Role schemas
The norms and expected behaviours of specific roles in society are structured into role schemas. They will include both achieved roles – including occupational and professional roles, such as doctor or teacher – and ascribed roles, over which we have little control – such as age, gender and race. The roles and expectations associated with these categories are commonly referred to as stereotypes – mental representations of social groups and their members that are widely shared (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994; Macrae, Stangor & Hewstone, 1996; Stangor & Lange, 1994). Prolific empirical research on stereotypes views the process of categorizing individuals into their respective social groups as highly functional in that it simplifies the inherent complexity of social information. Social categories such as male/female, black/white, old/young are viewed as highly salient and prior to any other kind of person categorization. Fiske (1998) refers to age, gender and race as the‘top three’ because they are the most central and visually accessible categories. So when we meet someone for the first time, we attend to obvious and salient physical cues in guiding our interactions with them. With increased familiarity, the notion is that stereotypes based on physical cues become less important, and we may subsequently employ trait-based or person schemas. Event schemas Commonly referred to as cognitive scripts, event schemas describe behavioural and event sequences in everydayactivities (Schank & Abelson, 1977). They provide the basis for anticipating the future, setting goals and making plans. We know, for example, that the appropriate behavioural sequence for eating at a restaurant is to enter, wait to be seated, order a drink, look at the menu, order the meal, eat, pay the bill and leave. The key idea here is that our commonsense understanding of what constitutes appropriate behaviour in specific situations is stored in long-term memory, and it is activated unconsciously whenever we need it.
The norms and expected behaviours of specific roles in society are structured into role schemas. They will include both achieved roles – including occupational and professional roles, such as doctor or teacher – and ascribed roles, over which we have little control – such as age, gender and race. The roles and expectations associated with these categories are commonly referred to as stereotypes – mental representations of social groups and their members that are widely shared (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994; Macrae, Stangor & Hewstone, 1996; Stangor & Lange, 1994). Prolific empirical research on stereotypes views the process of categorizing individuals into their respective social groups as highly functional in that it simplifies the inherent complexity of social information. Social categories such as male/female, black/white, old/young are viewed as highly salient and prior to any other kind of person categorization. Fiske (1998) refers to age, gender and race as the‘top three’ because they are the most central and visually accessible categories. So when we meet someone for the first time, we attend to obvious and salient physical cues in guiding our interactions with them. With increased familiarity, the notion is that stereotypes based on physical cues become less important, and we may subsequently employ trait-based or person schemas. Event schemas Commonly referred to as cognitive scripts, event schemas describe behavioural and event sequences in everydayactivities (Schank & Abelson, 1977). They provide the basis for anticipating the future, setting goals and making plans. We know, for example, that the appropriate behavioural sequence for eating at a restaurant is to enter, wait to be seated, order a drink, look at the menu, order the meal, eat, pay the bill and leave. The key idea here is that our commonsense understanding of what constitutes appropriate behaviour in specific situations is stored in long-term memory, and it is activated unconsciously whenever we need it.
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