Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Latin American Immigrants In Indianapolis: Perceptions Of Prejudice And Discrimination, Antonio V. Menéndez Alarcón, Katherine B. Novak

Antonio V. Menéndez Alarcón

The article focuses on immigrants’ interactions with the Indiana natives, with emphasis in the city of Indianapolis and its suburbs. More specifically, this study aims at providing an understanding of the experiences of Latin American immigrants with special attention to perceptions of prejudice and discrimination and to feelings of social exclusion. A substantial proportion of Latin American immigrants interviewed indicated that they considered Indiana natives to be prejudiced and that they had personally experienced discrimination. The study reveals specific examples of discrimination experienced by the immigrants at the work place, in housing, in stores, restaurants and by various service providers. …

The Ironic Effects Of Perspective-Taking On Reactions Toward Illegal Immigrants, Levi Adelman

Masters Theses

Illegal or undocumented immigration is a political hot-button issue in the United States and around the world. This study investigated social psychological factors that influence reactions toward illegal immigrants. Drawing on America’s identity as a nation of immigrants and on research showing positive effects of perspective–taking on intergroup relations, this research asks how reminders of one’s ingroup history in the U.S. and perspective-taking impact Americans emotional responses to illegal immigrants and their support for pro- and anti-immigration policies. Additionally, this research investigates whether the effects of reminders of one’s ingroup history and perspective-taking depend on people’s political orientation. Results show …

Examining The Associations Of Racism, Sexism, And Stressful Life Events On Psychological Distress Among African-American Women, Danelle Stevens-Watkins, Brea Perry, Erin L. Pullen, Jennifer Jewell, Carrie B. Oser

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

African-American women may be susceptible to stressful events and adverse health outcomes as a result of their distinct social location at the intersection of gender and race. Here, racism and sexism are examined concurrently using survey data from 204 African-American women residing in a southeastern U.S. urban city. Associations among racism, sexism, and stressful events across social roles and contexts (i.e., social network loss, motherhood and childbirth, employment and finances, personal illness and injury, and victimization) are investigated. Then, the relationships among these stressors on psychological distress are compared, and a moderation model is explored. Findings suggest that racism and …

Latin American Immigrants In Indianapolis: Perceptions Of Prejudice And Discrimination, Antonio V. Menéndez Alarcón, Katherine B. Novak

Katherine B. Novak

The article focuses on immigrants’ interactions with the Indiana natives, with emphasis in the city of Indianapolis and its suburbs. More specifically, this study aims at providing an understanding of the experiences of Latin American immigrants with special attention to perceptions of prejudice and discrimination and to feelings of social exclusion. A substantial proportion of Latin American immigrants interviewed indicated that they considered Indiana natives to be prejudiced and that they had personally experienced discrimination. The study reveals specific examples of discrimination experienced by the immigrants at the work place, in housing, in stores, restaurants and by various service providers. …

Cumulating Evidence About The Social Animal: Meta-Analysis In Social-Personality Psychology, Blair T. Johnson Dr., Marcella H. Boynton Dr.

Blair T. Johnson

Like most scientific fields, social-personality psychology has experienced an explosion of research related to such central topics as aggression, attraction, gender, group processes, motivation, personality, and persuasion, to name a few. The proliferation of research can be a monster unless it is tamed with the scientific review strategy of meta-analysis, literally analyses of past analyses that produce a quantitative and empirical history of research on a particular phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to outline the basic process and statistics of meta-analysis, as they pertain to social-personality psychology. Meta-analysis involves: (i) defining the problem under review; (ii) gathering qualified …

Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Before Powell V. Alabama: Lessons From History For The Future Of The Right To Counsel, Sara Mayeux

All Faculty Scholarship

The doctrinal literature on ineffective assistance of counsel typically begins with the 1932 Supreme Court case of Powell v. Alabama. This symposium contribution goes back farther, locating the IAC doctrine’s origins in a series of state cases from the 1880s through the 1920s. At common law, the traditional agency rule held that counsel incompetence was never grounds for a new trial. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, state appellate judges chipped away at that rule, developing a more flexible doctrine that allowed appellate courts to reverse criminal convictions in cases where, because of egregious attorney ineptitude, there was reason …

The Geography Of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence And Implications For Vra Preclearance After Shelby County, Christopher Elmendorf, Douglas Spencer

