As rightly pointed out in the introduction, the term 'stereotype' as a psychological concept dates back only some eighty years. Yet  the ideas underlying the concept are much older, and  anticipated some of Schneider's discussion. For instance the seventeenth-century German scholar Ludwig von Seckendorf wrote:

The origin, nature and sentiments, virtues and vices, of the inhabitants of a country, are made quite a lot of by old and new writers, although they are made without basis on uncertain assumptions, and they are too easily generalized from the example of a few people to whole nations and peoples.

Or again David Hume, in his essay on 'National characters', considered two main questions: to what extent are generalizations about national character valid ? And in so far as there are real national differences in characters, what are their causes ? So some of these issues have long been debated, but without the massive empirical attacks documented in this work.

            This is not to say that the author has merely assembled a large number of pertinent studies — on the contrary, he tackled hard conceptual problems and the empirical studies are deployed in the context of the discussions. He also often gives amusing examples of stereotypes, in which the objects are often hypothetical 'professors'. The coverage extends well beyond stereotypes in a narrow sense, beginning with the basic question of the nature of categories, and followed by various theoretical approaches that have been proposed, e.g. schema and implicit personality theories. Some themes closely associated with stereotypes,  including prejudice and discrimination, are extensively treated. Lastly, the contents of stereotypes as distinct from their psychological structures are critically surveyed.

            Schneider's ambition has been to shape varied  and complex material into a coherent account of  his own, and he has to a considerable extent been successful. But not surprisingly, a  number of his contentions are open to challenge. The book begins with a quasi-Socratic dialogue,  intended to demonstrate that many features often attributed to stereotypes are not an essential part of the concept. He then puts forward his own definition :'stereotypes are qualities perceived to be associated with particular groups or categories of people.' The author himself recognizes that this is rather vapid, but claims some virtues for it.  Now the problem of 'defining' psychological concepts is a vexed one –  take for instance 'intelligence' or 'personality'- and in the last analysis any such definitions are bound to be more or less arbitrary. In the following chapter an excellent survey of  methods is introduced by the comment that there is a close relation between definitions and measurement, and goes on 'For example, those who believe that stereotypes are inaccurate will build this  into their measurement'. This of course implies that everyone can choose their own definition and 'measure' accordingly.

            The author's theoretical orientation is cognitivist, so that he pays most attention to internal cognitive (though seldom affective) processes and rather less to external ones, notably culture. Perhaps  for the same reason less than one-fifth of the chapter on 'The development of stereotypes' deals directly with what happens during  childhood and adolescence. In the peroration the hope is expressed that better understanding of stereotypes will lead to more decent behavior towards our fellow-humans, but the question of how this is to come about is left unanswered.

            In spite of such reservations, it has to be said that this is by far the most comprehensive treatment of the topic, and is especially valuable for its detailed accounts of research in the field.

© 2007 Gustav Jahoda

Gustav Jahoda, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His main fields of interest are cross-cultural and social psychology, especially the development of social cognition. He is the author of  'A History of Social Psychology' (in press, Cambridge University Press).

Categories: Psychology