The Social Psychology of Prejudice

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This volume seeks to provide a comprehensive and concise overview of the nature and causes of prejudice. The importance of a scientific understanding of prejudice, its conceptualization, and the relation of prejudice and behaviour are considered. John Duckitt also contributes a historical analysis of social scientific understandings of prejudice. He integrates an otherwise confusing mass of popular theories and perspectives into a coherent explanatory framework and develops this into a systemic multilevel approach to the problem of reducing prejudice in society and individuals. From Duckitt's perspective, prejudices are remarkable not in their existence, but in their ubiquity - the ease with which they can be aroused, their variety of expression, and the tenacity with which they are held. He demonstrates that, although it is unlikely that the universal psychological processes which underlie a fundamental propensity for prejudice can be changed, the degree to which they come to be expressed can be: at the level of social structure and intergroup relations, in the social influences to which individuals are exposed, and in individual susceptibility. "The Social Psychology of Prejudice" will be of particular interest to social scientists in the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, and anthropology.

Reviews

. . . The book is useful because it reviews many literatures and compiles that information into a single source. Advanced undergraduate; graduate, faculty; professional.-Choice
This is a scholarly work with widespread implications and applicability that is recommended for social planners, governmental consultants, religious leaders, social psychologists, and sociologists.-READINGS
." . . The book is useful because it reviews many literatures and compiles that information into a single source. Advanced undergraduate; graduate, faculty; professional."-Choice
"This is a scholarly work with widespread implications and applicability that is recommended for social planners, governmental consultants, religious leaders, social psychologists, and sociologists."-READINGS

Author Bio

JOHN DUCKITT is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His primary research interests are in topics such as prejudice, racism, discrimination, and intergroup conflict, on which he has contributed a number of articles to international journals. He was also a contributor to the Ninth Mental Measurements Yearbook and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.