Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Credit Access, The Costs Of Credit And Credit Market Discrimination, Christian E. Weller

Christian Weller

Since the early 1990s, credit expanded relative to income, especially after 2001. It is hypothesized that traditionally uneven credit access and gaps in the costs of credit by demographic characteristics shrank during this period. Relying on data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finance, this study looks at financial constraints, the costs of credit and a number of contributions to the costs of credit, including sources and types of loans. The results indicate that taste-based discrimination and structural discrimination may have persisted and possibly increased over time. Gaps in credit access and costs of credit have widened by race, …

A New State Plan Option To Integrate Care And Financing For Persons Dually Eligible For Medicare And Medicaid, Jane H. Thorpe, Katherine J. Hayes

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

As health care costs continue to escalate, Congress, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid agencies, researchers, and policymakers are focusing on identifying new approaches to care delivery and reimbursement for individuals who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Although relatively few in number (9 million), dual eligible beneficiaries are more likely than others to experience poor health, including multiple chronic conditions, functional and cognitive impairments, and a need for continuous care. Sixty-six percent of dual eligibles have three or more chronic conditions; sixty-one percent are …

Specific Contributions Of Ventromedial, Anterior Cingulate, And Lateral Prefrontal Cortex For Attentional Selection And Stimulus Valuation., Daniel Kaping, Martin Vinck, R Matthew Hutchison, Stefan Everling, Thilo Womelsdorf

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Attentional control ensures that neuronal processes prioritize the most relevant stimulus in a given environment. Controlling which stimulus is attended thus originates from neurons encoding the relevance of stimuli, i.e. their expected value, in hand with neurons encoding contextual information about stimulus locations, features, and rules that guide the conditional allocation of attention. Here, we examined how these distinct processes are encoded and integrated in macaque prefrontal cortex (PFC) by mapping their functional topographies at the time of attentional stimulus selection. We find confined clusters of neurons in ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) that predominantly convey stimulus valuation information during attention shifts. …

Subtle Discrimination In The Rental Housing Market: Evidence From E-Mail Correspondence Of Landlords, Andrew Hanson, Zackary Hawley, Aryn Taylor

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

We find that landlords practice subtle discrimination in the rental housing market through the use of language associated with describing and viewing a unit, inviting further correspondence, making a formal greeting, and using polite language when replying to e-mail inquiries from a white name more often than to an African American name, they also send longer e-mails and respond quicker to white names.

Disparate Impact Is Not Unconstitutional, Michael Evan Gold

Michael Evan Gold

[Excerpt] In Ricci v. DeStefano, the "New Haven Firefighters" case, whitefirefighters and one Hispanic firefighter sued the city of New Haven, Connecticut and city officials under Title VII. The plaintiffs claimed the city had committed intentional discrimination or disparate treatment against them when the city disregarded the results of promotion examinations that had an adverse effect on black and Hispanic applicants. The Supreme Court sustained the claim. In his concurring opinion, Justice Scalia invited attorneys in subsequent cases to consider arguing that the disparate impact theory of employment discrimination is unconstitutional. He reasoned as follows: • The Constitution prohibits the …

School Racial Composition And Race/Ethnic Differences In Early Adulthood Health, Bridget J. Goosby, Katrina M. Walsemann

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We investigate whether school racial composition is associated with racial and ethnic differences in early adult health. We then examine whether perceived discrimination, social connectedness, and parent support attenuates this relationship. Using U.S. data from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we found that black adolescents attending predominantly white schools reported poorer adult health while Asians reported better health. Further research is warranted to understand whether there are qualitative differences in the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities within certain school contexts and how that differential treatment is related to adult health outcomes.

The Impact Of The Gender Binary On Gender Nonconforming Females' Lives And Psyches Over Time : An Exploratory Study, Samantha Mayne Miller

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of the systematically imposed gender binary on the lives and psyches of gender non-conforming females over time. To pursue this qualitative research, I conducted single, exploratory, hour-long interviews with eight gender nonconforming females aged 59 years and older. The interviews touched upon many themes including the multiple ways participants' identify their gender, sex, and sexuality (and the developmental trajectory of each); how each participant relates to notions of the gender binary; participants' experiences as gender nonconforming young people, or "tomboys"; ways that families, institutions and the general public have performed …

The Prejudice Paradox (Or Discrimination Is Not Dead): Systematic Discrimination In Forced Choice Employment Decisions, Paula M. Brochu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examined discriminatory responding in a forced choice employment decision paradigm, using a justification-suppression perspective to interpret the findings. In this paradigm, participants play the role of employers and make employment choices between two excellent and similarly qualified individuals that differ only on one dimension. In the first three studies, participants chose between two individuals who were described as differing only in ethnicity (European vs. Middle Eastern), gender (Male vs. Female), religion (Christian vs. Muslim), age (Young vs. Old), height (Tall vs. Short), weight (Average Weight vs. Overweight), nationality (Canadian vs. Immigrant), or sexual orientation (Heterosexual vs. Homosexual). Patterns …

