At first glance, this role does not seem so significant. But this is because few people realize that they have succumbed to the influence of social stereotypes. Most of the stereotypes used remain unconscious by people, they are accepted by them as their own position, their own conclusions. Even such common stereotypes, like "all blondes are fools", find adherents. People quite often form ideas about things not on the basis of their own observations and conclusions, but on the basis of various stereotypes walking in society. Sometimes these stereotypes are confirmed by their private experience, from which they make an erroneous conclusion about their correctness, make incorrect generalizations. Stereotypes replace the need for people to think, they replace understanding of things. To one degree or another, all people are subject to stereotypes, even those who are distinguished by a certain independence of thought. They usually resort to stereotypes in areas with which they are little or completely unfamiliar.

The stereotypes that exist in the mind of a person affect his behavior, because create a misconception about reality and a person acts in accordance with this idea. Stereotypes can be either their own, formed by the person himself, or social, formed by society, which a person has learned and accepted. These latter are what we are talking about. They are the most dangerous because form misconceptions in a large number of people, interfere with their thinking. Of course, not all stereotypes are harmful. If people did not form stereotypes, it would be very difficult for them to exist. Thanks to stereotypes, we know that fire burns, snow is cold, and a thrown stone will certainly fall - and we don't need to be convinced of this every time in order to know that this is so. In many situations, a stereotype can help. For example, everyone knows that switches are usually located next to the door, and this helps to quickly navigate in an unfamiliar room and turn on the light. But in everything that concerns more complex things, for example, human consciousness and behavior, stereotypes only get in the way. We must always try to clearly distinguish where the real idea of ​​the subject under consideration is, and where the stereotypes about it are.

People often become hostages of social stereotypes. For example, when a person does not have his own conscious moral position, but obeys the ideas of morality prevailing in society - even when they run counter to his inner feelings. As an example, we can cite a falsely understood sense of duty, based not on understanding or at least an intuitive sense of the correctness of an act, but on prevailing stereotypes. For a long time, society was dominated by the idea that a woman's duty is obedience, admiration for men, and the main concern is maintaining the hearth. Men are surrounded by an even older stereotype about the role of breadwinner. And to this day, both those and others are struggling to meet these stereotypes. There is nothing wrong with a sense of duty - but only when it is a consequence of a person's inner convictions, confirmed by his conscience, and not caused by public opinion or social stereotypes. Otherwise, a person experiences dissonance, a mismatch in motives. On the one hand, he seeks to conform to the stereotype, on the other hand, he opposes what this stereotype demands of him. When a person is guided by the correct understanding of duty, then he does what he must, voluntarily, without any discrepancy, consciously. Not because they expect it from him, but because he himself wants it, because he understands the correctness of his deed, its necessity.

The desire of people to adjust themselves and others to certain stereotypes spoils their life and relationships with others, distorts their perception of reality. Often, people judge themselves or others not by who they really are, but by some existing stereotypes about the group of people to which they (or others) belong. For example, a person may consider himself a believer, because periodically attends church, and on the basis of this ascribe to himself the Christian virtues, although in fact he may not have them. It happens that a person does not even try to form his own opinion about himself (or about others), but unconditionally accepts a social stereotype. For example, the already mentioned blondes may agree with the stereotype that they are stupid, and not only do not try to fight it, but, on the contrary, try to correspond to it. Each conditional group of people has a certain set of stereotypes attributed to this group, and if a person can be attributed to one of such groups, then stereotypes for this group are automatically attributed to him. What kind of groups could they be? These are groups into which people are divided by age, gender and other characteristics: by profession, income level, education, etc. For example, if a person is male or female, it is possible to ascribe to him those stereotypes that relate to this sex. Although it is quite clear that a person's belonging to a certain gender does not indicate the presence of certain qualities, behavior, habits attributed to people of this gender. Following this stereotype, people are often deceived in their expectations. For example, a woman, getting married, expects to be under the protection of her husband, but it turns out that he does not have the qualities necessary for this. Or a man marries, hoping that his wife will cook, take care of the children and take care of the house, and she chooses a career. People fall prey to stereotypes. It is clear that one cannot project well-known stereotypes onto everyone. It is necessary to recognize the person himself, his qualities, try to understand his aspirations and views, and not ascribe to him some stereotypes inherent in his group.

