Stereotypes That Help Define Who We Are

Abstract

The research Fay Fransella undertook with stereotypes is reviewed in this article. It concentrates on her lesser-known articles dealing with relations between the self and stereotypes in certain “symptom groups” (stutterers, arsonists, alcoholics, and heroin addicts) as well as in wider social groups, such as students and scientists. In these articles, Fransella voiced important insights that have appeared in more recent writings of social constructionism, at the same time being strikingly similar to the position of thinkers in contemporary theoretical physics.