The Effect Of Endpoint Knowledge On Dot Enumeration, Alex Michael Moore

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study attempts to extend the principle tenets of the Overlapping Waves Theory (Siegler, 1996), a framework designed to explain the progression of trends in cognitive development, to adult participants’ performance in a dot enumeration task. Literature in the 0-100 number line estimation task (Siegler & Booth, 2004, Ashcraft & Moore, 2011) has revealed a pervasive trend in child estimation such that young children (especially those in kindergarten) respond with a logarithmic line of best fit, while children at the third grade and above overwhelmingly respond with linear estimates to this same range of numbers. A similar developmental trend is …

Perceptions Of Healthcare, Health Status, And Discrimination Among African-American Veterans, Nathaniel M. Rickles, Silvia Domínguez (1961-), Hortensia Amaro (1950-)

Silvia Domínguez

The Institute of Medicine identified access to healthcare and race-based discrimination as important barriers to quality healthcare that contributes to health disparities. This study (1) describes African-American veterans' perceptions of healthcare services and perceived discrimination in healthcare and (2) investigates the relationship between perceived discrimination and patient perceptions of care, satisfaction with healthcare, and health status. A convenience sample of 141 African-American veterans in Boston completed surveys from May to June 2006. Respondents reported an average of 16 lifetime experiences of discrimination and over half recalled a situation when they experienced discrimination in healthcare. Modest ratings of perceived quality of …

Perceptions Of Healthcare, Health Status, And Discrimination Among African-American Veterans, Nathaniel M. Rickles, Silvia Domínguez (1961-), Hortensia Amaro (1950-)

Nathaniel Rickles

The Institute of Medicine identified access to healthcare and race-based discrimination as important barriers to quality healthcare that contributes to health disparities. This study (1) describes African-American veterans' perceptions of healthcare services and perceived discrimination in healthcare and (2) investigates the relationship between perceived discrimination and patient perceptions of care, satisfaction with healthcare, and health status. A convenience sample of 141 African-American veterans in Boston completed surveys from May to June 2006. Respondents reported an average of 16 lifetime experiences of discrimination and over half recalled a situation when they experienced discrimination in healthcare. Modest ratings of perceived quality of …

Perceptions Of Healthcare, Health Status, And Discrimination Among African-American Veterans, Nathaniel M. Rickles, Silvia Domínguez (1961-), Hortensia Amaro (1950-)

Hortensia Amaro

The Institute of Medicine identified access to healthcare and race-based discrimination as important barriers to quality healthcare that contributes to health disparities. This study (1) describes African-American veterans' perceptions of healthcare services and perceived discrimination in healthcare and (2) investigates the relationship between perceived discrimination and patient perceptions of care, satisfaction with healthcare, and health status. A convenience sample of 141 African-American veterans in Boston completed surveys from May to June 2006. Respondents reported an average of 16 lifetime experiences of discrimination and over half recalled a situation when they experienced discrimination in healthcare. Modest ratings of perceived quality of …

Dismissed With Prejudice: Gender Inequality In The Utah Legal Market, Collin Read Flake

Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing feminization of the legal profession in the United States over the last half century, past research has documented the prevalence and transformation of gender inequality in law firms. However, relatively little is known about gender inequality in small, conservative legal markets like Utah. This thesis examines data from the 2008-2009 Utah Attorney Advancement and Retention Survey. The analyses indicate that relative to their male colleagues, women earned less in 2007 and are less likely to procure higher quality job assignments than their peers. The most promising explanations for these disparities include employment sector, gender and motherhood statuses, …

Perceived Racism And Mental Health: A Meta-Analytic Review, Hokulea D. Conklin

Theses and Dissertations

The present study provides a synthesis of extant research examining the association between perceived racism and mental health. The aims of this study were to identify the overall magnitude of this association and to elaborate on the possible influence of participant characteristics (acculturation level, age, gender, race, education, and socioeconomic status) and study characteristics (year of data collection, geographic region of the study, and research design) in moderating this association. A total of 130 studies were included in the final analysis. The omnibus effect size for this meta-analysis was r = -.188 (p < .001), which indicates that higher instances of perceived racism were associated with lower levels of mental health. The overall magnitude of this association suggests a moderately small relationship between these two constructs. None of the participant characteristics moderated the results. However, studies conducted in more recent years appeared to be associated with effect sizes of greater negative magnitude than studies conducted in previous years. The implications of these findings for multicultural psychology are discussed and suggestions regarding future research in this area are presented.