Douglas M. Spencer

The Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) effectively enjoined the preclearance regime of the Voting Rights Act. The Court deemed the coverage formula, which determines the jurisdictions subject to preclearance, insufficiently grounded in current conditions. This paper proposes a new, legally defensible approach to coverage based on between-state differences in the proportion of voting age citizens who subscribe to negative stereotypes about racial minorities and vote accordingly. The new coverage formula could also account for racially polarized voting and minority population size, but, for constitutional reasons, subjective discrimination by voters is the essential criterion. We demonstrate that the …

Pre -Service School Psychologists' Racial And Weight-Related Biases And The Relationship That Taking Diversity Courses Has On These Biases, Shaerica Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Past research has shown that racial and weight-related biases are present in school settings and can have a negative impact on students. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of racial and weight-related biases upon judgments that school psychology graduate students make about Black and overweight students who were having problems in school. The problematic behaviors exhibited by the student in the case study were based on symptoms often seen in children with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We also examined the extent to which implicit and/or explicit attitudes moderated the degree of school psychology graduate students' attributions of …

Reporting Risk, Producing Prejudice How News Reporting On Obesity Shapes Attitudes About Health Risk, Policy, And Prejudice, Abigail C. Saguy, David Frederick, Kjerstin Gruys

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

News reporting on research studies may influence attitudes about health risk, support for public health policies, or attitudes towards people labeled as unhealthy or at risk for disease. Across five experiments (N = 2123) we examined how different news framings of obesity research influence these attitudes. We exposed participants to either a control condition, a news report on a study portraying obesity as a public health crisis, a news report on a study suggesting that obesity may not be as much of a problem as previously thought, or an article discussing weight-based discrimination. Compared to controls, exposure to the public …

What Shapes Our Attitudes Toward Outgroups?: Measuring Implicit And Explicit Homosexual Prejudice, Morgan Kinney

Honors College

The emotional bases of homosexual prejudice are not completely understood, often times not even by the people who hold the prejudice themselves. Because implicit biases can go undetected even by the person holding them, and because they happen before conscious control of emotions is available, these attitudes may be best measured through physiological measures like startle eye-blink response. My honors thesis measures implicit attitudes toward homosexuals using psychophysiological means and examines the influence of religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism on those non-conscious automatic attitudes. Facial Electromyography (EMG) was used to detect startle responses to an auditory probe while viewing romantic, …

Prejudice Reduction Strategies And Their Efffect On Interracial Interactions, Mason Dyess Burns

Open Access Theses

With increased awareness of implicit bias in both research and media, understanding ways to reduce the negative effects of such bias has become of practical importance. The present research examined how implicit bias reduction strategies affect the experience of an implied interracial interaction. Results indicated that self-regulation learning (SRL) and counterstereotyping (CS) differentially impact how individuals experience an interracial interaction depending on their internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS). Specifically, results showed that individuals low in IMS self-disclosed more, were more promotion focused, and less physically avoidant following CS training relative to SRL training. At high levels of IMS, …

Who Confronts Sexual Prejudice? How Gender And Ideologies Are Related To Heterosexual Allies Challenging Hate Speech, Kelly L. Lemaire

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Sexual prejudice and discrimination are extremely prevalent throughout society and previous research suggests that there are a multitude of negative consequences associated with being the target of this prejudice. One way of reducing prejudice is by confronting the perpetrator; however the majority of previous research examining confrontation has focused on the target's response to racism or sexism. The current study utilized a 10-condition experimental design in order to examine how the gender of the perpetrator, target, and non-target witness of heterosexist prejudice affected the witness' responses. Attitudinal variables and past allied behaviors were also examined in order to determine if …

Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The need to protect children from dangerous sex offenders has led to policies that require juvenile sex offenders to register on public online registries. It is important to determine the implications of these laws for the wellbeing of child victims and also for juvenile offenders on these registries. Is the application of these laws—designed for adult offenders—to juveniles appropriate, necessary, and supported by public sentiment? The chapter reviews current sex offender registration policies and psychological research addressing whether the assumptions underlying these laws are supported by research, public sentiment toward these laws, factors that might drive biases against stigmatized youth …

An Investigation Into The Perceptions Of International And Out-Of-State Students On The University Of Maine Campus, Matthew Pinkham

