Social psych - Essay Example

In this study, the participants were presented with stimuli such as exposure to positive Black situations and negative White situations. The participants’ perceptions were then assessed before the stimuli and a day after the presentation. The results of the experiment that participants who were subjected to “positive Black and negative white” situations had lesser level of prejudice but their “explicit racial prejudice” remained the same. President Obama can be regarded as positive African American example, and his electoral win could effect change on attitudes toward African Americans.

This is the presumption and has to be proven through a review of the literature and of past experiments by researchers. But the literature cited in Bernstein et al (2010) also cited that stereotypes and prejudices do not succumb to change so easily (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990 cited in Bernstein et al, 2010), which could lead to the conclusion that Obama’s electoral victory may not change people’s perception after all. Or, there could be varied perceptions and attitude change as a result of the election.

But the authors also cited that there could be positive attitude change with Obama’s electoral victory. 3. General methodology Bernstein and associates (2010) conducted a research study on 40 undergraduates of psychology, performed on two sessions to represent the pre-election and post-election periods. It was therefore divided into Time 1 and Time 2, to design two attitudes for explicit and implicit. The first period was completed during the seven days before election. The participants were made to complete a test known as “Attitudes Towards Black” (Brigham, 1993 cited in Bernstein et al, 2010).

The scale was marked on 1-7, and statements were addressed on perceptions of prejudice or equality towards Black people. Example: “Black and white people are created equal.” Following this, participants were also made to complete the “Implicit Association Task”, which is about evaluations on social categories. The participants were also evaluated using the “Implicit Racial Bias” test. 4. Basic results The results were analysed by determining the implicit prejudice, which was done by subtracting “the average response latency on compatible trials from the incompatible trials” (Bernstein et al. 2010). The IAT result stated that if there was a big different in the score, called the IAT effect, the participants had greater bias towards Whites as against Blacks.

This was compared with the results after the election in which a t-test sample was obtained on the IAT result. It was found that the IAT effect was smaller after the election; meaning the IAT effect was reduced after Obama’s electoral victory. The stats revealed that the mean and standard deviation are M = 330.35, SD = 219.93, after the election, compared to M = 494.70, SD = 307.95, before the election. 5. Major conclusions One of the striking results of the study by Bernstein et al (2010) is that implicit associations changed while the explicit prejudice changed, after the election in which Obama had a commanding victory.

President Obama’s victory changed the perceptions of the general population towards African Americans. President Obama’