What’s Wrong with Stereotypes?

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-61
Author(s):  
Erin Beeghly ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Function ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Controlling Images ◽  
Patricia Hill Collins ◽  
Hybrid Theory

Stereotypes are commonly alleged to be false or inaccurate views of groups. For shorthand, I call this the falsity hypothesis. The falsity hypothesis is widespread and is often one of the first reasons people cite when they explain why we shouldn’t use stereotypic views in cognition, reasoning, or speech. In this essay, I argue against the falsity hypothesis on both empirical and ameliorative grounds. In its place, I sketch a more promising view of stereotypes—which avoids the falsity hypothesis—that joins my earlier work on stereotypes in individual psychology (2015) with the work of Patricia Hill Collins on cultural stereotypes (2000). According to this two-part hybrid theory, stereotypes are controlling images or ideas that enjoy both a psychological and cultural existence, which serve a regulative social function.

Transgressing the Controlling Images of African-American Women? Performing Black Womanhood in Contemporary American Television Series

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-290
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Różalska
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Television Series ◽  
American Women ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Controlling Images ◽  
Patricia Hill Collins ◽  
The One

Drawing from intersectionality theories and black feminist critiques of white, masculinist, and racist discourses still prevailing in the American popular culture of the twenty-first century, this article looks critically at contemporary images of African-American women in the selected television series. For at least four decades critics of American popular culture have been pointing to, on the one hand, the dominant stereotypes of African-American women (the so-called controlling images, to use the expression coined by Patricia Hill Collins) resulting from slavery, racial segregation, white racism and sexism as well as, on the other hand, to significant marginalization or invisibility of black women in mainstream film and television productions. In this context, the article analyzes two contemporary television shows casting African-American women as leading characters (e.g., Scandal, 2012-2018 and How To Get Away With Murder, 2014-2020) to see whether these narratives are novel in portraying black women’s experiences or, rather, they inscribe themselves in the assimilationist and post-racial ways of representation.

Stereotypes of Social Groups in Germany in Terms of Warmth and Competence

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Asbrock
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Judgment ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Content Model ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
German Student ◽  
Stable Clusters ◽  
Relevant Social Groups

The stereotype content model says that warmth and competence are fundamental dimensions of social judgment. This brief report analyzes the cultural stereotypes of relevant social groups in a German student sample (N = 82). In support of the model, stereotypes of 29 societal groups led to five stable clusters of differing warmth and competence evaluations. As expected, clusters cover all four possible combinations of warmth and competence. The study also reports unique findings for the German context, for example, similarities between the perceptions of Turks and other foreigners. Moreover, it points to different stereotypes of lesbians and gay men.

Social function in psychiatry: The hidden axis of classification.

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-383
Author(s):  
Terri Gullickson
Keyword(s):  
Social Function

Review of Individual Psychology.

1983 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-72
Author(s):  
Ravenna Helson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Psychology

Metaphors Serve a Basic Social Function

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Bowes ◽  
Albert N. Katz
Keyword(s):  
Social Function

Contact precautions for colonisation with multidrug-resistant organisms and haemodialysis patient quality of life and mood: a pilot case-control study

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rathika Krishnasamy
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Multidrug Resistant ◽  
Contact Precautions ◽  
Dialysis Vintage ◽  
Multidrug Resistant Organisms ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Background: The rate of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) colonisation in dialysis populations has increased over time. This study aimed to assess the effect of contact precautions and isolation on quality of life and mood for haemodialysis (HD) patients colonised with MDRO. Methods: Patients undergoing facility HD completed the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL–SFTM), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Personal Wellbeing-Index Adult (PWI-A). Patients colonised with MDRO were case-matched by age and gender with patients not colonised. Results: A total of 16 MDRO-colonised patients were matched with 16 controls. Groups were well matched for demographics and co-morbidities, other than a trend for older dialysis vintage in the MDRO group [7.2 years (interquartile range 4.6–10.0) compared to 3.2 (1.4–7.6) years, p=0.05]. Comparing MDRO-positive with negative patients, physical (30.5±10.7 vs. 34.6±7.3; p=0.2) and mental (46.5±11.2 vs. 48.5±12.5; p = 0.6) composite scores were not different between groups. The MDRO group reported poorer sleep quality (p=0.01) and sleep patterns (p=0.05), and lower social function (p=0.02). BDI scores were similar (MDRO-positive 10(3.5–21.0) vs. MDRO-negative 12(6.5–16.0), p=0.6). PWI-A scores were also similar in both groups; however, MDRO patients reported lower scores for “feeling safe”, p=0.03. Conclusion: While overall scores of quality of life and depression were similar between groups, the MDRO group reported poorer outcomes in sleep and social function. A larger cohort and qualitative interviews may give more detail of the impact of contact precautions and isolation on HD patients. The necessity for contact precautions for different MDRO needs consideration.

Margaret Mahy: An Adlerian Reading

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-199
Author(s):  
KATHRYN WALLS
Keyword(s):  
Young Female ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alfred Adler ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Magical Power ◽  
Margaret Mahy ◽  
The Individual

According to the ‘Individual Psychology’ of Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Freud's contemporary and rival, everyone seeks superiority. But only those who can adapt their aspirations to meet the needs of others find fulfilment. Children who are rejected or pampered are so desperate for superiority that they fail to develop social feeling, and endanger themselves and society. This article argues that Mahy's realistic novels invite Adlerian interpretation. It examines the character of Hero, the elective mute who is the narrator-protagonist of The Other Side of Silence (1995) , in terms of her experience of rejection. The novel as a whole, it is suggested, stresses the destructiveness of the neurotically driven quest for superiority. Turning to Mahy's supernatural romances, the article considers novels that might seem to resist the Adlerian template. Focusing, in particular, on the young female protagonists of The Haunting (1982) and The Changeover (1984), it points to the ways in which their magical power is utilised for the sake of others. It concludes with the suggestion that the triumph of Mahy's protagonists lies not so much in their generally celebrated ‘empowerment’, as in their transcendence of the goal of superiority for its own sake.

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