We will talk about stereotypes - norms, canons, laws, customs, traditions, prejudices of society. Most people think they are correct and follow them. Here it is important to distinguish between the concept of the correctness of a stereotype and convention (far-fetchedness). But fictitious stereotypes sometimes control the collective consciousness (including us). Stereotypes of people are primarily divided into global - characteristic of the scale of the planet, and narrow - those that we follow in schools, at work, at home, etc. However, both of them become an illusion that has a lot of followers.

Male models are traditionally classified as gay

What is a stereotype?

The concept of “stereotype” was born in the 20s of the last century. It was introduced into scientific literature by the American scientist W. Lippman. He characterized a stereotype as a small “picture of the world” that a person stores in the brain in order to save the effort required to perceive more complex situations. According to the American scientist, there is two reasons for the emergence of stereotypes:

1. Saving effort;
2. Protecting the values ​​of the group of people in which he lives.

The stereotype has the following properties:

• Consistency over time;
• Selectivity;
• Emotional fullness.

Since then, many scientists have complemented and innovated this concept, but the basic idea has not changed

What are the stereotypes based on? In order not to bother themselves with unnecessary thoughts, people use well-known stereotypes. Sometimes they find their confirmation when observing people and then they become even more convinced that they are right. Stereotypes are a kind of replacement for a person’s thought process. Why “reinvent the wheel” if you can use someone else’s mind. To varying degrees, each of us is subject to stereotypes, the difference lies in which of us believes these “postulates” to what extent.

Stereotypes live in us, influence our worldview, behavior and contribute to an incorrect perception of reality: the role of modern stereotypes in human life and society is undeniable. Stereotypes can be imposed by public opinion, and formed on the basis of one’s own observations. Social stereotypes are the most destructive to people's worldview. They impose an incorrect train of thought on a person and prevent him from thinking for himself. However, without stereotypes, society could not exist. Thanks to them, we know about the following patterns:

• The water is wet;
• The snow is cold;
• The fire is hot;
• A stone thrown into the water will create circles.

Since we know about this, we do not need to be convinced of it every time. But stereotypes that operate at the level of people’s consciousness and subconsciousness, as a rule, prevent them from living. We must learn to distinguish stereotypes from the actual idea of ​​a subject, to understand the pros and cons of people’s stereotypes.

Famous bloggers are perceived as "close-minded" girls

Take, for example, the stereotype about debt. There is nothing bad or wrong about this feeling. The only question is whether this concept is dictated by a person’s inner convictions, or imposed on him by public opinion. In the second case, a person feels a disagreement between his own concepts and what society requires of him.

People's desire to follow stereotypes distorts their ideas about reality and poisons existence. Very often a person judges people not by their actions, but by what others think about them. Sometimes a person who goes to church from time to time ascribes to himself all the virtues of Christianity. Although this is far from true.

It often happens that people do not bother themselves to think about the problem, they simply use the existing stereotype and adopt it.

For example, these are groups of people who are divided according to the following criteria:

• Sexual;
• Age;
• Level of education;
• Professional;
• Belief, etc.

Let's say that blondes, in order not to bother themselves by proving the inaccuracy of the existing stereotype, try to correspond to the generally accepted opinion. It's easier to live this way. Or women, trying, find a rich groom, with whom they become deeply unhappy, because when choosing, they did not take into account his human qualities.

You cannot project an existing stereotype onto all people to the same extent. You need to base your judgments on the person’s personality, his advantages and disadvantages, life position, etc.

What are the stereotypes?

Please note, we are talking about stereotypes! Below are examples of the most popular social stereotypes that are very common in society:

Gender stereotypes: women and men

Gender stereotypes are some of the most striking in modern society

Below is a list of common gender stereotypes with examples - believe me, you see a lot in it that is familiar and well-established in the public perception:

1. A woman is a stupid, weak and worthless creature. She is designed to give birth, wash, cook, clean and otherwise look after her “overlord” (man). She was born into the world to learn how to properly apply makeup, dress and giggle, only then does she have the opportunity to “engage” a good male who will provide for her and her offspring decent life. As long as a woman lives at the expense of a man and obeys him in everything, she has the right to “eat from his table.”
2. As soon as the lady from the first point shows character, she becomes a lonely divorcee. A couple of examples can be given stereotype of a lonely woman: 1) divorced single mother - unhappy, lonely, forgotten by everyone;
   2) a widow - a grief-stricken and also unhappy woman.
3. A lady should not be strong and fight for her own well-being without the help of a man. Otherwise she is a careerist who has no time for her family, children and husband. Again - unhappy!
4. Man is the “center of the universe.” Strong, smart, handsome (even with a belly and a bald head). He is obliged to earn money in order to satisfy the desires of women.

