The psychology of stereotyping

Stereotypes occur when generalities are made about certain groups or categories of people or objects. The social learning theory is responsible for explaining how stereotypes are formed. People learn stereotypes from their parents. The cognitive psychology on the categorization process gives insight as to how stereotypes are formed by children. This cognitive psychology states that when children are given a lot of things to remember, they generalize the group in order to remember it effortlessly. Children listen to the generalities that their parents make and they apply them when they age.

At a young age, children's brains absorb a vast amount of information that they hear from other people and from the media. The more people associate or involve themselves with others, the more they begin to absorb and apply their newly gathered opinions.

Conformity also leads to the creation of stereotypes. When there is a large group of people who share the same qualities and characteristics, stereotypes will be formulated easily because there are a lot of members in that particular group. When people see several members of that group everyday, the stereotypes become more concrete and evident.

Stereotypes are used because they are an easy way to decipher and recognize people. If people hear certain words, they might already know who or what is being described. However, there are some stereotypes that are worse than others. These stereotypes highlight the bad characteristics of people. People do not like to be called these terms because they are offensive. These terms are well known to other groups of people.

People do not want to remember detailed and complex words because they might forget them. Instead, those detailed and complex words are substituted with simple terms. People would rather remember 'smart' than 'intellectual'.

The coined stereotypes are not definite descriptions of groups of people and objects. Stereotypes have the potential to be inappropriate. They can be inappropriate because some give the wrong impression of people. Stereotypes are oversimplified terms, so therefore they do not apply to every single person in a group. People unfairly labeled will normally be upset because that stereotype is giving a false image of them.

In a way, the stereotype is responsible for falsifying a person's true identity. If people already have assumptions about a person, then it is possible that they will not make the effort to truly get to know that person. Stereotypes are difficult to change or erase completely. People tend not to forget simple ways to remember other people.

In order to erase a stereotype, a group of people might either have to try and get an entirely new image or the members might need to disassociate themselves from that group. People might not want to visit places that have horrible stereotypes because they often provide false impressions. In order to change the stereotype, it is best for people to visit that place.

Stereotypes exist for every group or category of person. These descriptions can have good or bad connotations, it just depends what context they are used. In order to see if a stereotype is true, it is best to truly get to know people and places.



Sources:

http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/research/tr/tr482.pdf



http://www.msu.edu/course/psy/442/stereotypes.ppt/sld004.htm