ABSTRACT
As an issue with a great deal of relevance to ongoing historical and social events, prejudice has captured the attention of empirical social psychologists almost since the inception of social psychology. However, the relevance of prejudice to current events has meant that, as the treatment of minorities in American society has changed over time, so too has researchers’ conceptualization of prejudice. The result of these changes in conceptualization is that some ideas that were developed within a particular historical context have since been abandoned to the dustbin of outmoded psychological theory as changing historical circumstances have made those ideas (apparently) irrelevant to the new societal context (Meehl, 1978).
