Discrimination: What it is and how to cope For many people, discrimination is an everyday reality Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, or sexual orientation
Racism, bias, and discrimination Racism is a form of prejudice that generally includes negative emotional reactions, acceptance of negative stereotypes, and discrimination against individuals Discrimination involves negative, hostile, and injurious treatment of members of rejected groups
Talking to kids about discrimination Talking to kids about the subject can be especially daunting People can be discriminated against for any number of reasons, including age, gender, weight, religion, income level, disability, sexual orientation, and race or ethnicity According to the 2015 APA Stress in America Survey, most Americans feel they have experienced discrimination
Male gender bias deters men from some career paths Men are less likely to seek careers in early education and some other fields traditionally associated with women because of male gender bias in those fields
Understanding ableism and negative reactions to disability Why do nondisabled people tend to hold negative attitudes toward disability and disabled persons? Ableism—prejudice and discrimination aimed at disabled people, often with a patronizing desire to “cure” their disability and make them “normal”—is one explanation Ableism, either subtly or directly, portrays individuals who are being defined by their disabilities as inherently
Discussing discrimination Gwendolyn Keita, PhD, executive director of APA’s Public Interest Directorate discusses how and why to put discrimination on the conversation agenda According to psychological research, talking openly about discrimination may threaten to unmask both conscious and unconscious belief systems about one’s own bias and prejudices