Stereotypic
Thinking 
Lee (1989) defines stereotype as follows:
"A stereotype may be defined as a favorable or unfavorable belief about an individual, deriving from rigid attributions made on the basis of perceived group membership. More generally, stereotypes are oversimplified, biased preconceptions of the characteristics that typify persons, situations, or social groups, and they are resistant to change." (pp. 10-11)
He explains stereotypic thinking as thinking that is "unchanging, rigid, overly categorical, undifferentiated, ... overly simplistic, and inaccurate because variation among individual instances is not taken into account" (p. 10).
Fuller (1996) describes stereotypic thinking as the acceptance of stereotypes and overgeneralizations about a particular culture. She adds:
"Stereotypes are harmful because they deny that variability exists within a culture and its people and, in so doing, limit what the observer can see and expect of the people observed. One way in which stereotyping causes problems for both teachers and their students grows from the fact that only a single description exists, and it is forced to apply in all circumstances. The result is that simple explanations are offered for what in fact are complex cultural phenomena." (pp. 142-143)
Lee (1989) notes that human beings "create stability and meaning by grouping objects of perception using various classificatory schemes" (p. 12). The infant thinks concretely, perceiving objects and people as discrete and unrelated to one another. The maturing child, in order to make sense of the world, begins to abstract characteristics and to form categories describing objects and people. For the abstract thinker, these categories are fluid; one may be a member of multiple groups at the same time. For the stereotypic thinker, on the other hand, categories are rigid: If a person belongs to one group, he or she possesses all the characteristics associated with that group; individuals who fail to act in accordance with these characteristics or who exhibit traits deemed appropriate to other groups are viewed by the stereotypic thinker as exceptions. Thus, the original categories remain intact.
