Question

"College professors are absent-minded" is an example of a. an attitude. b. an attribution. c. a stereotype. d. a prejudice.

Short answer

The statement is a stereotype.

Step-by-step solution

Understanding Attitude

An attitude is a personal and relatively longstanding positive or negative feeling about someone or something. It involves individual emotions and thoughts rather than generalized beliefs.

Understanding Attribution

Attribution refers to the process of explaining the causes of behavior or events. It is about how individuals assign causes to actions and outcomes, not generalized traits.

Understanding Stereotype

A stereotype is a generalized belief about a group of people, often based on limited information or overgeneralization. It assigns characteristics to the entire group and is often oversimplified.

Understanding Prejudice

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. It is typically a negative attitude towards a group or its members, often involving stereotypes but specifically includes judgment and biases.

Identifying the Correct Term

The phrase "College professors are absent-minded" assigns a generalized trait (absent-mindedness) to an entire group (college professors) without considering individual differences. This makes it a stereotype rather than an emotional attitude, a process of attribution, or a prejudicial bias.

Key concepts

Attitude

Attitude is all about how we feel and think about something. It's our own personal reaction, whether that's positive or negative. For example, you might feel happy every time you think about your favorite sports team, showing a positive attitude. But these feelings are uniquely yours; they're not about what everyone else thinks or does.

Attitudes are shaped by a variety of factors, like our past experiences, the culture we grew up in, and even the people we interact with regularly. They reflect our personal likes and dislikes.

Importantly, attitudes are different from stereotypes, because they are not about generalizing traits to a whole group. Instead, they focus on individual feelings and beliefs.

Attribution

Attribution is like detective work for explaining why things happen. When something occurs, we automatically try to figure out the reason behind it. Did someone succeed due to hard work or just luck? That's attribution at play.

There are two main types of attributions:

• Internal attribution: Where we believe behavior is due to personal factors, such as someone's personality or effort.
• External attribution: Where we think behavior is influenced by situational aspects, like luck or task difficulty.

Understanding attribution can help us navigate relationships and interactions, as it allows us to see beyond our initial gut reactions to events and behaviors.

Prejudice

Prejudice involves prejudging a person or group, usually based on stereotypes. This means forming an opinion without adequate reasoning or knowledge.

Most of the time, prejudice leads to negative attitudes towards others, fueling discrimination. For instance, if someone assumes certain traits about others purely because of their race or gender, that's prejudice.

It's essential to recognize that prejudice is often rooted in misinformation and bias, cementing unfounded opinions that ignore individual differences and realities. Addressing prejudice means challenging those initial, unfounded assumptions and striving for more fair and just perspectives.