Textbook List

Listed below are American stereotypes about different types of Americans collected by and included in: Rathus, Spencer A, & Nevid, Jeffrey S., (2003). Psychology and the Challenges of Life, 8th edition, Wiley&Sons, Inc, New York. These authors reference two other works as their sources.

African Americans • Physically powerful and well-coordinated • Unclean • Unintelligent and superstitious • Musically talented • Excellent as lovers • Lazy • Emotional and aggressive • Flashy (gaudy clothes and big cars)

Chinese Americans • Deceitful • Inscrutable • Wise • Cruel • Polite, quiet, and deferential • Possessing strong family ties • Law-abiding

Latino and Latina Americans • Macho • Unwilling to learn English • Disinterested in education • Not concerned about being on welfare • Warm, expressive • Lazy • Hot-tempered and violent

Irish Americans • Sexually repressed • Heavy drinkers • Overly religious • Political and nationalistic • Outgoing, witty, and literary • Hot-tempered (fighting Irish)

Italian Americans • Overly interested in food • Ignorant, suspicious of education • Clannish • Great singers • Great shoemakers and barbers • Hot-tempered and violent • Connected to the Mafia • Talk with their hands • Cowardly in battle

Japanese Americans • Ambitious, hardworking, and competitive • Intelligent, well-educated • Obedient, servile women • Sneaky • Poor lovers • Possessing strong family ties • Great imitators, not originators • Law-abiding

Jewish Americans • Cheap, shrewd in business • Clannish • Control banks, Wall Street, and the media • Wealthy and showy • Big-nosed • Pushy • Smothering mother

Polish Americans • Unintelligent and uneducated • Overly religious • Dirty • Racist, bigoted • Boorish, uncultured

White Angle-Saxon Protestants (WASPS) • Hardworking, ambitious, thrifty • Honorable • Wealthy, powerful • Insensitive, emotionally cold • Polite, well-mannered, genteel • Snobbish • Guilt-ridden do-gooders