Stereotypes are a cage for consciousness. They should be recognized and abandoned in favor of understanding things, perceiving reality in a form that is not distorted by stereotypes.

What are stereotypes? I think that these are some generalizations (generalizations) of a certain human experience, and they arise due to the fact that we live in society. By the way, initially this concept came from the ancient Greek and consisted of two words "hard" + "imprint". This was the name of the printing device in the printing house, and then this concept began to be used in relation to the ways of thinking. After such analysis of the origin of the meaning of the word - it already becomes extremely unpleasant! No, I agree that stable life positions are very important for personal development and just for a normal human life. But this is in the case when you have fully thought them over, realized and can even justify. However, stereotypes are usually a rigid phenomenon, often very unconscious and, meanwhile, durable - a kind of ingrained part of thinking. Stereotypes do not even need to be specially trained, unlike other knowledge.

Examples of stereotypes

Simple common examples: "A beautiful and interesting woman must already have a man", "By the age of 25, every normal girl should already be married and have a child", "Men don't cry", "A man should be the first to invite and confess his love." , "What is expensive is necessarily better than what is cheaper," "Every normal person should go to work," etc. and. etc. You yourself can remember more than one or two such examples, and maybe even tell about cases in your life when you suffered from the influence of stereotypes. For example, if a girl is already about 30 years old, then she is probably tired of hearing from friends and not so much, from close and distant questions on the topic: "When will a stork visit you?" Unfortunately, this happens all the time, influencing our life in a variety of ways - someone gets married in a hurry, someone cannot get to know someone they like (since that person: “Too handsome / rich / old / young ... "), someone literally drags their feet every day to boring work - and all this in order to be like everyone else, to save themselves from puzzled conversations and looks. As a result, many people feel unhappy ... In addition, if you do something that does not give you pleasure, but cannot stop, because you are afraid of judging others, then very soon you risk losing yourself among these others - Alas.

What can you recommend in order to get rid of the influence of stereotypes? Many psychologists will give very simple advice, which at first glance seems difficult: "Be yourself!" What does it mean? It means to believe in yourself, trust the world and, instead of listening to others, do what you think is right (unless, of course, this is connected with something socially dangerous). Hear yourself, your needs, use creativity and, most importantly, be happy! An unhappy person is incapable of developing, and without development there is no life. Therefore, discard all the stereotypes that prevent you from being happy! Although, if you really want to, then leave a couple of useful ones - protecting you from something bad (if you are really sure that it is bad)

And, finally, I will add - take responsibility for your life. to myself!

Every day of our life we ​​listen to the people around us when their opinion on a particular problem is important to us. They share with us their emotions, feelings and experiences or simply answer our questions. And at the same time, we most often believe the words of others, although we understand that their judgments are subjective. Likewise, we try to extract information from newspapers and magazines, books and television programs. But this is how stereotypes are born: the emotional attitude of a person to any object or phenomenon is superimposed on a certain level of knowledge. Moreover, with social stereotypes that are known through the media, family, friends, religion, we begin to face from childhood.

In psychology, social stereotypes are considered as stable and emotionally colored representations within a group of people, which in their totality make up the world outlook of a person. In other words, the stereotypes we have recognized are a kind of picture of the world, which consists of our interests, desires, and habits. According to I. S. Kon, "stereotyping consists in the fact that a complex individual phenomenon is mechanically brought under a simple formula or image that characterizes a class of such phenomena."

Everything that surrounds a person is involuntarily compared with his inner ideals. That is why stereotypes can be positively or negatively colored, for example, “all children are pure in soul” and “women are more stupid than men”, respectively. All stereotypes reflect the peculiarities of perception and simplify the process of cognition of reality by individuals. But this reality in most cases is not objective, because a stereotype is a preconceived opinion. Then on what basis can we conclude whether a stereotype is a positive phenomenon or not?

