Assignment 1

1. State the topic of the article. The title is not sufficient; please state what the article is about.

The topic of this article was about stereotyping and how it affects people.

2. State the hypothesis of the paper. (What is the research question?)

The hypothesis was whether or not stereotypes have at least some truth in them.

3. Discuss the research design utilized. (For example, interviews, statistical analysis, surveys etc) ie How was the data collected?

The data was collected by observing different people -- mostly majorly stereotyped people like blonds being dumb and Asians being smart -- and seeing how many of them actually fit the “mold” set on them by their stereotype.

4. Give an overview of the results found (for quantitative papers, you do not need to get too involved in the specifics of the numbers reported)

It was found that people don’t always fit the “mold,” which should seem like common knowledge being as people each have their own unique personalities and characteristics.

5. Discuss the findings. What did the researchers discover? Was the hypothesis supported? What are the implications of this research?

The researchers found that though stereotypes could periodically be correct, they are also wrong a lot of the time. An example would be that Asians are not always extraordinarily smart; they are people and are prone to not being able to keep straight A’s in eight AP classes. There’s always the classic ongoing joke of blonde’s who are dumb. And when a blonde girl says something smart everyone automatically looks at her and says, “Wow, who knew a blonde could say something so smart?” Of course there are blondes who are not smart, but there’s also brunettes and redheads who aren’t smart, so saying a blonde is the only dumb one is rude. Technically though, the article does support the hypothesis being as there are people who fit into certain stereotypes.

6. State your opinion on the journal article you reviewed. What would you have done differently? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the paper?

This article was quite interesting seeing someone else’s views on the subject of stereotyping. I haven’t looked very much into this subject, relying for the most part on my own opinions of stereotyping being a cruel practice that puts people unjustly into these boxes that are impossible to get out of without being ridiculed. To be honest, I’ve never really think of the people who do fit into the stereotypes, I mean, I understand that there had to be enough people around to have made these stereotypes form in the first place, but now, I feel like less and less people are fitting these molds set about by a past society. Something I would have done differently in the article if I had written it would be to touch on just a few more stereotypes rather than just two. I would try to touch on a few new stereotypes that are starting to crop up. Namely, “All men are pigs,” “Feminists all hate men,” “Heterophobia.” Heterophobia is actually extremely new, being as it only really started a few months ago. It’s like homophobia except it’s people of the LGBTQ+ crowd who are beginning to hate straight people, and giving them names like “Cis.” These stereotypes would probably get a lot more responses being as they are something you see on the internet every day in this time. The paper’s strengths are that the author is able to give proper examples that are convincing and support her hypothesis. The weakness is that she doesn’t give very many examples.

7. Please include a link to your article or a copy of the article.

http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2012/06/the-impact-of-stereotyping.html

#Sociology #Spring2016