Social Psychology of Prejudice [Paperback]

Melinda Jones (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130287717 | ISBN-13: 978-0130287717 | Publication Date: November 5, 2001 | Edition: 1

This comprehensive book helps readers understand the prejudice and discrimination that exists against various stigmatized groups. It reviews what is currently known about how their members respond to prejudice, and explores possible strategies—at the individual, group, and societal levels—for reducing prejudice. Chapter topics examine racism, sexism, and antigay prejudice; values; stereotyping and categorization; individual differences in prejudice; inter-group relations; and stigma and identity. For anyone interested in understanding and eliminating the factors that give rise to antipathy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In this first edition, Melinda Jones, Director of the University Honors Program at the University of Memphis, combines traditional and contemporary approaches to prejudice. While identifying the origins of prejudice and offering a historical perspective, the text covers broader topics such as ethnic prejudice, sexism, and antigay prejudice. The text offers up-to-date research on issues including intergroup relations and social identity and recommends strategies for the reduction of stereotyping and prejudice.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

During the course of writing this book—literally on the cusp of the 21st century between 1998 and 2000—widespread intergroup conflict and violence erupted, both internationally and nationally. In the late 1990s, for instance, "ethnic cleansing" occurred in Kosovo, as Serbs waged war on ethnic Albanians, killing thousands and forcing a million people from their homes. Meanwhile, almost half a world away in Rwanda, an entire nation continued to struggle with the aftermath of genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were systematically murdered by the majority Hutus within a span of 100 days during 1994.

Here in the United States, hate crimes reached a record level during this period. Many of these incidents were cases in which majority group members attacked minority group members, but in many also minority group members attacked members of the majority or members of other minority groups. Consider a sample of highly publicized hate crimes that occurred between 1998 and 2000. In June 1998, James Byrd Jr., a Black man, was beaten unconscious by three White men and then chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in jasper, Texas; in October 1998, two young men murdered University of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard because he was gay; in July 1999, a gunman with ties to a White supremacist church fired shots into a group gathered outside a Korean church in Bloomington, Indiana, killing Won Joon Yoon, a student at Indiana University; in August 1999, Buford O. Furrow opened fire at a Jewish community center, wounding five people, and later said that he wanted his act to be "a wake-up call to America to kill Jews"; and in March 2000, a Black man went on a racially motivated rampage killing three Whites and wounding two others in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.

Events such as these serve as tragic reminders that prejudice based upon race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation continues to exist, and sadly, continues to be expressed in horrific ways. How can we make sense of such hatreds and rivalries between groups of people? What factors give rise to antipathy toward members of certain groups? Are certain "types" of people more likely to be prejudiced? And perhaps the most important question, What can be done to prevent, or at least reduce, prejudice?

These questions lie at the heart of any course that focuses on prejudice and discrimination. Building on a tradition of research in stereotyping and intergroup conflict, social psychologists have much to offer in terms of identifying the origins of prejudice and recommending strategies for its reduction. GOALS OF THIS BOOK

Social Psychology of Prejudice is conceived as a textbook to accompany upper-division psychology courses in prejudice and discrimination. Because of a growing multicultural perspective in psychology, many departments are responding by offering specialty courses in the psychology of prejudice. Very few textbooks appropriate for this audience currently exist, and those that do emphasize Black-White relations in the United States. Although elements of this analysis certainly may be generalized to prejudice against other groups, taking a broader perspective in approaching the topic of prejudice is advantageous for two reasons. First, social psychologists ark increasingly addressing other forms of prejudice: ethnic prejudice (e.g., against Latinos, Asians/, sexism, antigay prejudice, and antifat prejudice, to name just a few. The unique aspects of these types of prejudice have yet to be addressed in an undergraduate text. This book attempts to fill that void.

Second, research on prejudice and discrimination is burgeoning not only in the United States, but also in other countries. Researchers in European countries especially have contributed greatly to our understanding of the extent that identification with a social group underlies prejudice and intergroup discrimination. A focus on Black-White relations in the United States would ignore much of the research in these countries.

The overall goals of this book are to describe the various theories of prejudice, to explore the common psychological processes that maintain prejudice of many kinds (i.e., stereotyping and other cognitive mechanisms, and to address issues of intergroup relations and social identity as sources of prejudice. Additionally, this book focuses on how marginalized individuals cope with prejudice, and how prejudice affects one's sense of identity and self-worth. Finally, methods to reduce prejudice will be considered, and the inevitability of prejudice will be addressed.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (November 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130287717
• ISBN-13: 978-0130287717
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #633,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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