S OCIOCULTURAL C OGNITION 4 E XPLAIN THE FORMATION OF STEREOTYPES AND THEIR EFFECT ON BEHAVIOR Heather, Amber and Paula

W ORDS TO D EFINE Explain To give a detailed account including reasons or causes

W HAT IS A STEREOTYPE ? Stereotype: A social perception or an individual in terms of group membership or physical attributes. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group and then attributed to the members of that group. French People are cowards Women are bad drivers

S TEREOTYPE T HREAT A stereotype threat occurs when one is in a situation where there is a threat of being judged or treated stereotypically. Steele and Aronson (1995) Aim-To see the effect of stereotype threat on performance According to Claude Steele (and colleagues) stereotype threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups.

Steele and Aronson cont. One group was told it was ‘a genuine test of their verbal abilities’. African American participants scored lower than European American Participant Another group was presented with the test as a laboratory task that was used to study how certain problems are generally solved. Conclusion: stereotype threat can affect the member of almost any social or culture group, if the members believe that stereotype.

S POTLIGHT A NXIETY Stereotype threat turns on spotlight anxiety, which causes emotional distress and pressure that may undermine performance. Spencer et al (1977) tested the effect of the stereotype threat on intellectual performance. Researchers gave a difficult mathematics test to students who excelled in mathematics. Prediction: women under stereotype threat would under perform compared to men. Results showed that women in the experiment under performed compared equally qualified men. When researchers tested literature skills, they were matched equally because women are not stereotyped threatened in this area.

F ORMATION OF S TEREOTYPES Stereotypes are formed based on prejudice and observations which could ultimately lead to many negative effects on human behavior. Questions that are asked when involving the formation of stereotypes Is it the media? ed Does this bias form within a person out of dislike for a certain group of people? What do you think? The way to easily summarize the way in which one forms a stereotype involves both from what a person is presented with and how that person processes and interprets it.

C ATEGORY A CCENTUATION T HEORY Tajfel created this theory. It is the leading theory on the formation of stereotypes. Tajfel argues that stereotypes are formed via the exaggeration of intergroup differences as well as intragroup similarities only make the accentuation more accurate in certain peoples minds. An example would be the stereotype that “old people drive slow” now if you see an 80 year old driving 90mph on the highway, it may remove the stereotype but if there is a 80 year old driving 40mph on the highway one would feel it only reinforces the stereotype.

I LLUSORY C ORRELATION T HEORY This theory states that people perceive there to be an association/connection between two different groups and two different behaviors when there really is not relation. An example that we found was, There was a group of people whom were presented with the following data, Group A (majority) performed 18 positive actions and 9 negative actions and Group B (minority) performed 8 positive actions and 4 negative actions. The participants rated Group A to be more favorable even though the ratio of positive to negative was the exact same in each group. Why do you think this is?

J OHNSON, M ULLEN, C ARLSON AND S OUTHWICK (2001)- I LLUSORY C ORRELATIONS According to this group, individuals tend to focus their attention on information that is not common. In the example that they used, individuals will tend to direct their attention to Apple and to negative information because of the bias in there attention; which will lead to becoming more aware of the shortfalls of the company or group where less information is presented.

A TTENTION T HEORY This is a combination of the other two theories. This one states that the formation of a stereotype is directly linked to attention shifting as the features of a majority group are learned before those of a minority group. The main supporting idea of this theory is the idea that the majority group naturally demands greater attention which leads to it being learned first and common attributes being associated with it.