Nina asked:
> A student asked me what the difference is between schemas and stereotypes?
Fiske and Taylor define schemas as "a cognitive structure that represents
knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and
the relations among those attributes
I think of stereotypes as a particular type of schema, where the content
(the knowledge of attributes and relationships among attributes) is largely
socially shared -- that the same or similar content would be called to mind
by people throughout a particular society (or sub-group within a society).
The stereotype is also less flexible than a typical schema; even repeated
experience with members of a stereotyped group is not likely to alter the
content of the stereotype -- but such experience can alter the content of a
schema that is NOT a stereotype. For example, most people connected with
academics in any way (as well as people who live in college towns) are aware
of the stereotypes for "frat boys" and "sorority girls." That information
is socially shared -- most people at a given time know what the stereotype
is (including the members of greek organizations). An individual may have
contact with many members of these organizations who do not fit the
stereotype, but the stereotype remains largely unchanged. The individual
will still know what the stereotype is, it still may be activated when new
members of these groups are encountered. However, one's larger (and more
personalized) schema about fraternity and sorority members may be altered
through such experience. Perhaps we include information in our schema that
"not all frat boys drink to excess" or "not all sorority girls are
superficial" but the stereotypical information that frat boys drink to
excess and sorority girls are superficial will persist. Patricia Devine's
research suggests that we cannot escape this information getting activated
to some extent, but we don't necessarily view it as accurate and we don't
need to act on it.
In a sense, the stereotype is part of the larger (and hopefully more
accurate) schema or knowledge structure about a particular group. We "know"
it, we learn it as we are socialized in a particular culture, but it is only
one piece of information that we could have about any group. ANd of course
it is more problematic if it is the ONLY piece of information we have about
a group.
Deb Hume
Stephens College