In fact, men only want sex from women, but they adhere to the rules of the game of “love” in order to achieve that very sex

1. A man shouldn't:

• Talk about your feelings;
• Cry;
• Help a woman around the house.

Otherwise, he does not consider himself a man.

1. A man should:

• Work. And it doesn’t matter that they pay little there, and he is not able to support his family, he still gets tired at work! And hence the origins of the next position;
• Lying on the sofa. After all, he is tired, he is resting;
• Drive. A woman, according to men, has no right to this. After all, she is stupid!

In other cases, it is believed that this is not a man, but a worthless creature that “disgraces” the male gender. The given examples of well-known stereotypes in the perception of communication partners confirm the fact that many of us do not see the essence behind a real person: stuffed with cliches and cliches since childhood, we are not ready to listen to the words loved one and understand his expectations.

Children

Children are obliged:

• To obey the parents;
• Make the dreams and unfulfilled desires of moms and dads come true;
• Study “excellently” at school, college and university;
• When parents become old, “bring them a glass of water.”

So, children are disobedient and unbearable, young people are insane and dissolute.

Old people are always grumbling and unhappy with everything

But in old age, all people get sick and complain about life, otherwise they, at least, behave strangely.

Happiness

Happiness is:

• Money;
• High rank.

Everyone else is a miserable loser. Even if a person is absolutely happy, living in a state of trance (in nirvana), and he has nothing behind his soul, he is a failure!

"Correct"...

Only in the most famous institutes do they receive the “correct” education. The “right” people go to work and sit there from bell to bell. “Correct” if you live in your homeland and do not go to live in another country. "Correct" to follow fashion trends. It is “correct” to buy an expensive item in a boutique, and not the same thing in a regular store. It is “correct” to have an opinion that coincides with the opinion of the majority. It’s “right” to be like everyone else around you.

For people, following stereotypes is destructive. Parents plant in our brains the idea that we cannot stand out from society, we need to live like everyone else. Each of us in childhood was afraid of becoming a “black sheep” and being expelled from the team. To become different from everyone else means to live by your own rules and think with your own head - to live by straining your brain.

Still from the movie "The Agents of U.N.C.L.E." (“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, 2015), where actor Armie Hammer played the principled and impenetrable KGB agent, Ilya Kuryakin

What are professional stereotypes: examples

Professional stereotypes include generalized images of a professional in a specific profession. The categories most often mentioned in this regard are:

• 1. Policemen. These stereotypes are especially zealously fueled by American films and Russian TV series. Rare, admittedly, interaction between ordinary citizens and police officers in real life gives rise to a bunch of speculations, which are successfully directed in the right direction from television screens. Most fans of such films are convinced that even the most ordinary policeman is brave, selfless, and capable of defeating an entire gang of thugs on his own.
  2. Doctors. And in reality, there are professionals who can literally bring you back to life from the other world, but in case of health problems, you shouldn’t expect a spectacular appearance in the hospital on a gurney, shouting “Way, way! We are losing him,” accompanied by the entire ambulance team - in life, believe me, everything is much more banal, and an intelligent and insightful doctor, capable of making an instant decision in a critical situation for the patient’s life, is, alas, rather a professional stereotype.
  3. The stereotype of someone who can solve small everyday problems to global government problems lawyer- another image that came from American TV series. The legal proceedings in this performance are more like theater with convulsive wringing of hands, tears in the eyes and the voices of lawyers breaking from the excitement and tragedy of what is happening.
  4. A striking example of a professional stereotype has been known to us since Soviet times: worker and collective farmer. Yes, yes, rural workers and simple workers, bursting with health, burning with enthusiasm and thirst labor activity eyes, ready to make any sacrifice for the sake of the prosperity of industry, agricultural technology, Soviet society and the state as a whole.
  5. Modern students: not very keen on knowledge, but successful in drinking alcohol and sex, using drugs and organizing wild parties. Perhaps the imposed image is still closer to American society, but Russian students they look in that direction with admiration - oh, we wish we could do that...

How to fight stereotypes?

As it turns out, stereotypes are designed to relieve a person’s brain of excess stress. At the same time, stereotypes limit a person’s mental activity, preventing it from going beyond the boundaries of the standard worldview. If we use the stereotype “it’s good where we are not,” then a person is sure that nothing good can happen where he lives. And in that mythical distance, where he has never been and never will be, everyone lives under communism and... As a result, you don’t even need to strive to become happy, nothing will work out anyway.

