Ethnic stereotypes, cognitive style and mutual classification of national characteristics of an individual

Table 2
Correlation of character traits with levels of complexity of cognitive space
National
Mental space for Mental space for Mental space for Mental space for 

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International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education (INT-JECS) 
ISSN: 1308-5581 Vol 14, Issue 03 2022
10078
DOI: 10.9756/INT-JECSE/V14I3.1173
Groups
terminal values
instrumental values
purposes in life
relationships towards 
existential reality
Extraversion
-0.38*
0.58**
-0.49**
-0.39*
Anxiety
0.43**
0.52**
0.59**
0.66**
Sensitivity
0.66**
0.31*
0.44**
0.37*
Conformism
0.18
0.11
0.62**
0.71**
O. Harvey, D. Hunt, and G. Schroeder analyzed the individual characteristics of the conceptual field related 
to concreteness and abstraction. At the heart of psychological processes such as concreteness and abstraction are the 
differentiation and integration of concepts. The “concrete conceptualization” pole is defined by the simplicity and 
insufficient integration of concept differentiation.
The explicit style of conceptualization is characterized by a state of over-simplification of the situation and by 
a condition, called “mental blindness”, the inability to see anything else in its interpretation in the same way. The 
abstract style of conceptualization, on the contrary, differs due to the fact that there are many new approaches to the 
events and happenings, and that there is an existence of alternative interpretive schemes.
Abstraction is manifested in the ability of the subject to go beyond the immediate state, to move from one 
mental state of time and space to another mental state.
It should be noted that this cognitive style reflects the interactions (behavioral complexity and environmental 
complexity) between the person and the environment around him.
This means that if environmental parameters exceed a certain threshold of complexity, individuals with a 
specific cognitive style (minimum indicators of conceptual system integration and differentiation) become incapable 
of functioning because their behavioral patterns are not intended to come into interaction with a very complex social 
environment. 
In his research, B. Botirov, based on the characteristics of cognitive style, identified the following psychological 
characteristics as typical of Russian respondents (owners of "concrete" cognitive style): the tendency to "black and 
white" thinking (the presence of this feature has been proved in a section devoted to the study of national 
stereotypes), intolerance to abstraction, stereotypicality of decisions, the relevance of behavior to the situation, and 
so on. As for the Uzbek respondents, abstract conceptualization, that is, irrelevance or being free of direct conditions 
of a situation, and the desire to rely on internal experience in explaining the physical and social world, is a priority. 
This proves that the “abstraction” pole of cognitive style is linked with highness of the verbal intellect (based on the 
scale of the D. Wexler) and with cognitive complexity [1].
The next factor that defines social perception is stereotyping. A stereotype is a relatively solid and simplified 
image of certain aspects of a person, a group, an event and occasions, some of which sometimes do not exist 
objectively. Stereotypes of good and bad students are common in pedagogical communication, and they have been 
described several times in the literature. Teachers have a stereotype that a student's mastery depends on his or her 
personal characteristics: if he or she is a successful student, that means he is talented, honest, conscientious, and 
disciplined; if he studies not well - that means he is incompetent, lazy, distracted, etc. In this regard, educators often 
assess gifted but disobedient, undisciplined children who are over-active as ‘bad’, and do not see the manifestation 
of higher abilities in them.
It is well-known that perceiving and learning the world is an important part of human life. According to B. 
G. Anan’yev, "a person is a subject of labor, communication and learning." What is the object of his cognitive 
activity? Traditional psychology has studied the process by which a person learns the objective world. The problem 
of perceiving space, time, and motion has a long history. Man not only perceives himself as a thinking subject, but 
also as part of the organic universe.
Thus, man is not only the subject of cognitive activity, but also the object of psychological cognition. 
According to B.G. Anan’yev, psychological cognition is realized in three forms: practical knowledge, artistic and 
scientific knowledge of an individual. Comprehending and knowing the person is important for many professional 
activities, especially for pedagogy and psychology. Interpersonal knowledge is one of the most important issues in 
communicative psychology. A.A. Bodalev described people’s perceiving and understanding one another as a special 
branch of communicative psychology.
Branches of psychology such as general psychology, social psychology, pedagogical psychology, legal 
psychology study the laws of human perception in different ways. Undoubtedly, this problem is also the task of 
social psychology, which deals with the psychology of communication. The result or consequence of 
communication is that people perceive and understand one another. The problem of learning human by another 
human is studied by pedagogical psychology, more precisely by social pedagogical psychology, which is one of its 
terminal branches.
The problem of perceiving human by another human has become the most pressing and popular issue in 
world psychology over the last 30-35 years. Numerous scientific works on this problem have been published by 
foreign and Russian psychologists. Of the first researches on the problem of perceiving human by another human 

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International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education (INT-JECS) 
ISSN: 1308-5581 Vol 14, Issue 03 2022
10079
DOI: 10.9756/INT-JECSE/V14I3.1173
was conducted by A. A. Bodalev in the 1960s. These studies have collected a lot of material on the various laws and 
mechanisms of interpersonal cognition - stereotyping, projection and other features.
Stereotyping is one of the most important mechanisms of interpersonal cognition. As a result of mutual 
interaction with the environment, each person develops specific standards that are used to evaluate others.
There is a lot of research on stereotyping, projection and other features based on the study of various laws 
and mechanisms of socio-pedagogical perception, i.e. interpersonal cognition. The fact that development of empathy 
and reflexivity in the process of professional training of future educators is considered as an important factor in the 
development of social perception, along with the positive impact of career-related motivations on the formation of 
socio-perceptual skills and competencies, and the improvement of the model of formation of social perceptual skills 
and competencies in the process of professional training of future specialists enrich a number of disciplines in this 
field with new scientific data. 
There are several options for classifying stereotypes in psychology. According to V. N. Panferov, 
stereotypes are divided into such groups as anthropological, social, emotional-expressive [3, 44-45b]. Stereotyping 
is one of the most important mechanisms of interpersonal cognition. As a result of the environment and the 
interactions with it, each person develops specific standards that are used to evaluate others. As these standards 
develop over time, the individual may not realize it. Because they were never noticed before, these stereotypes can 
sometimes prevail. No matter how much a person realizes this, he will continue to perceive others through the prism 
of these stereotypes. The formation and application of sustainable models of cognition have long been of interest to 
the science of psychology.
A.A. Rean singles out six groups of socio-psychological stereotypes:
- anthropological,
- ethno-national with social status,
- with social role,
- expressive-aesthetic,
- verbal-behavioral stereotypes [5, pp. 67-68].
These stereotypes are developed when there is a lack of information about people, when it is necessary to think with 
the help of first impressions.