PSYC 308 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Social Psychology, Serotype, Stereotype Threat
Document Summary
An attitude toward people in a distinguishable group, based solely on their membership in that group. Affect positive or negative emotional reactions to some group/category target. Mental associations with regards to different social categories /targets. Stereotypes =a generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regard- less of actual variation among the members. Once formed, stereotypes are resistant to change on the basis of new information. It is important to point out that stereotyping does not necessarily lead to negative or harmful behaviors, often stereotyping is merely a way to simplify how we look at the world-and we all do it to some extent. Stereotypes issues: ignores individual variation: if a stereotype blinds us to individual differences within a class of people, it is maladaptive and unfair, and can lead to discrimination. incorrect initial estimate: often due to exposure to non-representative sample.
