Scapegoating and the Jigsaw Puzzle Theory - Assignment Example

The in-group chooses an out-group for which to blame for perceived injustices or failures in society. According to Whitley and Kite (), the members of a dominant group in society will seek out a weaker group on which to vent out their frustrations with the general society. One of the most famous examples of the scapegoating theory was the persecution of the Jews in Germany after the financial effects of the Second World War. In this case, the dominant or in-group, the Germans, blamed the Jews for their financial insecurity, a situation that led to the massacre of up to six million Jews. This implies that frustration leads to a major form cause of prejudice in society.

Another example of this theory is found in studies conducted that indicated that the correlation between the lynching of Black Americans in the early 1900s and the reduced prices of cotton in the same period was high. This indicates that society’s frustrations were taken out on a weaker group society. Summarily, it can be said that the scapegoating and frustration theory seeks to explain the prejudice that occurs when dominant members of a society discriminate against minority members as a way of releasing pent-up frustrations. One of the best ways of reducing prejudice and discrimination among school children was developed by a psychologist called Aronson in 1971.

The theory, called the Jigsaw Puzzle Theory, was aimed at bringing together different racial groups and having them work together to reduce discrimination and prejudice. In the experiments conducted, students from different ethnic groups, both minority and dominant, were assigned into teams where they had to work collectively to succeed. One of the key features of the jigsaw puzzle theory is teamwork; where participants need to work coherently to realize a common goal.

Despite the ethnic differences among the members of the group, the students have to learn to work together to pierce the working of the puzzle. In this case, the students got to realize that individual work would not help, and that teamwork was the best way to work together (Whitley and Kite, 2009). As the experiment developed, students learned to accommodate the weaknesses of other students in the group and help them achieve their objectives. Slower students in a class also emphasize this feature of the jigsaw puzzle, where bright students would have to help them speak up and voice their teamwork. The second feature is that it is made up of people from diverse gender, ethnic backgrounds, races, and abilities which sees to it that the groups are made from diverse backgrounds hence they learn how to accommodate each other and eventually eliminate prejudice. Read More