Stereotypy

A stereotypy (/ˈstɛriəˌtaɪpi, ˈstɪər-, -ioʊ-/,STAIR-ee-oh-TEYE-pee or STEER-ee-oh-TEYE-pee) is a repetitive or ritualistic movement, posture, or utterance. Stereotypies may be simple movements such as body rocking, or complex, such as self-caressing, crossing and uncrossing of legs, and marching in place. They are found in people with intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, tardive dyskinesia and stereotypic movement disorder; studies have shown stereotypies associated with some types of schizophrenia.Frontotemporal dementia is also a common neurological cause of repetitive behaviors and stereotypies. Several causes have been hypothesized for stereotypy, and several treatment options are available.

Stereotypy is sometimes called stimming in autism, under the hypothesis that it self-stimulates one or more senses. Related terms include punding and tweaking to describe repetitive behavior that is a side effect of some drugs.

Among people with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, more than half (60%) had stereotypies. The time to onset of stereotypies in people with frontotemporal lobar degeneration may be years (average 2.1 years).

Stereotypy (non-human)

In animal behavior, stereotypy, stereotypical or stereotyped behavior has several meanings, leading to ambiguity in the scientific literature. The terms usually refer to stereotypy, repetitive behaviors in captive animals, particularly those given inadequate mental stimulation. These behaviors may be maladaptive, involving self-injury or reduced reproductive success, and in laboratory animals can confound behavioral research. References to stereotyped behavior can also refer to natural behaviors that show low variation, such as mammalian chewing cycles or fish prey-capture via suction feeding. Highly stereotyped movements may be due to mechanical constraint (such as the skull of a viper or fish, in which bones are mechanically linked), tight neural control (as in mammalian chewing), or both. The degree of stereotyping may vary between closely related species engaging in the same behavior.

Examples and causes

Stereotype (printing)

In printing, a stereotype, also known as a cliché, stereoplate or simply a stereo, was originally a "solid plate of type metal, cast from a papier-mâché or plaster mould (called a flong) taken from the surface of a forme of type" used for printing instead of the original.

The composition of individual cast metal types into lines with leading and furniture, tightly locked into a forme was labor-intensive and costly. The printer would incur further expense through loss of the type for other uses while held in formes, and the wear to the type during printing. With the growth in popularity of the novel, printers who did not accurately predict sales were forced into the expense of resetting type for subsequent editions. The stereotype radically changed the way novels were reprinted, saving printers the expense of resetting while freeing the type for other jobs.

Stereotyping is generally held to have been invented by William Ged in 1725, who apparently stereotyped plates for the Bible at Cambridge University before abandoning the business. However, an earlier form of stereotyping from flong was described in Germany in the seventeenth century, and it is possible that the process was used as early as the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg or his heirs for the Mainz Catholicon. Wide application of the technique, with improvements, is attributed to Charles Stanhope in the early 1800s. Printing plates for the Bible were stereotyped in the US in 1814.