Stereotypes

Stereotypes

A stereotype is a preconceived notion or set of notions that a person applies to a specific group of people, situations, or places. According to social psychology, a stereotype is a fixed and overgeneralized belief about a specific group of people. Therefore, by stereotyping, one infers that if an individual from a particular group has a whole range of characteristics and abilities, then one assumes that all other members of that group also have those attributes (Pickering, 2007). There are different types of stereotypes, and they can all be broadly categorized into two groups: implicit and explicit stereotypes. While a few stereotypes may be positive, most of them are negative and lead to adverse effects on the people generalized. Our assignment writing help is at affordable prices to students of all academic levels and academic disciplines.

Implicit stereotypes are based on unconscious thoughts. Individuals hold these stereotypes without really thinking about them, for example, thinking that one racial group is more intelligent than others or that they are more athletic than other races (Nosek et al., 2007). These stereotypes are hard to point out. Examples of implicit stereotypes include race stereotypes, like the saying that most black students in college got there because of athletic scholarships and not academics because black people are more athletic than all other races. Another implicit stereotype is a religious, ethnic, and moral stereotype. For example, thinking that most Muslims are terrorists or that Jews are inferior, like what happened during World War II are good examples of religious, ethnic, and moral stereotypes.

On the other hand, explicit stereotypes are stereotypes that an individual firmly believes and is completely aware of. Unlike implicit stereotypes, whereby once pointed out, an individual becomes aware of their mistakes, any explicit stereotypes a person has are broadly incorporated into their worldviews (Nosek et al., 2007). In addition, any implicit stereotype can also be explicit, depending on the individual’s beliefs. Some examples of common explicit stereotypes include gender stereotypes, for example, when an individual believes that men can only perform some jobs like garbage collection or operation of machinery. The second example of gender stereotyping is when society expects women to be married or have children at a certain age. Another explicit stereotype is a racial stereotype where one believes that one race is superior to others. Further examples of explicit stereotypes include sexuality, religion, and ethnicity stereotypes.

Negative stereotypes like saying African Americans are more violent or that Latino people are lazy are generalizations that mostly happen due to the exposure one has to a few individuals in the targeted group. For example, most news broadcasts tend to depict areas with a large percentage of African Americans as violent and unsafe; this creates the notion that black people are violent. This stereotype is one of the most prevalent ones in America, and as such, other races have come to associate black people with violence.

Stereotyping and Exaggerations

Notably, it is common knowledge that stereotypes tend to exaggerate things said about a group. Since groups are likely to be defined by the attributes that differentiate them from one another, the most accessible features of a stereotype normally tend to overstress group differences (Eyal & Epley, 2017). This is because these are the characteristics that individuals recognize to differ most strongly amongst groups. Therefore, one can conclude that the attributes that are easily accessible when discerning racial groups, for instance, will exaggerate real group differences. In contrast, those that are not easily accessible will be unlikely to exaggerate dissimilarities.

True Aspects of Stereotypes

When it comes to stereotypes, I believe that most positive stereotypes are true; for example, the stereotypes that Asians are intelligent and good at math are true. A study conducted in 2019 across 132 nations showed that China came out top as the smartest country with an average IQ of 104.1 (Lynn & Becker, 2019). Also, stereotypes based on environmental factors tend to be true. For example, most African American children tend to engage themselves in sports, especially basketball, when they are at home or school; therefore, concluding that one is an athlete based on their most likely environmental scenario is valid. However, one should not just assume right away; rather, making an educated guess is prudent.

My Perspective on Stereotypes

Looking at the stereotypes I have seen, my perspective is that those individuals did not know better. There are various ways that stereotypes are formed, and sometimes, they are formed based on the environment in which one is raised through a personal experience or their social circles. Without much interaction with a group that is different from who we are, we tend to rely on what we hear about them to draw conclusions about who they are. Therefore, even if some stereotypes I have seen are prejudicial, I believe that those individuals were just ignorant and close-minded, which is something that can be changed through more exposure, interactions, and awareness.

References

Eyal, T., & Epley, N. (2017). Exaggerating accessible differences: When gender stereotypes overestimate actual group differences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(9), 1323-1336.

Lynn, R., & Becker, D. (2019). The intelligence of nations. London, UK: Ulster Institute for Social Research.

Nosek, B. A., Smyth, F. L., Hansen, J. J., Devos, T., Lindner, N. M., Ranganath, K. A., … & Banaji, M. R. (2007). Pervasiveness and correlates of implicit attitudes and stereotypes. European Review of Social Psychology, 18(1), 36-88.

Pickering, M. (2007). Stereotyping and stereotypes. The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology

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Stereotypes
Think back to the stereotypes that you have seen in the past. For the assignment this week, write a 750 (or more) word, APA-style paper (with the abstract page) that addresses the following:
· List a few of the stereotypes or types of stereotypes.

Stereotypes

· In what ways do they exaggerate the group?
· What aspects do you believe are true?
· Why do you believe they are true?
· Think back to the stereotypes that you have seen in the past.
· What is your perspective of people who used those stereotypes?