Transcript Chapter 3 Social Categorizations and Stereotypes Prepared by S. Saterfield from Whitley & Kite, “The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination”, 2006 Social Categorization and.

Chapter 3
Social Categorizations
and Stereotypes
Prepared by S. Saterfield from Whitley & Kite, “The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination”, 2006
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Effective Information Processing
– Must process information for survival making
quick decisions about people and objects
allows perceivers to move ahead
– Challenge is to strike a balance between
efficiency and accuracy
• Social Judgment Process
– Categories used must often
– How do people develop these categories
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Seeing the world in two categories
We and them
• Tendency perpetuates stereotypic
judgment and prejudice
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Categorization—is term psychologist
use for the process of simplifying the
environment by creating categories on
basis of characteristics (such as hair color
or athletic ability) that a particular set of
people appear to have in common
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Social Group—thought this process of
categorization people places others and
themselves into categories
– People develop beliefs
– Use beliefs to guide their future interactions
with individual social groups
– People use categories to make judgments
about other people on a daily basis
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Understanding the
categorization process is
fundamental to understanding
stereotypoing and prejudice
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Stereotypes—belongs to a
categories called SCHEMAS
– Cognitive structures that contain a
person’s knowledge and belief’s about a
particular object or social group
– Influence the perceiver's acquisition and
interpretation of information about members
of social groups
– Sets up expectations for how members of
social groups will act
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Two aspects of categorizations to understand
Prejudice
– Contents Schema of people’s stereotypic beliefs
• Association across time or group members
• Factors that make content vary
– Process Schema by which people form and use
social categories
• How are they represented in memory?
• How & when are these representations retrieved and
utilized?
• What motivations and biases influence the process?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• People remember information in terms of
general principles rather than specific
individual facts
• People fill in the blanks or memory with
what their experiences and beliefs tell
them should be there
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Types of Categorization
– Basic social category—which a wealth of
information is available in memory
• Race, age, gender
• Use information to draw conclusions about
person’s traits, social role, and physical
characteristics
• All basic categories have “privilege” status:
information about them is readily available to
perceivers.
– Other social categories
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Other social categories
– Physically attractive people are treated
differently
– People are categorized based on
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sexual orientation
Religion
Weight
Disability status
Skin tone or hair color
Nationality
Common stereotypes
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• People attend to demeanor, making snap
judgments about people based on
nonverbal cues such as facial
expressions, posture, and gait
• Judgments can be based on color, black
and white moral virtues, ascribed to good
and bad guys or athletics.
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• People’s use of commonplace expressions
that convey stereotypic information about
ethnic groups or nationalities.
• From a paper represented at the meeting
of the American Psychological Association
(APA), 15 common expressions were
presented to report positive or negative
these expressions were believed to be.
• Let’s see you beliefs
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Welsh on a bet:
To cheat by failing to pay a gambling debt
(you aren’t going to welsh on me, are
your?) To go back on one’s word (he
welshed on his promise )
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Dutch Treat:
A meal or entertainment for which each
person pays his or her own expenses
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Indian giver:
A person who gives a gift and the takes it
back.
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Jew down a price:
To bargain sharply with, beat down a price.
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Get your Irish up:
To become angry or outraged (don’t get your
Irish up over a little matter like that).
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Ugly American:
Of or pertaining to the United states or its
inhabitants. Ugly: Disagreeable;
unpleasan; objectionable
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Excuse my French:
Links the French Language with negative
language
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Got Gypped:
To defraud or rob by some sharp practice
• Positive or swindle; cheat. From
relationship to Gypsy
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Chinese Fire Drill:
A state of chaotic, often clamorous disorder
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Get off Scot Free:
No consequences or payment. Related to
use of Scotch as frugal and thrifty,
sometimes in an offensive way.
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Barbarian:
A person living outside; a person not living in
a Christian country or within a Christian
civilization
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Jewish American Princess:
A pampered young Jewish women,
especially one who takes material
advantages for granted
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• Mexican Stand Off:
A stalemate, a confrontation that neither side
can win. Originally an American cowboy
expression describing a gun battle wit no
clear winner
• Positive or Negative?
Social Categorization and Stereotypes
• My Nigga:
A shortening of the word Nigger to show
endearment to others. Usually used by
members of a social group, however has
garnered acceptance for anyone who
embraces the rap culture.
• Positive or Negative?