The difference between two groups affects other attributes of the out-group, including those that are similar to the in-group. By subdividing further such similarities, we are initiating a defence against change in our attitudes and categories. This inventiveness is another example of the flexibility of categorisation. In the most extreme cases, this can lead to an inventiveness demonstrated by racial theorists, which in fact, contradicts their prejudice and rigidity of categories. This flexibility can be illustrated further by studies that have shown that in stereotyping, people imply that most of a group posses a stereotypic trait but not all members. Thus, is the need for 'special cases', realisation of individualisation and tolerance (Billig, 1985).

According to the cognitive approach, stereotyping is a group process. It may occur in groups, but it is the individual psyches that make up the group, that project their stereotypes through a group. We do have the ability to see people as individuals and particularise their unique characteristics. We can change, as even categorisation is flexible, which undermines the cognitive approach with categorisation, although it may take time on a social level.

To conclude, the cognitive approach alone does not give us an understanding of stereotyping. However, it does anchor the fact that through our 'natural' thought processes we do categorise, which leads to stereotyping. It also highlights the importance of the individual and the group. There are, however, problems that have been overlooked by cognitive psychologists which we need to understand, in order to fully understand the 'changing dynamics and nature of stereotyping in our society' (Howitt, et al., 1989). There is also the need to look further than the causes of stereotyping and into its effects in order to understand the processes of our thought, of stereotyping.

References

ALLPORT, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. London: Addison-Wesley.

BILLIG, M. (1985). Prejudice, categorisation and particularisation: From a perceptual rhetorical approach, European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 70-103.

BROWN, R. (1995). Prejudice. Oxford: Blackwell and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

DUNCAN, B. L. (1976). Differential social perception and attribution of intergroup violence: Testing the lower limits of stereotyping blacks, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 590-598.

ESSED, P. (1988). Understanding verbal accounts of racism: Politics and heuristics of reality constructions, Text, 8, 5-40.

HAMILTON, D. L. (1979). A cognitive - attributional analysis of stereotyping, In: Berkovitz, L. (ed.), Advances in Experimental Psychology, Vol. 12, Academic Press, New York.

HOGG, M. A. & ABRAMS, D. (1988). Social identifications, London: Routledge.

HORWITZ, M. & RABBIE, J. M. (1982). Individuality and membership in the intergroup system, pp.241-274, In: Tajfel, H. (ed.), Social Identity and Intergroup Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

HOWITT, D., BILLIG, M., CRAMER, D., EDWARDS, D., KNIVETON, B., POTTER, J. & RADLEY, A. (1989). Social psychology: Conflict and continuities, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, and Philadelphia.

JONES, E. E., WOOD, G. C. & QUATTRONE, G. A. (1981). Perceived variability of personal characteristics in in-groups and out-groups: the role of knowledge and evaluation, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 523-528.

KATZ, D. & BRALY, K. (1993). Racial prejudice and racial stereotypes, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 30, 175-93.

LINVILLE, P. W., SALOVEY, P. & FISCHER, G. W. (1986). Stereotyping and perceived distributions of social characteristics: An application to in-group - out-group perceptions, In: Dovido, J. F. and Gaertner, S. L. (eds.), Prejudice, discrimination and racism, Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

NEISSER, U. (1976). Cognition and reality, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.

PARK, B., & ROTHBART, M. (1982). Perception of out-group homogeneity and levels of social categorisation: memory for the subordinate attributes of in-group and out-group members, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 1031-1068.

ROSCH, E., MERVIS, C. B., GRAY, W. D., JOHNSON, D. M. & BAYES-BRAEM, P. (1976). Basic objects in natural categories, Cognitive Psychology, 8, 382-439.

TAJFEL, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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