stereotypes

Question 1

define stereotype

Answer 1

a mental representation of a social group and its members. the content of a stereotype includes shared beliefs about personal attributes, personality traits, and behaviour of a specific group of people. a stereotype is therefore a schema applied to a person or a group.

Question 2

formation of stereotypes

Answer 2

1. social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner)
2. realistic conflict theory (Sherif, 1961)
3. illusory correlation theory
4. correspondence bias
5. “cognitive miser” theory (Fiske, 2004)
6. stereotype content model (SCM) (Fiske, 2002)

Question 3

effects of stereotypes on behaviour

Answer 3

1. stereotype threat effect
2. confirmation bias
3. self-fulfilling prophecies
4. memory distortion
5. discrimination

Question 4

study 1

Answer 4

J.Correll et al. (2002) The police officer’s dilemma: using ethnicity to disambiguate potentially threatening individuals.

aim: to examine whether stereotypes exacerbate bias in the decision to shoot
pps: 44 undergraduates. one male pps was latino and one female was asian. the remaining pps were white Americans
procedure: 10 young african-americansand 10 young white Americans posed as models for the targets. each model appeared in the game 4 times, twice as a target in gun condition and twice as a target in the non-gun condition ( a can, a camera, a cell phone, and a wallet. no target appeared on the same background more than once. 80 trials. to play the game, the pps needed to decide as quickly as possible whether the object the man was holding was a gun or not. one point 1 cent. a pps could earn up to 20 dollars.
results: the average reaction time was somehow longer for unarmed targets than for armed targets. no difference in mean reaction was found between white and African American target, when a target was while the average number or errors made was not related to whether the target was armed or unarmed. however, for African American targets there was significant difference between armed and unarmed targets. pps made significantly more errors when an African American target was unarmed, i.e. they pressed the shoot button more often, or failed to press the don’t shoot button. additionally, pps made significantly fewer errors when the target was an armed African American, i.e. they more seldom made the error to press the don’t shoot button, or failed to press the shoot button.

Question 5

study 2

Answer 5

Steele and Aronson (1995) stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African-Americans.

aim: to see how stereotype threat affects test performance in African Americans.
pps: 114 male and female, black and white undergraduates.
procedure: 2 independent variables: the race of the pps and the test descriptions. pps were given 30min standardized test of verbal ability. in the experimental condition, pps were told that the test diagnosed intellectual ability. in the control condition pps were told that the purpose of the research had nothing to do with intellectual ability. pps were randomly assigned to one of the conditions; however, they made sure that there were equal numbers of pps in each condition. the assumption was that linking the test to ability would activate the existing racial stereotypes, so black pps faces the threat of fulfilling the stereotype.
results: there was no significant difference between male and female pps, so the gender is not included. African Americans did poorly when they believed that the test was a test of their ability, but did just as well as the while Americans when they believed that it was a test of their problem-solving skills. in other words, African American pps performed less well than their white counterparts in the stereotype threat condition, but in the non-that condition, their performance equaled that of their white counterparts.