ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main tenets of a framework for critical analysis in social psychology of racism. It explains outline of the classical view on stereotypes. It also considers the case of a move beyond stereotypes and notions of 'new' racism in the context of the changing nature of marginality in Europe. The stereotypes are defined as 'sets of traits attributed to social groups', or 'a collection of associations that link a target group to a set of descriptive characteristics'. It is also described as essentially deficient and inaccurate, rigid and 'hasty' over-generalizations, rectifiable and subject to change. The stereotypes is viewed less as pictures in people's heads, but more as pathologies of individual cognition, and rooted in social structure, in perceptions of social stratification and structural relations between groups. As pathologies of social cognition, stereotypes are seen as cognitive products that rigidly held in order to protect against ambivalence and ambiguity.
