Developmental psychology.pdf

Social Behavior 495
Trait
Percent Checking
Trait
1932 1950 1967
Industrious
Intelligent
Materialistic
Ambitious
Progressive
Pleasure loving
Alert
Efficient
Aggressive
Straightforward
Practical
Sportsmanlike
Individualistic'
Conventional"
Scientifically minded"
Ostentatious 11
48
47
33
33
27
26
23
21
20
19
19
19
—
—
—
30
32
37
21
5
27
7
9
8
—
—
—
26
—
—
23
20
67
42
17
28
7
15
15
9
12
9
15
17
15
15
•Indicates additional traits reported by Gilbert
(1951).
"Indicates new traits needed in 1967 to account for
the ten most frequently selected traits today.
Changing Stereotypes A three-generation study suggests two important changes
in this mode of thinking. First, the use of stereotypes in describing various national
groups has decreased markedly during the last half-century. College men and women,
like the student quoted earlier, are less inclined to engage in this rigid form of thinking.
Second, when stereotypes are used, fewer unfavorable traits are assigned, and hostility
is less evident. Overall, there is less ethnocentrism, and the stereotyping that does occur
has become more objective. As always, however, there is the question of reliability and
faking in these scales of attitude measurement (Sigall & Page, 1971).
One exception to this trend has been American students' attitudes toward
themselves, which have become less flattering in successive generations. The trait "materialistic,"
in one study, was assigned to Americans by 67 percent of all subjects, more
frequently than any other trait was assigned to any other group (Karlins, Coffman, &
Walters, 1969; Figure 18.9).
Recent research also does not support the implications in the mass media of
massive negative stereotypes toward older people, at least on the part of college students.
When these young people responded to generalizations about the elderly, most
of them showed no significant overt bias (Schonfield, 1982). But the invidious power
of negative stereotypes is especially difficult for racial minorities and women (Yarkin,
Toun, & Wallston, 1982).
In addition to the more common stereotypes concerning age, race, and sex,
subtle stereotypes pervade our culture, such as that of the wicked stepmother, portrayed
in fairy tales, children's books, and on television. With an estimated 15 million
children currently living in stepfamilies, the number of people potentially injured by
this generalization has increased immensely in recent years. Both the woman and the
child may begin to doubt the woman's capacities for motherhood on this basis. As the
woman's family role continues to change, and as we learn more about stereotyping,
there should be less and less justification for this harmful practice (Radomisli, 1981).
Let us therefore avoid the view that people who are older, have become stepmothers,
or wear ponchos are somehow bad or inferior because their backgrounds may
be different from ours. Research has shown that the greater the contact with foreign
customs, the more positive are the attitudes toward that culture (Smith, Griffith, Griffith,
& Steger, 1980).
Figure 18.9
Stereotypes of Americans. Note
that in each survey, Americans
describe themselves as "industrious"
and "intelligent" with decreasing
frequency (Karlins, Coffman, &
Walters, 1969).