But You can't blindly believe everything people say. And then, a stereotype always has a hidden meaning. In this case, the true meaning of this stereotype is that a person will always think that someone somewhere makes less effort and lives much better.

This causes envy and disappointment in your “unsuccessful” life. It turns out that this opinion is wrong

The main way to combat stereotypes is not to believe them. Don’t believe what people say, check the information, and based on the conclusions drawn, form your own opinion. In this way, you will be able to refute outdated stereotypes and prevent the emergence of new ones.

Think about how many stereotypes you use all the time. Try to find those that are not supported by facts. The aforementioned stereotype that “blondes are all stupid” is an extremely controversial statement. Start by listing girls and women with blonde hair that you know well. How many of them would you call stupid? Are they all as stupid as the stereotype claims? Look for refutations of statements that have no basis in fact.

If you use the stereotype “more expensive means better,” look for examples of products at reasonable prices that are of high quality and fashionable. At the same time, expensive items do not always meet quality standards.

Beautiful and well-groomed women are often considered stupid and calculating

Conclusion

So what are stereotypes? This is an ambiguous manifestation of social thinking. They live and will always live, regardless of whether we want it or not. They carry information that people have collected and systematized for centuries. Some of them are based on real facts, others look like made-up fairy tales, but they were, are and will be. Decide for yourself which stereotypes are harmful to your thinking and which are useful. Use the ones you need and get rid of the bad ones.

And, finally, we suggest taking a break from the serious topic and watching a funny video about the stereotypes of street football. Yes, there are such things!

As such, the properties of stereotypes have not been sufficiently studied in the works of both Western and domestic researchers. However, in our opinion, it is still possible to identify a number of properties that are most often mentioned in the psychological literature.

Basic properties of a stereotype:

1) Underdeveloped cognitive component;

2) Polarization of assessment (overestimation occurs through an autostereotype, underestimation through a heterostereotype);

3) Rigid fixation of the stereotype, stability, which manifests itself in different situations and is, in the opinion of many researchers, the main characteristic of the stereotype;

4) Intensity of emotional manifestation;

5) Concentrated expression of the properties of social attitudes (a clear regulator of group behavior).

As for the functions of stereotypes, they have been studied in more detail. There are a number of classifications, of which the most important, in our opinion, are given below.

G. Tezhfel identifies four functions of stereotypes, two of which are implemented at the individual level, two at the group level.

The meaning of the stereotype at the individual level:

Cognitive (selection of social information, schematization, simplification); - value-protective (creation and maintenance of a positive “I-image”).

At the group level:

Ideologizing (formation and maintenance of a group ideology that explains and justifies the group’s behavior); - identifying (creation and maintenance of a positive group “We-image”).

The study of the last two functions will allow, according to Tajfel, to create a theory of social stereotypes. He emphasizes that social psychology, history, cultural anthropology and simply everyday experience have already accumulated a large amount of empirical material indicating that at the group level social stereotypes actually perform these functions.

German researcher U. Quasthoff highlights following functions stereotypes:

Cognitive - generalization (sometimes excessive) when organizing information - when something striking is noted. For example, when learning a foreign culture in class foreign language it is necessary to replace some stereotypes (regulating the interpretation of speech) with others;

Affective - a certain measure of ethnocentrism in interethnic communication, manifested as a constant selection of “one’s own” as opposed to “someone else’s”;

Social - differentiation between “in-group” and “out-group”: leads to social categorization, to education social structures, to which they actively focus in everyday life.

Within linguistic research stereotypes are interpreted as special forms storing knowledge and assessments, i.e. concepts of orientation behavior. Researchers see stereotyping as the core of the mechanism of tradition and the ethnic uniqueness of culture. Mental stereotypes are fixed by language or other semiotic code (for example, visual images). They have:

* cognitive function, consisting of generalization when processing information;

* affective function - opposition between “one’s own” and “alien”;

* social function - the distinction between in-group and out-group, which leads to social categorization and the formation of structures that people focus on in everyday life.

In our opinion, it is necessary to emphasize one feature of the problem of studying stereotypes - the fact that the phenomenon of stereotyping attracted the attention of sociologists much earlier than the attention of psychologists, which had a decisive influence on the meaningful interpretation of the functions of stereotypes and in the actual psychological research. As V.S. Ageev emphasizes, “an undifferentiated idea of ​​the social and psychological functions of a social stereotype, due to a mixture of levels of scientific analysis, leads to a clearly negative assessment of social stereotypes as not only a social, but also a psychological phenomenon.”

