The Greek System at Universities and Racism

After a discussion in class about the Oklahoma racist chant, one of my students mentioned seeing an article that included a picture of a sorority that posed with sombreros, moustaches, and signs that said, "I don't cut grass, I smoke it." I might add that that class is two-thirds Latino. That particular picture struck a nerve.  My students have heard the terms "beaner," "burrito-eater," and the like, but this one hit a little harder, especially when the photo appeared to be nearly exclusively white.

I did a quick search and discovered this article which cites a dozen examples, several that have pictures. I know kids are young and make mistakes. But these make me sick. This article could be great for a discussion on group decision-making, prejudice, stereotypes and so much more.
http://mic.com/articles/112240/12-incidents-that-prove-fraternity-and-sorority-racism-isn-t-just-an-oklahoma-problem


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Sneetches, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Status

Dr Seuss gave us many classics in regards to human behavior. My personal favorite is "Sneetches," a story about two kinds of Sneetches, creatures who lived on the beach, some of whom had stars on their bellies, some who did not.

Those with stars fancied themselves better than the others and excluded those without stars from their social gatherings. Those with stars also had stereotypes about those without. This led to discrimination, name calling, and social shunning. Along comes an inventor who can put stars on those without. Conflict ensues when the originals with stars feel the need to change once all Sneetches had stars--they needed some visible identifier for in- and out-group labeling.

Then the inventor who took the stars off the original star-bellied Sneetches.  They reclassified the status of both kinds of bellies.

This new designation leads to chaos as both groups end up adding and subtracting the stars so that everything gets messed up from the original grouping.  No identifiers work for in- and out-group designations.

Lessons are learned and the scam artist leaves.

The video version is available here:


I posted a two-part link some time ago, but I recently found this full-length version which prompted me to update the post.

Posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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The Crayola Monologues-A Social Psychological Video

I found this as a video file that I received from Amy Jones at a conference a few years ago. I am still sifting through all the amazing resources she shared.

This video is called, "The Crayola Monologues."  It is sharable for all ages, but especially great for social psychology and prejudice/bigotry issues.  To be honest, I love this video.  The artist who created it can be found at this link: http://www.nathangibbs.com/crayola-monologues/.  This page contains lengthy commentary and exploration of color, race, and ethnicities and issues surrounding these ideas in our society.



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Race: The Power of Illusion and Race Sorting

I was just reading my email from Teaching Tolerance, an offshoot of The Southern Poverty Law Center trying to raise awareness of racial/ethnic issues and decreasing the conflict related to them.  In the newsletter there was a link to a PBS site called "Race: The Power of an Illusion, a video from 2003."  The main activity I was directed to was to look at pictures and sort the faces into racial categories.  Wow.  

Let's just say I was not successful.  Nor are most people.  It's a real eye-opening activity that can be done by a person on under five minutes and could be a great beginner to a social psychology unit or a mini-unit on race, ethnicity and/or prejudice/discrimination.  Great for sociology as well.

What is Race?  Is Race for Real?

Sorting Activity

Main Page of Race/Illusions Site

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Internet Search and Discover Activities

One of my favorite things to do is share new ideas and perspectives with my students--especially ones that I do not necessarily have time to do within the formal curriculum.  Since I teach on a 100-minute alternating block schedule, I have created a couple of activities that have the students go to web sites that deal with aspects of a unit, read through the sites, and answer questions.  As much as anything, it exposes them to new resources that I've already checked for accuracy and appropriateness (front-loading).  I also ask questions that have them consider issues that I have some personal interest in.  Perhaps, at some point, they will continue asking questions themselves about obvious things within the context of their own lives.

Here is my first one for this fall for Social Psychology.  If you'd like a .docx version of this document, email me at psydways AT gmail.com.  I've also made one for the brain and biology unit later in the term.

Psychology: Web Exploration          Name                                                                          Per     

Social Psychology Edition rev. F2011

Be sure to read the instructions on each one to make sure you are doing the proper action.

#1  http://www.beyondprejudice.com/reduce_your.html   Read the page and list ten things people can do to reduce their prejudicial behavior (I know there are more than 10). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

#2   http://about-face.org/r/facts/    List two facts each about: Body Image: Media: Eating Disorders: Children and the Media: Appearance Messages: Socioeconomic Status, Ethnicity, and the Thin Ideal:

#3   http://about-face.org/goo/archive/   Choose a brand from repeat offenders______________________. What messages do this company’s ads send?

#4   http://about-face.org/goo/archive/ Choose a media literacy category.__________________________ What messages do ads from this category send?

