ABSTRACT
I n Chapter 4, we focused on development in individuals, families, and neighborhoods. Social psychology focuses on intergroup relations. Most social psychology research on prejudice, racism, and discrimination is on the perspectives of perpetrators, and most of this research
has been on European Americans. Prejudice is a positive or negative attitude or belief about a person that is generalized from attitudes or beliefs held about the group to which the person belongs (J. M. Jones, 1997). Racism assumes that group differences are biologically based, that one’s own race is superior, and that practices that formalize the domination of one racial group over another are justifiable (J. M. Jones, 1997). Discrimination involves harmful actions toward others because of their membership in a particular group (Fishbein, 1996).
