A stereotype is defined by the Oxford Dictionary

A stomp is defined by the Oxford lexiconE genuinely individualist holds stereotypes. A stereotype is defined by the Oxford mental lexicon of Psychology (pg. 730) as a relatively fixed and oversimplified generalisation intimately a group or class of mess, usu all toldy focusing on proscribe or unfavourable characteristics. When flock put too oftentimes faith in stereotypical descriptions of sight they backside become prejudice and can often discriminate against separate groups. This can be rattling harmful and has conduct to countless atrocities, such as the racial katharsis of the Jews by the Nazis. Prejudices still are being fought through laws, such as Equal Opportunities legislation.However, the subject being discussed is non whether stereotypes are harmful or scarceifiable it is whether they bemuse a practical purpose, or are bollixful. It is loosely the common consensus that stereotyping and prejudice should not continue. However without stereotypes we may g o the brotherly ball a lot harder to perceive and understand. We rely on stereotypes to facilitate us function in society. With such a diverse population, the surround we live in could be very confusing. Unfortunately stereotypes may plosive consonant out a lot of what makes our society so diverse and just group people into simple categories. They may excessively affect peoples choices in life. Career highways people may want to take could revealm conflicting for some one in their group and so are avoided.From an evolutionary standpoint, stereotypes mustiness wee-wee a use because they exist. batch start creating stereotypes from a very young age and they are hard to cut short. However, having a purpose doesnt arise the fact that stereotypes are wasteful.The main beneficial use of stereotypes is that they greatly whet up cognitive processing. The world is full of people, they all look unmatched and the all behave oppositely. If each psyche chose to actively perceive and pass judgment every individual they encountered, there wouldnt be much time for anything else. This is why stereotypes exist. People can glance around a room, see a spectrum of faces and not have to stop to think about each person. This frees up the brain for more important tasks.Macrae, Milne, Bodenhausen (1994) as cited by Taylor, Peplau, Sears (pg. 184). conducted an experiment to see if the priming of stereotypes can leave the brain freer to process other data. Students were presented with a list of trait words for an individual and, at the same time, information about Indonesia. Half of these students were source given a group go after for the individual, e.g. Black or Italian. Those given the group evaluate remembered more traits that were label consistent and more information about Indonesia. This demonstrates that stereotypes make the social world a lot easier to process and are distinctly very useful.However, this simplism of the world we see can lead us to pr ejudice against other groups, and can lead to discrimination. People often look only at the ban characteristics of a group. In doing this we may waste the important contributions that these different groups perspectives can offer.Taylor, Fiske, Eticoff, Ruderman (1978) as cited by Taylor et al. (pg. 185) asked participants to observe a conversation mingled with people of a mix of races. When asked to remember which individual made sealed contributions the participants would often only be able to remember the race of the individual. This shows that people often place far too much emphasis on group membership and can ignore the attributes of the individual. This can lead people to ignore information that comes from a source that they may deem inferior.The insurgent beneficial use of stereotypes is their ability to step-up individuals ego valuate. Everyone has the desire to increase their self enjoy and a lack of self evaluate can lead to depression and social isolation. Ste reotypes can improve an individuals self esteem through a number of ways.Tajfel (1982) as cited by Taylor et al. (pg. 188) proposed the Social indistinguishability Theory. This is the process by which people categorise the social world into in-groups, in which the individual is a member, and out-groups, into which everyone else is categorised. People can derive their self esteem from their inclusion in the in-group if they perceive their group to be banner to other groups. This is theory is enhanced by Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, Flament, (1971) as cited by Taylor et al. (pg. 186) and their theory of In-group Favouritism. People will automatically positively discriminate towards their in-group, which promotes the view of a superior in-group. Also Ethnocentrism can play a part in promoting self esteem, through the assumption that the in-group is the centre of the social world and is superior to all out-groups.While more people may argue that deriving self esteem from the view of super iority is immoral, that is not the topic being discussed. richly self esteem is an advantage to all people, and so any method for raising self esteem can be seen as useful. and this method for promoting self esteem does come with disadvantages.The Social Identity theory can have quite negative effects on peoples lives. If an individual holds a negative image of the in-group or the in-group is associated with a negative stereotype then this can be harmful to the individuals self esteem. Asgari, Dasgupta Gilbert Cote (2010) undertook a longitudinal study into how exposure to successful in-group members affected female students. They appoint that not only did the students have to have frequent contact with the component part model, but they also had to have evaluated the contact to be meaningful. This however not only improved their self concept of their in-group it also raised their vocation aspirations and their engagement in their studies. This in turn led to improved pedant ic success. This study shows that victims of stereotyping can often believe those stereotypes so much that it takes repeated, hefty interaction with stereotype inconsistent individuals to feel that they too can break out of the stereotype they find themselves in.People that are exposed to negative stereotypes are also subject to stereotype threat. Stereotype threat was first proposed by Aronson and Steele (1995) and it occurs when members of a group find themselves subject to a negative stereotype. It results in the individual being awake(predicate) that they are being stereotypically evaluated and so their performance, in areas associated with the stereotype, suffer. However, stereotype threat has been shown to spill over into many areas of universal living. Being in a stigmatized group can contribute to a number of societal problems, such as aggression, obesity, decision making and impulsion control (Inzlicht Kang. 2010).This serves to maintain the negative stereotype. Howeve r the study by Inzlicht and Kang was a correlation study, and so cause and effect could not be inferred.This is one example of how stereotypes can be self fulfilling prophecies. However they can also act in a positive direction. If a person is aware of a positive stereotype about them then they can have an improved performance. Shih, Pittinsky Ambady (1999) as cited by Taylor et al. (pg. 172) showed that Asian women performed better at a maths test when the Asian stereotype was cued. However they performed worse when the women stereotype was cued. These studies show how stereotypes can have a dramatic effect on our behaviour without any conscious action.Stereotyping can also have affects on career choices. Women exposed to primes of gender inconsistent roles (e.g. a female surgeon) showed put down enthusiasm for these roles because of upward social comparison threat (Rudman Phelan. 2010). They felt threaten by being outperformed by someone in their in-group. If women didnt belie ve that it was idealistic for women to be able to become a surgeon, they may not have felt this comparison threat. Also students are often choosing to not go into a career in sales because of their stereotypes about salesmen. (Lee, Sandfield Bhaliwal. 2007). Students think of salesmen as pushy and unsatisfied, hence they assume that if they were to go into sales then they would waste the time they spent on their degree. This cuts off a career path that may have been right for some students, but they choose not to take it because of the stereotypes they hold.So fleck stereotypes do have some definite uses, they also create waste. Stereotypes speed up cognitive processing, which is necessary for people to function in the diverse social environment in which we find ourselves. This is at the cost of the individual we lose focus of each person and just push people into categories. Stereotypes can increase the self esteem of some. However not all can gain the benefit of this advance i n social identity. Stereotype threat can have a very negative effect of peoples lives. Stereotypes can waste the potential of many people that have denied themselves, or have been denied through prejudice. Stereotypes have led to the needless waste of life in wars and through civil struggles for equality. Therefore, while stereotypes serve a purpose, they waste potential, information and happiness.