Negative ideas about stereotypes and their functions actually took place in the 50s and 60s. However, recently they have been trying to look at this problem more objectively.

There are different types of stereotypes. In particular, a distinction is made between autostereotypes, which reflect people’s ideas about themselves, and heterostereotypes, which reflect ideas about another people, another social group. For example, what is considered a manifestation of prudence among one’s own people, is considered a manifestation of greed among another people. People perceive many stereotypes as models that must be met. Therefore, such fixed ideas have a rather strong influence on people, stimulating in them the formation of character traits that are reflected in the stereotype.

Stereotypes can be individual and social, expressing ideas about an entire group of people. Social stereotypes include, as more specific cases, ethnic, gender, political and a number of other stereotypes.

Stereotypes can also be divided into behavioral stereotypes and mental stereotypes. Stereotypes of behavior are stable, regularly repeated behavior of a sociocultural group and the individuals belonging to it, which depends on the value-normative system functioning in this group.

They are in close connection with stereotypes of consciousness. Stereotypes of consciousness, as fixing ideal ideas of a value-normative system, act as the basis for the formation of behavioral stereotypes. Stereotypes of consciousness create models of behavior, stereotypes of behavior introduce these models into life.

When analyzing stereotypes, it is necessary to take into account both the negative and positive psychological consequences of stereotyping. On the one hand, the pattern of judgment about another person derived from a stereotype often acts as a prejudice. Emerging in conditions of a lack of information, a social stereotype often turns out to be false and plays a conservative role, forming erroneous ideas of people about what is happening, deforming the process of interpreting what is happening and the nature of interpersonal interaction. Any social stereotype that turns out to be true in one situation may turn out to be false in another and, therefore, ineffective for solving the problem of orienting an individual in the surrounding social world.

On the other hand, the presence of social stereotypes plays a very significant role in social life for the simple reason that without them, in the absence of comprehensive information about what is happening or observed, neither an adequate assessment nor an adequate forecast would be possible. Firstly, a stereotype allows you to sharply reduce the reaction time to a changing reality; secondly, speed up the process of cognition; thirdly, to provide at least some primary basis for orientation in what is happening. Stereotypes make it easier to understand, for example, than more stereotypes in the text, the easier it is to understand. Despite simplification and schematization, stereotypes fulfill the necessary and useful function in the psychological regulation of processes of interpersonal understanding. This turns out to be possible because in a stereotype the volume of true knowledge often exceeds the volume of false knowledge.

Thus, “stereotypes of understanding, firstly, regulate communication processes: if a person who has not fought and a veteran have similar ideas about the personality of “Afghans,” then this contributes to the emergence of mutual understanding between them. Secondly, a stereotype is a way of structuring the experience of an understanding subject, a way of organizing knowledge used to understand another person.”

Stereotypes of response

Stereotypes of response:

• Wounded pride - arguments, excuses
• Guilt - excuses
• Resentment - vindictiveness
• Reaction to “bad-good”
• Victory is joyful excitement, Defeat is despondency
• Bosses, authorities - ingratiation, servility
• “We believe in you, we rely on you” - “I must justify the trust and hopes of management”
• Coercion and restriction of freedom – anger, irritation, confrontation
• Unknown – apprehension (fear, anxiety, concern, nervousness)
• Rule of reciprocity
• Social proof
• Commitment and Consistency
• Ringelmann effect
• Question answer

According to sociologists and anthropologists, one of the basic, most widespread norms of human culture is embodied in rule of reciprocity. In accordance with this rule, a person tries to repay in a certain way for what another person has provided him. By imposing on the "receiver" an obligation to reciprocate in the future, the rule of reciprocity allows one individual to give something to another with the confidence that it will not be completely lost. This confidence makes possible development various types lasting relationships, interactions and exchanges that are beneficial to society. Consequently, all members of society are “trained” to follow this rule from childhood. Those who ignore this rule feel obvious disapproval from society.

The rule of reciprocity often forces people to comply with the demands of others. One of the favorite "profit" tactics of certain types of "compliance professionals" is to give the person something before asking for a favor in return. This tactic is very effective due to three aspects of the reciprocity rule. First, this rule is universal; its influence often exceeds the influence of other factors that usually determine compliance. Secondly, this rule comes into force even when we are provided with services that we did not ask for. Thus, our ability to make decisions independently is reduced and those to whom we owe something make choices for us. Finally, the rule of reciprocity may encourage unequal exchange. In order to escape the unpleasant feeling of moral obligation, people often agree to perform a much greater service than the one that was performed for themselves.

