Lesson Notes

Lesson 16.2a  Prejudice and Discrimination: It’s the Feeling That Counts

Today’s lesson focuses on two of the most hurtful feelings (thoughts and actions) that are expressed in our culture – prejudice and discrimination. You may have been the subject of either or both of these. If you have, you know how hurtful and damaging they can be. Understanding what leads people to be prejudice or discriminatory is the purpose of this section. Please be sure that you can tell the difference between prejudice and discrimination.

• Prejudice is a learned attitude towards members of a group
• Discrimination is the negative behaviour directed towards these members

Lesson 16.2b  Interpersonal Attraction: Why We Like and Love Others

The last lesson looked at some of negative views of how we feel about others. In this lesson we look at the positive view. Why are your friends, your friends? Why are we attracted to some people and not others? Why do we fall in love? These are only some of the questions that will be answered by the end of this lesson.

What do you think attracts you to other people or why other people may be attracted to you? I’m sure you could come up with a long list of qualities. But, researchers have found that there are three key factors to attraction: physical attractiveness, proximity, and similarity. Over and over again, research has shown that people are attracted to someone they believe is physically attractive (remember: beauty is in the eye of the beholder), someone who lives close to them (i.e. same city, community, or school), and finally someone who is similar to themselves (i.e. plays the same sports, likes the same movies, etc). Although there is one other factor that has been shown to be important; need complementarity. In other words, we also seek people who have qualities that we admire, but we may not possess ourselves. This may explain why so many people are attracted to movie stars or musicians.

Even though you are attracted to someone, does not mean that you will fall in love with them. You will learn that there are two types of love. The first type is romantic love, which usually lasts up to 2 years. After that point, love usually becomes companionate love, which is the type of love that lasts the longest.

Some recent researchers have taken a biological viewpoint to attraction. Psychologists have been looking at the affects of pheromones on attraction. Pheromones are the natural odours secreted by animals and people. This theory suggests that it is our smell that attracts others. If you believe this theory, how about people who wear perfume or cologne, does this have an affect on our attraction to others?