Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Essay Introduction. Social stereotyping has become a widespread phenomenon nowadays. This topic has been actively investigated in social psychology and it is still one of the most controversial issues in this science as there are many opposite points of view on the process of stereotyping. In our trivial understanding stereotypes are negative phenomena and we should escape them but this is just mundane awareness, which has no common with scientific vision of it. In fact, avoidance of different stereotypes is impossible because they are natural for human beings. They surround us everywhere in our life and sometimes we can be unconscious that we are under their influence. One more thing is that stereotypes are confused with prejudice. It is a common but serious mistake because there is Ð ° vital difference between them. The former should be considered, as psychological phenomenon that can be both positive and negative while prejudice is an adverse one by its nature. This essay is about the mechanisms of stereotyping, their place in our life, how they manifest in modern society and their importance for us. 1. Social stereotyping within Social Psychology. Social stereotypes- simplified schematized images of social objects that are shared by most of members of social groups. The first man who used this definition was Walter Lippmann. He submitted his work â€Å"Public Opinion† in 1922 where he describes stereotypes as â€Å"pictures in our heads†. Lippmann thought that these â€Å"pictures† were inevitable and made the process of perception easier but also were the foundation of social misunderstanding and intension. â€Å"For the most part we do not see first, and then define, we define first and then see†. It should be noted that at first researches of stereotypes were devoted to the images of ethnic communities, but with the development of our society and as a result of it with the growth of social mobility and people’s involvement in the great amount of social groups, the researches spread on various types of groups and communities like religious, political, professional, cultural, economical, age-related, sexual and so on. Stereotypes usually appear in the setting of the shortage of information when your own experience interacts with the subsisting in the society representations. It often happens that the latter is erroneous and biased. That is why they say that stereotyping is inaccurate and can lead to distortion of people’s notions and knowledge and can seriously spoilt interindividual interplay. But it should be taken into consideration that stereotypes can be not only negative, too generalized, too simplified and approximate but also positive, accurate and neutral. To estimate whether stereotype is true or false they have to analyze the situation because depending on the circumstances one stereotype can be both right and wrong. 1. 1. Levels and functions of stereotyping. Social stereotypes should be considered as the system of its three components: cognitive, in other words informative, which includes the information about real objects and phenomena; affective or evaluative part that consists of experiences; social (behavioral)- the way of behavior to different objects of surrounding world. People adopt stereotypes since their childhood and use them before the constitution of their own images. Scientists detach two fundamental levels of stereotyping: group and individual. The difference lies in functions that they execute: on the group level they are ideological and identifying functions and on the other there are cognitive and value-protective ones. But this division is conventional as one function can be realized on both levels. Cognitive function consists of systematization of incoming information, its selection and simplification. Due to this stereotyping helps to acquire maximum of the data involving minimum of brainwork. In fact, it is one of the forms of perception of social reality that allows us cope with the information space of modern world and which is used when more accurate and full information is not available. In short it can be said that it helps people to react quickly on social events and to foresee people’s actions. But it should be appreciated that it does not serve for facilitation of the cognition but for social understanding of the information. Another function of the individual level directs to the creation and protection of the positive self-image. The same goals realized the identifying one on the social level but there we have we-image of the group. It is very important for human beings and social groups to follow standards in order to support their identity and to occupy their places in the social structure. So, it is seen that stereotyping leads to the social categorization and sometimes to social prejudice and so called in-groups and out-groups. And finally the ideological function, as it is not hard to guess, consists in the shaping of the group ideology and also in its preservation. The ideology in turn is one of the crucial components as it explains and substantiates the behavior of the group members and their characteristics. 1. 2. Attributes of stereotypes. One of the key characteristics of the considering process is that stereotyping largely based on emotions and has estimative side. It is normal because people generate stereotypes and it can be hardly argued that the latter is not under subjective evaluation and opinions. That is why stereotypes are very unreliable and inaccurate sometimes and following them can lead to serious consequences, for example, when they affect on making decisions. It happens very often when people behave in a very illogical ways just because of being under the stereotypes. One more crucial peculiarity is the stability. Its fixity was proved by many researches but scientists also claim that it has relative nature because changes of relationships between groups and individuals can veer contents of stereotypes. They emphasize some reasons of the stability. Firstly, people deny changing their images even when they come in contact with a person that disconfirm social image and tend to think that it is an exception but not a mistake in the system of stereotyping. For instance, it is a common idea that men never cry, so when we face with weeping man it corners us and we are disposed to think that it is an abnormal situation. Second one follows herefrom and lie in the fact that it is common for people to forget about the failure of stereotypes and remember only the instances that confirm them. And thirdly, our expectations affect on the perception. Finally, stereotypes possess the coherence or consensus. But it is a very controversial issue because some psychologists do not acknowledge it as an attribute because stereotypes should be explored as individual phenomena because they are produced in people’s heads. 