The Development Of Ethnic Identity Among African-American, African Immigrant And Diasporic African Immigrant University Students, Victor A. Ogundipe Jr.

Sociology Theses

The goal of this project is to investigate the development of ethnic identity among different Black ethnic groups in the United States. The three different Black ethnic groups that will be investigated are: 1) African immigrants, 2) African-Americans, and 3) Diasporic African immigrants (Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, etc.). These groups were selected because they broadly encompass the bulk of the range of people of African ancestry in the United States amalgamated under the term “Black.” Through thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, this project explores the impacts of immigration status, discrimination and inter-group relations (between different Black ethnic groups) on the ways that …

Do Women Top Managers Help Women Advance? A Panel Study Using Eeo-1 Records, Fidan A. Kurtulus, Donald Tomaskovic‐Devey

Fidan A Kurtulus

The goal of this study is to examine whether women in the highest levels of management ranks of firms help reduce barriers to advancement in the workplace faced by women. Using a panel of over 20,000 private-sector firms across all industries and states during 1990-2003 from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, we explore the influence of women in top management on subsequent female representation in lowerlevel managerial positions in U.S. firms. Our key findings show that an increase in the share of female top managers is associated with subsequent increases in the share of women in mid-level management positions …

The Morally Contaminating (And Motivating) Influence Of Hate Groups In The U.S., Andrew L. Stewart

Master's Theses

A growth in the number of hate groups that operate in the United States over the past decade counters many researchers’ claims that overt prejudice and discrimination no longer have influence. In this thesis, we explore how people react with moral outrage and moral cleansing toward hate groups’ moral transgressions of racial egalitarianism—a strong sacred value among those who desire group-based equality. Across two experiments, we find that people perceive hate groups as immoral social agents, and people express moral outrage against them. We also find that people who were morally contaminated by hate groups (i.e., by being led to …

Adopted Citizens Denied Access To Their Birth Certificates: A Little-Known Civil Rights Issue, Mirah Riben

Mirah Riben

American citizens who were adopted are denied the right to access their own original birth certificates (OBC) in most U.S. states, a right available to all other non-adopted citizens. State regulations denying unrestricted access to one’s own birth certificate that apply only to a segment of the population create a lifelong inequality and violate the civil rights of adopted persons. Outdated state regulations that maintain this discrimination need to be repealed.

Aversive Racism And Implicit Biases In Civil Rights Workers, Anne Nm Hobbs

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of implicit mechanisms that perpetuate inequality. The vast majority of claims of discrimination in this country are filtered through the lens of a civil rights investigator. It is critical to our understanding of civil rights enforcement, and inequality overall, to assess the potential for implicit bias processes of non-judicial government employees to impact the outcome of discrimination cases. Social psychologists have long established that the human brain processes information in highly effective ways that may make it prone to stereotyping and error. I used a vignette methodology to assess …

Effects Of Disability, Gender, And Level Of Supervision On Ratings Of Job Applicants, Bradford S. Bell, Katherine J. Klein

Bradford S Bell

Using ratings of hypothetical job applicants with and without a disability obtained from both fulltime workers (n = 88) and undergraduates (n = 98), we examined the effects of disability (paraplegia, epilepsy, clinical depression, or non-disabled), gender, and nature of the job (supervisory or non-supervisory) on five job-relevant dependent measures. Contrary to our hypothesis, applicants with a disability were rated significantly higher in activity and potency than applicants without a disability. Further, also contrary to our predictions, gender and job type did not moderate the relationship between disability and applicant ratings. Post-hoc analyses revealed a significant gender by job type …

Who Wants To Be In America? A Generalized Linear Mixed Model To Predict Satisfaction With Life In The United States Among The Children Of Immigrants, Brian D. Harris, Joe Olsen

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Stratification theory and various theories of immigrant integration suggest that it may be more important to measure integration outcomes among the children of immigrant than first-generation immigrants themselves. While many researchers use outcomes that can be measured directly such as income or educational attainment, more research is needed on the subjective interpretations of the children of immigrants. I use a multilevel generalized linear mixed model to predict satisfaction with the United States among the children of immigrants. Data come from the first two waves of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). Parents' citizenship status, students' citizenship status, previous experiences …

El Papel De La Raza En Latinoamérica, Grant Louis Olaf Siracusa

World Languages and Cultures

My project aims to address the ideas, perceptions, and roles of race in Latin America. Latin America is a vast and diverse region that is often misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the culture. By researching the notions of race in this particular region, I aim to provide a clearer understanding on the various topics that stem from race, including racism, discrimination, racial whitening, and racial transformation.

