Introduction
The article “Psychological perspectives on racism” deals with psychological theories and perceptions that help to explain the nature of racism and prejudices. Briefly outlining the existing theories, the article explores in depth the connection between psychology and racism, looks at its roots, and discusses what can be done to break this mishappen connection. Though many attempts were made to defeat racial prejudices, modernity shows that so far racism has not been annihilated. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that it not only gives a glimpse into why psychology and racism are interrelated but provides ways to make this connection less pronounced before finally breaking it. This paper hypothesizes that the article under discussion provides an insight into the nature of racism and largely contributes to people’s victory over racial and ideological prejudices.
The Purpose of the Article
Racism has determined the way people lived for years, being tightly woven into society’s everyday life. From the psychological perspective, racism was often seen as an integral and unalienable part of social functioning, and, while many prejudices remained unquestioned, psychology sought to explain why these prejudices occur. The article “Psychological perspectives on racism” provides a synthesis of different hypotheses and educates people about the origins of racism. The purpose of this article is to draw the line of demarcation between racism and prejudice and show how they are intertwined into the very tissue of psychological studies. The article seeks to disentangle racism from psychology by providing a comprehensive study of existing theories and suggesting alternative ways of looking at racial issues.
The Concepts Discussed
The three key concepts discussed in the article are ‘racism’, ‘prejudice’, and ‘new racism’. Augoustinos defines racism as “a construct that links individual beliefs and behavior to broader social and institutional norms and practices that systematically disadvantage particular groups” (2013, para. 4). There is a clear connection between racism and perceptions and norms that reign within society. Central to many racist definitions is the notion of hierarchy where people’s value is ranked according to the attributes they have. Prejudice is similar to racism in building the hierarchy of values; on the other hand, prejudice is seen as an attribute of an individual that has no connection with society at large.
The notion of ‘new racism’ was coined in response to the growing recognition of the fact that biological racism was becoming redundant. New racism can be defined as “beliefs in a cultural hierarchy between groups where the dominant group’s social values, norms, and practices are represented as superior to those of less dominant groups” (Augoustinos, 2013, para. 6). Thus, while racism is based on people’s appearance and physical features, new racism takes into consideration societal attribute of everyday life.
The Importance to Psychologists and Researchers
The article is important to psychologists and researchers because, first of all, it helps to understand how the notion of racism transformed throughout the centuries and how it became integrated into psychology as such. Secondly, the article discerns the connection between psychology and racism, stating that while in the past racism was seen as an inherent feature of people’s or an individual’s psyche, later it became perceived as a product of societal interaction. Thirdly, the article lays a sound ground for further research in the field, outlining key theories and notions.
Terms Related to Social Psychology
Viewing racism in sociological terms allows us to define the notion of racism and its sources. The article contains psychological terms related to social psychology such as ‘groups’, ‘associations’, and ‘social expectations’. A group is seen as a collection of people identified based on one or several features common to them. Association is a connection of mental phenomena to each other. Social expectations are actions expected from a person who has a certain societal status. Augoustinos (2013) claims that racial attitudes are deeply ingrained associations and social expectations strongly associated with particular groups.
The Research in the Article
Having drawn a line of demarcation between racism, prejudice, and new the article dwells upon theories of racism that help to explain this phenomenon. Personality theories consider authoritarian personality responsible for forming racial prejudices which, born in a person’s mind, are later extended to the society at large where they turn into racism (Augoustinos, 2013). An authoritarian personality is shaped either by parent-child relationships with strict discipline or the social experience a child gets as he or she interacts with society at large. Social cognitive theories attribute the racial division of people into groups to people’s “limited cognitive capacity” (Augoustinos, 2013). Within this theory, people need to simplify things as they cannot fully embrace the diversity that exists in society; racism is seen as an example of such simplification.
Intergroup theories, such as group conflict theory and social identity theory, state that there exist relations of dominance between different social groups. According to group conflict theory, racism is determined by the fight for economic and cultural resources (Augoustinos, 2013). Within social identity theory, people identify themselves with a certain group and tend to see other groups as hostile; thus, intergroup prejudices and racism are born.
Critical psychological theories emphasize the importance of rhetoric that determines power dynamics between different groups. The advocates of these theories see language as a reflection of power relations and hierarchy that existed within society a long time ago. Augoustinos (2013) states that all the above-mentioned theories are not necessarily exclusive of one another. She states that racism is determined by their combinations where “internal psychological processes; social and intergroup dynamics; social transmission; and individual differences” are combined to form racial attitudes within society (Augoustinos, 2013, para. 18). The article is informational and is based on theories outlined by leading psychologists. The method used for data collection is a literary review that allows the author to fully embrace up-to-date information on the issue of racism and its psychological connections.
Conclusion
I believe that through the theories explaining racism were thoroughly covered, the answers to how it can be combatted were not given. Notwithstanding the synthesis of the existing views provided by the author, the article gives no hints as to how these views can be transformed to reflect the multi-racial society people live in. However, the article is beneficial in the sense that it allows people to understand the roots and sources of racism and be aware of what motivates different groups to behave the way they do. The implications of the study on society are quite large, starting from imbuing people with a better understanding of internal and external processes that lead to racism to a detailed description of how these processes can be accounted for. Reading an article every individual may determine what forms his or her racial prejudices if any and take steps to effectively combat them.
Reference
Augoustinos, M. (2013). Psychological perspectives on racism. InPsych: The Bulletin of the Australian Psychological Society Ltd, 35(4).