93508 - Social Prejudice

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will know the theoretical models, the fundamental methods of investigation and the practical course of actions leading to social discrimination, stereotypes and social prejudice

Course contents

The course is designed to provide advanced knowledge of fundamental issues of the human experience, such as the origins and persistence of old and new forms of social prejudice and their link with stereotyping and discriminative behaviours. A comprehensive summary and critical analysis of the state of theory and research on the causes and consequences of intergroup prejudice will be illustrated. Moreover, similarities and differences among distinct types of prejudice will be addressed.

The Social prejudice course involves 2 modules, whose specific contents are the following:

Social Prejudice I (Prof. Rubini):

Basic processes and differences among prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination (e.g., cognitive, affective and motivational processes)

Social Prejudice II (Prof. Prati):

General theoretical perspectives on the causes of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination (e.g., individual, social, contextual factors and their interplay)

Prejudice in specific domains (e.g., ethnocentrism, sexism, hetero-sexism, ageism, weight bias)

Different measures, methodological challenges and tools for studying prejudice

Effects and reactions to social discrimination (i.e., effects on people’ well-being; protective strategies and bias internalization)

Readings/Bibliography

A list of scientific articles illustrating current research on the main topics of the course will be made available in Virtuale.

Suggested textbook: Barlow, F. K., & Sibley, C. G. (Eds.). (2018). The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Prejudice: Concise Student Edition. Cambridge University Press.

Teaching methods

The course will be taught through frontal lessons.

Video-clips and gamification will be used to further explain and deep the different topics of the course.

Work groups and discussions will be strongly encouraged in order to understand how social-psychological process explain daily life phenomena, and facilitate the links with other psychological domains.

Assessment methods

The written exam at the end of the course will consist of 4 open-ended questions (1 question for module 1 and 3 questions for module 2) to complete in 80 minutes (approximately 20 minutes per question).

Up to 30 points will be assigned to each answer to the four open-ended questions. The final mark is calculated as the mean of the points assigned to each of the four questions. The following criteria will be applied for the evaluation of each answer:

• Appropriateness and completeness of the information (e.g., references)
• Clarity of exposition
• Critical understanding of the topic (i.e., examples and reasoning)
• Coherence of the argumentation

The following grades will be assigned according to the satisfaction of the criteria:

• Up to 30: 4 criteria are fully satisfied
• Between 27-29: 3 criteria are fully satisfied
• Between 24-26: 2 criteria are fully satisfied
• Between 21-23: at least 1 criteria is fully satisfied and others are partially satisfied
• Between 18-20: More than one criteria is partially satisfied

Moreover, during the course, students will be also asked to work in teams on given topics and prepare themselves for individual presentations and class discussions.

These activities will be evaluated and will contribute to students' final mark.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials will be made available in the platform Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Prati

See the website of Monica Rubini