The development of national prejudice, in-group favouritism and self-stereotypes in British children

This study explores the development of national prejudice, ingroup favouritism and self-stereotyping in a sample of 329 British children. The aim was to test the prediction, derived from self-categorization theory (Oakes, Haslam & Turner, 1994; Spears & Haslam, 1997) and in opposition to cognitive-developmental theory (Aboud, 1988), that the supposed limited cognitive ability of young children to engage in individuated perception will not necessarily result in intergroup discrimination and self-stereotyping. The children were presented with a photograph evaluation task and some open-ended questioning. It was found that national prejudice, ingroup favouritism or self-stereotyping developed only in children aged over ten years and was not evident in young children. These findings question the validity of the cognitive-developmental approach which contends that intergroup discrimination and stereotyping are a product of information processing biases in young children. The apparent contradiction between the findings of this study and previous research on ethnic prejudice development is discussed in terms of the potential importance of groups norms in determining the willingness of people to express national prejudice and ingroup favouritism

A new social-cognitive developmental perspective on prejudice: The interplay between morality and group identity.

We argue that prejudice should be investigated in the context of social-cognitive development and the interplay between morality and group identity. Our new perspective examines how children consider group identity (and group norms) along with their developing moral beliefs about fairness and justice. This is achieved by developing an integrated framework drawing on developmental and social psychological theories of prejudice. This synthesis results in a perspective which provides a more contextualized analysis of prejudice development than previously offered by developmental theories. We describe research which supports our view that social norms, intergroup contact and perceived out-group threat affect the relative weight children place on moral and group-based criteria during the development of prejudice

Measuring the zone of proximal development : studies of map-use in children with learning difficulties

The value of measuring Vygotsky's 'zone of proximal development' (ZPD) is the main concern of this thesis. The theory and research described in the thesis examines the psychological and educational purpose of measuring the ZPD within the context of children's representational skills. The first chapter discusses the development of children's ability to understand and use spatial representations. Recent research in developmental psychology is criticised for measuring the ZPD and claiming that the ZPD corresponds to children's individual developmental level. The experiments in Chapter 2 show that previous research has overestimated the representational ability of young children and that a children's potential development is different from their actual development, as assessed by the ZPD. Chapter 3 examines the origins of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the ZPD within Soviet psychology and Hegelian philosophy. The next chapter presents contemporary interpretations of the ZPD which have to varying degrees attempted to extend this concept. The idea of dynamic assessment is introduced in this chapter and experiments using this notion are described in detail. Preliminary studies are described in Chapter 5, which examine the possible need for measurement of the ZPD and they also choose appropriate samples, methods and apparatus for future experiments which aim to measure the ZPD within a spatial task. The sixth chapter consists of three experimental studies, which all attempted to measure the ZPD using dynamic assessment techniques. These studies showed that measurement of the ZPD could provide important diagnostic information about children's spatial ability beyond that given by individual tests of intelligence. This was especially true in the case of children with learning difficulties. The results of all the experiments in the thesis are discussed in relation to measurement of the ZPD and its value within developmental psychology and educational psychology

Changing children’s intergroup attitudes towards refugees: Testing different models of extended contact

The present research evaluated an intervention, derived from the "extended contact hypothesis," which aimed to change children's intergroup attitudes toward refugees. The study (n=253) tested 3 models of extended contact among 5- to 11-year-old children: dual identity, common ingroup identity, and decategorization. Children read friendship stories based upon these models featuring in- and outgroup members. Outgroup attitudes were significantly more positive in the extended contact conditions, compared with the control, and this was mediated by "inclusion of other in self." The dual identity intervention was the most effective extended contact model at improving outgroup attitudes. The effect of condition on outgroup intended behavior was moderated by subgroup identity. Implications for theoretically based prejudice-reduction interventions among children are discussed

Identities in transition: a longitudinal study of immigrant children

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Children's Gender Stereotypes in STEM Following a One-Shot Growth Mindset Intervention in a Science Museum.

Women are drastically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and this underrepresentation has been linked to gender stereotypes and ability related beliefs. One way to remedy this may be to challenge male bias gender stereotypes around STEM by cultivating equitable beliefs that both female and male can excel in STEM. The present study implemented a growth mindset intervention to promote children's incremental ability beliefs and investigate the relation between the intervention and children's gender stereotypes in an informal science learning site. Participants (n = 143, female n = 77, male n = 66, 5-12-years-old, M age = 8.6, SD = 1.7) were visitors to a science museum who took part in an interactive space science show. Participants who were exposed to a growth mindset intervention, compared to the participants in the control condition, reported significantly less gender stereotyping around STEM by reporting equitably in the stereotype awareness measure. Relatedly, participants in the control condition reported male bias gender stereotype in the stereotype awareness measure. Further, children between 5 and 8-years-old reported greater male bias stereotypes awareness and stereotype flexibility in space science compared to children between 9 and 12-years-old. Lastly, children demonstrated in-group bias in STEM ability. Male participants reported gender bias favoring males' ability in stereotype flexibility and awareness measures, while female participants reported bias toward females' ability in stereotype flexibility and awareness measures. These findings document the importance of a growth mindset intervention in buffering against STEM gender stereotyping amongst children, as well as the significant role a growth mindset intervention can play within an informal science learning site

