Should We Generalize About People Flashcards
This subject dives into sociology as a social science and how we use generalizations to understand people
What is Sociology
Sociology is the science that studies social context
Why do People Generalize
People Generalize to learn information about a group of people for hypotheses
The example in this reading
fish use their instincts and objects to learn about things, however humans use words and experiences
How do Generalizations help
By using generalizations we create more distinction between categories
Why do we create subcategories
Because they allow us to apply knowledge to objects and things. subcategories are important for making further distinctions
Example for subcategories
When we have a teacher, we label them as strict or lieniant. By doing this we know what to expect by narrowing the generalization
Animal example for subcategories
fish below in the water and swim, mammals on land and they walk, etc
error of generalizations
they can stand in the way of understanding especially when its about human beings
Problem with Generalizations
Many of our generalizations are not accurate and its sometimes difficult to recognize that
How Is Generalizing done
by making categories we can isolate qualities to characterize them
Stereotypes
a negative type of generalization that is used to praise or condemn, it is not an attempt to understand
Bad things about stereotypes
-they tend to be absolute, they do not change with new evidence, they are oversimplified, they have been used to justify crimes
How we make accurate categories and generalizations
- try to not be judgmental, rarely absolute and always changing with new evidence, not assumed to be all important for understanding, we try to use carefully gathered information
