Social Identities: Differences, Prejudice, and Education

Posted on Dec 1, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Abstract 1: Diversity and Difference

1. The Difference

Any analysis of reality begins by detecting similarities and differences, establishing categories based on them. Analysis involves identifying traits and classifying them based on similarities and differences.

Identifying something as equal to or different from another involves sorting and assigning value. The value assigned to classifications often implements prejudice, racism, sexism, and general intolerance of difference.

Language, used to express differences, can divide, exclude, distinguish, and discriminate. Differences and similarities are used to divide the world into categories: male/female, black/white, Catholic/Moslem, etc. Difference results from a comparison that depends on the selection of certain traits, the importance given to one over another, or the presence or absence of features. Differentiating leads to labeling.

Considering difference, I postulate the following principles, without assessing their validity:

• Differences are assumed to be intrinsic to the individual, but are often the result of social construction and comparison based on certain traits.

• The benchmark used for differentiation (normal vs. different) should be discussed.

• Differentiation is always present.

2. Labels

Labels are identifiers assigned based on difference. They are stereotypes, conclusions, and value judgments about a group or culture.

• Others are labeled with characteristics we never use to describe ourselves.

• Once assigned, it is difficult for the subject to be free of them.

• People are categorized and judged based on labels of gender, sex, race, weight, family, sexual orientation, etc.

• Moral judgments and labels strongly interact and are extremely harmful when applied to minority groups. Labels lead to conclusions. Language and labeling perpetuate prejudice about differences.

3. Dilemmas of Difference

Difference raises standards of performance, addressing dilemmas of difference or equality in a social world that values certain traits differently.

• Dilemma 1: Our culture officially condemns difference but perpetuates it in practice.

• Dilemma 2: Should different treatment be used to achieve equality (affirmative action), or should equal treatment be favored for a fair approach?

Some defend inherent difference. Attitudes toward difference cause objections and intolerance. Possible solutions are that while difference sometimes requires different treatment, equal rights and equal treatment must be ensured in other cases.

4. The Treatment of Difference

The school system should find solutions to address deficiencies. Solutions involve special treatment or integrating children with disabilities into regular classes with necessary support and programs.

The apparent contrast between exclusion and integration is similar; both respond to inequality/diversity and the needs of different children, avoiding stigmatization.

This dual response addresses the dilemma of difference, choosing between different responses. Focusing too much on difference can create stigma. Integration resolves difference by treating both as separate issues.

Difference is a result of the social construction of relationships between groups. It is a comparative term implying a reference. School programs often ignore differences in children’s ages. Difference is often seen as inherent, rather than a response to be addressed in school.

Abstract 2: Identity

1. Definition of Identity

Identity is the set of characteristics that individualize or differentiate a person, thing, or community. It is the set of data that officially defines a person. It is being influenced by traits and circumstances that prevent confusion with another. The concept involves a classification system showing how social relations are organized and divided (us/them). Identity is not possible without interaction with others or society. It is created and manifested in the form and function of cultural meanings (cultural practices, symbolic systems, and social status).

2. Construction of Identity

Identity is not homogeneous, uniform, fixed, or stable, but multiple, diverse, changing, dynamic, and an ongoing process of construction and reconstruction. Its construction involves specific places and spaces, as well as past, present, and future. It depends on situations, contexts, and processes of training, and is complex and contradictory, as not all identities and groups have equal consideration or power.

Subjects are positioned according to context. New identities have emerged where race, ethnicity, gender, age, and sexuality have replaced social class identifications. Increased social acceptance of sexual identities and ambiguity leads to new identities. Socialization and formal/informal education encourage the development of healthy identities from social diversity, as opposed to segregation and assimilation.

3. Types of Identity

• Ethnic identity is part of complete identity, including personal, social, and cultural referents, defining oneself as a member of a group. It is how an individual, according to ethnic origin, positions themselves in relation to other social groups. The development of ethnic identity is tied to sociocultural factors. It implies a reference group and a dominant group. Models of ethnic identity construction occur in phases:
  • Identification with the dominant group’s culture.
  • Dissonance and awareness of racism.
  • Racial group identification.
  • Internalization and integration of both cultures.

• Social identity. Membership in different groups simultaneously promotes various social identities that contribute to self-identity. Modern societies offer many situations from which to build identity. Individuals are involved in different institutions with varying degrees of autonomy and choice.