Attitudes toward immigrants among the youth: Contact interventions to reduce prejudice in the school context

In recent years in our increasingly globalized world in many countries we have seen the rise of anti-immigrant feelings among the youth. This has resulted in both discrimination against immigrants and negative psychological outcomes which harm both the individual and hinder social integration within society. In this article, we highlight how psychological research can play an important role in informing the design and conduct of educational interventions based on intergroup contact theory that are aimed at reducing prejudice toward immigrants. We review recent research showing anti-immigrant attitudes among the youth across the globe, and how these attitudes are related to parental and peer relationships. Research indicates that a color-blind approach to prejudice reduction among youth is not helpful and, in contrast, it suggests a more effective approach could be a multicultural approach to diversity, which celebrates both group differences and similarities while promoting social integration through quality contact between different social groups. Recent psychological research shows that this contact can take many forms, ranging from direct contact (i.e., cross-ethnic friendships), to extended contact (i.e., reading a book in which someone from your group has a positive interaction with someone from another group) and even imagined contact (i.e., engaging in imagined play involving characters from different groups having positive relations). The findings of this research demonstrate that it is possible to challenge anti-immigrant attitudes when and where they develop in young people

Children’s social appraisal of exclusion in friendship groups

Sian Jones - ORCID: 0000-0002-2399-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2399-1017Previous research has shown that group processes are particularly pertinent to children’s bullying, and who they socially exclude and include. This paper looks at how children’s responses to social exclusion change according to their friends’ group-based emotions. Children aged 8–11 years (N = 77) read stories about a friendship group to which they were said to belong and an instance of mild social exclusion. In the stories, the participants’ friends’ emotional reaction to the exclusion (pleased versus angry) was manipulated. Measures of assertive bystanding intentions and responses towards the friendship group and the social exclusion were taken. Children showed more assertive bystanding intentions when their friendship group was depicted as angry and they reported more anger when reacting to social exclusion. A mediation effect was found, with a perception of the friendship group’s emotion as anger being related to increased assertive bystanding, through an increase in the participant’s own anger towards their group’s act of social exclusion. This study is among the first to show that from 8 years of age, the social appraisal of group emotions can account for children’s reactions to social exclusion in a friendship group. Directions for future research in social appraisal of group-based emotion in social exclusion situations are discussed.2pubpu

Group norms, intergroup resource allocation and social reasoning among children and adolescents

Cooperation is a fundamental drive of moral behavior from infancy, yet competitive intergroup contexts can exert a significant influence on resource allocation behavior in childhood. The present study explored how ingroup and outgroup norms of competition and cooperation influenced the allocation of resources between groups among children and adolescents, along with how they reasoned about these allocations. Ingroup norms combined, for the first time, with outgroup norms were manipulated to examine their effect on the development of intergroup resource allocation. Participants aged 8 to 16-years (n = 229) were told that their ingroup and the outgroup held either a competitive or cooperative norm about how they should behave in an arts competition. They then allocated tokens for expenditure in the competition between the two teams, and provided social reasoning to justify their chosen allocations. Results showed a negative outgroup norm of competition lead to significantly more ingroup bias when the ingroup also held a competitive rather than a cooperative norm. In contrast, a positive outgroup norm of cooperation did not result in significantly less ingroup bias when the ingroup also held a cooperative norm. Additionally adolescents, unlike children who allocated equally were more likely to make reference to fair competition, a form of moral reasoning, in the competitive compared to the cooperative ingroup norm condition. This study showed that children and adolescents considered both ingroup and outgroup norms simultaneously when making intergroup resource allocations, but that only adolescents varied their reasoning to justify these allocation in line with group norm

Assessing adolescents' critical health literacy: How is trust in government leadership associated with knowledge of COVID-19?

This study explored relations between COVID-19 news source, trust in COVID-19 information source, and COVID-19 health literacy in 194 STEM-oriented adolescents and young adults from the US and the UK. Analyses suggest that adolescents use both traditional news (e.g., TV or newspapers) and social media news to acquire information about COVID-19 and have average levels of COVID-19 health literacy. Hierarchical linear regression analyses suggest that the association between traditional news media and COVID-19 health literacy depends on participants' level of trust in their government leader. For youth in both the US and the UK who used traditional media for information about COVID-19 and who have higher trust in their respective government leader (i.e., former US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson) had lower COVID-19 health literacy. Results highlight how youth are learning about the pandemic and the importance of not only considering their information source, but also their levels of trust in their government leaders