An issue that stood out in particular to me was the idea of stereotypes, and how they serve as a means to applying

social identity to specific groups or social categories of people. I've personally always approached stereotypes with a general humorous sense; as stated in the chapter, I recognized from an early stage in being introduced to stereotypes that they can easily oversimplify and distort what actually is reality. ecause stereotypes are generalizations, they distort, overloo!, and disregard potentially significant information about others. "#andstrom, $%&', pg. (&) *ne of the first stereotypes I was introduced to was the idea that Asian drivers are, without fail, the worst drivers on the road. eing of Asian descent, I found myself gauging my own driving, and coming to the conclusion that this is simply not true based on what I consider decent driving. #tepping bac! and loo!ing at the bigger picture of things, I realized this specific stereotype served as a way of assigning social identity towards Asians. Another prominent stereotype towards Asians is their stellar ability in mathematics, which again in assessing myself I find to be untrue. +hat remains true through both e,amples however, is the fact that both are used to assign identity and impressions of the general Asian population. It undoubtedly ma!es it easier to ma!e sense of the ambiguous realities in approaching a certain group of category of people, irregardless of how much truth there is to it. I was able to spea! with a neighbor and family friend of my parents', who was actually an unlicensed contractor who had in-ured himself on a -ob. As a result he had chronic pain in his !nees due to overcompensating on one side. .is best description of the pain he felt was simply reoccurring, and tiring. I found it noteworthy in how he used words that were not specifically descriptive words of the pain itself, but rather words to describe how the pain made him feel as a whole. I didn't really feel that he had trouble describing the pain, but rather he loo!ed as it with a matter/of/fact attitude; he was not hesitant to say he was aware of how it loo!ed being an unlicensed contractor, and almost conveyed the idea his in-ury was a ris! he too!. 0his made me thin! of the idea of social status, and more specifically social class. .e e,plained the procedure of licensing would have ta!en time and burden him financially, which was why he chose to forgo doing so. +hile he didn't say it outright, I got the sense he attributed the obstacles involved in certifying himself as a burden due to his bottom/level class status. 1onversely, when his in-ury occurred, he came to accept the in-ury as a ris! you ta!e as an unlicensed contractor; with no type of insurance an in-ury on a wor! site for him proposed a much worse scenario than that of a licensed and insured contractor. 2ltimately I felt li!e he had a firm understanding of who he was and what he did, which placed him in a specific sub category of the population. +hether his social identity of himself was through the impressions other formed of him and his nature of wor!, or through impressions he formed of himself, I thin! it is definitely safe to say his social status was a significant factor in his emotions and attitude towards his current status.