Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

One of the most enduring challenges for social psychologists has been to understand the nature of intergroup prejudice. How social psychologists have conceptualized prejudice has changed over time. Perhaps more than any other social psychological phenomenon, the analysis of prejudice has been integrally linked to significant historical events which led both social scientists and lay people alike to ask different questions about the nature of prejudice and how to eradicate it. In early theorizing there was a fair amount of clarity about what prejudice was (e.g., negative intergroup attitude and correspondent discriminatory behavior). The focus of classic theories was to offer conceptual analyses of the origin of prejudice with the hope that understanding its origins would yield insights on how to eliminate its ill effects. As society became less approving of prejudiced attitudes and overt discriminatory behavior, expressions of prejudice changed and become more subtle and covert. More contemporary analyses have sought to conceptualize these changes in the expression of prejudice. It is important to point out that our analysis focuses on racial prejudice, specifically Whites' prejudice toward Blacks. There are several reasons for this focus. First, racial prejudice is an important problem. Second, most of the theories concerning the origins and nature of prejudice, both historically ... log in or subscribe to read full text