ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book develops the perspective, demonstrating the importance of categorization processes to the generation of emotions, even in situations in which events do not impinge on individuals at all. Bizman and Yinon extend Higgins' theory of self-discrepancy by assessing ideal and ought discrepancies from the actual self that result from membership in certain groups. Devos, Silver, Mackie, and Smith offer an explicit integration of appraisal theories of emotion into the intergroup domain. Building on Smiths suggestion that prejudice may be better thought of as group-based emotions elicited by intergroup interaction, the book presents a model by which appraisals, emotions, and action are all relevant to the social, rather than the personal, self. The book by Brewer and Alexander develops and extends image theory, developed in the political psychology domain, into a more general theory of intergroup relations.
