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This study tested aspects of the Reserve Capacity Model (Gallo & Matthews, 2003; Gallo, Penedo Espinosa de los Monteros, & Arguelles, 2009) as a means of understanding disparities in health-related quality of life appraisals among Hispanic Americans. Questionnaire data were collected from 236 Hispanic participants, including measures of perceived discrimination, optimism, social support, symptoms of trait anxiety, and physical and mental health-related quality of life. Path analysis indicated direct, negative associations between perceived discrimination and both forms of health-related quality of life. Results also showed that these relationships were partially mediated by the reserve capacity variable of optimism and by symptoms of anxiety, though evidence for mediation by anxiety was stronger than for optimism. Findings suggest that perceived discrimination depletes intrapersonal reserves in Hispanic Americans, which, in turn, induces negative emotions. Implications for community-level interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Individuals often hold ambivalent attitudes (i.e., positive and negative attitudes at the same time) toward groups and social categories. The aim of the present research was to examine the differential effects of affective and cognitive dimensions of ambivalence on the (amplification of) responses towards a minority group. We asked 188 students from the University of Perugia to read a short description of a fictitious group of immigrants. After expressing their affective and cognitive attitudes toward the target group, participants received positive, negative, or no supplementary information about this group. Discrimination was assessed by asking participants to allocate to the target group a percentage of a financial support fund for poor people (both Italian and immigrant) living in their regional area. As expected, we found that only affective ambivalence amplified either negative or positive responses toward the group. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In situations that are ambiguous with regard to the presence of discrimination, how do people arrive at their conclusions that discrimination has (or has not) taken place? This question was examined from a motivated social cognition perspective via the interaction of two factors: the prototype effect—the notion that ambiguously discriminatory behavior is more likely to be perceived as discriminatory when the executor is prototypical and the need for cognitive closure—the tendency to jump hastily to and seize on an answer. Results provided replicating evidence of the prototype effect among European American participants but not among African American participants. Specifically, European Americans were likely to perceive ambiguously racist behavior enacted by a prototypical executor (i.e., a White person) as more discriminatory than the same behavior exhibited by a non-prototypical executor (i.e., a Black person). African American participants, on the other hand, showed no reliance on this simple cognitive heuristic. Furthermore, results showed that European Americans with a higher need for cognitive closure were more likely to rely on the easy-to-use information offered by prototypes. These findings are discussed from a motivated social cognition perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available evidence suggests that stress is not necessarily linked to negative outcomes and, in fact, may lead to increases in sympathy and helping. In this study, we examined whether acculturative stress was associated with prosocial tendencies in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (M age = 23.05 years; 99 women). Participants completed measures of acculturative stress, sympathy, and prosocial tendencies. The relations between acculturative stress and prosocial tendencies were generally positive but varied by the type of helping and gender. Higher levels of acculturative stress were linked to greater emotional, dire, compliant, and anonymous prosocial tendencies, as well as with fewer costly (altruistic) prosocial tendencies. Sympathy mediated the relations between acculturative stress and prosocial tendencies for men only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author described the processes by which a sample of lesbian and bisexual women assessed and managed prejudice and discrimination while pursuing degrees of masters of social work. The author presented as being pivotal to the participants' assessments of social work settings the social cues that participants identified as indicative of potential attitudes and beliefs regarding lesbian and bisexual women. In addition, the author discussed strategies that the women used to manage others' expression of prejudicial attitudes. Through these interactional processes, the participants demonstrated that they were active in shaping and reducing their experience of oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Researchers commonly use 2 models to explain contrast effects (CEs): the standard-of-comparison model and the set-reset model. The 2 models focus on the role of categorization to predict when a CE (instead of an assimilation effect) will happen, while minimizing the role of knowledge accessibility and relevance in determining whether any effect will occur. A 3rd model, the selective-accessibility model (F. Strack & T. Mussweiler, 1997), focuses on knowledge accessibility and relevance, but it is a model of assimilation effects in the anchoring bias. In the present study of CEs, the authors tested 3 predictions implied by the selective-accessibility model. The authors found a CE only when anchor- and target-rating dimensions matched and only in the 1st of multiple targets rated. The CE required a minimum amount of attention to the anchor. These results support the account that selective knowledge accessibility and relevance play an important role in CEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. In the present study, the author examined 3 theoretical perspectives--family values, acculturation strategies, and social group identity--as predictors of the psychological well-being of adolescents from immigrant backgrounds. The 3 perspectives share the view that immigrants' successful adaptation involves the balancing of their heritage culture and the culture of the society of settlement. The participants were 506 adolescents from 4 backgrounds--Vietnamese, Pakistani, Turkish, and Chilean--who were living in Norway. The 3 theoretical perspectives together accounted for between 12% and 22% of the explained variance of mental health, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. The predictive powers of the different perspectives, however, were dependent on which outcome was predicted. On the whole, social group identity showed the strongest predictive power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. The authors investigated whether in-group favoritism manifests itself as praise for the in-group or as denigration of the out-group. A total of 450 Turkish Cypriots (248 native, 202 immigrant) judged the applicability of positive and negative trait words to in-group and out-group targets. Both the native and the immigrant groups judged the positive traits as more applicable to their respective in-groups than to the out-group. The native group evaluated the negative social traits as more applicable to the immigrant group. The immigrant group also judged the negative social traits as more applicable to themselves. The two groups did not differ in their judgments for more personal negative traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transethnic equivalence in the dimensional structure of acculturation for Italian Canadians and Greek Canadians was studied. The study's first phase demonstrated the multidimensional manifestation of acculturation by confirming a 3-factor structure of acculturation for both groups toward the mainstream English Canadian culture: Intrafamily English Canadian Orientation, English Canadian Media Use, and English Canadian Social Relations. Subsequently, the dimensional structures of acculturation for the two groups were tested for their equivalence. Results supported the invariance of factor structure across the 2 groups, suggesting that the extent to which acculturation is reflected in the 3 dimensions is highly similar for both. The results also demonstrate that, for both groups, the Intrafamily English Canadian dimension best reflected acculturation, followed by English Canadian Media Use and English Canadian Social Relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the hypothesis that it is the variability of a person's identity, as opposed to the particular combinations of identities, that produces stress during the acculturation process. The hypothesis that it is the variability of a person's identity-as opposed to the particular combinations of identities-that produces stress during the acculturation process was examined, Two hundred ninety-five native Anglophone students at the University of Ottawa, Ontario, Capada provided demographic data and completed the following measures: the Beck Depression Inventory, the Situated Identity Measure and the Psychological Stress Measure Results of ANOVA contrastnig Ievel of identification and variability of identification indicated that an exclusively anglophone identity was related to a higher level of depression, lower self-esteem, and a higher level of stress than the other modes of acculturation, but only when the variability in identity with the English group was high. Thus, the participants who identitied strongly with the English group but were not committed to this identity experienced more psychological adjustment problems.

