In-group/Out-group Analysis, Chapter 13
: Describe to me a situation that you are currently involved with that demonstrates in-group/out-group characteristics. Think about each of your environments (i.e., school, work, family, athletics, church) and find a situation where strong in-group and out-group tendencies are present. Then answer each of the following questions:
-Explain the concepts of in-group and out-group bias, explain out-group homogeneity and in-group favoritism. Tell me how your situation is relevant to each of these concepts.
-Explain what biases you are perceiving and experiencing in this situation and what you believe someone in the “out-group” may be perceiving and experiencing. Explain the positive and/or negative aspects of these biases.
-Use theory and research from Chapter 13 and previous chapters to design an intervention for yourself (and others) to change your way of thinking about this situation. Propose some ideas to combat these biases in your current situation. You may use other interventions we have read about as the basis for your ideas, just make sure you give credit to the intervention you are using.
- Make use of 3 concepts or theories from past chapters throughout your write-up.I would like to see you pulling together research and theory from our past chapters as you work to understand your biases, why they exist, how they persist and how to counteract them. Chapter 13 brings together many concepts from past chapters. You may find the following concepts useful when trying to explain your biases or perhaps think of an intervention: Fundamental Attribution Error, Schemas, Priming and Accessibility, Belief Perseverance, Bias Blind Spot, Social Comparison Theory, Social Tuning, Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Explicit and Implicit Attitudes, Persuasion Techniques, Injunctive and Descriptive Norms, Conformity, Normative Social Influence, Deindividuation, Social Roles, Propinquity Effect, Mere Exposure Effect, Ben Franklin Effect, Social Cognitive Learning Theory and many, many more.
Use APA format. Use Turnitin to submit this paper. Write a 5-6 page paper. Full credit papers will address each of the questions posed above. I decided NOT to require external references for this paper. I suggest you offer to read each others papers and give feedback as your rough draft process. You each know the material well and would learn a lot in giving each other feed back.
I encourage bravery and deep introspection in this assignment. If you believe that you do not have biases, please take an implicit attitude test athttps://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html(Links to an external site.). There are several tests on this sight that may alert you to biases that you are not aware that you have. Growing up in any society, we have observed and been influenced by many biases that exist about various groups, and we may hold these beliefs without knowing it and act in ways we do not understand, simply because we are socially influenced. It is normal to have bias, make generalizations and encode social messages. Understanding our biases and actively working to counteract them is how we reduce prejudice and discrimination. I will keep your papers confidential. If you desire, you may refer to your in-group as Group A and an out-group as Group B, so that you do not have to talk about your specific bias. I do not want self-consciousness to get in the way of your introspection and writing. I am really hoping you will use this assignment to explore your own biased thinking. We cannot change patterns unless we admit we have them.