Explain the Formation of Stereotypes and Their Effect on Behavior (Guideline)

Explain the formation of assorts and their effect on behavior (guideline) Introduction What is a Stereotype? A stereotype is a widely held mental picture that represents an oversimplified, evild, or uncritical judgment, which arouse be either a positive or negative generalization. The report of stereotypes lies in the behaviors of socio-cultural groups and/or individuals, where they determine a veritable image of particular group. Many studies have been carried out to explain the formations of stereotypes, which include Social-Cognitive Theory, Group Theory, and Social archetype Theory (Moscovici, 1973). However, I will be using Social-Cognitive Theory and studies done by Steele & Aronson (1995) and Hamilton & Gifford (1976) to support my explanation of the formation of stereotypes and their effects on behaviors. 1 Paragraph Social-Cognitive Theory suggests that, stereotype formation are ground on the following reasoning oOur favorable gentlemans gentleman is very complex a nd presents us with an overabundance of randomness oSince our capacity to process information is limited there is a need to simplify our social world oOne of the ways in which we avoid information overload is social categorization oThe categories used in social categorization are stereotypes. One source of stereotype is illusive correlations, which was claimed by Hamilton and Gifford (1976).Illusory correlation is when individuals swallow a relationship between two variables, they tend to overestimate the degree of correlation or trance a correlation where none exists. For example, women and the ability to drive well. It is believed that when we see these two variables we will break up that women cannot drive well. Once the illusory correlation is made, the individuals tend to seek, notice and remember the information that supports the belief, which brings us to our second source of stereotypes, confirmation incline. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to search for new informa tion that confirms our ideas and shake off information that contradicts what we think. By using confirmation bias we gather much evidence to support our illusory correlation. For example, when we have the illusory correlation that women cannot drive well then we will tend to find more bad female drivers while ignoring good female drivers (e. g. female race drivers). 2 paragraphs After, stereotypes are create has a major effect on the behavior of the subject of the stereotype, which is called the stereotype threat. Stereotype threat refers to the consummation impairment that results when individuals asked to carry out some task and made aware of a negative stereotype held against them regarding their groups ability to perform well in a task. Stereotype threat is cued by the mere realisation that a negative group stereotype could apply to you in the given situation.And even if the person may not believe the stereotype, he or she may experience a threat. Steele, who is the person who first came up with the idea of stereotype, created an experiment with Aronson to demonstrate that stereotype threat can nethermine intellectual performance. Steele & Aronson (1995) used viridity stereotype that Black Americans are unintelligent and academically untalented to create the experiment and gave a test under two conditions. The test was said to be highly related to academic ability and that it was just a laboratory exercise. The findings were astonishing. When the task was described as unimportant or when participants were not asked to record their race, the blackamoor and white students did equally well. However, when the test was said to be for academic ability or when race was recorded, confab students did less well. Using his findings, Steele (1997) was able to conclude that spotlight anxiety is responsible for stereotype threats because the emotional put out and pressure can undermine performance. 3 paragraphs Although many of the psychologists have confidenc e in their theories I can evaluate that investigating stereotypes is difficult because of the social desirability effect. Moreover, researchers are instead using implicit measures of prejudice such as the IAT (Implicit Association Test) which has its own array of problems. Conclusion In conclusion stereotypes are make by social categorization, which leads to the social-cognitive theory, whereas their effects of behaviors are affected by believing certain traits (illusionary correlation) and confirmation bias demonstrates that we can percept the traits to influence our behavior.