Answer to Question #218894 in Psychology for anna

Question

Maria reports that since high school, she has always viewed those she considers plain or unattractive as inferior and that she has always thought that heavyset people should lose weight. Maria admits that she has made negative or stigmatising comments to some female co-workers that she considers to be overweight and that she has also made ignorant comments regarding the sexual orientation of a co-worker. She tells the therapist that she feels that she may have been hurtful to some of her co-workers. With the therapist, Maria addresses the potential reasons behind some of her beliefs and explores ways that she can develop a more open minded and informed way of thinking.

To a certain degree, Maria is feeling guilty for being prejudiced against others in the workplace, please explain the benefits of guilt for prejudice reduction in the workplace (for 16 marks). Please refer to the abstract in your explanation (for 4 marks).  

Answer 1

Unsurprisingly, many of the key prejudice-reduction interventions have taken place in areas in which ethnic or other prejudice results in or is exacerbated by overt conflict, or at least has done in recent times. As such, quite a lot of literature on the topic of teaching history / education focuses on post-conflict settings. In relation to contexts with less overly problematic intergroup relations, such as Maria, we of course have to be wary of what conclusions might be drawn from 'what works' in these settings, however there may be useful strategies that could help to influence prejudice-reduction initiatives more broadly