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Buffering Effects Of Negative Intergroup Contact Through Complex Social Identities, Liora Morhayim

Masters Theses

Although negative intergroup contact occurs less frequently than positive contact, negative contact can more strongly influence outgroup attitudes and behaviors due to the effect of category salience in the generalization process. The present study (N =306) tests whether being aware of an outgroup member’s complex social identity will serve as a buffer against the adverse impact of a negative intergroup contact experience on outgroup attitudes. In a 3X2 between-subjects design, social identity complexity (SIC) of an outgroup confederate (high versus low versus control) and the valence of contact (neutral versus negative) were manipulated. Participants interacted with an outgroup confederate …

Structural Racism, Black Out-Group Preference, And Mental Health, Alexander J. Kellogg

Masters Theses

Structural racism has increasingly been implicated as a root cause of racial disparities in health and well-being. Specifically, areas where White Americans hold more negative attitudes toward Black Americans have been associated with both anti-Black discrimination and poorer Black physical and mental health. However, previous research has relied on cross-sectional designs and has neglected the potential effects of Black community-level attitudes on mental health. We hypothesized that higher aggregate pro-White bias among White Americans would be associated with higher implicit out-group preference among Black residents living in the same communities, above and beyond the effects of traditional measures of structural …

Individual And Structural Contributors To Implicit And Explicit Anti-Muslim Bias In The United States, Aeleah M. Granger

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation consists of two manuscripts addressing the multifaceted nature of Islamophobia in the United States by examining explicit and implicit anti-Muslim bias on individual and structural levels. The first manuscript (Granger et al., 2023, see chapter II) tests an ideology-threat-attitude-behavior model by estimating the simultaneous mediating effects of threat perceptions on the relationships between individual differences in ideology, Islamophobia (fear of Muslims), and support for an anti-Muslim police surveillance policy. This study (N = 603) finds that individuals who are higher in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and Nationalism are more likely to perceive Muslims as …

Dinstinction Between Prejudice And Stereotyping For Negative In-Group Attitudes, Manal Aboargob

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There are conflicting findings for disadvantaged group membersâ?? attitudes towards their group. Some studies suggest that disadvantaged groups have positive in-group attitudes, while other studies suggest they have negative in-group attitudes, or even outgroup favoritism. This may be in part due to the simultaneous measurement of stereotypic and prejudicial attitudes, and I suggest that studying their distinction might better explain the discrepancy found in the literature. Further, research has yet to look at how differences in personal attitudes versus perception of public attitudes is related to the differing results found in disadvantaged group attitudes. In the proposed study, it is …

“Is That My Agenda Or Is That Serving The Client?”: Perspectives Of Social Justice-Oriented Counsellors On Working With Clients Who Express Oppressive Views, Lily G. Mackenzie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Current North American public discourse is strongly influenced by widespread sociopolitical divide. Given that sociopolitical events seem to permeate conversations in the therapy room (Farber, 2018; MacLeod, 2013), it is essential that therapists are prepared to navigate conversations with clients who have beliefs different from their own. This qualitative study explored the experiences of Canadian social justice-oriented counsellors who have worked with clients with oppressive views. Seven counsellors were interviewed about their experiences of working with oppression in the therapy room. Through qualitative content analysis, informed by a phenomenological approach, five core themes emerged: effect of personal identities, determination of …

Belonging: The Heart Of Our Family Calling, Janice M. Brewer-Stevens

Doctor of Ministry

Transracial families are part of our society whether people like it or not. There are not enough adoptive families of any kind, and children need support, love, and acceptance. Last August the Census Bureau reported that the number of non-Hispanic Americans who identify as multiracial jumped by 127 percent over the last decade, and for people who identified as Hispanic, the increase was even higher. Also, from 2017 to 2019, half of all U.S. adoptions were of non-white children, and half of these adoptions were transracial. The result? An increase in transracial adoptions in the United States and the subsequent …

Microaggressions Against Ethnic Individuals From Minorities In Counseling, Joan Morton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractEven though the current literature addresses racial microaggressions among ethnic minority people and implications for counseling, no qualitative research that included the voices of ethnic minority individuals was found. Researchers have not fully addressed the prevalence of racial microaggressions in counseling sessions. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore the lived encounters of ethnic minorities concerning racial microaggressions in counseling. The study issue was analyzed through the lens of critical race theory. Four participants were recruited from the Walden University participation pool. Data were selected through semi-structure interviews and narrative analysis was used to analyze data to …

