Personality -centered theories

Personality -centered theories

Prejudice is the tendency of individuals to feel and think in a negative way about members belonging to other groups. Prejudice itself is an attitude or a feeling. There are several theories that explain prejudice. Prejudice theories are divided into two major categories, namely; the personality centered theories which are usually psychological in nature and culture-based theories usually sociological in nature.

Personality -centered theories.

Both frustration-aggression theory and the authoritarian personality theories are under the personality-centered theories. A psychologist is known as john dollard attributed to the Frustration-Aggression theory. This theory is also known as ‘displacement’ theoty,’ scapegoat’ theory or even ‘kick the Dog Syndrome’.Dollard gives six beliefs which attribute to prejudice.The six are needs,frustration,aggression,displacement,weak victims,and rationalization.

All human beings have needs which could be biological such as hunger and sleep or socially induced needs such as proper housing and well paying jobs.Its not obvious that human beings needs are all satisfied.Sometimes our needs get blocked and as a result,we get frustrated.Frustration automatically leads to aggression.Once an individual gets frustrated,theuyey become angry and following is aggressive acts and they get the urge to destroy.The angry persons displace their anger to people whom they see to be their source of frustration,their scapegoat.Acts of aggression and hostility are not accepted in most communities and therefore embracing a socially acceptable way to vent our anger is adviced.Through this,the behaviour the behaviour is made to appear to be rational and morally acceptable.Once an individual justifies their behaviour by finding some convincing reason towards their hatred for a minority group it is known as rationalization.

T W Adomo contributed greatly towards the study of the authoritarian personality.He says thst there are people who always see their ways as right and for the others as wrong.These people tend to view the others as minorities.These attitudes are formed during the childhood of the individuals,resulting from being raised in homes with harsh discipline ,by uncommunicative and distant parents.This makes the child to fear all authority though they can not express these feelings to their parents and othr powerful people.They therefore displace their anger and hostility on people who are not like them.

Culture based theories of prejudice.

These theories are sociological in nature.They are three namely;functionalism,conflict theoty and symbolic interactionism theory.Functionalists believe that everything in the society is there because it has a purpose.For instance,durinfg the world war 1,Germany lost.this made her undergo through a harsh econoic crisis During the 1920s and 1930s which created a bad feeling for the entire country.As a results,the Germans used hatred of the jews in the Nazis functionally .Hitler and his people blamed the jews for their problems.The jews in this scenario were the scapegoat.

Karl Marxs’ writings and Philosophy explain the conflict theory.He examines the social world and sees the exixting conflict between groups for example,the owners and the workers.From this perspective,capitalists system seems to be the cause for prejudice .The capitalists system pits groups against each other.Each group tries to derive the best.Good jobs,education,homes and many more.This makes the minority groups to be rivals,and the more they fight against each other,the less the power they have against the rich and powerful in the society.

The third theory is symbolic interactionism which focuses on the micro level of analysis,which is looking at the individuals and small groups within the society.We have stereotypes and labels that we apply to people which leads to selective perception.Selective perception is when we only spot certain features of somebody ,but remain blind to all the other features.

The theory which best explains prejudice is the frustration aggression theory.This is because it systematically explains the common events that nearly every individual experiences in their lifetime.Everyone has their needs.Needs are not always met as per our expectations and this frustrates us.Following frustration ,individuals react by getting angry and they displace their anger to the minority.The weak victims are defenceless in most cases they receive the other peoples aggression.To cover up for the anger,rationalization is applied where an individual gives justification for his or her hate against aminority group.The sequential flow of these beliefs of prejudice takes place in our lives every now and then.

I strongly feel that prejudice is wrong.Giving negative judgement towards people from the minor group makes them feel threatened.individuals may lose their self -esteem and that would make them inferior and defenceless giving a pathway for bullying.individuals may have poor performances to learners who are studying in institutions where prejudice is on the frontline.in addition,they may suffer from mental health and physical health once they realize that all fingers are pointing at them.

Prejudice is a complex issue but I still believe we can fully eliminate it.There are issues which when considered ,prejudice will reduce.A persuasive communication or talk can be delivered one on one through social media platforms more so,the television so as to deliberately change the attitudes of people towards others.Also,Instilling education as part of our daily programmes will help curb prejudice.Education informs and enlightens individuals regarding different issues.with the open mindeness of education and its learning approach towards prejudice,learners will with no doubt end

prejudice practices in their institutions.Enganging a group or groups of people to interact with another helps to solve misunderstandings,hostility,racism,prejudice among others.