Stereotyping and Social Reality combines a comprehensive review of the field with a new theoretical perspective. Stereotyping is an issue that lies at the heart of social psychology, and our understanding of the stereotyping process has implications for many general issues, including social cognition and perception, group processes, intergroup relations, prejudice, social conflict and cooperation. The book is organised around a theme which has always been the central issue of stereotyping: what is the nature of the relationship between stereotypes and the features of the social world that they purport to represent? Is it true that stereotyping necessarily involves a perceptual or cognitive distortion of social reality? Most students (and many other researchers) embark on the topic with the assumption that in stereotyping the perceiver activates fixed images (eg: 'women are passive', 'the French are arrogant') which both reflect and bolster prejudice through the misrepresentation of people's 'true' character.
This book aims to challenge this view and, in doing so, it presents a significant new theoretical analysis of stereotyping based on research the authors have been conducting over the past decade. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive review of previous research on the topic, including the often neglected but fascinating work carried out in the years before the modern cognitive approach was developed. Stereotyping and Social Reality will therefore be of interest to a wide student audience as well as to researchers in the field.
Stereotyping and Social Reality combines a comprehensive review of the field with a new theoretical perspective. Stereotyping is an issue that lies at the heart of social psychology, and our understanding of the stereotyping process has implications for many general issues, including social cognition and perception, group processes, intergroup relations, prejudice, social conflict and cooperation. The book is organised around a theme which has always been the central issue of stereotyping: what is the nature of the relationship between stereotypes and the features of the social world that they purport to represent? Is it true that stereotyping necessarily involves a perceptual or cognitive distortion of social reality? Most students (and many other researchers) embark on the topic with the assumption that in stereotyping the perceiver activates fixed images (eg: 'women are passive', 'the French are arrogant') which both reflect and bolster prejudice through the misrepresentation of people's 'true' character.
This book aims to challenge this view and, in doing so, it presents a significant new theoretical analysis of stereotyping based on research the authors have been conducting over the past decade. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive review of previous research on the topic, including the often neglected but fascinating work carried out in the years before the modern cognitive approach was developed. Stereotyping and Social Reality will therefore be of interest to a wide student audience as well as to researchers in the field.
Authors.
Preface and Acknowledgements.
Prologue.
1. Introduction: The Social Psychology of Stereotyping.
2. Early Approaches to Stereotypes and Prejudice.
3. Stereotyping as Information Processing Error: The Cognitive Emphasis.
4. Cognition and the Group: Social Identity and Self-Categorization.
5. Categorization, Selective Perception and Stereotyping: A Critical Re-Examination.
6. The Social Contextual Basis of Stereotypic Accentuation.
7. Outgroup Homogeneity and Illusory Correlation Revisited.
8. Politics, Prejudice and Myth in the Study of Stereotypes.
References.
The authors are all members of the Department of Psychology at the Australian National University, where Penelope J. Oakes is a Lecturer in Social Psychology, S. Alexander Haslam is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and John C. Turner is Professor of Psychology and Head of Department.
"I was very impressed with this book and greatly profited from reading it. It represents both a scholarly and comprehensive review of social psychological theories and research on stereotyping and a presentation of the authors' own theoretical approach and extensive research programme. Their analysis of stereotyping in terms of self-categorization theory provides a powerful and convincing alternative (as well as much needed antidote) to the prevailing cognitive perspective. This important book will be essential reading for all students and researchers interested in stereotyping." Professor Wolfgang Stroebe, Utrecht University "This is an important, controversial and scholarly book... In addition to being exceptionally well written, Stereotyping and Social Reality provides a relatively exhaustive review of the stereotyping literature and should be on the MUST READ LIST of people interested in intergroup relations." Professor Samuel L. Gaertner, University of Delaware "Essential reading." "Ambitious it is but somehow the book does indeed succeed." Psychology " Stereotyping and Social Reality is essential reading, written in an extremely accessible, inspirational, and persuasive style." Perception "It should also be required reading for all researchers involved in stereotype research and related areas... Oakes, Haslam and Turner give us an important critique of past stereotype research, a provocative challenge to current conceptualizations, and a source of ideas that will stimulate future work - precisely waht a good academic text should do." Contemporary Psychology "... what is most valuable about this volume is the detailed presentation of a comprehensive set of findings, from one of the most scientifically productive behaviour genetic adoption project currently in existence... it represents a potentially important direction for future integrative research on genetic and environmental influences." Contemporary Psychology
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