Dwie procedury badania stereotypu

Abstract

The study deals with the comparison of the results obtained by means of the open procedure with those obtained using the closed one. Both procedures were used in the research of stereotypes of a typical representative of each of three occupational groups: peasants, clerks and workmen. The open procedure consisted in asking respondents an open-ended question which set them the task to enumerate the traits of a typical X (a peasant, a clerk, a workman). The closed procedure consisted in the application of 30 bipolar scales by means of which the respondents indicated the intensity of traits attributed to a typical X. The combination of the results was done by elaborating the replies to the open-ended question on the basis of the traits used in the bipolar scales. In using these traits as categories of the coding key for structuring the spontaneous utterances of respondents, one applied the principle of synonymity. In this manner obtained were 76 categories of traits, of which 60 were the traits taken from the bipolar scales – 16 categories of traits being the new ones in relation to the scales. Respondents whose replies contained the traits belonging to these 16 categories were excluded from the analysis. The purpose of the comparison was to establish concordance versus discordance of the results obtained by means of two research procedures. The results of the application of two procedures were considered concordant when a given respondent in his reply to the closed question (i.e. on the scale) indicated such an intensity of the trait given by him earlier in his reply to the open question, which did not altered the meaning of that trait. All the remaining results were considered discordant. Discordances are a complex category and among them were distinguished two kinds: contradictions and inadequacies. As contradictions were regarded those cases in which a respondent, after having given in his reply to the open-ended question a certain trait, indicated such an intensity of it on the scale as to alter its meaning. Discordances called inadequacies were those cases in which a respondent ascribed the value zero on the scale to the trait given in his reply to the open-ended question. The unit of analysis in the study was a relation, within the pair of traits, between the trait given by the respondent in his reply to the open-ended question and the one ascertained on the basis of the closed question (on the scale). This approach made it possible to construct a typology of respondents in respect of the relations between traits. Most numerous were respondents in whose replies all traits were concordant (61% as regards the stereotype of a peasant, 39% of a clerk and 64% of a workman); respondents whose replies contained both concordant and discordant traits constituted 27% (stereotype of a peasant), 32% (stereotype of a clerk) and 21% (stereotype of a workman); among such respondents most frequently only one trait was discordant. The third type of respondents were those in whose replies all traits were discordant; they constituted 12%, 23% and 12% for, respectively, stereotypes of a peasant, a clerk and a workman. Further analysis concerning the set of traits showed that with the increase of the number of traits enumerated by respondents there increased the number of cases of concordance. Analysed were also the relationship between the valence of traits and their discordance; it turned out that discordance was related with negative traits, i.e. respondents who mentioned negative traits in reply to the open-ended question, in their next reply to the question with scales most frequently “retracted” them; the contrary cases being very rare.