For quite a long time, stereotypes were considered a negative social phenomenon, but today the analysis takes into account not only their negative, but also positive features and consequences. The reason for this is that Western and Russian researchers have identified important functions of stereotypes that are implemented both at the group and individual levels. These include identifying groups, forming and maintaining their ideologies, and, of course, simplifying thinking. You need to understand that the essence of a stereotype - positive or negative - depends on the current situation, since under some conditions the stereotype can be true, and under others it can be completely untrue. Stereotypes appear under the influence of certain circumstances, which can change at any time, and the prejudice will then continue to exist for many years.

On the one hand, stereotypes often help a person make a choice or make a decision that is necessary for him without extra effort. Every person in modern society is sure that it is necessary to respect the elders, protect the little ones, help the neighbors. Such stereotypes have become norms of human behavior in society, rules, and no one thinks about why an educated person will behave in this way and not otherwise. But this is not the only manifestation of the good side of stereotypes. It can be quite difficult to give an adequate assessment of the event or social phenomenon about which there is no necessary information. Accordingly, when there is no opportunity to rely on their personal convictions, people often resort to stereotypes already entrenched in society, the use of which does not require making decisions of an individual nature and, as it were, removes responsibility from a particular person. It turns out that, if true, stereotypes sometimes "save" us: by accelerating the processes of cognition, they create the basis for the opinion that forms in a person, help to predict the line of behavior of the people around.

On the other hand, a social stereotype based on false knowledge imposes a certain model of behavior, which may already initially be incorrect. We begin to involuntarily avoid public attention when we are constantly told: "Do not stand out, you need to be like everyone else!" And the words "You will no longer be respected for this" and sound threatening at all. This means that through stereotypes one can mislead an individual or a group of people, manipulate them, which can lead to both personal failures and social disagreements and conflicts, fear, contempt, and discomfort. False stereotypes not only do not help to determine the correct life guidelines, but also set a person up hostile towards other people: their race, nationality, appearance or lifestyle. Stereotypes do not reveal similarities between groups of people, but focus on their differences, as a result of which people are divided into “bad” and “good”, “ours” and others ”.

It turns out that the influence of stereotypes on a person can be extremely negative, while most of them contain just false knowledge and become prejudices. Suffice it to recall such stereotypes as "an intelligent woman cannot be happy in her personal life", "all French people are arrogant and illegible" or "all children are good when they sleep with their teeth against the wall." These judgments are easy to believe, nevertheless, they impose on us false ideas about different groups of people.

For example, gender stereotypes are already so firmly entrenched in the minds of people that today men and women are prescribed certain social roles, which makes gender equality almost impossible. You can hear from almost every man that women do not know how to drive, are poorly versed in technology, politics and the only thing they do in the best way is to manage the house and raise children. At the same time, few people think that among women there are truckers, programmers, and politicians, and men often cook well and take care of children. One can recall another stereotype: "women only need money from men." Guided by this social stereotype, some men perceive women as illusory, that is, they do not try to understand what their loved one really wants. They do not say warm and affectionate words to them, do not show concern, preferring to all this material things as a means of expressing their feelings. The words "I love you" or "I'm sorry" are often replaced by gifts. But gold and diamonds are far from the only thing women want. And sooner or later, any woman can get tired of the relationship and end it, despite the numerous gifts from the man. It turns out that such a social stereotype can have a very detrimental effect: when an image is “tried on” for a certain person, the opportunity to discern individuality in him, to understand the desires and needs of this person disappears, which means that such a stereotype does not allow building relationships or preserving them.

All of the above allows us to conclude that social stereotypes play a significant role in the life of a modern person. There are endless examples of the influence of stereotypes on a modern person. However, it is impossible to give this phenomenon an unambiguous assessment. As a positive phenomenon, a true stereotype structures certain knowledge, which can be important and sometimes even necessary in order to understand the current situation. False stereotypes, directing our behavior, in many ways program us to destroy the not yet established communication, mutual understanding with other people. And at the same time, society will never be able to get rid of all stereotypes and prejudices, since a person is physically incapable of carefully considering and weighing each of his decisions or actions every time. The negative influence of stereotypes can only be weakened by acquired experience and assimilated knowledge. If a person tries to check the information received from the outside about something, and does not believe everything he heard or read at the same minute and does not make unfounded conclusions, he may well limit this influence, and therefore turn stereotypes into positive phenomena for himself, extracting from what is contained in them the volume of knowledge is of a certain usefulness.

