PSYC12H3 Lecture Notes - Kurt Lewin, Stereotype
Document Summary
Psyc12 chapter 2- origin and maintenance of stereotypes and prejudice. Kurt lewin, the father of modern social psychology. Categorization- stereotyping was once regarded as a sign of the moral deficiency of the stereotyper or even as a repressed unconscious hostility. That was before but now, cognitive psychologists found that the human brain seems to almost automatically classify or categorize similar objects in the environment. Stereotypes were no longer regarded as the product of lazy thinking by the uneducated or those with moral deficiencies. Most researchers now take allport"s lead and now regard to stereotypes as a natural consequence of cognition. Why we categorize- we automatically assess the person on the basis of our perception of that person"s features. Because humans have a limited capacity cognitive system that cannot simultaneously process all the available info in our social environment. We categorize people [objects, ideas] by shared features, shared time and space.
