Reaction Paper Social Psych

Reaction Paper
Austyn Trombold
Social Psychology

“Stereotypes are false or misleading generalizations about groups held in a manner that renders them largely, though not entirely, immune to counterevidence.” What we normally, think of as stereotypes involve not just any generalization about or image of a group, but widely-held and widely-recognized images of socially relevant groups- Jews as greedy, wealthy, scholarly; Blacks as violent, musical, lazy, athletic, unintelligent; women as emotional, nurturing, irrational; Asians as good at math and science, hard working, a 'model minority'; Irish as drinking too much; English as snooty, and so forth. When we say that there is a stereotype of group X, we generally refer to the recognizable presence in a certain socio cultural context of prominent images of that group-more precisely, of associations between a group label and a set of characteristics. These stereotypes are widely held by persons in the culture or society in question, and widely recognized by persona who may not themselves hold the stereotype. For example, when I first watched the popular American movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I was twelve years old and distinctly remember the images of the Chinese character in the film as having big buckteeth, barely being able to speak English and of being uptight and grouchy. The character represented the American cultural stereotype of Asians. The images depict the group in a demeaning and insulting manner and are more like the visual, equivalent of an ethnic slur. Stereotypes however do not always have to be formed by cultural or societal views. Individuals can create a stereotype based purely on personal experience. For example, I traveled to South America with a friend last year. While we were there numerous Latin men hit her on, some of them were fairly aggressively. Despite her attempts to show a lack of interest and turn down the gestures, the men were persistent. She developed a judgment of Latin men as sexually aggressive. She developed the negative attitudes we often associate with stereotyping-hostility, prejudice, dislike, and so on. Her stereotype was formulated solely on her personal experience. This individual approach is much more conceivable in regards to prejudice than stereotyping. The two are closely linked in popular thinking, and the psychological study of stereotypes does contribute to an understanding of prejudice (and vice versa). The link is evident. People who are prejudiced against a group generally hold negative stereotypes of that group. If you break down the word prejudice, it is Pre Judgment, meaning a preconceived judgment or opinion or an adverse opinion formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. Prejudice can also be an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics. As an attitude, prejudice can function as a schema for organizing information about members of a group. Information that is consistent with our prejudices (rather than inconsistent) tends to receive more attention, is rehearsed more frequently, and is more likely to be remembered. Even though prejudice can be positive or negative, let's focus on the negative since that is what it is most associated with. Prejudice involves negative feelings when they are in the presence of, or even think about, members of the group. Prejudice often involves stereotypes, suggesting that all members of a group behave in certain ways and have certain characteristics. Therefore, prejudice has both cognitive and affective components. Affective component is the positive or negative attitude/feeling while cognitive component contains stereotypes. Prejudice and discrimination are significant and hard issues for people to solve. It takes a lot of effort, and it is also hard to control, so it is said that eliminating prejudice and discrimination is impossible. However, it does not mean that reducing the problems is impossible. There are four techniques, 'direct intergroup contact', 'social learning', 'social re-categorization' and 'cognitive interventions', and these four solutions help people reducing the problem. First, 'direct intergroup contact' is a theory that prejudice can be reduced by increased contact between groups. The idea that merely bringing members of different groups into contact with each other will erode prejudice. Second, 'social learning' means that parents or teachers, who are aware of their own prejudices and discriminations may work to modify their behavior to encourage lower levels of prejudice in children. Social re-categorization is another way of reducing these prejudices. When members of different social groups come to see themselves as members of a single social entity, their attitudes toward the former out-group members become more positive. The crucial factor is existence of a situation in which groups work together cooperatively toward shared goals. The last and most significant way to reduce prejudice is through weakening the stereotypes. “Stereotypes involve category-driven processing, thinking about others in terms of their membership in social categories or groups.” Stereotypes can be reduced if people can engage in attribute-driven processing rather than category-driven processing. This means thinking about the unique characteristics of individuals. Giving people incentive to think accurately about others or that it is important that they form an accurate impression of others are ways of encouraging this cognitive process.