Pregledni rad

Theories and Research of Prejudice in Young Children

Jelena Maričić ; Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar

Sažetak

This article is a review of psychological knowledge about development of prejudice during childhood. The most frequently used approaches are the socio-cognitive developmental theory of prejudice and the developmental theory of social identity. While the former is more based on knowledge about cognitive aspects of development, the latter accentuates the fact that children's prejudice is a result of children's identification with their group, the fact that their group is prejudiced and the fact that there is conflict or competition between the ingroup and the outgroup.
One of the themes mentioned in this review is children's stigmatization which, except for prejudice toward members of some group, also includes dehumanization which, may endanger well-being of stigmatized group members or psychosocial development of affected children.
Concerning the fact that theories about development of prejudice in childhood are relatively small in number and also insufficient for an explanation of different types of children's prejudice, we also present in this review different theoretical approaches to prejudice in adulthood which we attempt to adjust for children's age. Among different approaches (such as personality, cognitivistic, socio-psychological and evolutionary approach), the possibilities for application of socio-psychological theories are more elaborated, especially the theory of social identity, the realistic conflict theory, the scapegoat theory and the theory of system justification. In application of approaches mentioned in explaining children's prejudice, it is necessary to accept some specific qualities of children's development, such as their need for simplification, inability of abstract thinking and smaller capability of opposition to social influences. There is a necessity for further research, which would explain different types of children's prejudice and acquaint the inner perspective of affected children.

Ključne riječi

prejudice; children prejudice; cognistic explanation of prejudice; developmental theory of social identity; stigmatisation

Hrčak ID:

39921

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/39921

Datum izdavanja:

30.6.2009.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 7.770 *