Microaggressions Against Ethnic Individuals From Minorities In Counseling, Joan Morton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractEven though the current literature addresses racial microaggressions among ethnic minority people and implications for counseling, no qualitative research that included the voices of ethnic minority individuals was found. Researchers have not fully addressed the prevalence of racial microaggressions in counseling sessions. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore the lived encounters of ethnic minorities concerning racial microaggressions in counseling. The study issue was analyzed through the lens of critical race theory. Four participants were recruited from the Walden University participation pool. Data were selected through semi-structure interviews and narrative analysis was used to analyze data to …

Toward A Behavior Analysis Of Discrimination And Prejudice: Racism, Sexism, And The Stigmatization Of Autism, Claire M. Zuch

MSU Graduate Theses

Behavior analysts are becoming increasingly aware of and involved in the study of issues related to sex, gender, disability, prejudice, and discrimination. This thesis integrates and discusses two collaborative manuscripts that revolve around the shared subject matter of multi-level research on systemic issues. In the first chapter, sexism and gender bias are conceptualized and informed by the framework of the nested sociobehavioral model of racism developed by Belisle et al. (2022), including implicit bias, selective gender norms, and systemic oppression, while integrating feminist and queer theories in the analysis. A model-dependent scoping review of research in major behavior analytic journals …

Value Dimensions Influence Perceptions Towards Immigrants, Prachi Pathak

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract

Researchers have turned to human values as predictors for people’s attitudes toward immigrants. Value- based studies may be effective in producing attitudinal and behavioral changes toward immigrants, as people can be receptive to universal values. The current study compared differences between human values (e.g., benevolence, universalism, power, and achievement) on people’s perceptions toward immigrants. A total sample of 250 participants was collected for the current study. Each participant was randomly assigned to one group (control group, universalism value prime, benevolence value prime, power value prime, or achievement value prime). All participants were given a demographics questionnaire, followed by a …

The Role Of Confrontation Effectiveness For Women's Psychological Wellbeing After A Sexist Event, Shelby Helwig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three experimental studies investigating how confronting sexism impacts college-aged women. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated how confronting effectively versus ineffectively influenced women’s imagined (Study 1) and actual (Study 2) psychological wellbeing. In Study 3, we investigated how imagining the costs and benefits of confronting sexual harassment impacted women’s confrontational behavior and negative affect. All three studies supported the conclusion that an effective confrontation is a goal for most confronters (Study 3) and whether or not a confrontation is effective influences women’s imagined (Study 1) and actual (Study 2) psychological wellbeing. Beyond this, all three studies …

Investigating The Effects Of Covid-19 Blame And Racist Language On Asian Americans, Adenike Hickson

Honors Theses

We conducted a study to test our hypothesis that racist language and blame related to the COVID-19 pandemic might have a negative impact on Asian Americans’ sense of belonging in the United States. We presented Asian American participants (total N = 271) with a non-racist or racist language flier, paired with a low blame or high blame passage of text with fabricated statistics about how much the average White American blames Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic. We predicted that participants in the racist language and high blame condition would report greater perceived increases in prejudice since the start of …

Examining Women's Psychophysiological Responses Under Increasingly Obvious Sexism, Shelby Helwig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When women experience sexism, it may at first be subtle and difficult to label only becoming clearer over time. Sexism is often ambiguous in nature and experienced over an extended period; therefore, studying sexism as it occurs in daily life is crucial to extending our understanding of how women cope with discrimination. Past research has shown that women may experience maladaptive physiological responses when exposed to various forms of sexism. The current study investigated women’s cardiovascular reactivity and recovery responses to prolonged, increasingly obvious sexism. Women evaluated resumes in a mock search committee meeting with two male confederates whose statements …

Essentialism Predicts Attitudes Toward Gender Non-Binary People, Tianny Stephanie Ocasio

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Few studies have examined attitudes toward gender non-binary people (i.e., individuals who do not consider themselves as strictly men or women). I hypothesized that essentialism (i.e., the belief that social categories and group differences are inherent, informative, and immutable) might be a key predictor of these attitudes. Moreover, I predicted that essentialism would interact with how gender non-binary identity is defined, with essentialist thinkers finding the idea of a full rejection of the gender binary particularly unpalatable. In two studies, cisgender participants (Study 1 N=496; Study 2 N=227) read a definition of gender non-binary identity as representing a third gender …

Avatars And Empathy: The Use Of Video Games To Affect Prejudicial Evaluations Of African Americans, Christopher J. Corr

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research sought to test the relation between video game avatars (online representations of the self), empathy, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. By having participants imagine playing in a game as an avatar I sought to test three hypotheses. Th first hypothesis proposed that that participants would be more inclined to support policies regarding a specific racial group when imagining play as an avatar representing that group. The second hypothesis proposed that empathy would influence the connection between the avatar and participant race variables. The third, which was split into three parts, tested for a negative correlation between prejudice and …

Discrimination Against Veiled Women In The West: Social Isolation, Amina M. Abdallah

Dissertations and Theses

This research examines the discriminatory practices faced by veiled women in the West that impede their integration into their local communities or lead them to feel socially isolated. Societal prejudice and, in some cases, the laws of the land often solidify this isolation of Muslim women and girls from the rest of the world. These victims of social oppression face discrimination based on multiple factors, such as their religion, race, and sex.

