USE OF FREE RESPONSES AND CLUSTER-ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE STEREOTYPES OF 8 GROUPS

A two-part study contrasted the utility of free-response and checklist methodologies for ascertaining ethnic and gender stereotypes. Descrip tions of data collection, organization, and duster and entropy analyse s are provided. Results indicate that important differences emerge bet ween data resulting from free-response methodology and those obtained with traditionally employed adjective checklists. These differences in clude the generation of a large percentage of physical descriptors and within-ethnic-group gender differences in stereotype content. A major finding is the generation of a large number of distinct responses cou pled with low-frequency use of any particular response. Study 2 specif ically examined whether free-response data are more schematic than che cklist data. Results indicate that free-response data have a greater d ependency and may thus be indicative of schematic response. This schem atic response may, in turn, indicate more automatic processing than is evident with data from checklist methodologies.