Course Description
Motivational, cognitive, social, and cultural factors that lead to discrimination in our society and various perspectives found in the research on discrimination.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Bibliographical essay of 6-8 pages and longer major project by
additional 12-14 pages.
Athena Title
PSYCH OF PREJUDICE
Prerequisite
(PSYC 1101 or SOCI 1101) and fourth-year student standing
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The major goal of this course is to expose students to the clinical, cognitive, and social psychological factors that lead to prejudice and discrimination in our society. The beginning of the semester will be spent discussing basic social psychological theory and applying it to the problem of racism. We will then build upon this knowledge and discuss even more complex topics such as privilege, oppression, and identity. The remainder of the semester will be spent discussing how the theories of prejudice and discrimination examined earlier in the semester may apply to the problems of sexism, classism, and heterosexism. The goal is also for students to become more knowledgeable, critical, and reflective consumers of the vast amount of information they receive about issues of race, gender, culture, sexuality, and privilege in our society. A secondary goal of this seminar is to promote writing and discussion as a means of learning and self-discovery. For a class such as this, writing provides an opportunity to clarify one’s thoughts and feelings prior to speaking. Therefore, there will be opportunities throughout the semester to reflect upon an issue by writing about it prior to class discussion.
Topical Outline
Reaction Papers: Throughout the semester students will be assigned papers in which they will be asked to respond to an assigned reading, an exercise, or an event. These are “writing to learn” assignments. Therefore the evaluation of papers will focus on concepts, integration of material and its application. Event & Analysis Presentation: Students are also required to write a 10-12 page paper and deliver a presentation on an event that represents modern day prejudice. In their analysis they will describe an event that represents prejudice, discrimination, or some type of –ism that has occurred within the last two years. Students will also analyze the event from the perspective of a prejudice scholar. They will use the vast knowledge they accumulated on the topic of prejudice to analyze the undercurrents of the event and why it occurred. This assignment is a “writing to present learning” task.