Understanding Prejudice
Understanding Prejudice
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Teacher's Corner
College Student Assignments

Final Paper Assignment: Some Possibilities

Goal

To provide students with a chance to explore a prejudice-related topic of their choice in depth.

Assignment

There are hundreds of possible paper topics that students might be assigned. Here are a few options that students might be offered for a 10-15 page paper:

  • Do something original that reduces prejudice, and write about what you did. What were the psychological principles that made it work? Could others do what you did? How could your idea be further improved?

  • Try bringing an outgroup member into an ingroup, making sure there are opportunities for equal-status contact, and report on the results.

  • Compare the psychological mechanisms involved in two different forms of prejudice (e.g., sexism and racism, heterosexism and antifat prejudice). Cite relevant studies whenever possible, following a format similar to that found in research journals.

  • Discuss how two or more forms of prejudice reinforce and influence each other (e.g., sexism, heterosexism, and ageism; racism, anti-Semitism, and speciesm).

  • Examine and critique the way your school, workplace, or another institution treats minorities. What are the strengths and weaknesses? What might be improved?