Stereotyping and Prejudice in Sociology

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
1. In social psychology, stereotyping can be defined as the process of over –generalizing
belief over a particular category of individuals. Stereotyping a group or a specific type of
individual is the act of assuming that the particular though is true for each and every
individual in that specific group. Such generalizations are specifically made for making
quick decisions. However, stereotyping may become erroneous while applied too specific
individuals. Stereotyping can be categorises into two types, namely, explicit stereotyping
and implicit stereotyping (Herek 2016). While explicit stereotyping is the act of
generalizing a group of individual consciously, implosive stereotypes are those that lay
on individuals' subconsciousness, that they have no control or awareness of. One of the
implicit examples of stereotyping are boys are more likely to play video games’. Police
officer buying doughnuts and coffee is an example of explicit stereotypical behaviour in
North America. According to researchers, stereotypes are formed by several ways
(Whitley Jr and Kite 2016). One of the most common reasons behind the formation of
stereotype includes the tendency of people to categorize information.
Categorization saves processing time in the brain. Secondly, stereotyping concept
s passes through generations. The process of repeatedly passing social information from
one individual to another leads to unintentional as well as spontaneous formation of
cultural stereotypes. When it come to the function of stereotyping, the chief function of it
to make it easier for people to memorise the features and characterising of a specific
group of individual without considering their individual features. Prolonged negative
stereotypes can lead to prejudices. Some of the common features of prejudice involve
negative feelings, tendency to discriminate against a specific member or a group.
Prejudices are basically based on stereotyped beliefs (Pincus 2019).

2SOCIOLOGY
2. Prejudice refers to an unjustified or incorrect attitude shown towards an individual which
is solely based on the individual’s membership of a social group. The feelings or
concepts developed due to prejudice are not based on a certain reason or actual
experience but on the presumption that are influenced by culture as well as society.
Prejudice does impose a highly negative impact on the victim. Individuals subjected to
prejudice often feel undervalued (Scacco and Warren 2018). They suffer from lack of self
esteem and this in turn stops the process of self improvement. Individuals subjected to
long term prejudice also become the victim of discrimination. They feel unacceptable in
the society and this in turn often leads to physiological issues like depression, anxiety and
social isolation. The mentioned the four major type of prejudices includes racism,
classism, sexism and lookism. Classism prejudices are based on socioeconomic status of
an individual and the chief victims of classism prejudices includes impoverished
individuals. One of the common prejudices associated with classism includes ‘crime and
violence majorly take place in poor communities’. The second type of prejudices in the
society includes racism. It includes a belief that all members of an ethnic group possess
characteristics and abilities that are specific to that ethnicity. For instance one of the
examples of racism prejudices includes “Indians know witchcrafts”. Such prejudice often
creates a wrong completely imaginary and negative perception about a certain group of
people which impose adverse affect on both the personal as well as professional life of
the victim. Additionally, racism prejudice also involves the belief that there exist inferior
and superior groups within human race based on ethnic background.
When it comes to the prejudices associated with sexism, it involve a belief that a
particular gender is naturally superior to another. In spite of the fact that sexism has the