Psychology and Education

Overview of Assignment: Objectification and Oppositional Identity

Earlier, you learned about stigma and privilege. Privilege results in preferential treatment, and stigma results in negative treatment. Stigma involves objectification, or treating people as if they are objects and members of a category rather than as individuals. In the 1960s, teacher, Jane Elliott, developed an exercise in her third grade classroom to teach students about discrimination as you saw in the video clip. She used discrimination as the overarching term. Here discrimination includes objectification, stigma, and privilege. When people encounter discrimination, they may redefine their identity. In this Discussion, you will consider how identity can be redefined as a result of objectification. In addition, you will address the concept of oppositional identity which occurs when individuals embrace the way they are objectified and act in a way that reinforces the objectification.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the “Framework Essay” in Section I in the course text and the article “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” Pay particular attention to the discussion regarding objectification and oppositional identity.

• Review the Frontline video clip “A Class Divided.” Look for examples of objectification and oppositional identity in the clip.

• Consider how objectification and oppositional identity influenced students in Jane Elliott’s exercise to redefine their racial and ethnic identitites.

The Assignment: 1-page, APA style format, No Plagiarism and must be cited with references. Thank you

Write (1). One example of objectification in “A Class Divided.” (2). Then post one example of oppositional identity in “A Class Divided.” (3). Explain how objectification and oppositional identity influenced students to redefine their racial and ethnic identities.