Perspectives

Psychological Perspectives

Changes in How We Perceive and Use Prejudice

Summary

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

References

CHAPTER 9: Reducing Prejudice

Is Prejudice Declining?

Micro-Level Strategies

Mezzo-Level Strategies—Group Intervention

Macro-Level Strategies—Structural Changes

Can Prejudice Be Eliminated?

Key Terms

Taking It Further—Class Exercises and Interesting Web Sites

Editorial Reviews

I really enjoyed Bakanic’s writing style. It is down-to-earth and easy to follow. It isn’t weighed down with heavy language and overcomplicated concepts. The use of stories adds a personal touch that makes the topics come to life and appear more real to students.”

-Michael Stewart, Florida State University

“It is easy to read and the personal style of writing is engaging.”

-Joseph Gallegos , University of Portland

“I like the author’s approach. She writes in an easily accessible language but does not talk down to students. She does an excellent job of explaining her discipline and noting the distinctions between sociological social psychology and psychology social psychology in terms of both theory and methodology.”

-Douglas V., Western Michigan University

“The author did an excellent job of addressing topics that many authors of these texts oversimplify or avoid all together i.e. sexism in a ethnics context and homosexuality.”

-Wilber Nelson, Phoenix College

“I am quite impressed with this text. She does an excellent job of introducing in a very readable text the complexity of social psychological theory and methods as it relates to and enhances our understanding of prejudice.”

-Douglas V., Western Michigan University

“This is a very concise, tight, and well thought out text for beginners in the area who need to understand the distinctions (theoretically, conceptually, and methodologically) between a sociological and psychological approach to “social psychology” and more specifically making the link between prejudice at a micro level and the reproduction of inequality at a macro level.”

-Michael Stewart, Florida State University

“The psychological perspective is a real contribution to this content area.”

-Joseph Gallegos , University of Portland

From the Publisher