Bibliography:
1. Ageev V.S. Psychological research of social stereotypes // Questions of psychology. - 1996. - No. 1. 95s.
2. Kon I.S. "Sociology of Youth" In the book: "Concise Dictionary of Sociology" - M. - 1988. - 164p.

“Do not meet him - he is good for you as a father”, “I need to lose weight, my waist is 3 centimeters more than normal”, etc. ... Before you are typical stereotypes that can often be found in modern society. Because of such prejudices, great love can be destroyed by a banal age difference, girls undermine their health, following the standards of 90-60-90, people prefer not to make friends with foreigners. The power of stereotypes is enormous. Let's see what it is, what harm a stereotype can do to personality development, and what benefit can be derived from this phenomenon.

What is a stereotype?

The etymology of this word goes back to typography. This was the name of the special clichés that were used in typewriters. Today, naturally, everyone knows this word from another, closer to man, field - psychology. Depending on the scientific school, modern stereotypes can be interpreted in different ways. However, their general idea is the same - it is an established opinion about people, nationalities, actions or actions. The first scientist to use the word "stereotype" in relation to a psychological phenomenon was journalist Walter Lippmann. His work was written back in the 20s of the last century, during which time the methods of assessing stereotypes have changed.

What creates stereotypes of people? Where do they come from? Undoubtedly, a person uses his own experience, generalizes it, turns it into a stereotype. We are afraid to make mistakes again, so we may, for example, not start business with people of a different nationality after a negative experience of communication with one of them. However, there is also a broader concept of social stereotypes. They are also created on the basis of experience, only this experience lasts for several centuries. It is experience and time that are the main sources of stereotypes. A social stereotype is not created in one day, but it is impossible to destroy it in one day. This takes a long time.

Features of stereotypes

According to Walter Lippmann's research, all stereotypes have four characteristics:
they are schematic, do not reflect reality in full;
they are false, do not give a real idea of ​​a person or an object;
they are tenacious, it takes time to destroy the stereotype;
they are rarely recreated by one person, they are usually the fruit of the work of society as a whole.

Types of stereotypes

An autostereotype is a person's idea of ​​himself, and a heterostereotype is an opinion about a large group of people, about a nationality or race. Heterostereotypes can change in different social groups. For some people, excessive economy may be considered prudence or frugality, while for others it will be a manifestation of greed.

Individual stereotypes apply to only one person. They can be derived from negative or positive experiences. Social stereotypes are a fairly broad category, including political, ethnic, and gender stereotypes that accompany society as a whole.

Should you be afraid of stereotypes?

Naturally, an unmotivated fear of people of a different race, an unreasoned desire to look like catwalk stars is an ambiguous phenomenon that can scare us. The word has a negative connotation. However, a stereotype is a way to classify the modern world. Humanity is accustomed to distinguishing its own from others, these categories work not only to the detriment. We try to generalize our environment so as not to waste mental resources for constant assessment. Therefore, behavioral stereotypes are incredibly important. We immediately see whether a person belongs to the category of friends or foes, we understand what to expect from him. This economy, on the one hand, has a positive effect on our personality, we devote time to something else. But it is precisely in it that the negative influence of stereotypes on self-development lies.

Cons of stereotypes

A progressive person who pays attention to the development of his personality will certainly say that stereotypes are nonsense, that he will never give preference to a young person solely because of his age, will never refuse to help people of a different nationality. All this can be said with pathos and zeal, but after 5 minutes the same promising and self-developing person will laugh at the anecdote about blondes. Yes, the association of hair color with intelligence is also a stereotype. One gets the feeling that at some point, stereotypes cease to function as a filter, and begin to project negativity, distrust on people or actions that are considered “alien” in the value system. This is due to the fact that stereotypes are in the same chain with prejudices and prejudices. The last two concepts are already more negative, they can cause discrimination.

