ABSTRACT

The present paper is concerned about those factors (social, cultural and individual) which can explain differences of stereotype about a given social group among people from different countries, especially minority groups. The focus is on aspects of Romanian's stereotypes toward Gypsies, and on cognitive explanation of identity conflict between these two groups. The paper consists of two studies (phases), one descriptive and one explanatory. Overall, conclusions are that, on one hand, stereotypes do depend on cultural and social norms of the society and, on the other hand, that cognitive models of organization of knowledge in memory (Collins & Loftus, 1973; Anderson, 1985) can be used effectively for explaining such stereotypes.