This study analyses preconceived notions regarding veiled women, incorporating evidence from seventeen qualitative interviews done with veiled Muslim women residing in the West, particularly the United States, United …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Bias Formation, Prejudice, And Discrimination Through Contextual And Functional Similarities Using The Theoretical Framework Of Relational Density Theory, Elana Keissa Sickman

MSU Graduate Theses

Behavior Analysis “attempts to improve the human condition through behavior change”, with behavior being the primary target (BACB, n.d.). However, considering the way people perceive, interact with, and establish relational frames within different contexts is widely misunderstood. Much of this research has expanded on the components found in Stimulus Equivalence (SE) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT) by providing a more modern approach to examining language and its treatment approach. Relational responding of individuals and groups may contribute to implicit biases, prejudice, and discrimination as well as how they operate within nested contingency systems. While critical theorists have provided foundations for …

Culturally Therapeutic Approaches To Prejudice And Discrimination: Formulations, Interventions, And Structural Change, Jayme J. Jenkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aims. Though psychologists are generally well-positioned to implement micro- and macro-level interventions from their roles as clinicians, educators, researchers, and consultants, there is a paucity of formal guidance on how to approach client-generated or structural prejudice and discrimination. The current study addresses this literature gap by integrating previous literature and implementation models from a related field toward a novel treatment approach.

Background. A critical literature review supported intervention-focused conceptualizations of “supremacism” and demonstrated that mutually reinforcing micro- and macro-level discrimination generates demographic disparities in safety, liberty, and well-being. This typically emerges in the United States as White supremacist heteropatriarchy while …

Am I Stigmatized? An Experimental Examination Of High-Status Experiences Of Stigma., Christopher F. Silver

Doctoral Dissertations

Stigma is a highly researched aspect of social psychology primarily focusing on outgroup perceptions of stigma or the behaviors associated with high-status individuals toward low-status individuals. Two studies sought to explore high-status perceptions of perceived stigma, focusing on the common variables associated with stigma within low-status groups. This was to address a growing perception among high-status individuals that they experience stigma given their identity. As a focus, this study sampled White Males (Study One) and Christians (Study Two) from the United States. As part of experimental manipulation, we presented participants with three potential conditions. Condition one where participants read an …

Examining Anti-Lgbt Consequences Of Perceiving Anti-Christian Bias, Chad Miller

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christians in the US report increasing perceptions of anti-Christian bias, but little research has examined the consequences of these perceptions. Three Experiments provide evidence that for White, heterosexual, cisgender Christians, perceiving anti-Christian bias causes prejudice against gay and lesbian people – particularly when the latter are perceived as influential. Participants primed with anti-Christian bias reported lower warmth toward gay and lesbian and transgender people (relative to those who read about bias toward an outgroup) (E1 and E2). This effect was stronger for Christians who see gay people and transgender people, respectively, as having a significant cultural influence in U.S. society …

Starting At The Root: Dance/Movement Therapy Implications For Early Childhood Anti-Bias Education, Ashlyn O'Dowd

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores implications for dance/movement therapy as a tool for early childhood anti-bias education. Bias and prejudice are consistently consumed by children in American society. The presence of racial prejudice and cisnormativity in children’s everyday environments distort understandings of race and gender, and guide the development of conscious and unconscious bias in early childhood. Dance/movement therapy, specializing in body-based practice and non-verbal communication, provides a unique approach to anti-bias work through somatic methods. With a focus on race and gender, this literature review discusses bias in children, bias communicated through the body and behavior, early childhood anti-bias education, and …

Against Empathy Bias : The Moral Value Of Equitable Empathy, Zoe Fowler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Empathy has long been considered central in living a moral life. However, mounting evidence has shown that empathy is often biased towards (i.e., felt more strongly for) close and similar others, igniting a debate over whether empathy is inherently morally flawed and should be abandoned in efforts to strive towards greater equity. This debate has focused on whether empathy limits the scope of our morality, with little consideration of whether it may be our moral beliefs limiting our empathy. Across two studies conducted on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N= 604), we investigate moral judgments of biased and equitable feelings of empathy. …

Origins And Perpetuation Of Stigma Against Mental Illness, Audrey K. Barkeloo-Carter, Kirsten A. Gonzalez Ph.D.

