Outline The Nature Of Prejudice

A stereotype is an overgeneralised perception we hold of a group of individuals due to their association with a particular group, regardless of specific differences among members. We identify these types of people to have a certain characteristic, based on a personal lack of knowledge about that group. (Reference oxford dictionary psychology). We usually associate stereotyping as being a negative social issue, for example, categorising all teenagers in a hoodie as violent, or assuming all girls are not good at sport. This can lead to prejudice in which we discriminate against those groups of people due to our incoherent perception of the characteristics they hold. It would be restrictive to assume that there is one explanation that can outline

In his, book, “the Nature of Prejudice”, it implies that as long as we are able to recognise stereotyping in our society, we will heuristically apply this to groups, and prejudice will result. This stereotyping can be further explained through social learning theory in which stereotypes may originate from parental prejudices passed on through classical conditioning in which the child senses a difference in treatment between groups. This observation is then instilled in the child through modelling their parent’s attitudes, and by exposing them to this view; the child begins to uphold this stereotype (Hogg and Vaughan, Social psychology

She brings in the idea of salience of personal beliefs in her Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 56(1), Jan, 1989. pp. 5-18 and, in addition to Allport’s evidence, although stereotypes may have developed through childhood perceptions in classifying familiar and unfamiliar stimuli, personal attitudes are a newer cognitive concept. Therefore, when responding without a previous stereotyped or non-prejudiced attitude about a group, the previously inaugurated system of stereotyping would need to be deactivated before a newer belief could be adopted. So, whilst this supports Allport’s approach involving stereotypes instilled in childhood, it implies that our personal beliefs about outgroups are secondary in explaining exactly why people stereotype, as this is not an automated cognitive response to outgroups. Developmental Intergroup Theory, Explaining and Reducing Children's Social Stereotyping and Prejudice Rebecca S. Bigler and Lynn S.