Handbook of Psychology, Volume 5, Personality and Social Psychology

485

CHAPTER 20

Social Conflict, Harmony, and Integration

JOHN F. DOVIDIO, SAMUEL L. GAERTNER, VICTORIA M. ESSES, AND MARILYNN B. BREWER

SOCIAL CONFLICT AND INTEGRATION 485
INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY 485
Perspectives on Intergroup Relations and Conflict 487
INTERGROUP CONTACT AND THE REDUCTION
OF BIAS 491
Contact and Functional Relations 491
Contact, Categorization, and Identity 492
Decategorization: The Personalization Model 492
Recategorization: The Common In-Group
Identity Model 494

Challenges to the Decategorization and

Recategorization Models 495

The Mutual Differentiation Model 495

HARMONY AND INTEGRATION: MAJORITY AND

MINORITY PERSPECTIVES 496

CONCLUSIONS 498

REFERENCES 500

SOCIAL CONFLICT AND INTEGRATION

Humans are fundamentally social animals. Not only is group
living of obvious contemporary importance (see Spears,
Oakes, Ellemers, & Haslam, 1997), but also it represents the
fundamental survival strategy that has likely characterized
the human species from the beginning (see Simpson &
Kenrick, 1997). The ways in which people understand their
group membership thus play a critical role in social conflict
and harmony and in intergroup integration. This chapter
examines psychological perspectives on intergroup relations
and their implications for reducing bias and conflict and for
enhancing social integration. First, we review social psycho-
logical theories on the nature of individual and collective
identities and their relation to social harmony and conflict.
Then, we examine theoretical perspectives on reducing inter-
group bias and promoting social harmony. Next, we explore
the importance of considering majority and minority perspec-
tives on intergroup relations, social conflict, and integration.
The chapter concludes by considering future directions and
practical implications.

INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY

Perspectives on social conflict, harmony, and integration have

reflected a variety of disciplinary orientations. For instance,

psychological theories of intergroup attitudes have com-

monly emphasized the role of the individual, in terms of

personality and attitude, in social biases and discrimination

(see Duckitt, 1992; Jones, 1997). Traditional psychological

theories, such as the work on the authoritarian personality

(Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950),

have considered the role ofdysfunctionalprocesses in the

overt expression of social biases. More contemporary ap-

proaches to race relations, such as aversive racism and sym-

bolic racism perspectives, have considered the contributions

ofnormalprocesses (e.g., socialization and social cognition)

to the expression of subtle, and often unconscious, biases

(Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; S. Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986;

Kovel, 1970; Sears, 1988; Sears & Henry, 2000). In addition,

the role of social norms and standards is emphasized in recent

reconceptualizations of older measures, such as authoritarian-

ism. Right-wing authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1996, 1998)

has been found to be associated with negative attitudes

toward a number of groups, particularly those socially stig-

matized by society (e.g., Altemeyer, 1996; Esses, Haddock, &

Zanna, 1993).

Recent approaches to intergroup relations within psychol-

ogy have also considered the role of individual differences in

Preparation of this chapter was supported by NIMH Grant MH
48721 to the first two authors and an SSHRC Grant to the third
author. We gratefully acknowledge the helpful guidance, sugges-
tions, and support provided by Mel Lerner and Irv Weiner on earlier
versions of the work.