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• Psychodynamic approach - Stereotype seen as a mechanism that serves ego-defense purposes (e.g. protects ego from perceived threats and elevates self).
• Sociocultural approach - stereotype is held to emanate from the sociocultural context in which we live. .
How are Stereotypes Measured? - .
• Checklist Approach - (Katz and Braly, 1993).
• Percentage-of-the-Group Approach - (Brigham 1971), (McCauley and Stitt, 1978), (Karlins, Coffman, Walters, 1969).
• Free-Response Approach - (Devine 1989), (Esses, Haddock, and Zanna, 1993).
Where do stereotypes come from?.
The vast majority of social psychologists utilize the cognitive definition of stereotypes. From that perspective, this is basically as question of how beliefs and concepts are formed (media, social environment, etc.).
• Categorization - The easier it is to define a group, the easier it is to stereotype the members. The easy to define characteristics common to stereotypes are called primitive categories because they operate so basically, so automatically (Brewer, 1998, Fiske and Neuberg, 1990).
• Kernel of Truth Hypothesis (Klineberg, 1935) - This hypothesis suggests that stereotypes are overgeneralizations of traits that happen to exist in some measure in the given group. .
• Illusory Correlation Explanation - It is claimed that the illusions of an association between two variables are heightened when they share distinctiveness and infrequency.
• Perceiving Social Groups - Do stereotypes follow from what people do in society or do they follow from attempts to rationalize social roles that are prescribed by social beliefs?.
How are stereotypes structured and how do they function?.
Stereotypes as Cognitive Structures: .
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• Stereotypes have content, structure, organization, and function.
• Ashmore and Del Boca (1979) have shown there is hierarchization in stereotypes; a broad category stereotype might consist of several subtypes.