According to social identity theory, individuals self-categorize into groups and then differentiate between groups based on stereotypical norms to create a perceived hierarchy to benefit their self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of social identities among adolescent musicians related to the career paths of music…

Previous research indicates that children hold negative beliefs about peers with foreign accents, physical disabilities, and people who are obese. The current study examined skills associated with individual differences in children's social judgements about these typically stereotyped groups. Theory of mind, memory, and cognitive inhibition were…

In everyday life, we are often faced with the problem of judging who owns an object. The current experiments show that children and adults base ownership judgments on group stereotypes, which relate kinds of people to kinds of objects. Moreover, the experiments show that reliance on stereotypes can override another means by which people make…

People with high-functioning Autism (HFA) can accurately identify social categories from speech, but they have more difficulty connecting linguistic variation in the speech signal to social stereotypes associated with those categories. In the current study, the perception and evaluation of talker age by young adults with HFA was examined. The…

Although teen pregnancy and parenthood are more visible in society than in the past, teen mothers are often stereotyped and stigmatized. The study examined positivity toward teen mothers among college students (N = 316) at a midwestern university. Although students responded positively to some items regarding teen mothers, other statements showed…

The development of spontaneous gender stereotyping in children was investigated using the newly developed Action Interference Paradigm (AIP). This task consists of assigning gender-stereotypical toys as quickly as possible to boys and girls in either a stereotype-congruent or a stereotype-incongruent manner. A pilot study with 38 children (mean…

This study examined young children's (M = 38 months) beliefs about the aging of language competence using a modified mutual exclusivity paradigm (cf. Markman, 1990). Children were shown pairs of objects (familiar and unfamiliar) and were asked by a younger and older experimenter to point to the object in the pair to which a novel non-word…

The major goals of the present study were to (a) examine age differences in susceptibility to age stereotypes and (b) test a self-awareness manipulation in counteracting age stereotypes. Young and older adults read two sets of descriptors that only differed in the to-be-ignored age-related information. In the high self-awareness condition,…

The present paper, drawing from the perspective of social cognition, examines and evaluates an intervention based on social-cognitive perspective-taking on the reduction of stereotyping and prejudice in older adults. Data were collected in a sample of Spanish participants with a mean age of 63.2 years. The intervention, aimed at reducing prejudice…

This article presents the results of a study of differences in orientation toward disability over the lifecourse. The study was based on an instrument developed by the authors, the Questionnaire on Disability Identity and Opportunity (QDIO). This instrument measures two dimensions of disability: participation and orientation. Orientation, in turn,…

Getting old is scary; getting old in the classroom is also scary. In this article, the authors, both beginning their seventh decade and have been connected to St. Michael's College for more than thirty years, inscribe themselves and others like them within a narrative of aging and pedagogy that mitigates the terror by contesting and refuting…

Scholars have highlighted the detrimental influence of racially charged stereotypes and images on self-perception and well being. Others have suggested that identity components (e.g., ethnic identity and self-concept) serve a protective function. The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the relationship among stereotypic images, beauty…

This paper describes a successful project that promotes the intercultural educational value of international exchange for students and youth groups. "Colored glasses" is a project of the German Youth for Understanding Committee aiming to enhance intercultural education by providing intercultural learning opportunities to students in…

There is little evidence to suggest that being gay causes problems in old age but there is considerable evidence to suggest that societal stigma may cause problems for aging gays. Presented at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of Gerontological Society, Louisville, Oct., 1975. (Author)