Stereotypes are our shield from reality... It protects us from grief or anxiety that we may have towards people marked in our minds with the label "strangers." That is, we cease to sympathize with people of a different race, religion, nationality solely because of the pressure of stereotypes. Naturally, such an approach is impossible for humanity, because stereotypes of society really become an excuse for insensibility.
However, not only a negative attitude towards a phenomenon or a social group can be called a minus of stereotypes. Positive biases lead to excessive gullibility, error, and deformation of the interpretation process. An elderly person may be more capable of work, but often they refuse to interview him, giving preference to a young specialist. Naturally, this bias negatively affects the company's success.

Where do stereotypes come from?

It is believed that social stereotypes are a long-standing phenomenon, carried through a generation. This is partly true, but a person absorbs all information about them from the environment, upbringing, stories and parental attitudes. Often a stereotype can be imposed by society. A person may not feel fear or dislike for a certain category of people and actions, but adopts alertness due to the fear of making a mistake. Although society tends to change its attitude towards stereotypes. Some phenomena can change dramatically over the years and centuries.

One of the visual ways to study your own stereotypes based on implicit associations is the Harvard University website. The tests are divided into categories - race, skin color, nationality. Simple tasks allow you to reveal your preferences. Probably, someone will be surprised by the data obtained, while someone, on the contrary, expects a similar result. It's worth trying, maybe the tests can open your eyes to many things.

Yes, it takes quite a long time to break stereotypes. It is likely that you may be wary of your colleague of a different nationality. But for the full development of personality, it is not necessary to give stereotypes power over common sense. Perhaps this colleague is able to work great with you as a team, as soon as you open up to him. And you can, breaking stereotypes, get rid of unmotivated negative attitudes.

We live in a complete world stereotypes, we are constantly surrounded by "must", "must not", "what will people say?", "not like people." Stereotypes often limit our freedom. Sometimes we do things without even realizing whether we do it because we want or because the society in which we live wants so.

I wondered what this concept "stereotype" actually means and when this word appeared. And here's what the Internet told me about this: "a stereotype is a well-established attitude to current events, developed on the basis of comparing them with internal ideals." For the first time the concept of "stereotype" was introduced by the American journalist Walter Lippman in 1922. This is the date of the appearance of the term "stereotype", the stereotypes themselves appeared much earlier.

The life of a stereotype can be measured in tens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of years. With the development of society, stereotypes also change, some remain in the minds of people for a long time, others disappear without a trace and new ones appear in their place. In our seemingly such a modern world, there are stereotypes that were born hundreds of years ago.

Examples of modern stereotypes

"Women - the weaker sex"... An example of a stereotype that was probably born together with humanity. Maybe it was once so, but now it is far from always so. With the fact that men are created physically stronger, no one argues. But in the modern world there are many examples of strong women who have to pull on their shoulders not only their children, but also their husbands (stronger sex), and sometimes the whole country.

"All women want one thing - to get married"... And no one ever wondered if the girls really want this or is this desire imposed on them by those around them? If a girl is over 25, and she is not married yet, then she has to hear: “Are you married? No! And why? It is high time!". After such words, repeated from day to day, the girl has an invincible desire to get married.

And how many stereotypes associated with the wedding. "Didn't play a wedding - goons"... Why is it believed that everyone should have a wedding? And if the bride and groom don’t want this, it’s their holiday, not relatives, friends and neighbors.

"After school to college"... Yes, the institute gives a lot, but the institute, unfortunately, is not a guarantee of a successful life. In our life there are many examples of successful people who have not studied anywhere.

"A woman driving like a monkey with a grenade"... This stereotype appeared when the first woman got behind the wheel. According to statistics, women are 12% more likely to participate in road accidents than men. But men get into fatal accidents 3 times more often and the damage from "male" accidents is much greater.

"Beauty and intelligence in a woman are not compatible"... I don't know where this stereotype came from, but personally, there are many beautiful and at the same time smart girls among my friends. And it seems to me that these things are absolutely independent of each other, and, moreover, are not mutually exclusive.

It is very important to distinguish between your own desires and desires imposed by stereotypes. Because, obeying the latter, you can miss your happiness or lose your chance.

I would like to end this article with the words of Stephenie Meyer:

“Be that as it may, we all live in the grip of stereotypes. And it is all the more interesting when life gives us the opportunity to destroy them ... "