REFLECTION JOURNAL 2

EFFECTS OF THE STEREOTYPES

Stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a group or a gender. For example, women are bad drivers, or blacks are good at basketball. It can be true in general but cannot be true for each member of the group which is stereotyped. It can be positive or negative. In both case, it affects the people who are exposed to it. This effect may decrease the performance of the members of the group and also may increase it.

In the first case, a negative stereotype may decrease people’s performance because they worry about confirming it, so they may feel pressure on them. As a result of this pressure, they realize the negative stereotypes which they exposed to. This is stereotype threat. For example, when a woman who is good at math or science but also knows the stereotype that women cannot do math has a math test, she feels pressure on her because of the fear of confirming this stereotype. Therefore, she may perform in this test badly just because of the stereotype and this pressure.

In the second case, people’s performance may increase just thanks to a stereotype. While the stereotype which I mentioned in the previous paragraph decreases the performance of women, it may increase the performance of the men because even if they are bad at math, they have self-confidence thanks to the stereotype. This is stereotype lift.

Both stereotype threat and stereotype lift affect life and performance of the people who are stereotyped. Now we know what stereotype, stereotype threat and stereotype lift are. The aspect of the topic which I am interested in is how we can overcome stereotypes especially stereotype threat because it is a problem to solve. I think there is just one way to solve this problem. It is ignoring the stereotypes.

In order to be able to ignore stereotypes you have to know your abilities and limits. That is, you need to know the subjects and areas which you are good or bad at. Knowing yourself makes you self-confident. This is the first and the most important step to solve this problem in my opinion. Then, you can ignore it just as you ignore the people’s thought about you or your act when you know you did well or you are right. To sum up, think stereotypes as the thoughts of the people who want to judge, limit and envy you and just ignore them.

In conclusion, stereotypes affect our lives, but the important point is the way of this effect. When their effect is positive, you can believe and adopt it, but you should ignore the stereotypes which may affect you or your performance badly and try to turn them into an advantage.