Acknowledging Bias and Stereotypes

Dr. Anna Marie Frank

DePaul University

AAHPERD April 1, 2014

Overview• PETE student or practicing physical education

teacher (PPET), our biases are easily uncovered

by our students as part of our hidden curriculum

• Unconscious support for the continuation of

stereotyping

• Ineffective teaching-learning process

• Identification is the first step to dismantling

negative stereotyping/bias

Content• PETE student may experience difference for the first

time on the college campus.

• PPET will regularly encounter new students, often of

different cultures

• Activities to help identify bias and stereotyping

should be used early and often

• Acknowledge that stereotypes are integral to the

way our minds process information, pervasive,

predictability, can be positive or negative, can be

partly true but have consequences.

Understanding Prejudice • Welcome to UnderstandingPrejudice.org , a web site for

students, teachers, and others interested in the causes and

consequences of prejudice.

• In these pages you will find more than 2,000 links to

prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases

with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice

organizations.

• To the right, you'll also find a variety of interactive exercises

offering unique perspectives on prejudice, stereotyping, and

discrimination.

Understanding Prejudice• Pretest prior to completing the

workshops/engaging in the website, then

repeat to see how answers change

• Provides current level of bias on a certain

item

• Be interviewed and asked questions/discuss

when you should “draw the line”

“My father sincerely believes that science is a

political plot, Christians are the most persecuted

minority and Barack Obama is a full blown

communist. He supports the use of force without

question, as long as it’s aimed at foreigners. He

thinks all liberals are stupid, who hate America. I

don’t recall my father being so hostile when I was

growing up. What has changed him? He consumes

a daily diet of nothing but *** News. . . We are

losing the nation’s grandparents, and it’s an

American tragedy”.

Journalistic Approach

• Overcoming Bias: A Journalist’s Guide to Culture

& Content, S. E. Christian 2012, HHP.

• Project Implicit projectimplicit.net

• Gauge your implicit associations about

characteristics: presidents, Asians, Arab-Muslims,

skin-tone, gender, Native Americans, age, race,

weight, religion, gender-career or disability.

Project Implicit results

Asks you to make choices quickly and tried to

measure how much you rely on implicit

associations to make the decisions.

Declares that you have a slight, moderate or

strong preference or little to no preference for

the characteristic (white or black people) you

are interested in.

Social Attitude Survey

• To better understand how your culture

has shaped your thinking about others.

• Results

– Identify at least one question that was

particularly uncomfortable because your

answer didn’t seem socially acceptable.

– Discuss in small safe groups

Social Dominance Orientation Scale• Describes a general attitude toward others,

toward social groups and one's regard for

the various groups’ implicit value.

• Measures the extent to which a person

desires his or her own social in-group to

dominate and be superior to out-groups.

• General attitudinal orientation toward

relationships between groups and the

policies and structures that support …isms.

1=Very Negative 2=Negative 3=Slightly Negative 4=Neither 5=Slightly Positive 6-Positive

7=Very Positive

• 1. Some groups of people are simply not the equals of others.

• 2. Some people are just more worthy than others.

• 3. This country would be better off if we cared less about how equal all people were. 

• 4. Some people are just more deserving than others. 

• 5. It is not a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others.

• 6. Some people are just inferior to other 

• 7. To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on others.

• 8. Increased economic equality

• 9. Increased social equality 

• 10. Equality.

• 11. If people were treated more equally we would have fewer problems in this country.

• 12. In an ideal world, all nations would be equal

• 13. We should try to treat one another as equals as much as possible. (All humans should

be treated equally.)

• 14. It is important that we treat other countries as equals.

Category Width Questionnaire

• Category width refers to how broadly a

person categorizes things.

– Broad categorizers are tolerant and search for

appropriate information rather than making

uninformed judgments.

– Narrow categorizers are unaccepting of

conflicting information and en to make

judgments based on their own cultural

viewpoint.

1. I do well on tasks that require integrated information processing.

2. I do well on tasks that require detailed information processing.

3. Things can be very dissimilar and share a common quality and I

will use the same label to describe it.

4. I make strong judgments about others.

5. I do well on tasks that require holistic information processing.

6. I am confident that I perform well in social situations.

7. I try to make sure I have sufficient information before judging

others.

8. I do well on tasks that require analytic information processing.

9. I try to obtain a lot of information before making a decision.

10. I react strongly to change.

Uncertainty Orientation Questionnaire

• Uncertainty oriented individuals have a need

to understand others, are open minded and

evaluate ideas on their own merit.

• Certainty-oriented individuals are not

interested in finding our information about the

world and others and are confident in their

ability to explain the behaviors of strangers.

• I do not compare myself to others

• If given a choice, I prefer to go somewhere new rather than

somewhere I’ve been before.

• I reject ideas that are different than mine.

• I try to resolve inconsistencies in beliefs I hold.

• I am not interested in finding out information about myself.

• When I obtain new information, I try to integrate it with

information I already have.

• I hold traditional beliefs.

• I evaluate people on their own merit without comparing them to

others.

• I hole inconsistent views of myself.

• If someone suggests an opinion that is different than mine, I do

not reject it before I consider it.

Generative Knowledge Interviewing

• Groups of 3-one story teller and 2 listeners

• Tell a story of when you felt different or the

concept of difference

• Listeners can not agree or talk about their

related experience.

• Take notes when they hear a “red flag”-can

ask for clarification or to ask probing

questions about what there are hearing.

Closure & Questions

• I am Other

• Seek to decrease others as what they

are and increase the way we see others

as who they are.

• Comments?

• Questions?