Intergroup Prejudice: A Study Based On The Perspective Of Relationalism

On the view of relationalists,intergroup prejudice is the co-action of the prejudice perpetrator and prejudice targets.In order to understand the prejudice construction mechanism of the prejudice perpetrator,the perceived prejudice construction mechanism of the prejudice targets,and the meaning construction between the prejudice perpetrator and targets in the interaction process by discourse,the research conducted a comprehensive study which adopted the experimental method,measurement method and focus group interviews.The research mainly consisted of three parts:First:the social construction of intergroup prejudice.(1)Methods:90 college students participated in a 3×3 two factors between-subject design eye-tracking experiment,which adopted grouping and information as the independent variables.Grouping,which divided the participants into groups the cognitive level and let them think they belong to or not belong to a group,had three levels:in-group,out-group and control group;Information,which meant the requirement of attention on a certain type of information in the process of reading the character of the group,had three levels:positive,negative and all information.The "group" in the experiment named "A group" was a virtual group.All the participants read 4 sentences about the character of "A group" after they had known whether they belong to the group,and then read them again while remember the positive,negative or all information.The dependent variables are the prejudice level towards "A group",and the eye-movement indexes in their reading process,which were recorded by Eyelink 2000.As well as the effect of independent variables,the relationship between eye movement indexes and the level of prejudice was also analyzed.(2)Results:? Grouping can significantly influence the positive emotion dimension of prejudice,as in-groups had more positive emotion than out-groups and control groups,and their reading time of the negative sentences was shorter;?Awareness of the group information could faster the process of positive interest area(IA);in-group participants paid less time in later processing of negative IA;?Information can significantly influence the negative emotion dimension of prejudice,participants who focused on the negative information had more negative emotion than those who focused on the positive information and all information;?The depth of the earlier processing of IA was positively correlated with negative emotion,while the depth of the later processing of negative IA was negatively correlated with negative emotion and prejudice.Second:the social construction of perceived prejudice.(1)Methods:335 urban and 669 rural college students were measured,and two studies were conducted:? Comparing the out-group prejudice of urban college students and the perceived prejudice of rural college students;? Analyzing the effect of self-esteem,out-group prejudice and out-group social support of rural college students on their perceived prejudice.(2)Result:?Urban college students had no obvious out-group prejudice on rural college students;rural college students perceived higher prejudice than the urban college students' out-group prejudice,but the urban college students' perceived prejudice had no significant difference with the rural college students' out-group prejudice;?self esteem,out-group prejudice and out-group social support had prediction effect on perceived prejudice,which could explain 64%of the variation in perceived prejudice;Direct prediction effect of self-esteem on perceived prejudice was not significant,but self-esteem could predict perceived prejudice indirectly through the multiple mediating effects of out-group prejudice and out-group social support,while the mediating effect of all the three paths were significant.Third:intergroup prejudice in relational discourse.(1)Methods:Focus group interview technique was adopted to investigate the gender prejudice in 3 groups of 18 college students.There were three parts of the interview.Firstly,the participants discussed about the materials on nowadays gender prejudice;Secondly,they discussed about the prejudice they had encountered in their lives as the transformative discourse technology was used;Thirdly,they were divided into pairs and participated in plays,which were about gender prejudice,and then discussed about the plays.All the interviews were transcribed and analyzed through Nvivo 10,by category analysis and discourse analysis.Grounded theory was also used to form the model of prejudice construction in relational discourse.Both of interview data and social measurement were adopted to explore the effect of the focus group.(2)Results:?As relational sets,participants took parts in the relational discourse with their background relations,and construct the meaning of gender prejudice together,then the meaning they had constructed became the new background relations of them;?Participants' awareness of gender prejudice and the need of adapting prejudice enhanced,their knowledge became more rational;They were able to think about their prejudice reflectively,and they became more optimistic about the reduction of prejudice;?The girls with low level of gender prejudice and moderate level of confronting prejudice and the boys with moderate level of gender prejudice and low level of confronting prejudice were more likely to be endorsed by the other participants;The more arguments about gender prejudice in the group,the higher agreement degree of them.Finally,the conclusions were as follows.Grouping could trigger in-group favoritism,and construct intergroup indirectly by influence the cognitive process;The real prejudice and subject relational background such as self-esteem,out-group prejudice,out-group social support functioned in the construction of perceived prejudice;Participants took parts in the relational discourse with their background relations,and constructed the meaning of prejudice together;transformative discourse and moderate degree of confronting prejudice were useful for the prejudice reduction.