Organizer #3: Stereotypes

Answer the following questions about stereotypes with your group or on your own, depending on your teacher's instructions.

1. Jot down your feelings about these groups:

• vegetarians
  
  
  
• people who wear yarmulkes (skullcaps)
  
  
  
• students who sport punk-style haircuts
  
  
  
• skinhead students
  
  
  
• students who wear gold chains around their necks
  
  
  
• students who carry large stereo radios
  
  
  
• students with orange hair
  
  
  

Discuss your responses with the rest of the class. What do you really believe, and what do you know from factual experience? Have you used any classic stereotypical terms to describe these groups? How easy or hard is it to make stereotypical comments?


2. Now jot down characteristics of these particular groups:

• African-Americans
  
  
  
• Jews
  
  
  
• rich people, or people perceived as being rich
  
  
  
• Japanese, or any other Asian group
  
  
  
• Hispanics
  
  
  
• athletes
  
  
  
• obese people
  
  
  
• homosexuals
  
  
  
• politicians
  
  
  
• teachers
  
  
  

Discuss your responses with the rest of the class. What do you really believe, and what do you know from factual experience? Have you used any classic stereotypical terms to describe these groups? How easy or hard is it to make stereotypical comments?


3. What is a stereotype?

• What are examples of positive and negative stereotypes?
  
  
  
• Where do stereotypes come from?
  
  
  
• When do stereotypes hurt?
  
  
  
• When are stereotypes helpful?
  
  
  
• Describe an experience when you felt hurt or helped by a stereotype.
  
  
  

Definitions of stereotypes

• In fiction or drama, a character who lacks individuality, having no traits except the most obvious and expected of the group to which he or she belongs.
  
  
• A structured set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of individuals or a group of people. Structure here is important, since in theoretical and empirical analyses of stereotypes overwhelmingly consider them to be cognitive structures that shape perceptions of people.
  
  
• A positive or negative set of beliefs held by an individual about the characteristics of a group of people. It varies in its accuracy and the extent to which others share the set of beliefs. Stereotyping is the process by which an individual employs a stereotypical belief in the evaluation of or behavior toward a member of a stereotyped group.
  
  
• Literally, a stereotype is a block used in printing. Identical images can be made from the same block. In literature, the henpecked husband is a stereotype; so are the shrewd detective and the perfect butler. Because of their dullness, stereotyped characters sometimes represent a fault in a story.

A brief history of the term "stereotype":

1798 -- The term is coined by French painter Didot to describe a printing process involving the fixed use of casts of material to be reproduced.

Late 1800s/early 1900s -- Psychiatrists begin to use the term "stereotype" to denote a pathological condition characterized by behavior of persistent repetitiveness and unchanging mode of expression.

1922 -- Publication of W. Lippmann's PUBLIC OPINION brings the term "stereotype" to the attention of social scientists.