First, I intend on examining the origins and implications of race, relating these topics to the Spanish Conquests. I will then identify and discuss the predominant races found within the region, giving a brief …

The Legal Response To Discrimination: Does Law Matter?, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

The topic of the legal response to discrimination is broad and growing. It includes everything from hate crime legislation and governmental prohibition of discrimination in the purchase of housing, cars, and loans, to restrictions on discrimination in the provision of government services and benefits as well as in employment.1 In the latter category alone, the body of law banning discrimination in the workplace has both deepened as the original prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" (Section 703(a)(1) of Tide VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) have been interpreted to prohibit …

Latin America’S Indigenous Women, Courtney Hall

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Latin America’s indigenous women are as diverse as the land they inhabit. Their uniqueness is shaped by belonging to groups that have their own distinct history, traditions, and identity. Yet despite this diversity, indigenous women confront the same human rights challenges: racial, gender, and socio-economic discrimination. Without ignoring the diversity of indigenous women, a better understanding of their fundamental struggles can be gained by weaving these issues together in a comprehensive narrative.

American Muslim Minorities: The New Human Rights Struggle, Ashley Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ramifications of the attacks of September 11, 2001 are felt throughout the United States. However, no minority community is as deeply affected as the American-Muslim minority. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims residing in the United States have experienced violations of economic and political liberties, as well as ongoing social discrimination. Media stereotypes and government legislation continually exacerbate these human rights abuses and entrench institutional, social, and economic discrimination deeper in American society. At the heart of this discrimination are clear misunderstandings about Islam and those who practice the faith. In an effort to combat these …

Peeking Out From Behind The Curtain, Ian Reese

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Absconded by airport security to middle-of-nowhere Russia, Nikolai Alexeyev sat for several days in early September 2010 unaware of his infractions or of his fate. Like a page from a Cold-War spy novel, the point of his abduction was to terrorize; Alexeyev’s abductors psychologically tortured and berated him with homophobic remarks. Nikolai Alexeyev is the leading gay rights activist in Russia and has been a twisting thorn in the side of local and national government for several years. Upon his release, he resolved to agitate further by leading a public demonstration to boycott the Swiss International Air Lines for its …

Combating Discrimination Against The Roma In Europe: Why Current Strategies Aren’T Working And What Can Be Done, Erica Rosenfield

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the summer of 2010, the forced expulsion of many Roma from Western to Eastern Europe captured headlines and world attention, yet this practice simply represented the latest manifestation of anti-Roma sentiment in Europe. Indeed, the Roma—numbering over ten million across Europe, making them the continent’s largest minority—face discrimination in housing, education, healthcare, employment, and law enforcement; widespread prejudice against this group shows no evidence of receding. There is, however, certainly no shortage of national and supranational policies aiming to promote inclusion and equality for the Roma.

Evaluating Oblique Interventions In Reducing Anti-Glbt Prejudice, Steven Michael Saus

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Existing evaluative research of interventions to reduce anti-GLBT prejudice remains methodologically incomplete, but suggests that those most in need of the intervention display the least amount of change - if not a strengthening of their prejudicial opinion. Cognitive and marketing research suggest that directly challenging prejudicial attitudes will strengthen, rather than reduce prejudice.

This research created an instrument to replace the Index of Attitudes toward Homosexuals and then employ an experimental design to provide much-needed methodological rigor to the evaluation of interventions. This design will be in service of assessing the impacts from a directly- and indirectly-challenging survey-based intervention. Contrary …

Social Justice Education: Impacts On Social Attitudes, Bronwyn Cross-Denny, Janna C. Heyman

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Paramount to multicultural social work practice is acquiring a comprehensive understanding of oppressed and vulnerable populations who often lack access to healthcare and economic resources. A practitioner’s self-awareness of social attitudes can provide a foundation for developing cultural competency skills. Using a pretest posttest design, social attitudes of Master of Social Work (MSW) students enrolled in a required social justice course were examined (N=85). A repeated-measure MANOVA indicated significant main effects on: 1) within subject factor of time on students’ cognitive attitudes towards racial diversity, affective attitudes toward racial diversity, and women equity following students’ exposure to the social justice …

Ethnicity And Financial Exclusion: How Fringe Banking Has Taken Hold In Ethnic And Immigrant Neighborhoods, Marie-Christine Pauwels

Ethnic Studies Review

The latest FDIC survey (2012) on Americans excluded from regular banking services reported that between 8% and 20% of American households have either little or no relationship with a bank, savings institution, credit union, or other mainstream financial service providers. The only option for these customers, many of whom are ethnic minorities and immigrant communities, is to turn to AFS - Alternative Financial Services-the official name of fringe banking. Fringe banks like Ace Cash Express, EZLoans, or Mr. Payroll deliberately target the low- to moderate-income inner-city residents, often because these neighborhoods have become deserted by regular banks, making it difficult …