Honors College

The present study was designed to investigate in-state students’ perceptions of two out-groups on the University of Maine campus: out-of-state students and international students and the experiences of international students. Two separate surveys were administered online over two semesters: the first’s goal was to evaluate perceptions host students might have of their peers and if these peers were perceived to be from distinct out-groups, while the second survey was an exploratory survey allowing international students to describe their experiences while studying at UMaine. Two hundred and fifty seven in-state students responded to the first survey. Results from this survey showed …

The N400 As An Index Of Racial Stereotype Accessibility, Eric Hehman, Hannah I. Volpert, Robert F. Simons

Dartmouth Scholarship

The current research examined the viability of the N400, an event-related potential (ERP) related to the detection of semantic incongruity, as an index of both stereotype accessibility and interracial prejudice. Participants’ EEG was recorded while they completed a sequential priming task, in which negative or positive, stereotypically black (African American) or white (Caucasian American) traits followed the presentation of either a black or white face acting as a prime. ERP examination focused on the N400, but additionally examined N100 and P200 reactivity. Replicating and extending previous N400 stereotype research, results indicated that the N400 can indeed function as an index …

On The Fence, Emily G. Hauck

SURGE

Over a hundred years ago, my great-great grandmother fled Germany by herself to come to the United States to escape the abuse of her father. She had no connections in this country and nowhere to go. That same century my ancestors from Ireland crossed the Atlantic to make a better life in America. They were discriminated against for their religion and for their nationality.

Ana* and her husband, two hardworking Mexicans, paid a coyote to help them cross the Rio Grande into the United States ten years ago. They saw no future for their two young girls in Mexico and …

Negotiating Invisibility: Addressing Lgbt Prejudice In China, Hong Kong, And Thailand, Hunter Gray

Master's Capstone Projects

This research serves as a consolidation of information regarding the global response to LGBT prejudice, and in particular, the response of organizations situated in China, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Interviews with activists and researchers from organizations that address LGBT prejudice served as the main form of data. Findings and subsequent analysis point to the ways in which organizations respond to the lack of visibility of the LGBT community, and how this invisibility is related to various manifestations of LGBT prejudice. Strategies that organizations have developed to respond to LGBT prejudice reveal how organizations negotiate contextual variables in their attempts to …

Decoding Prejudice Toward Hispanics: Group Cues And Public Reactions To Threatening Immigrant Behavior, Todd K. Hartman, Benjamin J. Newman, C. Scott Bell

Todd K. Hartman

Consistent with theories of modern racism, we argue that white, non-Hispanic Americans have adopted a “coded,” race-neutral means of expressing prejudice toward Hispanic immigrants by citing specific behaviors that are deemed inappropriate—either because they are illegal or threatening in an economic or cultural manner. We present data from a series of nationally representative, survey-embedded experiments to tease out the distinct role that anti-Hispanic prejudice plays in shaping public opinion on immigration. Our results show that white Americans take significantly greater offense to transgressions such as being in the country illegally, “working under the table,” and rejecting symbols of American identity, …

Reaching New Heights: An Examination Of Cognitive Dissonance And The Attitude Toward Height And Leadership, Emily Faith Harris

Senior Projects Spring 2014

Cognitive dissonance is the theory that when someone holds two conflicting cognitions they will feel internal discomfort and will be motivated to reduce this discomfort. They reduce the discomfort by changing one of the cognitions, either by intensifying the original cognition or by diminishing the original cognition, making the new cognition the dominant cognition. The present experiment examines the role that cognitive dissonance plays in intensifying or diminishing prejudices within the attitude domain of the association between height and leadership. I attempted to induce dissonance by showing 20 Bard College students the discrepancy between their explicit and implicit attitudes about …

Understanding The Mechanism Behind Social Tuning Of Automatic Prejudice: Attitudinal Alignment Or Social Norms?, Amanda Renee Daniel

Master's Theses

To explore the effect of social tuning on individual's implicit prejudice, college students were brought into a lab to perform several tasks. Likability of the experimenter was manipulated in order to motivate individuals to socially tune or not (likable, dislikable). Ostensible attitudes of the experimenter were also manipulated (egalitarian, no known attitude). After these manipulations, students completed several Implicit Associations Tests (IATs). Results were analyzed using a factorial ANOVA design (2 (affiliative motivation: high, low) X 2 (views: egalitarian, control), revealing no interactions of likability or attitudes. I discuss the implications of these findings and explore possible solutions.

Public Opinion In Hong Kong About Gays And Lesbians: The Impact Of Interpersonal And Imagined Contact, Holning Lau

Holning Lau