Contents
Stereotype — (“solid” + “imprint”). Initially, a “stereotype” is a metaphor for thinking that came from typography, where a stereotype is a monolithic printing plate, a copy from a typographic set or a cliché used for rotary printing of large-circulation publications. In modern social theory and psychology, there are various definitions of the concept of «Stereotype», depending on the methodological direction of the scientific school.
Western tradition W. Lippman
The concept of «stereotype» entered the socio-political Western discourse with the light hand of Walter Lippmann, which he applied in describing his original concept of public opinion in 1922.
According to Lippmann, it is possible to derive the following definition: a stereotype is a pattern of perception, filtering, interpretation of information accepted in the historical community when recognizing and recognizing the world around, based on previous social experience . The system of stereotypes is a social reality.
Walter Lippmann’s definition has significant cognitive potential for sociologists and social psychologists, because allows a distinction to be made between appears and, what they represent. Thus, in 1999, at the congress of the European Association for Experimental Social Psychology, held in Oxford, 33 out of 13 symposiums were focused on the problems of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination. In his book Public Opinion, Lippmann anticipated the main meanings that researchers later discovered in stereotypes, and the concept itself became firmly established in everyday language.
Saving effort
The area of stereotyping ranges from delusional fantasies to the deliberate use by scientists of rounded calculation results. All human culture is mainly (in Lippmann’s interpretation, of course) selection, reorganization, monitoring of different models of the environment. Those. the formation of stereotypes is the economy of one’s own efforts, because trying to see all things anew and in detail, rather than as types and generalizations, is tiring, and for the busy man is practically doomed to failure. In addition, cases of refusal of typings should be noted: in a close circle there is no way to replace an individualized understanding with something or somehow save on it. Those whom we love and admire, for the most part, are men and women, they know us rather than the classification under which we can be summed up.
World markup
In addition to saving effort, stereotypes seem to have another function: stereotype systems can serve as the core of our personal tradition, a way to protect our position in society. They represent an ordered, more or less consistent picture of the world. Our habits, tastes, abilities, pleasures and hopes are conveniently located in it. The stereotypical picture of the world may not be complete, but it is a picture of a possible world to which we have adapted. In this world, people and objects occupy their designated places and act as expected. We feel at home in this world, we are an integral part of it. Therefore, it is not surprising that any change in stereotypes is perceived as an attack on the foundations of the universe. This is an attack on the foundations of our world, and when it comes to serious things, it is really not so easy for us to admit that there is any difference between our personal world and the world in general. The stereotype system is not just a way of replacing the lush variety and disordered reality with an orderly representation of it, only an abbreviated and simplified way of perceiving. Stereotypes serve as a guarantee of our self-respect; project an awareness of our values into the outside world; protect our position in society and our rights, and therefore, stereotypes are filled with feelings, preferences, likes or dislikes, are associated with fears, desires, drives, pride, hope. The object that activates the stereotype is evaluated in connection with the corresponding emotions.
Stereotypes and prejudices
In everyday life, it is precisely the judgment that precedes the receipt of the relevant data that contains the conclusion that these data most often confirm. Justice, forgiveness, truth are not included in this judgment, because it precedes the receipt of factual data. Prejudice, of course, can be identified, taken into account and refined. But since the life of a person is limited, he must, in the time allotted to him, receive all the information necessary for the development of a vast civilization, so he cannot do without prejudices. The quality of his thinking and action will depend on whether these prejudices are benevolent towards other people and ideas, whether they arouse rather love towards what is clearly perceived as good, or hatred towards what is not included in their idea of the good.
Dynamics of stereotypes
The stereotype begins to operate even before the mind turns on. This leaves a specific imprint on the data that is perceived by our senses even before these data reach the mind. Nothing is more resistant to education or criticism than a stereotype, since it leaves its mark on the actual data at the moment of their perception.
To a certain extent, external stimuli, especially spoken or printed ones, activate some part of the stereotype system, so that the immediate impression and the previously formed opinion appear in consciousness simultaneously.
In cases where experience conflicts with a stereotype, a twofold outcome is possible: if an individual has already lost a certain flexibility or, due to some significant interest, it is extremely inconvenient for him to change his stereotypes, he can ignore this contradiction and consider it an exception that confirms the rule, or find some error, and then forget about this event. But if he has not lost his curiosity or the ability to think, then the innovation integrates into the already existing picture of the world and changes it.
Gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are generalized ideas (beliefs) formed in culture about how men and women actually behave. Basically, such words as strong, cruel, indifferent, pugnacious and self-confident are associated with a man. In the family, the man is the master, leader, protector. The woman is characterized as modest, polite, watching her appearance. In the family, she is a teacher and a cook.
Archetypes and stereotypes
Patriotic tradition
In the 20–30s of the XNUMXth century, the physiological school of I.P. Pavlov was actively engaged in the study of the phenomenon called by Pavlov “dynamic stereotypy”. The idea of the Russian physiological school about the stereotype was based on the ability of the brain to fix the same type of changes in the environment and respond accordingly to these changes.
Definition of a dynamic stereotype (according to I.P. Pavlov) — well-coordinated balanced system of internal processes of the cerebral hemispheres, corresponding to the external system of conditioned stimuli. Note that the definition of Academician Pavlov substantially corresponds to the definition of systemicity by E. A. Asratyan. It is possible to give another definition, where the stereotype is a chain of nerve traces from previous stimuli that, unlike conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, are triggered in the absence of an external stimulus.
The realization of the necessity, the conceptualization of the stereotype came in the course of experiments on the development of conditioned reflexes to positive and negative alternating through identical pauses, sound and skin stimuli. The revealed effect was that after the strengthening of such activity, new reflexes were developed very quickly, and in some cases arose from the very first application of new stimuli, while the previously formed rhythm of excitation and inhibition was reproduced, corresponding to the order of application of positive and negative signals.
The brain reacts to a change in the external stereotype with a number of characteristic rearrangements, which are reflected in individual links of the system, in the entire system, or, finally, in the entire higher nervous activity. External changes can lead to both an improvement and a deterioration in the flow of higher functions up to the development of a deep neurosis. Pavlov drew attention to the fact that «the processes of setting a stereotype and breaking it are subjectively diverse positive and negative feelings.»
In terms of content, the connection between Pavlov’s “dynamic stereotypy” and Lippmann’s stereotypes seems to be quite transparent (for both, it is important that a stereotype is a mold of the surrounding reality that allows one to adapt to diversity), although the difference in approaches to study is understandable: Lippmann focuses on the social nature of stereotypes and what meaning they play in the functioning of society and communities, and Pavlov on the physiology of nervous activity.
Sources of
- Lippman W. Public opinion / per. from English. T. V. Barchunova, ed. K. A. Levinson, K. V. Petrenko. Moscow: Institute of the Public Opinion Foundation, 2004
- Sudakov K.V. Dynamic stereotypes, or informational imprints of reality. M.: PER SE, 2002
- Oslon A. Walter Lippman on stereotypes: extracts from the book “Public Opinion” // Social Reality, 2006, No. 4, pp. 125 — 141.