1. 3 â€Å"Grain of truth†. After 1950s years in social psychology appeared a new hypothesis â€Å"grain of truth† according to which the volume of true knowledge is much more bigger than the volume of false in stereotypes. Scientists that support this new view claim that stereotyping is not a scheme of fabulous opinions but is a total of real images of group characteristics and relationships that may be deformed but still reflect social reality. In other words they should understand this as that stereotypes base upon the reality and what is more the conceptualization of a group usually shapes from the interaction with its representative. So, stereotypes include truthful information that can be spoilt by corrupted data. As social stereotypes to a large extent reflect real features of groups, there is no doubt that the principles of contacts between groups have an effect on the stereotypes: depending on it the latter may conclude less or more positive constituent. One more key factor is the criterion of verity of the stereotyping. If more than two groups support a stereotype and self-assessment of the group is the same, the stereotype is estimated as true. But they should add that self-assessment is a very doubtful aspect because group can be mistaken and estimate itself subjectively in a wrong way. 2. Manifestation of social stereotypes in the modern society. 2. 1. Stereotypes in every day. As stated before we face social stereotypes every day of our lives. In some cases we consciously use them but it often happens that we do not realize how and when they appear. The brightest examples are ethnic stereotypes. We get used to think that Frenchmen are full of love and French women are always well groomed and elegant, Jews are crafty and always look for profit, British men are prim, conservative, traditionalist, very patriotic and drink tea the whole day, Germans are punctual and like order, Americans are mad about their country, have dull sense of humour, hardworking and chase American dream and as for the Russian people the whole world thinks that we are crazy, drink alcohol instead of tea and Russian women are the most beautiful. As it is seen, these stereotypes in most cases are neutral and have confirmation in the reality but some of them are absurd and have no common with the objective state of things. So, for instance, while travelling we prepare to see something that we expect according to gained stereotypes. Sometimes it happens that they help us as we are ready to changes of social environment but in other cases we have culture shock (f. e. Americans can joke well and are not too mad about money and work; a fair number of Russians do not drink alcohol at all). Gender stereotypes are also very widespread. Women are called as the softer sex, are thought to be fools and as a result cannot occupy high posts, they are bad drivers, blondes are silly, clever ones cannot be happy in their interior lives. As for males, they never cry, have to direct and are unfaithful to their wives. These lists are enormous and can be continued endlessly. We use them constantly and even submit their influence voluntarily. There are a lot of jokes about blondes, sometimes it is hard for women to get prestigious job and we do not expect of men to indulge weaknesses. Generally speaking, the amount of stereotypes is immense and it is impossible to list them all. In most instances we employ them willingly and rarely deny them. Some of them enter our lives so strongly that control our actions, goings and decisions. 2. 2. Stereotypes in management. Managers work with people permanently, so it is important for them to know about the mechanism of stereotyping and know, how to make the best use of it. As a leader, manager should abstract from any of stereotypes and behave with subordinates equally independently of their gender, nation, age and so on. If he or she does not do it, it can lead to conflicts, decrease of working capacity of a collective and even to his/her dismissal because of professional incompetence. Moreover, Chief Human Resources Officer while recruitment should also control his/her personal stereotypes as he/she can miss good professional or otherwise make a mistake employing undesirable person just because of the sympathy or other factors that stereotypes generate. Finally, professional manager has to know how stereotyping may affect on his/her staffs and know how to prevent negative backwashes of it to organize staffs well and to increase the effectiveness and working efficiency of a collective. Conclusion. To make a conclusion it is necessary to say that stereotyping is an important process and it cannot be ignored. Stereotypes carry positive functions such as facilitation of perception but also can negatively affect on us. So people should distinguish where adventitious impact of them finishes and adverse begins as stereotypes affect on us and only people by themselves can control the power of their influence. Although stereotypes includes some truth, people should remember that it is much better to check a stereotype in the reality than to rely on it surely, as it can turn against them. Now scientists are working on the system of the suppression of stereotypes as they are in favor of their substitution to personal persuasion. It is a hard thing to control and mortify stereotypes in your own consciousness, as it needs from you to realize the prepossession and ignore it proceeding from the equality of men and from the feeling of compunction because you know nothing of people but judge them in advance.