Modeling of the Stereotypes "Russia", "Great Britain" and "the USA" Using the Associative Experiment Data
Stereotypes are of great interest for scientific research. At present more and more researchers have turned attention to ethnic stereotypes. The article presents the results of the research into the content and structure of the stereotypes «Russia», «Great Britain» and «the USA» using the associative experiment data. There were 76 respondents. The analysis of the experimental data was carried out at three stages: at the first one the associative fields of stimulus words were built, at the second stage to define the content and structure of ethno-cultural stereotypes the semantic groups characterizing the stereotypes studied were singled out, at the third stage the reactions of the two age groups of respondents were compared. The semantic analysis of the reactions and their quantitative processing have helped single out the nuclear features of the stereotypes under question, as well as some peculiarities of their perception due to the age of the respondents. According to the associative experiment data the most frequent reactions to the stimulus word «Russia» were Motherland, bears, Moscow, to the word «Great Britain» they were queen, Big Ben, London, tea, to the word «the USA» the reactions were Obama, flag, fast food, Statue of Liberty. These images are included into the nucleus of the stereotypes under study. The semantic analysis of the reactions shows that the nucleus of the stereotype «Russia» contains such features as «nature» and «the negative emotions and evaluating». The nucleus of the stereotype «Great Britain» has «state system», «sights», «people» and «cities». The nucleus of «the USA» consists of «food», «people», «sights» and «the negative emotions and evaluating». The stereotype «the USA» has the groups of «foreign affairs» and «entertainment», which are absent in the stereotypes «Russia» and «Great Britain». The reactions of the respondents that belong to two different age groups did not vary considerably.