Ethnic minorities : social psychological perspectives /

This collection represents the perspectives of social psychologists from the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, and the US on prejudice and its manifestations in contemporary Europe. Europe has experienced two immigrant waves: former colonials, and laborers from poorer Mediterranean nations. In examining societal response to the newcomers, the editors find social psychology's ever more cognitive focus to be inadequately narrow. In the first section, theories of prejudice are presented, along with an argument for a broadening of focus. The second section, the most interesting from a comparative perspective, presents four empirical studies drawn from daily life in specific settings--a school, a neighborhood, police practice, and daily conversational interaction. Here, Saharso probes ethnic identity's importance to the daily experience of immigrant adolescents, and Bernasco and van Schie find that ethnic stereotypes may affect initial police contact with a suspect when little information is available to challenge these stereotypes. The third section proposes remedies, such as Pettigrew and Martin's important chapter on recruitment and retention of minorities in a labor force rife with subtle, invidious discriminatory barriers. Van den Heuvel and Meertens suggest use of the "Culture Assimilator" as a training tool; the editors propose the development of a "cultura franca," and close with an argument for pluralism as opposed to assimilation. Includes bibliography and name and subject indexes. For upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. -L. M. C. Abbott, formerly California School of Professional Psychology--Fresno