• Gender identity. Some identities relate to aspects of life such as sexuality. How each person lives their sexual identity is mediated by the cultural meaning given to sexuality. Sexual identity refers to an individual’s view of their own body and allows identification as male or female based on physical characteristics.

• Gender identity includes psychosexual development, socially learned roles, and sexual preferences. Upbringing and socialization are key elements in the development of gender identity, linked to sexual preference and object choice.

• Negative social identity. Subjects in low-status groups internalize inferiority, leading to negative social identity. Self-esteem is lower than in the normal group; they may blame themselves for their marginalization. When group boundaries are penetrable, upward social mobility is sought; if impassable, group mobilization is necessary.

4. Culture Shock

Culture shock is an intensely personal encounter with people of a different culture. It can also occur when situations require different responses than usual (divorce, widowhood, job loss, etc.). Re-learning responses is necessary.

Culture shock may involve:

• Stress-related disorientation of values, standards, and expectations when a subject undergoes environmental change and lacks resources to respond appropriately.
• Anxiety from environmental adjustment: loss of sense of right and wrong, accompanied by emotional, behavioral, or physiological expressions.
• Frustration from unmet objectives: frustration can lead to higher levels of development.

Stages of culture shock:

1. Initial contact: differences are examined without abandoning previous identity.

2. Disintegration of familiar keys: different sense of self, adaptation mistakes, and decreased self-esteem.

3. Reintegration of new keys: rebellion and rejection of differences, increased self-esteem, blaming others for failures.

4. Formation of a new identity: recognizing similarities and differences, ability to survive in new situations, relaxed relationships.

5. Biculturalism: responding to both the new and previous environments, giving meaning to differences, recovering confidence and creative processes.

Overcoming culture shock can be positive, developing skills that enrich the individual.

Abstract 3: Equal Educational Opportunities

1. Concept of Equality

The concept of equality emerges when social policy recognizes the existence of groups experiencing differentiated education and society, and planned educational interventions aim to address these differences. It implies rules and actions benefiting some groups at the expense of others through the distribution of goods, and a policy of equality and/or inequality of opportunity. Common meanings include equal access, compensatory measures, equal outcomes, equal treatment, and differentiated treatment of students based on their needs.

2. Equality and Justice

Two opposing theoretical positions on the fair distribution of wealth represent Rawls (state interventionism) and Nozick (exacerbated liberalism). They represent opposing poles in the treatment of social inequality.

3. Equal Opportunities

If individuals independently choose their lives and activities, the result is the product of those choices. Equal opportunities arise as equal opportunities to choose.

Alternatively, if choice is not autonomous but a product of environment, equality of results should be sought, compensating for differences.

These interpretations reflect private freedom of choice and equal opportunity versus public control, determinism, and equality of results.

4. Equal Access

Two interpretations of equal access exist:

• Formal equality corresponds to minimum requirements, removing barriers to equal access: school quality, appropriate measures, physical facilities, etc.

• Substantive equality requires intervention to mitigate disadvantages. Systematic monitoring of differences between groups is needed, responding to real educational demands.

5. Equality of Results

Three approaches to democratic distributive justice exist (Howe):

• Liberalism: No authority distributes goods; individual freedom is the predominant value. Equal opportunity aims to ensure freedom of choice in education, not equal results. Fair distribution is the product of free exchange.

• Utilitarianism: Educational policy is evaluated by its impact on economic output, maximizing productivity. This justifies resource allocation to achieve desired results, thus equal educational opportunities for the background.

• Egalitarianism: Defines permissible social distribution of goods. It aims to improve the situation of disadvantaged groups. Egalitarianism offers three interpretations:
  • Formal: Equal opportunities by identifying the formal structure of educational institutions.
  • Compensatory education: Matching results by offsetting the disadvantageous experiences of different groups.
  • Participatory interpretation: Including needs, interests, and proposals from all groups to determine their educational opportunities. Connects equal opportunities with democracy and justice.

Abstract 4: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Stereotypes (Belief)

Discrimination (Behavior)

Prejudice (Attitude)

1. Stereotype

Stereotypes are beliefs held by individuals or groups, created and shared. They are inaccurate generalizations maintained without sound basis, wrong ways of thinking that do not match reality. They are also the tendency to attribute simplified, generalized characteristics to groups of people in the form of verbal labels.

