A TYPICAL STUDENT

In this session, we looked at bringing together a collection of words that we felt displayed the stereotypical idea of a student. We then decided on what we believed to be the top ten words that typically described us as students.

These were:

1. bad money management

2. lazy

3. drunks

4. sociable

5. tired

6. hungover

7. unhealthy

8. irresponsible

9. promiscuous

10. tax dodgers

Using these, we were then asked to state whether or not we believed these applied to ourselves. On average, those in our class said yes to 5/6 of these, which showed that a generalisation could be made of our class, and that perhaps these words were representative of us.

In a small group, we were given the question 'on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you care about your appearance?', 5 being a lot. Whilst other groups in the class were handed other questions.

The entire class then had to answer and the results were compiled together. 

9 people stated 3 on the scale, and 12 people stated 4. From this, we found that 4 was evidently most representative of graphic design students, which may be because they have a visual understanding of who they are. Those who put 3, were impartial about there appearance.

As a whole, this would suggest that art students aren't stereotypically messy or scruffy people.

We felt that people may have held back from going all out and putting 5 because people don't want to be seen as someone who cares about their appearance in an extreme manner. Some may see this in relation to vanity or even arrogance.

From each question given to the groups, new classifications could be made about students.

These were:

1. care about their appearance

2. participate in active past times

3. straight

4. self-centered

5. creative

6. conventional dating

7. mixed gender

8. range of experiences

9. care what people think

10. open and honest

Although some of these classifications overlap, it was found that these were much more reflective of our group than the previous ones. With at least 8 of these applying to certain individuals. 

From this, we were able to see how people can break stereotypes and challenge questions.