What is Scapegoating
Scapegoat has been going on for centuries, people blaming others for their misfortunes even though the ones that are being punished ad nothing to with it at all. The best-known example of scapegoat are the Nazi's, who blamed the Jewish people for Germany's economic problems and along with many other difficulties that hit Germany post-World War l. The Nazi's accused the Jews of being part of a hypothetical conspiracy against Germany and in which cause the death Of over 6 million innocent people.
There have been theories that explain scapegoat which are, frustration-aggression-displacement and ideological theories of scapegoat. The frustration-aggression-displacement theory is based on the frustration hero of aggression, meaning frustration causes aggression but if that aggression can't be emitted to the main sources then that person's aggression will be displaced toward an easier target.
An example, a woman is becoming frustrated because she is being yelled at by her manager, but will not act aggressively with the fear of losing her job the women will leave work to go home and where she will displace that aggression toward the Innocent target which in case will be her child. The child is innocent third party and becomes the replacement for her manger. The frustration-aggression-displacement theory was the first theory of scapegoat but even with 60 years of research it still lacks substantial support for it to be true.
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There was a study done by Carl Havilland and Robert Sear, about the relation of the economic conditions in the 1 ass's and the hate crime of lynching African Americans people. The researchers wanted to prove that white people were using the African Americans as scapegoat when the economic conditions declined but Donald and colleagues later found with modern statistical tools that the link couldn't truly exist. Thus this theory cannot explain why some outgrows are chosen to be scapegoats and others aren't. The ideological theory is the one that will explain why outgrows are chosen to be the scapegoats.
The ideological will provide a scapegoat that explains the dilemmas, the people will use this ideology to satisfy the need to understand the reasons for their shortage. The ingrown will make themselves feel better by picking out a common outgrip to compare with and know where to direct the blame. The scapegoats have little power since the ingrown knows he outgrip won't resist, they already disliked the group, may also be chosen because Of their noticeable features or have well-known stereotypes which makes them standout and can be seen as a threat to society.
The example of a current scapegoat can be the illegal immigrates, since they have no papers that makes them a citizen people will use them for cheap labor but will also blame them for united states economic troubles and say that their the reason that we are becoming overpopulated. Describe the relative deprivation theory of prejudice. How is relative deprivation a source of dissatisfaction and resentment and how can this lead to prejudice? Also, how can feelings of relative gratification lead to prejudice?
The main meaning of relative deprivation theory is people comparing their lives or possessions to others and beginning to feel deprived relative of things they used before or seen other with and believe the people don't deserve those resources. There are two types of relative deprivation theory. The personal relative deprivation means a person is feeling deprived of as an individual and the group relative deprivation is the person is feeling that their group is being deprived of benefits or of experiences. The group relative deprivation is the type that is connected to prejudice.
People become dissatisfied with their lifestyle and envious Of those with a more appealing way of living, making them believing they are the ones who truly deserve it and will start to resent that particular group for obtaining that lifestyle. A study was conducted by Reeve Vanessa and Thomas Pettier that had data of white people that felt group deprived. The result showed that 54% aid they were group relative deprivation expressed negative arrogance's towards African American compared to the 42% that were low in group relative deprivation and showed no connection to prejudice.
The opposite of relative deprivation is relative gratification, which is when a people is feeling they are getting better than what they really deserve. The study done by Grammar and Edwards proved that relative gratification can lead to prejudice by asking people if they think in the future their economic situations can either worsen (relative deprivation), or become better (relative gratification), will it stay the same. They found that both economic futures that changed were also willing to endorse political violence.
The same Study was constructed by Gumming and Dammars but they added ethic prejudice to be the dependent variable and found that both groups that experienced relative gratification and relative deprivation were more prejudice than the controlled group. The feelings of relative gratification can lead to prejudice by people comparing themselves to the outgrip and having negative beliefs of how the outgrip became more successful.
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What is Scapegoating. (2018, Apr 19). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/what-is-scapegoating/
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