Stereotypes are the cognitive component of an attitude, developed from cognitive mechanisms that simplify reality, imposed for reasons of economy of mental effort, carrying the risk of distortion. They help allocate roles in social relations according to group membership and attributed characteristics. Stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

2. Criteria to Define Stereotypes

Stereotypes have a dual function: facilitating a schematic representation of reality (positive) and leading to social prejudice (negative).

3. Prejudice

Prejudice is a hostile or distrustful attitude, without sufficient justification, toward a person belonging to a group. It is based on stereotypes, implying unwarranted negative evaluation. While it can be positive or negative, prejudice is at the level of negative opinion. It is not based on observation or direct knowledge, but on pre-formed opinions or ideas.

Prejudice is related to discrimination. It involves hostility and antipathy toward other groups, or opinions/attitudes not based on facts. Prejudice includes cognitive components (ideas/beliefs), emotional (values/emotions), and behavioral (willingness to act). It is inflexible, organized, and involves coexisting attitudes and beliefs. It is a negative concept rooted in culturally different human groups (ingroup/outgroup), involving perception, value, opinion, and attitude.

4. Consequences of Prejudice

Prejudices are transmitted across generations; subjects prone to prejudice tend to feel threatened and insecure.

Consequences of prejudice for the targeted group include:

• Obsessive concern with the situation.
• Denial of belonging to the biased group.
• Isolation and passivity.
• Increased cohesion in the discriminated group.
• Group self-hatred; denial of own group.
• Violence against members of the group itself.
• Development of prejudices against others.
• Self-pity.
• Activism for social change.
• Search for differentiating group symbols.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: the discriminated group responds to expectations about them.

5. Discrimination

Discrimination is the expression of prejudice; the action involves unjustified unequal treatment, resulting in the exclusion of “others.” The discriminator judges the group being discriminated against. Discrimination can take different forms:

• Exploiting the weakest group and obtaining benefits.
• Ideological removal: the largest group is presented as having the truth.
• Claiming physical superiority.

Ethnocultural discrimination has different forms and degrees: ethnic cleansing, spatial segregation, institutional discrimination, social domination, political oppression, etc.

Positive discrimination involves actions aimed at correcting the negative effects of historical discrimination and differential treatment.

Abstract 5: Racial Discrimination

1. Definition of Racism

Racism is a particular form of prejudice based on the construction of race. It is discrimination that can occur at the individual, cultural, or institutional level. The underlying philosophy expresses the superiority of some groups over others, resulting from an ideological discourse aiming at oppressive power relations. Racism can be defined as systematic behavior by an individual or group that lessens or denies opportunities and privileges to individuals or social groups.

2. Types of Racism

Racial discrimination occurs at different levels: interpersonal, political, economic, and civil rights:

• Biological racism: Differences are innate; superiority of one’s own group; mixed race degenerates; other groups have no rights; other groups should be excluded; physical segregation is needed; the ideal society is that of a pure race.

• Symbolic racism: Differences are learned; one’s own group is culturally superior; there is a cultural problem in the relationship with the other; others have rights that are due; they can live as they wish but in limited areas; there must be cultural separation between groups; one must master one’s own culture and be accepted by other groups.

• Ethnocentric racism: Differences are learned; one’s own group is culturally superior; there are cultural problems in relation to the other; others must comply with our group; there must be cultural separation; one must master one’s own culture and be accepted by other groups.

• Aversive racism: Differences are learned; there are no superior races; contact is threatening, a social problem; there are equal rights for different groups; one must master one’s own culture and be accepted by others.

• Political racism: When a political party builds its speech on racism, creating a context and mobilizing aggressive sectors of the population.

• Institutional racism: Embedded in law, separating rights for certain groups, demonstrated in actions by institutions (rights at work, stay, vote, residence). It may be unintentional.

• Social racism: Expressed subtly, not directly speaking of inferiority or exclusion; equality is difficult to establish. Manifests as difficulty finding housing, school places, etc.

• No racism: Differences are learned; there are no superior races; there is no threat; the other is rich; there are equal rights.

3. Ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism

• Ethnocentrism is a form of prejudice implying that one’s own cultural group is the center of what is reasonable and proper in life, valuing one’s own group over others, considering it the center of the matter. Others are judged by the standards of one’s own group. Ethnocentrism acts for individual adaptation and social integration.

The culture in which one lives protects individuals from information overload and provides structures for seeing and not seeing. It develops a sense of security and leads to identification and affiliation with one’s own group.