There is another way to force a person to make concessions using the rule of reciprocity. Instead of being the first to provide a favor that will lead to a return favor, an individual may initially make a concession that will prompt the opponent to reciprocate the concession. The basis of the so-called “refuse-then-retreat” technique, or the “how to open a door that has been slammed in your face” technique, is the compulsion to exchange mutual concessions. Having started with an extremely inflated demand, which will certainly be rejected, the demander can then profitably retreat to a more realistic demand (precisely the one that is truly important to him), which is likely to be fulfilled, since looks like a concession. Research shows that this technique Not only does it increase the likelihood that a person will agree to comply with a particular request, the refusal-then-retreat technique also increases the likelihood that a person will comply with similar demands in the future.

The best way to protect yourself from the pressure of the rule of reciprocity is not to systematically refuse offers made by other people. It is necessary to accept the services or concessions of others with sincere gratitude, but be prepared to regard them as clever tricks if they appear as such later. Once concessions or favors are defined in this way, we will no longer feel obliged to reciprocate them with a favor or concession of our own.

According to the principle of social proof, people, in order to decide what to believe and how to act in a given situation, are guided by what other people believe and do in a similar situation. The tendency to imitate has been found in both children and adults. This tendency manifests itself in a variety of actions, such as deciding to buy something, donating money to charity, and even freeing oneself from phobias. The principle of social proof can be applied to induce a person to comply with a particular requirement; wherein to this person report that many people (the more the better) agree or have agreed with this requirement.

The principle of social proof is most effective in the presence of two factors. One of them is uncertainty. When people doubt, when a situation seems uncertain to them, they are more likely to pay attention to the actions of others and consider these actions to be correct. For example, when people doubt whether to help someone, the actions of other observers influence their decision to help much more than in an obvious critical situation. The second factor where social proof has the greatest impact is similarity. People are more likely to follow the example of those who are similar to them. Evidence of the powerful influence of the actions of "similar others" on people's behavior is contained in suicide statistics compiled by sociologist David Phillips. These statistics show that after widespread media coverage mass media there are enough suicide cases big number anxious individuals, somewhat similar to suicide, decide to kill themselves. An analysis of the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, suggests that the group's leader, Reverend Jim Jones, used both the uncertainty factor and the similarity factor to induce a herd reaction and desire to end his life among the majority of Jonestown residents.

To prevent inadequate social proof from influencing us strong influence, we must learn to recognize clearly fake evidence and recognize that we should not be guided by the actions of “similar others” when making decisions.

Commitment and consistency. Psychologists have long discovered that most people strive to be and appear consistent in their words, thoughts and deeds. Three factors underlie this tendency toward consistency. Firstly, consistency in behavior is highly valued by society. Secondly, consistent behavior contributes to solving a wide variety of problems in everyday life. Third, consistency orientation creates opportunities for the formation of valuable stereotypes in difficult conditions modern existence. Consistently adhering to previously made decisions, a person may not process all relevant information in standard situations; instead he should just remember earlier decision and react accordingly.

Extremely great importance has an initial obligation. Once people have made a commitment (that is, taken a position), they tend to agree to demands that are consistent with that commitment. Therefore, many “compliance professionals” try to get people to initially adopt a position consistent with the behavior they will later seek from these people. However, not all commitments are equally effective at generating consistent future action. Active, public commitments are most effective. In addition, obligations must be internally motivated (not imposed from the outside) and certain efforts must be expended on their implementation.

Commitment decisions, even wrong ones, tend to be “self-preserving” because they can “create their own footholds.” People often come up with new reasons and justifications to convince themselves of the need to fulfill existing obligations. As a result, some obligations continue to apply even after the circumstances that gave rise to them change. This phenomenon is the basis for the extremely effective "low ball" tactic often used by compliance professionals.

Ringelmann effect. Psychologists have long been aware of a paradoxical phenomenon called the Ringelmann effect. The first experiments in which this effect was identified date back to 1927. Then, during experiments with lifting weights in groups of different sizes, it was discovered that as the number of participants increases, there is a gradual decrease in the average individual contribution to the results of group work. So, if the productivity of one person lifting a barbell is taken as 100%, then two people, on average, overcome “with four hands” more than twice more weight, but only 93% of the amount of weights that two people can lift separately. The efficiency of an individual in a group of three people will already be 85%, and in a group of eight people - only 49%.

In the same way, when solving a tug-of-war problem, each member of a relatively small team puts in more effort than each member of a large team, that is, the total strength of the team does not increase directly depending on the number of participants, but curvilinearly. As the group increases from 1 to 12 people, the average effort exerted by each person decreases by about 10%.

