A Cross Cultural Comparison of Student Stereotypes

The degree to which one's culture defines his perception varies, of course, from person to person. Walter Lippman has said that the most part we do not first see and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world, we pick out what our culture has already defined for us and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture. [1] The extent of the truth in that statement is debatable, but the authentic person cannot deny, or fully comprehend, the influence that his culture has on his thinking. Cross cultural stereotypes, created and reinforced by daily barrages of selected information, cannot be escaped. Because the behaviour of confronting groups is influenced by stereotypes (accurate and false), the study of stereotypes is a necessary field of investigation. The residual understanding will, hopefully, reduce the gap between the authentic and the imagined. A preliminary step toward closing this gap is defining its presence and makeup. In accordance with this preliminary step, two general questions gave direction to the development of this study: (1) What is the composition of the stereotype held in the minds of one cultural group

Aesthetics · Confusion · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Perception · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Statement (logic · Stereotype (UML · Educational Research and Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Everybody But Me

  Open Access•R Alan Hedley•Sociological Inquiry•1986

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