Ethnocentrism involves the belief that one’s group is more important and culturally superior to others. It fails to recognize that difference implies no inferiority.

• Eurocentrism is a tendency to consider all questions of ideology, history, and culture from a uniquely European perspective. It is European ethnocentrism, with characteristics such as:
  • A linear path from ancient Greece to US culture.
  • Europe as the engine of progress and historical change (democracy, class society, capitalism, industrial development).
  • Attributing the development of democratic institutions to Western culture.
  • Ignoring non-European traditions and undemocratic actions.
  • Minimizing oppressive practices (colonialism, imperialism).
  • No consideration of cultural appropriation or masking of non-European countries.

Abstract 6: Nonverbal Communication

1. Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication includes gestures, posture, body orientation, somatic singularities, object organization, and distances between individuals, through which information is conveyed. It is estimated that 50-90% of communication occurs through nonverbal channels, unconsciously.

Message transmission usually occurs with sign language received by the senses. The final comprehension results from a process operating at two levels: one requiring linguistic signs and one giving meaning to collected signs. Nonverbal communication allows humans to adjust behavior in the presence of others. All sensory equipment is used.

Not all cultures condone or perform the same gestures. Each has its own communication code, varying depending on whether communication is with members of the same group or outside groups. However, some gestures seem to have the same meaning across cultures.

Features include:

• It is constructed like verbal communication.
• The subject cannot not communicate.
• It is not always intentional.
• There may be no intention to communicate what is communicated.
• Nonverbal communication involves behaviors needing training.
• Nonverbal communication almost always occurs in the presence of others, although there are activities performed in solitude.

2. Classification of Nonverbal Communication

• Preverbal communication. Child activities such as singing and yawning. Focus on the human face, which provides answers. The child picks up the environment through the eyes. Protoconversations are interactions with adults, fitting the child’s guidelines. Interaction is built through adult efforts to engage in a meaningful process with the child. This early, uncoded, verbal communication refers to social information.

• Paraverbal communication. Accompanies verbal communication, referring to how something is said. It includes voice qualities and vocalizations (breaks, sounds, errors). Mood changes are reflected in vocal frequency. Paraverbal messages guide conversation, leading to changes in attitudes, friendship, scorn, etc.

• Nonverbal communication as such. Unspoken messages stimulate communication. They consciously or unconsciously express feelings, emotions, relationships, personal values, and culture. This communication is received through sight, touch, and smell, including conscious and unconscious human behavior interpretable as information carriers.

During interaction, nonverbal communication occurs between all participants, using silence as a communication channel. The variety of forms across cultures is important for intercultural communication.

3. Types of Nonverbal Communication

Kinesics: Communication based on body movement and use. It is the study of gestures, facial expressions, and movements from different body parts.

Proxemics: Study of the meaning of space, distances, and the arrangement of individuals in communication.

Nonverbal communication can be unconscious, unintentional, and conscious.

4. Stigma

Stigma often involves distinguishing body marks that others perceive as wrong with the speaker’s moral status. It involves “abnormal” individuals discredited in their social identity. Three types of marks exist:

• Physical deformity (blind, lame, deaf, etc.).
• Character flaws (dishonesty, alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness, etc.).
• Ethnic, racial, religious, or national affiliation.

When meeting a stranger, everyone interprets presented signs. The difference between actual social identity (attributes the individual actually possesses) and virtual social identity (demands and essential attributes assigned by someone) appears.

When someone shows an attribute setting them apart and making them less palatable, stigma occurs. The subject is reduced to an inferior category. Stigma is varied in nature, also called defect, failure, or disadvantage.

Abstract 7: Cultural Diversity and Education

1. Culture and Interculturality as Starting Points

Culture is a system of concepts and values, including beliefs, patterns, and habits created, maintained, used, and modified by a group. It is the knowledge needed for group survival and communication. It includes adaptive products, subjective dimensions (values), interactive dimensions (language), and material dimensions (artifacts).

Culture should not be confused with race; race is a population with distinct gene frequencies, while culture is a way of life. The strict linkage between race and culture is a form of racism.

Intercultural communication is the ability to actively and critically participate within different cultures. It is participation in another’s culture, taking the cultural richness of other groups without losing one’s own cultural identity.

2. The Model of Intercultural Education

Intercultural education is an educational approach based on respect and appreciation of cultural diversity, addressing every member of society. It proposes a formal and informal, holistic, integrated intervention model, configuring all dimensions of the education process to achieve equal opportunities/results, overcoming racism, and fostering intercultural communication and competence.