In unraveling the mysteries of this effect, scientists were forced to ask the question: “Are there conditions under which a group as a whole is capable of exceeding the sum of the achievements of its individual members?” Alas, a satisfactory answer has not yet been found. But the hidden motives leading to a decrease in results are roughly clear. Left to his own devices, a person is forced to answer the question: “If not me, then who?” In the group, the answer seems simple: “What are comrades for?” Having ceased to feel exclusive responsibility for the final result, almost any person obeys the law of energy conservation: “What I haven’t done, others will fill in.”

The preaching of extreme individualism throughout the world has long gone out of fashion, because in modern conditions In almost any field (except perhaps art), it is impossible to achieve outstanding results alone. But we must also be aware that the cultivated team spirit, multiplied by the Ringelmann effect, does not promise great achievements.

Probably, the negative trend could be overcome, as in many other cases, through compromise. Namely: with all the advantages teamwork Individual motivation should not be discounted either. While encouraging team unity, it is worth emphasizing the personal responsibility of each employee for a specific area of ​​work. Everyone must realize that what they have not completed will not be made up by others. This is almost impossible in a team consisting of faceless “cogs”. Therefore, cultivating the individual strengths of each employee should become the most important task of personnel management. As Academician Aganbegyan wisely noted: “Nothing can replace a good head.” When an employee feels that it is his head that is being talked about, he himself will simply be offended by using it half-heartedly.

A stereotype is a variant of a personal attitude. An attitude is a kind of prism through which, under certain conditions or in relation to a certain object, a person perceives the world and behaves in only one way. Our world is saturated with stereotypes. You can't get away from them, since it's a product public consciousness. Stereotypes bring both benefit and harm.

The term "stereotype" was coined in 1922 by sociologist Walter Lippmann. The author interpreted it as “a picture in our head.”

Social attitude includes 3 components:

• knowledge about the object (cognitive element);
• emotions and evaluation in relation to the object (affective component);
• willingness to act in a specific way (behavioral component).

Stereotype – social setting with a lack of cognitive component (lack of knowledge, false information, outdated data). How the attitude of a stereotype predetermines our behavior.

Stereotypical thinking is often limiting. It is often guided by outdated, inaccurate, narrow, erroneous ideas about a person, social phenomenon, natural phenomenon and features of interaction with it.

Stereotypes have their pros and cons:

• On the one hand, this limits, prevents disclosure, or simply harms where the object of the stereotype has changed (minus).
• But on the other hand, stereotypes allow you to save time and effort where objects, situations and actions in relation to them are simple and unchanging (a plus).
• Stereotypes are dangerous because they can form one expectation, but a person will have to face a completely different reality (minus). It would be good if reality turns out to be better. If it’s the other way around, then the individual risks finding himself in a state of frustration and maladjustment.
• Stereotypes help save nervous energy, allowing you to act in similar situations by inertia (a plus).

Each personality has an internal hierarchy of stereotypes. For example, the popular stereotype that a woman should first of all be realized as a housewife, mother, wife, may come first for one person and fifth for another.

Stereotypes are formed and reinforced at the mental level. Cognitive circuits, or a complex of neural connections, arise in the brain, which provide the same reaction to repeated situations. For example, the entire personality can be viewed as a cognitive schema, a schema of our personality.

Most often, stereotypes arise in relation to certain groups differentiated by gender, age, nation, status, role. For example, the well-known statement that all women are the weaker sex. But stereotypes can speak about norms of behavior, development, and life. Then they become intertwined with values.

Most stereotypes are formed in childhood. The influence is exerted by the environment, any significant people. That is, stereotypes are the consequences of learning during the socialization of an individual. I am sure that you or your entourage will have a couple of statements about some nation whose representatives you have not even personally communicated with.

Stereotypes can be both positive and negative, but very often they contain an erroneous generalization.

• For example, what do most people imagine when they hear a woman call herself a housewife? A plump lady with curlers on her head, in a greasy apron, with an exhausted look, not working. In fact, every woman can be called a housewife, and the era of the Internet allows many to work within the walls of the home.
• Or why many people associate the birth of a child with the inevitable collapse of one’s figure and “giving up oneself.” In fact, this is an individual choice of each woman.
• The popular opinion is that old age = wisdom, intelligence. No, these are not synonyms. Just like you can’t respect a person based on their age. Old people, like teenagers, youth, adults are different. Among them there are also unpleasant, selfish, asocial personalities.

We can say that personal stereotypes contain the prejudices of previous generations and the society in which the person was raised.

