Three major categories of prejudice have been identified in this article: Conscious/Intentional, Conscious/Unintentional, and Unconscious/Unintentional. Prejudice plays a large role in the development of our children, and through exposure to and understanding of the development of prejudice, the strength that it holds can be understood and diminished.
Prejudice is both a rational and an irrational attitude. It is rational in the sense that it allows the person manifesting it to cover inadequacies by calling attention to another person or group. The targeted group is usually one that deviates from the criteria of appearance and behavior that the dominant group ranks as ideal. With these criteria, all other groups can be ranked by comparison with the dominant group. When the dominant group incorporates the devaluation of the lower ranking groups into religion, mass media, and the law, then that belief is viewed as morally correct. Therefore, anyone who deviates from the reference group is considered deserving of maltreatment. In some cases, the proponent of prejudice even seems brave when reinforced by other groups who display similar behavior. Prejudice is also irrational because it is a conclusion about an entire group or race based only on observations of individuals within that group. The result of this generalization is an attitude of hostility for an individual, a group, sex, or race that results in different treatment based on other than individual merit.
Allport (1979) defined prejudice as the following: An antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization. It may be felt or expressed. It may be directed toward a group as a whole, or toward Clword Carter is an associate professor and C . Lynne Rice is a graduate student, both in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services in the College of Education at