Equality of opportunity means considering skills, talents, and experiences as a starting point for further schooling. Measures encouraging this test our tolerance and appreciation of diversity as a strength, not a weakness.

3. Basic Objectives of Intercultural Education

Basic objectives for practice and research in intercultural education are:

• Reforming the education system to achieve fair and equal educational opportunities for different groups.

• Changes should affect the curriculum and all areas of the process (teaching staff, strategies, materials, resources, etc.).

• Addressing the integration of content and processes through which knowledge is constructed.

• Ensuring equal access to education, as well as efficient equality and empowering experiences.

• Analyzing the racial attitudes of students and teachers to create strategies to overcome racism and discrimination.

There are no magic formulas for developing intercultural education proposals given the diversity of environments. A comprehensive analysis of the social reality of each environment is needed to obtain proper guidelines for curriculum development. Intercultural curriculum planning is not adding elements to already developed multicultural programs.

The intercultural school should convey not only the mainstream culture but also coexisting cultures in a climate of respect and coexistence (T. Aguado, 2003). Intercultural education is education focused on cultural difference and plurality, rather than an education for those who are culturally different (R. Alonso Sáez, 2001).

4. Other Forms of Diversity in Education: Continuing Education

Another form of cultural diversity exists within a culture, constituted by various groups differentiated by roles, age, employment status, sex, etc. (pensioners, workers, unemployed, disabled, prisoners, etc.), formed by people of all ages and social status who have decided to continue learning throughout their lifetime. This is a new social challenge called “Continuing Education.”

Lifelong education is open education encompassing formal, non-formal, and informal education, including children, youth, adults, and people with personal, socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural difficulties.

Continuing Education is channeled through various types of educational programs:

Globalization and new information and communication technologies (ICTs) have created a dynamic society where professionals need to update their skills, and the unemployed need to acquire new knowledge to enter an increasingly complex work environment. Programs developed for these purposes are defined as survival programs.

New scientific advances have extended life expectancy. This implies that the leisure sector among the active adult population, especially the “elderly,” should become increasingly important. Much of this is cultural and leisure that fosters the development of human dimensions such as participation in civic, social, and family action, the environment, culture, arts, etc. Programs developed under these assumptions can be considered meaning-seeking programs.

Programs to develop learning to learn focus on using and organizing knowledge so that people learn to learn. These programs pay special attention to problem-solving. Once a person has learned to learn in areas of interest, they can learn practically anything independently. This process is largely autonomous.

Abstract 8: The Intercultural Middle School

1. The Intercultural School Environment

Middle school is any formal educational setting, and an intercultural school environment educates different groups with the same and comparable education, addressing differential characteristics.

The school environment is a system composed of identifiable factors: attitudes and characteristics of students, staff, and community; learning processes; assessment procedures; manifest and hidden curriculum; teaching materials and content. An intercultural school environment reflects social, cultural, and ethnic diversity.

Reform must extend to all variables for a similar environment for all. Teachers and students should assimilate perceptions of “the other” to enrich and improve academic performance, helping to function effectively in the dominant culture and with/among other cultures.

2. Intercultural School Climate

Assessing the cultural climate focuses on three dimensions:

• Overall quality of the educational environment, specifically the intercultural program, considering interaction most important. Assessment instruments include observation guidelines and questionnaires.

• Attitudes of students and teachers. Measuring them allows developing proposals appropriate to the context. Measuring instruments include semantic differentials and feedback forms.

• Participation of families and the community, assessing the quantity and quality of contacts.

3. School Culture and Hidden Curriculum

The hidden curriculum, understood as tacit social norms and expectations, accounts for inequality in minority groups. Intercultural educational action must be based on these hidden aspects affecting the culture transmitted and legitimized by school. School practices exacerbating inequalities include:

• Classification or clustering into homogeneous groups based on class, activities, etc.

• Diagnosis and evaluation through culturally inappropriate tests, associating minority language with cognitive deficits.

• Inflexible methodology/curriculum objectives and styles inappropriate to student variety and cognitive/affective needs.

• Organization of space/time, with lack of facilities for extracurricular activities and inflexible schedules for minority needs.

• Low participation of students and families in developing standards of conduct, excluding minority traditions from school.

