Negative Stereotypes In Psychology

Stereotypes are generalizations or assumptions that people make about individuals in a group or class. There are negative and positive stereotypes but they commonly have negative impact on individuals. Stereotyping has been practiced for ages but nobody has ever seen the positive way for which we could understand the diversity of cultures through it. To what extent should we use stereotypes to understand the truth? Are we treading on the more dangerous and hurtful way of understanding when we do it through the method of generalizing? Understanding is a process with an initial point, at which one does not know anything. It starts with nothing. Then as one investigates, he gets to develop more knowledge about it and, in the end, will be able

Different studies have been conducted on this topic which has proved to be an effective way to understand more about the people involved in the study. Mahzarin Banaji, a professor at Yale University, studies stereotypes. She is a member of a minority ethnic group and has experienced being stereotyped firsthand. However, when she took an experimental test, she realized that she herself was a bias and has shown stereotyping as well. This made her understand that people, whatever group they belong to, practice stereotyping, may it be conscious or unconscious. This implies that each one of us has stereotyped at least once in our lives. We may not be fully aware of it but we use it to categorize the people that we are mingling with. Through the categorization that our minds build, we can therefore say that there is a cognitive process involved in stereotyping. This cognitive process starts the concepts of learning and understanding.

Stereotypes, therefore, could not be avoided. I personally think stereotypes are used by people in their everyday lives because these help them think and carry out actions faster. By instantly using their initial judgment, they could already plan out what they should do and how they should behave in front of the different people they mingle with. The only thing to consider in stereotypes is that there should not be much harm done on the part of the individuals being stereotyped. If this is the case, then I am certain that knowledge will be gained from it through