Participants in research on discrimination consistently perceived a higher level of discrimination directed at their group as a whole than at themselves as individual members of that group. Explanations for this personal/group discrimination discrepancy are all based on the assumption that some form of perceptual distortion is operating. However, research has not allowed for any measure of the objective reality of people's experiences with discrimination, and thus there has been no objective standard against which researchers can test for perceptual distortion. This study involved the experimental inducement of personal and group discrimination, alone and in combination, among female students. The results indicated that subjects responded to objective reality and that personal experiences with discrimination affected their perceptions at the group level more than the reverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the psychometric characteristics of a scale assessing Black's identification with Black culture in the United States. Black identification is a measure of a Black person's sense of belonging to the Black race and his or her concern with Black issues and causes: A Black who strongly identifies with being Black expresses attitudes and behaviors supportive of the Black community. A 35-item instrument was constructed that included several aspects of Black identification. To assess its criterion validity, the 13-item scale derived from the college sample was correlated with eight measures of reported activities believed to be associated with commitment to Black culture. An instrument to assess Blacks' identification with Black culture has been offered as an example of determining strength of ethnic affiliation. Blacks with high identification were more likely to participate in causes and activities involving the Black community and to have more Black (than White) associates than those with low identification. The construct of Black identification is measurable and that the instrument is both reliable and valid.

The article presents examination by researchers on the perceptions of both men and women who held managerial positions. The period from 1965 to the present has been marked by dramatic changes in women's entry into managerial roles. Between 1970 and 1981 the number of women in managerial or administrative positions in the United States increased 139% while the number of men in similar positions rose by only 20%. By 1985, women held 33% of all managerial jobs, up from 14% in 1965. The more blatant forms of discrimination involving hiring practices are often confronted when women enter the job market. An unexpected significant difference was found between how managerial women rated women as managers and how managerial men rated men as managers.

The article details a study which replicated and extended research on the effect of newcomer socialization on affective commitment. When they enter a particular social setting for the first time, newcomers try to reduce their psychological distress by becoming familiar with the rules, roles, and norms of the group. The extent to which newcomers define their role and are accepted by the group influences their level of commitment to the group. The study indicates that the socialization process has a positive impact on commitment to the group. These results extend the current literature by examining the contribution of socialization over and above that of overall satisfaction. Overall satisfaction is a function of higher order schemas as well as disposition. Therefore, the amount of variance accounted for by socialization suggests that the socialization process may be an orthogonal component in the formation of affective commitment.