Question 7          The theories of the Formation of Prejudice

For a person to appreciate the long term impact of prejudice, he or she must understand the meaning of the word.  Prejudice is an individual’s ways of making a value judgment either for positive or negative on a person, an object or an event before understanding the person or the things.  The formation of prejudice has been based on certain theories as follows:

·         Racial and cultural Difference Theory: this is based on the concept that people have fear and dislike for people who are physically and racially different from them

·         Economic competition theory; antagonism that results from competing for jobs or other economic benefits

·         Traumatic Experience theory; bad experience suffered from a member of another group

·         Frustration –Aggression theory; based on frustration that might arise when an individual could not meet real or perceived need

·         Social Control theory; based on people being forced to adhere to tradition and norms of the society

The impact of prejudice is that it affects an individual’s interrelationship with others.  Even for educators, teacher student relationship can be affected either for good or for bad.  I strongly believe that a societal prejudice starts with individual prejudice.  Most of our life believes start from individual bases and once it reaches general acceptance becomes a part of our tradition or norm.    I also believe that prejudice based on Social Control Theory will have the longest negative impact on society and the group within that society.  The simple fact is that it is a widely accepted concept which could be imbibed into tradition or norm and societies defend their tradition.  On the other hand, the other theories are mostly based on external and transient stressors like trauma in a person’s life, economic down turn and unfounded belief.  Once these stressors are removed, the prejudice most of the time will become a past issue. However, when it is based on Social Control Theory, the impact will linger for a long time because it has been ingrained into the tradition or norm and is widely accepted.