Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2022
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/6th.rssconf.2022.10.012
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The Effect of Prejudice and Stereotypes on Communication and Social Perception at the Start of the Academic Studies
Dr. Juliana Zaharia
ABSTRACT:
Research on prejudice and stereotypes analyzes associations with negative feelings and attitudes, expressed in the form of verbal aggression, humiliation or exclusion, as profoundly detrimental to social perception. Based on the belief that the university is an important setting for knowledge acquisition and intellectual growth, the study is conducted with the aim of understanding and evaluating the effect of prejudice and stereotypes in communication, where in particular, in the perceptions and feelings of the students during their first encounters at the start of their university studies. The construct of independent and dependent variables, which found concepts in the literature and research dimensions of prejudice and stereotyping, is tested through primary and secondary data collected following the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaires covered 307 respondents (n = 307), randomly selected among students enrolled in the first two years of Bachelor studies at the University of Tirana “Nënë Tereza”. Secondary data collected from interviews and focus groups in different academic settings completed an empirically tested assessment of the effect of bias-based stereotypes related to different forms of expression. The findings of the study underscore the demand for revision of knowledge transfer mechanisms with a focus on improving students’ ability to communicate, interact and build relationships.
Keywords: university settings, prejudice, stereotypes, communication, social perception.