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Introduction
Communication with people is one of the most challenging parts of a person’s life in society. Each of us sees the world uniquely, and this often leads to misunderstandings even between close people. This situation only worsens when two representatives of different cultures meet. It is entirely optional that these should be representatives of different countries, even a difference in age is enough because each generation has its own culture. In this essay, I take a look at the stereotypes regarding two different groups and analyze them through the concept of social identity, trying to find helpful ideas and draw conclusions from this study.
Cultures and Stereotypes
I picked two groups for this comparison, divided by age and gender. It is easy for me, as an adult woman, to compare myself with young women, because interaction and parallel with them in society is continuous. In this interaction, an encounter with certain stereotypes on both sides cannot be avoided. However, it must be understood that stereotypes are not always negative. According to Hummert (2017), stereotypes are simply a pattern of behavior, a set of characteristics that one group gives to another. This idea is also observed in the Assessing Your Stereotypes tool used in this paper since the set of stereotypes in it varies from purely negative to respectful and positive.
My Group
My group, called Mature Older Women, corresponds to stereotypes that are directly related to age. A mature person is always considered to be experienced, which is why the adjectives I selected regarding Mature Older Women are intelligent, conservative, practical, sophisticated, and tradition-loving, with an overall favorableness rating of 21. The most accurate, from my point of view, is the first and last stereotype since older people are indeed often more intelligent due to their life experience. The stereotype of practicality is a little less accurate, and the most controversial of the five is the stereotype of sophistication. However, I believe that with life experience, a woman comes to some grace in behavior.
Other Group
The second group for comparison is the Young Women group, the stereotypes of which are also objectively dictated by age. I am sure that young women have such traits as materialistic, ambitious, industrious, as well as, unfortunately, deceitful and pleasure-loving, so the assessment of the favorableness of these stereotypes is 25. I meet a lot of young, ambitious women who are focused on creating their careers, and putting all their efforts into it, which is very commendable. However, it is undeniable that they use all possible means to achieve their goals, including deceit. Finally, like all young people, young women have an innate desire for entertainment and enjoyment.
Social Identity Analysis
The stereotypes considered and their assessment made by me can be easily explained using the theory of social identity. This theory consists of three parts: social categorization, identification, and comparison (McLeod, 2008). Using this theory, I analyzed my views on my stereotypes. Firstly, speaking about the approach to choosing groups, it is easy to note based on what the partition was made. In my case, it was easier for me to find a group of “friends” in the form of people of my generation and a group of “strangers” in the form of young women.
This separation also helps the process of social identification, as belonging to an in-group or an out-group can be easily determined by appearance. However, it is worth noting that such separation can play a trick in the process of communication since the appearance cannot correspond to age, and it is too easy to make a mistake.
I also want to talk about the last part of this theory, which consists of the process of social comparison. According to McLeod (2008), the central idea of the theory of social identification is that in-group members always look for negative aspects in the out-group, trying to lower them and thus increase their own self-esteem. Although this was not a very pleasant discovery for me, I found that this aspect is also observed in my reasoning.
Although not entirely, I subconsciously highlighted more negative traits that I do not like, such as deceitful and pleasure-loving. At the same time, highlighting stereotypes about my group, I took precisely the opposite things, for example, tradition-loving, raising my opinion about myself in contrast to another group. I did not expect to get such results; however, they give a cause for further consideration.
Thoughts and Conclusion
This analysis allowed me to make several of the following conclusions and take a fresh look at familiar situations. Firstly, people often apply stereotypes to other social groups without paying attention to where they come from. Very often, they grow out of people’s unconscious desire to raise their self-esteem. Accordingly, the first step towards getting rid of stereotypes is awareness. It is necessary to clearly understand why you have such thoughts about a particular group, what they are dictated by, and what caused them.
After analyzing this, I can begin to work on getting rid of stereotypes, trying to reflect on each person without applying them. The thoughtless application of stereotypes to a social group leads only to misunderstandings and the development of prejudices that hinder communication. Although combating stereotypical thinking is not easy, since it is part of our consciousness, I need to be constantly aware of where and when stereotypes are applicable. All this, ultimately, is necessary to improve the quality of communication with people of various cultures who I am sure to meet in life. Knowing where stereotypes come from, what they are, and why I think stereotypically will undoubtedly help me in leading across different cultures.
References
Hummert, M. L. (2017). Stereotypes. In Y.Y. Kim (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication (Vol. 3) (pp. 1-8). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
McLeod, S. (2008). Social identity theory. Simply Psychology. Web.
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