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Religiosity, Outgroup Contact, Postconventional Religious Reasoning, And Their Associations With Christians' Prejudice Against Sexual And Gender Minorities., Lucas Huckaby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades there has been a resurgence of work investigating topics around religion and spirituality (R/S), with the majority of the literature demonstrating associations with positive outcome variables. However, R/S factors have also shown significant relationships with some negative outcomes, most notably prejudice towards sexual and gender minorities (SGM). Following the call of researchers, this study investigates the hypothesized positive relationship between postconventional religious reasoning (PRR), defined as an individual’s ability to engage in critical thinking around R/S ideas while also demonstrating increased perspective-taking, along with other known covariates of prejudice against SGM (religiosity, outgroup contact) to …

The Lived Experiences Of Muslim Americans Regarding Prejudice And Discrimination By Non-Muslims, Munder Abderrazzaq

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Opposition to Muslim Americans in the United States is openly expressed by majority members, which includes profiling and a recent presidential campaign proposing a “ban on Muslims.” There is a lack of qualitative studies in the United States that explore minorities’ point of view of about the tolerance displayed by majority members. Tolerance involves a degree of restraint about the disapproval and dislike of others of different religious, racial, political, and cultural backgrounds. This limits the ability to develop and implement appropriate policies that are needed to promote positive social change. In this phenomenological study, semistructured interviews were used to …

Attitudes Toward The Electability Of Atheist And Nontraditional Religious Candidates, Brittany Escobedo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Atheists are underrepresented in political office compared to their numbers in the general population. In the United States, anti-atheist prejudice is prevalent, likely contributing to the disparity in atheist representation. Informed by social identity theory and the sociofunctional approach to prejudice, the purpose of this study was to examine the comparative electability of atheists compared to other minority religious identities, as well as one nonminority option for a baseline reference of attitudes. Using the voter likelihood scale and three 7-point semantic differential scales, 579 participants rated their intention to vote for and their feelings of trust, disgust, and fear toward …

Prejudice Of Mexican American Students Toward Recently Immigrated Mexican Students, Peter Valle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prejudice against people of Mexican descent has been a pernicious social problem in the United States. A gap in the literature exists concerning racial and or cultural biases that may exist between Mexican immigrant students and U.S.-born Mexican American students. The purpose of this qualitative and phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of newly immigrated Mexican students facing prejudice from U.S.-born students of Mexican descent in the classroom. Interviews were conducted with five immigrant college students from Mexico living in Texas, recruited through social media and snowballing. The theoretical foundation was Tajfel’s social identity theory and in-group versus …

The Mmm Initiative, Erika Byrne, Brianna Bal, Mckenna Jones, Noelle Annonen, Christian Pfeifer, Amanda Cunningham, Jaime Breisch, Rachel Brosten

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

We’ve determined that information collected and distributed by and on news and social media outlets has manifested in political biases of its users. It is clear that this issue has subsequently led to political polarization and ethnic prejudice. To combat this problem, we have devised an online informational package and an interactive experience to teach people how to use it. Our website provides the resources to check personal biases and recognize ethnic prejudices. The seminar encourages people to apply and spread their newfound knowledge. We conducted interviews with experts, surveys, and an extensive literature review. Through our research and feedback …

“Not Like Other Girls”: Implicit And Explicit Dimensions Of Internalized Sexism And Behavioral Outcomes, Kira K. Means

WWU Graduate School Collection

Unlike other forms of internalized oppression, internalized sexism, or women’s bias against other women, has been rarely studied in psychology. In this study, we aimed to determine whether implicit and explicit internalized sexism would predict internally sexist comments made in focus groups. Driven primarily by System Justification Theory, we hypothesized that implicit internalized sexism would predict participants’ proportions of internalized-sexism coded comments even above and beyond the effect of explicit internalized sexism. We also hypothesized that internalized sexism would be negatively associated with self-esteem. Participants completed measures of implicit and explicit internalized sexism as well as measures of implicit and …

Not My Privilege: How Construal Level Explains Reactions To Male Privilege, Allison Schwam

WWU Graduate School Collection

Awareness of one’s privilege has been shown to evoke feelings of defensiveness or collective guilt, particularly when one’s privileged identity is highly central to their sense of self. Research on privilege indicates that people may psychologically distance themselves from the notion of privilege in order to protect themselves from its potentially threatening manner (Phillips & Lowery, 2015). Construal level theory states that concepts that are more psychologically close are construed in more concrete terms whereas concepts that are more psychologically distant are construed as more abstract (Trope & Liberman, 2010). In the present study, 246 male participants were assessed for …