NOTES - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF STEREOTYPING

Stereotypes

dialogue: A dialogue between a psychologist and a random person discussing the meaning

of stereotypes and how can these be eliminated.

- Stereotypes have been around as long as social science itself

- stereotypes have always been seen negatively and they are hard to get rid of, as

once they are set they can’t be eliminated

- People consider themselves to be the “victims” of stereotypes as they are negatively

affected by them.

- People act differently in different situations depending on the stereotypes they have

- Stereotypes are not idealizations or statements about an individual that belong to a

group, stereotypes are comparisons people make between two different groups.

- Stereotypes can be both positive or negative, as one stereotype such as brunette

girls being smarter, can be seen positively by a group of brunette girls but it would be

seen negatively by a blonde group of girls.

History of stereotypes (pg 8)

- stereotypes stand for solid models. When they are applied to people, stereotypes are

rigid and affect them in a tough way if they share the characteristics

- first used in 1824 referring to formalized behavior (Gordon, 1962; Rudmin, 1989)

Definitions

- There is no real knowledge of what exactly stereotypes are.

- Some definitions (pg18):

- "a fixed impression which conforms very little to the facts it pretends to

represent and results from our defining first and observing second" (Katz

&Braly, 1935, p. 181).

are influential in determining one's response to the stimulus" (Edwards, 1940,

pp. 357-358).

- "Whether favorable or unfavorable, a stereotype is an exaggerated belief

associated with a category. Its function is to justify (rationalize) our conduct in

relation to that category" (Allport, 1954, p. 187).

- "a collection of trait-names upon which a large percentage of people agree as

appropriate for describing some class of individuals* (Vinacke, 1957, p. 230).

- "Stereotyping has three characteristics: the categorization of persons, a

consensus on attributed traits, and a discrepancy between attributed traits

and actual traits" (Secord & Backman, 1964, p. 66).

- *a belief that is simple, inadequately grounded, or at least partially inaccurate,

and held with considerable assurance by many people" (Harding et al.,1969,

p. 4).

- "An ethnic stereotype is a generalization made about an ethnic group

concerning a trait attribution, which is considered to be unjustified by an

observer"(Brigham, 197la, p. 29).

- "A stereotype refers to those folk beliefs about the attributes characterizing a

social category on which there is substantial agreement" (Mackie, 1973,

p.435).

- "A structured set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people"

(Ashmore & Del Boca. 1979, p. 222).

- "those generalizations about a class of people that distinguish that class from

others" (McCauley, Stitt, & Segal, 1980, p. 197).

- "sets of traits attributed to social groups" (Stephan, 1985, p. 600).

These definitions disagree in 3 different aspects. the frist one is that stereotypes are

generally inaccurate. The second one is that stereotypes are bad both in the process of the

creation of the stereotypes and the consequences these have. The torrid one is that a single

person can create stereotypes based on their beliefs, therefore they are not based on many

different people.
Are stereotypes bad?

- Stereotypes are generalizations taken too seriously

- Many traits can be seen as positive in some situations and as negative in others.

- Stereotypes are also perceived as bad assumptions as they result from faulty

reasoning processes - people are letting their cultures think for them leading to the

creation of - also stereotypes used by prejudiced people then it can be concluded

that stereotypes are based and supported by prejudice, supporting the theory that

these are bad.

- Stereotypes have not been a result of rational or good cognitive processes.

Gender

- Gender stereotypes are multifaceted and complex

- “science and math are stll seen as masculine disciplines, while arts and the

humanities are seen as more feminine.

- Occupations wave always ben gender-stereotyped nd continue to be so.

- Hard to see a male secretarie and a female struction worker.

- Even perfumes are considered to be gender-stereotyped

- Males are seen as the ones who earn more money whereas the women are

more involved with household and taking care of the children

- Stereotyped for females and males are based on many different aspects such as

appearance, interests, behaviours, traits, skills and abilities.

- Deux and Lewis (1984) did a study in which they stated that people have a moderate

perception correlations about latove femininity and masculinity across a number of

these areas.

- Recent studies state that females are evaluated in a much positive way that males by

both male and female subjects (Beauvaisd Spence (1987); Eagly, Mdalinic and Otto

1991; Haddock and Zanna 1994)

to stick and get used to the norms they have set for them, and woman have held

much stronger to their stereotypes than male.

- Males are perceived to be more stereptyped than females as

difference in gender strereotpyes

- Through cultures, there is a good agreement between the cultures about what traits

characterize women and males

- A study conducted by Williams and best (1982, 1990) suggest that between the

countries of America, Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand gender

stereotypes have a quite strong correlation whereas countries such as Pakistan,

Japan, Italin and French are less correlated.

- Older people have a strong gender-stereotype than young people, and gender

stereotypes and attitudes have decrease over the years (Dambrot, Papp, Whitmore,

1984)