How The Student Athlete Stereotype May Affect An Individual Negatively

Throughout history stereotyping has been used to generalize a race class. Although when a race is being stereotyped it can be done in a positive way, in many cases it has also been done in order to keep a minority group inferior. In the article, “Thin Ice” by Claude M. Steele, Steele shows how African Americans who are stereotyped or have the mental image of being stereotyped negatively can affect their success in their academic success. In the other hand, in Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou’s “The Asian American Achievement Paradox” demonstrates when a stereotype is positive it can feed one’s ego and deliver better outcomes in a people’s academic achievements. Even though a large population of people can be stereotyped in a certain way through false concepts, it can affect the mindset of a single individual.

Stereotypes are different thoughts that a variation of people hold about people who are different from them. A stereotype can be associated with a single word or slogan; such as nerd, or jock. Stereotypes can be expressed in either a negative or positive way. Most people apply stereotypes in a negative way to make them feel more superior over others. The category that most people would place me under would be the classification of an athlete or jock. The jock title that I have been placed under has been with me pretty much my entire life. I have played sports since I was four years old when I first started playing soccer and tee ball. From that moment on I

Stereotypes are socially constructed, over-generalized views regarding a particular group of persons with certain characteristics that are widely accepted, and usually expected, in a society. The dominant group of a certain society, which in this case is probably Caucasians and men, usually creates these social constructions. Claude M. Steele, a researcher from Stanford University, performed multiple research studies on the idea and psychological effects of stereotypes on its victims. In his studies, he coins the term “stereotype threat” as the “social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group,” which implies that “the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes” (Steele 797).

Student athletes at the college level are a term used for student who are amateurs, and involved in university level competitive sports and games. These sports require physical skill and rigorous training. The training is done to prepare athletes for competition, and hopefully in the future, the professional leagues. Student athletes that compete at the college level are known as amateurs, because they are not paid for any of their playing time, or any other business transactions that their name is used for. The NCAA was designed to

Basketball, football, and hockey are considered the most popular sports in America as of today. However, sports in the early 1950s were not as popular as they are now. According to “An Exercise in Subtleties and the Transmission of Racism: An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Covers” by Eric Primm, Summer DuBois, and Robert M. Regoli, they stated that American love their sport and that “each year they would spend billions of dollars on sports-related items and activities.” The media help promote the popularity of the sports in America. Consequently, sports media “plays a key role in perpetuating the types of racial stereotypes about minority athletes in sports” (Ismond, 115). The thesis of this writing project is with some racial stereotype reinforcement

Clark’s work on identity and stereotyping has continued and has extended to not only minority groups, but to white-Americans and women as well. Research on prejudices and stereotyping has continued in the area of education. According to Steele (2004), the framework of one’s life can be controlled by their social identity and that individuals must contend to the prejudices and stereotypes that they socially must identify with. Further research suggests that those who are exposed to negative stereotypes are influenced either by believing or mimicking the stereotype or, both (Steele, 2004). Steele (2004) found that stereotypes have contributed to the underperformance of minority groups in the school setting. As suggested by Clark, Steele (2004) also believes that conforming to suggested stereotypes weakens the social identity and brings severe deficits to the ability of student to excel in the classroom. Clark’s ideas on stereotyping were elaborated in the notion that stereotype threat does not only affect minority groups, but can exhibit deficits in any group of individuals. For instance, Steele (2004) offers the example of white vs. black athletes and how in many sports (e.g. basketball or football) white athletes have shown to feel less competent in comparison to black athletes because of

The NCAA has become a huge business. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non-profit association which regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It also organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and helps more than 450,000 college student-athletes who compete annually in college sports. The NCAA has been around since 1910 and has been

Stereotype- a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Stereotypes show up everywhere, and the stories The Outsiders, a realistic fiction novel by S.E. Hinton, and the short story “The Athletic Snob” by Sam Barnes are no exceptions. In The Outsiders, the town Ponyboy Curtis lives in is divided in two: the rich, wild Socials, or Socs, and the quiet, tough Greasers. Throughout the course of the novel, Ponyboy, his brothers, and his friends start to realize that not all Socs and Greasers fit into people's ideas of who they are. The main character of “The Athletic Snob”, Joe Ricardo, also encounters false stereotypes when he meets an overweight boy named Piggy who doesn't play sports at

In life, there is a common ground on which most every person can relate. At one time or another, we have all been promoters of or victims of the unremitting nature of stereotypes. According to the Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Most stereotypes take on a negative form and are based on characteristics such as age, gender, race, status, and personal beliefs. Generally speaking, the greatest problem that arises with stereotypes is that they judge group of people by the characteristics and actions of their ancestors, rather than on an individual basis. More often than not, these assumptions will

(2014). “You throw like a girl:” The effect of stereotype threat on women's athletic performance and gender stereotypes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 48-55.

“Okay I’ll sign this paper, but this doesn’t mean you’re excused and you can’t make up the participation points you’ll miss.”

A stereotype is a widely known exaggerated image of a specific person or thing based on their appearance, sexual orientation, religion or they’re everyday life. Stereotypes are often false and shine that person or thing in a bad light. Stereotypes are often given to a person or thing based on first glance. Athletes have many stereotypes associated with them. Athletes play a lot of sports

“Stereotypes are a mental picture in your head or an opinion you might have about a person or group of people based on the actions and behaviors of others that look similar. Stereotypical images are reinforced through the media, every single time we pick up our cell-phone, or turn on the TV. Harmful stereotypical images can actually cause a person belonging to that group to feel threatened. The person is aware of the negative stereotype about their social group, and then this person experiences extreme anxiety that they might confirm the stereotype, which distracts that person from their performance. Because they are thinking about their race, gender, or sexual orientation, instead of focusing their performance whether this be an exam, a sporting

Although prejudice and stereotype seem similar, they actually have two different meanings. While stereotyping involves the generalization of a group of people, prejudice involves negative feelings when “they” are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. “Prejudice comes from direct intergroup conflict, social learning, social categorization and other cognitive sources” (Ferguson). Not all stereotypes are negative; there are also positive and neutral stereotypes. Some stereotypes do not slander a race, culture, gender, or religion, but nonetheless generalize a group of people that may or may not be true. For example, some people say that all Asians are smart or good at math. Though people of Asian descent may often be more studious, not all Asians do equally well in school (Floyd, 62). Another common example of a positive stereotype is that all black people are good athletes, dancers, and singers. Though these are positive stereotypes, when people believe them, they don’t take into account that every person is an individual and different. A neutral stereotype

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.