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Japinder Dhesi
MPhil/PhD Student Institute of Social Psychology London School of Economics |
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Within the field of social psychology the study of stereotypes has been
approached from 2 different perspectives. Early research adopted a
descriptive approach, focusing on the content of stereotypes. However,
since the late 1970s, the social cognition approach has come to dominate
the study of stereotypes, and the focus shifted to a study of the
process of stereotyping. Increasingly social psychologists have come to
recognize that these traditional approaches offer only a partial
explanation of stereotypes because they focus largely on one aspect of
the phenomenon, i.e. content or process. A complete explanation, it has
been argued, must theoretically integrate a study of the content of
stereotypes and the stereotyping process. In my doctoral research, in an attempt to fill this conceptual and empirical gap, I postulate that the Cognition and Culture approach is best suited to facilitate just such an integration. More specifically, I am exploring the potential role of evolved cognitive predispositions in shaping the contents of social group stereotypes, and in facilitating the ability of such stereotypes to justify and naturalise social status differences between groups. The expected contribution of this research will be in providing a more coherent account of stereotypes; their contents, functions and ability to stabilize within a cultural population. This is an important goal not only for what answers it provides us about social cognition, but also for its potential contribution to social policy debates concerning the negative impact of stereotypes on peoples' life chances. If you find anything of interest in these pages, and you would like to get in touch, you can email me.
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