#5   http://www.about-face.org/gallery-of-winners/top-ten-winners/1-2/ Examine these ten ads.  Why are these ten ads seen as being better ads in terms of their portrayal of women?

#6    http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005059    Describe where the term “ghetto” comes from.  Can you really describe something as "ghetto" now?  Explain.

#7     http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/ Take your native IQ.  This is a test about your knowledge related to Native Americans and their history.  How did you do?  Explain why you did as well or as poorly as you did.

#9  So you are curious about brainwashing?  Check out this site: http://health.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm Find terms and ideas we’ve studied so far to find out what you can discover about brainwashing.  Write down at least 5 things. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

#10  This site is a blog about relationships written by an author in the UK.  Choose one of the sub-articles and write down four observations/conclusions the research found about your topic.  http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/02/psychology-of-relationships.php Title of sub-article here: 1. 2. 3. 4.

#11  Go to this site:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/01/11/culture-affects-the-way-we-use-our-brain/1773.html Write a five sentence (one paragraph) summary of the findings.

#12  Can we avoid segregation? http://www.understandingprejudice.org/segregation/ Go to this site, read each short page and do the exercise.  Describe the Schelling Effect and the Anti-Schelling Effect. Schelling Effect Anti-Schelling Effect What you learned as a result of doing this exercise:

#12    http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007679 Describe what Nazi racism was about.

#13  Go to this site:  http://www.tolerance.org/activity/si-se-puede Read the article and list three key questions this raises in your mind. 1. 2. 3.

#14    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html Take two of the demonstration quizzes on this page.  Which two did you take?  How did you do?  What surprised you? Explain. Quiz 1 Result: Quiz 2 Result: Explain why you think you scored this way.  How did it surprise you?

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Schemas--a great demo

I posted this recently on the AP Psych Listserv:

Schemas are a core concept that I have in all my psych classes--they are the key idea around which I create everything else (except biology).  I use the Drew Appleby Demo on Déjà vu, not for that concept, but for the creation of a false memory based upon our schemas.  The PPT I use is here:
https://sbhs-sbhsd-ca.schoolloop.com/blogdocs

Description of the activity I give I created for a textbook video lessons project and can be found on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVEu3OVh3Uw&feature=related

The debriefing is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2nEM-oT0Kw

The demo has worked perfectly for the past 15+ years.  Feel free to use and adapt.

For an assimilation example, I use "Monster's Inc." and the little girl "Boo" who calls Sully a "kitty."  He's obviously a monster to us, but she does not yet have that in her schema, so she uses what she has available already--furry, with ears, four legs and a tail means "kitty."  So far as I could tell, she never accommodated the idea of monster with Sully--she only had that with Randall.  She distinguished the two.

Chuck

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Jane Elliott - Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes

Do any of you use/discuss Jane Elliott's "Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes" demonstration? I always had mixed feelings when I discussed it in my classes. She sometimes called it an experiment, but there are obviously no controls, not much controlled analysis of the data, etc. And the ethics are iffy - I worried about the unseen impact on some of her students. But it can be a great way to start important conversations about prejudice. This article provides some very recent information about Jane Elliott's ideas about the impact of her work. Responses? Any of you use this activity or something similar to it?

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Psych in the news

In an op-ed column on race, Charles Blow focuses on Harvard's Implicit Association Test and the findings that most whites "harbor a hidden bias" against blacks. Direct links to the tests are here ... and here's a 2006 column (and follow-up blog post) by John Tierney presenting the evidence against the IAT. (All from the NY Times)

A new paper in the Journal of Social Issues shows that multiracial adolescents who identify proudly as multiracial fare as well as — and, in many cases, better than — kids who identify with a single group, even if that group is considered high-status (like, say, Asians or whites). (Time)

Newsweek traces the history of the alleged autism-vaccination link in its Anatomy of a Scare.

Researchers found in a small study of 30 young iPod users that teens not only tend to play their music louder than adults but, often, are unaware of how loud they're playing it, and are thus unaware of their risk of subsequent hearing loss. (Time)

The FDA approves deep brain stimulation as a treatment for OCD. (Chicago Tribune)

And finally, this is just sad. Not only did research show the men view bikini-clad women as objects (based on 21 Princeton boys as subjects) but no one has actually bothered to see if the same is true in reverse ("women may also depersonalize men in certain situations, but published research on the subject has not been done"). Sigh. (CNN)

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Prejudice and Sneetches

The classic book came to life on television. Now it can be yours on YouTube.
Sneetches Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln3V0HgW4eM

Sneetches Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LgMpfLD1Y

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