4. Diagnosis and Evaluation

Student ability is often subjectively diagnosed through indicators such as physical appearance, language, and social factors, without considering emotional and cultural variables affecting minority students’ educational performance. Positive factors include:

• Positive self-image and relation to their cultural group.

• Understanding and ability to handle racism.

• Realistic self-assessment (minority students believing successes are due to external causes).

• Perceived control over their lives and long-term goals.goals.

• Families with high expectations for its results.

• Sense of belonging and critical thinking.

• Linking to the home community and participation in extracurricular activities.

• Knowledge and interests beyond the academic

5 – Social mediation intercultural

Social mediation is understood as involving a third party to assist disputing parties. This mediation depends on the level to which the variant incorporates cultural (ethnic, religious, etc.) Or party (the mediator culture, content of the conflict …).

Basic features expected of a social mediator are:

• Be aware of your own values, prejudices … (Self-analysis).

• Manage a broad concept of culture.

• Possess knowledge of the working groups.

• Understanding the parties between which half, keeping fairness.

• Knowing the context and available resources, and suggest appropriate to each case.

• Master conflict resolution techniques.

• Avoid taking cultural relativism of human rights (respect is not equal to “anything goes”).

One of the pioneer programs in the social mediation training in Spain is the School of Social Mediators for Immigration (EMSI) 1995, which aims to build spaces in which cultural exchange is possible, is the focus of educational activity.

SUMMARY 9 – SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SEX AND GENDER

1 – Ontogenesis of sexual difference

The sex and gender studies have been conducted from different perspectives and fields. In various investigations have been addressed seek and justify differences in relation to sex and gender in biological, temperament, motivation, attitudes and interests, intelligence … We analyzed the identity of functions and papal stereotypes gender asymmetries. Although many moments have been considered synonyms sex and gender, over time have gradually been formed as two different terms.

The word gender refers to the set of things or persons established or defined by common characteristics. From this point of view of living beings are grouped into two genders, male and female. This classification far from being arbitrary, reflects an important fact for both symbolic and general communication in society.

Every society has classified the subjects according to this measure, two sexes, which has been called sexual dimorphism, though, and to assume the number of variables that appear with a definition of sex irregular along its development, now has been taken as referring the term sexual polymorphism.

The classification is gender differentiated recent use. There is some confusion between sex and gender since both words refer to the same biological reality. They are not synonymous because they refer to realities that have aspects that overlap and other areas where there is autonomy. Both terms refer to realities suffer psychosocial evolution over the life of the subjects.

2 – Sex

Sex refers to those aspects of the individual who clearly have a biological basis and are linked to reproduction and sexuality.Sex refers to genetic, chromosomal, hormonal, or sexualizing processes that occur before birth and continue throughout the life cycle development. It refers to differences in primary and secondary sexual characteristics and reproductive capacity. The social context does so inescapable in the sexual definition of the subject, given that psychosocial characteristics of sexual definition.

3 – Gender

Gender, in contrast, is a social category, develops in the socialization process and includes those aspects that have not been shown to have biological causes. The concept of gender refers to social organization that is based on sexual difference and human reproduction. The gender system is a complex system of relationships and cultural processes that articulate a distinctive profile which gives a historical and geographical variability. Every moment of history has given substance to the role of gender and it varies in different societies.

The confusion between sex and gender is present because there are aspects of both systems are the result of a complex interaction between biological and social influences. Sex and Gender are two sides a natural and biological, social the other, of the same reality.

The definition of gender includes those non-physiological components of sex that every culture is appropriate for men or women. Gender is a social label that distinguishes two groups of people and whose components are learned relatively independently of the biological information behind them. Gender as a social construct is formalized through cultural representations of sex differences. The company defines the genre through norms of the masculine and feminine. Gender identity creates a subjective and reflects the power relations between men and women.

On the basis of sexual difference, derived from a distinct biology, gender focuses on the social construction of difference.

4 – Sex and intelligence

• Evolutionary theory. Comparative analysis of different groups and sex with other variables. Establishing the complementarity of the psychological functions of women to men from morphism. The difference is necessary to defend evolution and natural selection. Is justified the inferiority of women in the tasks considered intellectuals. For Darwin the change / difference in the evolution acts. The man is considered as a factor of progress. The feature that was addressed assess the differences between the sexes was the intelligence, through psychometric measures.