Features of stereotypical perception

Thinking through stereotypes has the following features:

• The effect of projection, the essence of which is that when communicating, we endow people who are unpleasant to us with our shortcomings, and our advantages - with people who are pleasant.
• The average error effect involves averaging the salient characteristics of another person.
• An order effect, in which when communicating with an unfamiliar person we give more trust to primary information, and when communicating with an old acquaintance - to fresh data.
• The halo effect, or judging a person based on one of his actions (good or bad).
• The effect of stereotyping, or endowing a person with characteristic (stereotypical) traits for a certain group, for example, focusing on the person’s profession.

Types and forms of stereotypes

Stereotypes characterize both individual personal characteristics and external characteristics of people. For example, the stereotype about the emotionality of women and the rationality of men (individual-personal characteristics) is still alive. There is also a popular stereotype that only disadvantaged or socially disadvantaged people get tattoos. dangerous people, or frivolous (external stereotypes). Or the stereotype that black clothing is a sign of depression and internal discord.

There is no single classification of stereotypes:

• One distinguishes the following types (V.N. Panferov): anthropological, social, emotionally expressive.
• Domestic psychologist Arthur Aleksandrovich Rean identified anthropological, ethno-national, social-status, social-role, expressive-aesthetic, verbal-behavioral stereotypes.
• O. G. Komarova identified 3 types of stereotypes: ethnic, professional, gender role.

Thus, the phenomenon of stereotypes can be viewed from several perspectives:

• content;
• adequacy (often it is based on a true fact);
• origin of stereotypes (conditions and factors of occurrence);
• the role of stereotypes in human life, the perception of other people and the functioning of society.

Adequate, that is, true stereotypes are useful and necessary, since ours also needs to rest. But the influence of inadequate stereotypes should be limited. An adequate stereotype becomes inadequate when true data becomes outdated due to a change in the object of the stereotype.

How to get rid of stereotypes

We cannot control the process of stereotyping, but we can consciously reduce their influence on our behavior and perceptions of people. It is impossible to completely get rid of stereotypes.

Based on the fact that a stereotype is a stable and categorical, simplified idea, a judgment about something, widespread in the environment of the person who adheres to it, it can be argued that the influence of stereotypes will be corrected by:

• change of environment;
• expanding knowledge about the object of the stereotype.

With the first, everything is clear: leave the country, make new friends, and so on. What about the second point?

Stereotypes are cliches, labels. How to get rid of them? Be critical and selective of incoming information. At a minimum, do not accept any fact until you personally encounter it. It is important not to succumb to media provocations or societal pressure (even from parents and older comrades). Learn to double-check information. It's a matter of practice. We heard some fact, doubted it, found several sources, if the information does not disagree, then we can believe it.

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Afterword

Thus, stereotypes can be broken from two positions:

• other people's beliefs through personal example and actions, the search for inner harmony;
• their beliefs through the activity of cognition of the external world.

For example, at a young age there can also be poor health. If you accept this in yourself and others, then you are already minus one stereotype. On your day off, you don’t have to run away from home to a cafe or club; you can enjoy the comfort of home. So the second stereotype is broken. There must be children in a marriage, but you have not yet achieved your plans for self-realization, you are not ready to take care of children, although your marriage is strong and tested over the years? This means there is no need to have children yet. Know yourself and create appropriate conditions around you.

Make a list of the most popular stereotypes for you and go ahead to destruction. Check them personally. Self-knowledge and knowledge are the basis for getting rid of stereotypes. In both cases, you will find yourself and be able to control stereotypical behavior and thinking, and not vice versa.

A social stereotype is considered to be a relatively stable and simplified image of a social object - a group, person, event, phenomenon, etc. Stereotypes are general opinions about the distribution of traits or other traits in groups of people. For example, “Self-confidence is more often observed in men than in women,” “Politicians are liars,” “Italians are emotional.”

A stereotype usually develops in conditions of a lack of information as a result of generalization personal experience and ideas accepted by society are very often biased. The less close people are to each other, the more they are guided in their relationships by stereotypes. Or what smaller group, the less influential it is, the more all members operate with stereotypes.

A social stereotype is not always accurate. Arising in conditions of limited information about the object, a stereotype can turn out to be false and play a conservative, or even reactionary role, distorting people’s knowledge and seriously deforming interpersonal interactions.

The presence of a social stereotype plays a significant role in assessing the world. It allows you to reduce response time to a changing reality and speeds up the process of cognition. Basic properties of stereotypes:

They are able to influence a person's decision-making, often in the most illogical way;

Depending on the nature of the attitude (positive or negative), stereotypes almost automatically “suggest” some arguments in relation to some event or phenomenon and crowd out others that are opposite to the first;

The stereotype has pronounced specificity

There are stereotypes:

• positive;
• negative;
• neutral;
• overly generalized;
• overly simplified;
• accurate;
• approximate.

