Product Description: Stereotyping is one of the most important issues in social psychology, but relatively little is known about how and why stereotypes form. This book explores the process of stereotype formation; the way people develop impressions and view social groups...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Social identity has been at the heart of European experimental social psychology for the past 25 years, and has been of growing interest in North America during the past decade where research in the field has expanded significantly. This text fills the need for an overview of recent developments in social identity theory, covering both theoretical and empirical work. (view table of contents)

Stereotyping - the process of perceiving and reacting to people in terms of their group membership - is a widespread phenomenon, and one of the most widely investigated topics in social psychology. This new book is about the causes and consequences of stereotyping. It begins from the premise that, in order to understand the nature and function of stereotyping, it is essential to understand its role in, and relationship to, the activities of social groups. In so doing, it provides an alternative to more cognitive approaches that regard stereotyping primarily as a bias produced by the limits of individual information processing. The contributors debate and challenge a range of traditional beliefs about stereotyping by exploring its social functions in intergroup contexts. They also tackle a range of thorny problems in sterotyping and related literatures: including the question of sterotype accuracy, why stereotypes develop and are widely shared, and how stereotypes and sterotyping impact upon people's self-esteem and self-definition. In short, this book examines how stereotypes are structured by social identities and the relations between groups.

This collection tackles the many crises facing both Marxism and psychology in the light of multifarious "post" debates. Providing an overview and discussion of connections between the two disciplines, this collection contextualizes developments at the interface between politics and psychology within a historical materialist framework and connects the political practice of radicals in psychology with perspectives for change in contemporary Marxism. Contributors include Kum-Kum Bhavnani, Angela Y. Davis, Liam Greenslade, R.D. Hinshelwood, Jerome D. Ulman and Robert M. Young. (view table of contents)