• Functionalist period. Found differences between the brains of women and the male, the woman’s lower on average, which served as justification for inferiority in temperament and intelligence. Galton argued the inferiority of women in all intellectual abilities. To this was added the idea of maternal instinct, her influence on women and the evils of education for them. This justified the separation of women from all over the intellectual.

• Environmentalist Theory. In opposition to the various biological theories from them sought the source of differences in environmental conditions.

• Factorial studies. Variables not only intelligence, but also personality and temperament, conducted studies that were reviewed a multitude of investigations, to draw from the results of the psychological aspects in which one could speak of real differences. The review of the research was previously classified according to their results showed:

• differences clearly identified and well established
  • no significant differences or mixed results
  • beliefs widespread but unsubstantiated

ABSTRACT 10 – COOPERATION AND COMPETITION

1 – Competition

When analyzing the relationships between groups, one finds that prejudice is inherent in the human mind. The subject lives immersed in different social groups compete for social and economic resources. Competition among groups is necessary and sufficient condition for the attainment of conflict and discrimination. In these competitive situations occurs following sequence:

• Intragroup cohesion: building links of attraction between the members of the group. These ties are strengthened perceived as similar to the ingroup and increasing competition with outgroups.
• Appearance of discrimination and rejection of other groups: appearance of bias.

To overcome the prejudice is required to appear common and important goals for both groups and whose attainment depends on the collaboration. When models of intervention which aim to encourage prosocial behavior, taking into account the cooperative activities / competitive. In normal subjects prefer competitive activities and even if not reflected the competitiveness comes naturally. By contrast, cooperative behavior should be encouraged to occur.

Even in those cases where the groups are the result of arbitrary choices of components, each group:

• Maximize the differences.
• Make an assessment that compensates for the actions of their own group against others.
• Attributed to other groups negative qualities
• Rate the performances of other groups less favorably.
• The subjects show less desire to interact with members of other groups with their own.

The mere division into groups brings up such hostile responses. There is evidence that basic processes that contribute to conflict between groups, which must be added those arising from cultural differences and stereotypes that apply to these groups.

2 – Equal status

The status is related to power differences and these differences can threaten the identity of the group and increase competition. Refers to the external characteristics of the participants and the situation that leads to define equality of roles and responsibilities within the group:

• The most powerful groups have more prejudice.
• Groups with low status are seeking ways to change the way they are assigned the status when they perceive that this assignment is illegitimate.
• The groups of equal status, have more prejudice when perceived as stable status and seek ways to assign the group a higher status.

The form of group assignment

• No distribution based on external characteristics in groups, because they reinforce stereotypes and therefore categories.
• Must be balanced and avoid any minority group around him within a group.
• Frequent restructuring of the groups to vary the experience, multiple crossings between members of different groups.

The allocation of roles within the group

• There are groups in which roles are assigned identical, so the results of this type of group are the sum of the results of the members.
• When activities are more complex and require division of labor might happen: the deal meets external categories or status and / or leadership and they appear seek to increase their level.
• The optimal situation is one where the roles are similar in terms of opportunities to participate in team members and participate in their results.

Maintaining the balance social identity – personal identity

• If social identity is weakened or threatened begin prejudice.
• If personal identity is threatened can reduce group interaction.

3 – Effects of competition versus cooperation

To achieve success, contact between groups must be done through activities that require cooperative interdependence:

• Important and shared common goals.
• Equal and shared rewards.
• Achieving a shared social identity, of the total group, the distinction between the groups after (must be strengthened both the identity of each individual, but is weakened and, among other things decreases the interest in the activity)
• Sharing responsibility: the objectives can not be achieved only when all the groups act together. Each group depends on the other.

Cooperation produces a lower motivation than competition, since it is an extrinsically motivated behavior. Thecooperative interaction can be contrasted with the competitive interaction in which the subjects were opposed to each other, trying to obstruct and frustrate the efforts of the other or non-interaction in which the subjects were unaware of each other. The partnership is given:

• More effective communication between members and between groups.
• Verbalize as many ideas and are more accepted in the ideas of others.
• Greater coordination of effort, better division of labor, and increased productivity.
• Increased knowledge on a personal level. Improving relationships and prosocial behaviors.
• Greater group cohesion, best climate in the classroom.
• Interdependence to achieve goals more and more support within group
• There are fewer negative behaviors immature
• Increased self-esteem and improved relations
• Intergroup Conflict Reduction
• Less than unpopular children misconduct