Theory

Tessa Perkins
Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be
challenged. Tessa Perkins (1979) identifies 5 such assumptions;
• Stereotypes are not always negative (e.g. 'The French are good cooks').
• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful ( e.g. 'upper class twits').
• They can be held about one's own group.
• They are not rigid or unchanging ( e.g. the "cloth cap worker of the 1950's became the
1980's 'consumerist home-owner who holidays in Spain').
• They are not always false.

Stereotyping has tended to suggest that it is wrong to see people in catagories. Yet in the field
of social pyschology it has long been recognised that catagorisation is a fundamental process
necessary for humans to make sense of the world. Humans need to impose structure on events
,experiences and people.