Immigration, racism, and acculturation. A three nation study.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Amélie Mummendey (†)
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2003 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5396115

This three nation comparative project (Belgium, Germany, Great Britain) deals with issues surrounding immigration. The project tempts to contribute to theoretical development by introducing the concept of "group based goals" into theories of intergroup behaviour. In particular, we propose to integrate several intergroup theories (e.g. realistic conflict theory, social identity theory) by conceiving intergroup behaviour as goal directed and goal regulated behaviour. To pursue these aims, a longitudinal study assesses the proposed causality between concepts and tries to capture aspects of social change. Moreover, to assess the host-immigrant relationship the project considers simultaneously the majority and minority perspective. Finally, several experiments are planed to supplement the survey studies. In these experiments we examine the core assumptions about the influence of group based goals in intergroup behavior. The expected gain of the project is to identify general psychological processes involved in intergroup behavior as well as their culture specific moderators.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Thomas Kessler