Determining the truth or falsity of a social stereotype is usually based on an analysis of a specific situation. Any stereotype, being true in one case, may turn out to be false in another, and therefore ineffective in orienting the subject in the world around him.

Basic techniques for identifying stereotypes:

- detection of stable topics of conversation, for example, among acquaintances;

— conducting surveys, interviews, questionnaires;

- the method of unfinished sentences, when a person continues a sentence started by the experimenter about a particular phenomenon;

— a method of identifying associations,” when a group of respondents is asked to write in 30 seconds what they associate this or that phenomenon with.

The perception, classification and evaluation of social objects or events by the distribution of their characteristics expressed by any social group on the basis of certain ideas (stereotypes) is called stereotyping.

Stereotyping serves as a mechanism of mutual understanding, classifying forms of behavior, its causes and explaining them by referring them to already known or seemingly known phenomena and categories. Stereotyping reflects the schematic and affective nature of this kind of assessment of reality.

From a psychological point of view, stereotyping is a process when similar characteristics are given to all members of a group or community without sufficient awareness of the possible differences between them.

Stereotyping performs a number of functions, the most important of which are maintaining individual and group identification, justifying possible negative attitudes towards other groups, etc. Sometimes stereotyping helps. People rely especially easily on stereotypes when:

• lack of time;
• being overly busy;
• fatigue;
• emotional, excitement;
• at too young an age, when a person has not yet learned to distinguish the diversity of existence.

SOCIAL STEREOTYPES - simplified, schematized images of social objects, shared quite a large number members of social groups. The term “social stereotype” was first used by the American journalist and political scientist W. Lippman in 1922 in the book Public Opinion.

Basic properties of social stereotypes.

Among the most significant properties of ethnic stereotypes are their emotional and evaluative nature. The emotional aspects of stereotypes are understood as a series of preferences, evaluations and moods. The perceived characteristics themselves are also emotionally charged. Even the description of traits already carries an assessment: it is clearly or covertly present in stereotypes; it is only necessary to take into account the value system of the group in which they are common

Another property of social stereotypes is consistency, or consensus. It was consistency that I considered the most important characteristic stereotypes A. Tashfel. In his opinion, only ideas shared by a sufficiently large number of individuals within social communities can be considered social stereotypes.

Another essential property of a stereotype since the time of Lippmann is their inaccuracy. Subsequently, the stereotypes received even less flattering characteristics and were interpreted as “traditional nonsense”, “outright misinformation”, “a set of mythical ideas”, etc. Falsehood became so strongly associated with the concept of “stereotype” that a new term “sociotype” was even proposed to denote standard but true knowledge about a social group.

Objectively necessary and useful psychological function Stereotyping since the time of Lippmann was considered to be the simplification and systematization of the abundant and complex information that a person receives from environment. Thus, supporters of the theory of “saving resources” see the main function of stereotyping in providing individuals with maximum information with minimal intellectual effort. In other words, stereotypes in the process of social perception relieve individuals from the need to react to a complex social world, but are the lowest form of ideas about social reality, which are used only when higher, more accurate and individualized ideas are unattainable.

Tashfel highlighted two social functions stereotyping: a) explanation of existing relations between groups, including the search for the causes of complex and “usually sad” social events; b) justifying existing intergroup relations, such as actions taken or planned towards out-groups. The psychological mechanism of stereotyping has at all times been used in various reactionary political doctrines that sanction the capture and oppression of peoples, to maintain the dominance of enslavers by planting negative stereotypes about the defeated and enslaved.

Ethnic stereotypes- this is one of the types of social stereotypes, namely those that describe members of ethnic groups, are attributed to them, or are associated with them. Until today, in everyday consciousness and in the media, ethnic stereotypes are widely viewed as an exclusively negative phenomenon.

Stereotypes can be individual and social, expressing ideas about an entire group of people. Social stereotypes include more specific cases of ethnic, gender, political and a number of other stereotypes. Stereotypes can also be divided into stereotypes of behavior and stereotypes of consciousness. Stereotypes of behavior are stable, regularly repeated behavior of a sociocultural group and the individuals belonging to it, which depends on the value-normative system functioning in this group.

They are in close connection with stereotypes of consciousness. Stereotypes of consciousness, as fixing ideal ideas of a value-normative system, act as the basis for the formation of behavioral stereotypes. Stereotypes of consciousness create models of behavior, stereotypes of behavior introduce these models into life.