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The majority of instruments designed to measure attitudes toward fatness and “obesity” were developed in the 1990s, a time when the “obesity epidemic” was gaining attention. As a consequence, they focus on assessing negative appraisals of fat people. While there is no doubt that negative attitudes underlie stigma and discrimination, this approach assesses only part of fat discourse. Recent times have seen mainstream fat discourse expand beyond anti-fat rhetoric and incorporate perspectives of activism, acceptance, and critical responses to the anti-“obesity” agenda. To reflect this maturation and align with more critical research agendas, an expanded approach to quantification is now needed. This thesis documents the development and validation of the Fat Attitudes Assessment Toolkit (FAAT), a new approach to measurement that responds to and represents contemporary fat discourse. In developing the FAAT it was first necessary to identify the nature of contemporary fat discourse and current methods of measurement. To do this, I review key perspectives on fatness in academic and popular literature, as well as in social media news commentary. I also review methods of weight stigma intervention research, in order to uncover opportunities for construct measurement. Following this, popular validated measures of fat attitudes are qualitatively and systematically reviewed, so that I may draw attention to problematic aspects of current instruments. The development and validation process of the FAAT are then detailed, including subject matter expert review, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and establishing scale reliability and validity. The FAAT quantifies endorsement of elements of current fat discourse including: empathy, attractiveness, injustice, health, size acceptance, complexity and responsibility. For stigma reduction research, this will enable more targeted questions to be asked and more nuanced results analysed. These outcomes will advance stigma reducti

The Third Edition of this much celebrated textbook continues to focus on the four major and influential perspectives in contemporary social psychology - social cognition, social identity, social representations, and discursive psychology. A foundational chapter presenting an account of these perspectives is then followed by topic-based chapters from the point of view of each perspective in turn, discussing commonalities and divergences across each of them. Key Features of the Third Edition: - Now includes coverage of the social neuroscience paradigm and research on implicit social cognition - Updated pedagogical features and visual material - An extended conclusion covers the ways in which the different approaches of the field intersect as well as a general discussion of the direction in which the field is moving. Social Cognition: An Integrated Introduction is an integrative, holistic textbook that will enhance the reader's understanding of social cognition and of each of the topical issues considered. It remains a key textbook for psychology students, particularly those on courses in social psychology and social cognition.

This thesis investigates how adolescents’ involvement in different leisure time activities is associated with their self-concept. Adolescence is a period of development marked by its focus on identity exploration and refinement. Discretionary time activities are considered optimal contexts for learning about oneself, as they are chosen by youth to fit their interests and goals. This thesis utilised a number of approaches to the measurement of leisure time to understand how different aspects of activity involvement are associated with adolescent self-concept. Data were collected from a large representative sample of Western Australian adolescents in conjunction with the Youth Activity Participation Study of Western Australia (YAPS-WA). Study 1 and Study 4 in this thesis utilise Wave 1 data from the YAPS-WA project (see Appendix A for a copy of the entire Wave 1 survey). Study 2 and Study 3 draw on data from Wave 2 (see Appendix B for a copy of the entire Wave 2 survey). Study 5 is longitudinal and uses all 5 high school waves of data from the initial Year 8 cohort. Study 1 investigated the relationship between adolescents’ participation in structured leisure activities and their self-concepts. In general, participation in any type of structured activity was associated with a higher social and academic self-concept, and general self-worth, compared to no participation. Study 1 also found that adolescents who participated in both sports and non-sports reported a more positive social self-concept and general self-worth, compared to those who only participated in one of the activity types. Study 2 focused on the link between involvement in unstructured leisure and self. As there is immense diversity in unstructured leisure activities, with some activities less likely to be associated with self (e.g., watching television), this thesis focused on a popular activity with potential to influence self-development: social networking. Frequency of social networking site use was

Transplantation has revolutionised the management of end stage organ disease, and is currently the treatment of choice in many developed western nations. The success of this treatment has led to an increasing demand for it, and concomitant increase in the demand for transplantable organs. Organ scarcity is widely acknowledged as the dominant, and most persistent, problem faced in contemporary transplantation. Scarcity of available organs undergirds the gift-of-life metaphor, upon which all transplantation discourses have been founded (Fox & Swazey, 2002). Gift-of-life discourse is routinely utilised in a bid to increase donation rates and enforce a ‘construction of care’ in recognition of, and reciprocity for, the scarce and precious gift received (Sothern & Dickinson, 2011). Shaw (2012) argued that gift-of-life rhetoric is prescriptive; directing, in large part, what can be felt and said in the context of transplantation. This can be problematic, as although transplantation undoubtedly extends life, it does not do so without incurring physiological and psychological cost. The immunosuppression regimens that recipients must adhere to and the psychosocial outcomes of transplantation mean that, in effect, transplantation may represent the exchange of one set of hardships for another (Sharp, 2006). Recipients often exist in a state of ‘persistent liminality’, caught between the worlds of the healthy and the sick (Crowley-Matoka, 2005). This research was undertaken to explore the lived experience of transplantation. I was particularly interested in exploring how gift-of-life understandings of transplantation might influence this experience. Given the normative expectation of gratitude in response to a gift/benefit received (McCullough & Tsang, 2004) and the centrality of gratitude to gift-of-life discourse (Shaw, 2012), I was also interested in exploring gratitude in the iii context of transplantation. Participants were 19 (i.e., 13 heart, 6 liver) recipients, and 11(i.

The gender leadership gap has received much attention in the literature in recent years, where around the world, men are much more likely than women to hold powerful positions. Although the explanations given for this phenomenon can often revolve around biological sex-differences, or the choices that women make, the focus of this thesis is on social explanations, and the social roles expected of women that make it more difficult to enact the expected qualities of a leader without incurring negative social judgments. While past research has focused on how leadership qualities influence social judgments of women and men, this thesis addresses the step before leadership, looking specifically at how men and women are perceived when they desire leadership positions: in other words, how men and women are perceived when they are ambitious. Ambition is a trait that is often seen negatively, in both men and women, as something that is selfish, ruthless and individualistic. However, negative traits that are part of the masculine stereotype are more accepted in men than they are in women. In this thesis, I examine how ambition is perceived in women and men, and whether negative perceptions of ambitious people can be ameliorated using particular strategies. Thus the questions that this thesis attempts to answer are: can negative perceptions of ambition be ameliorated by the simultaneous presentation of other characteristics, and do these ameliorating factors operate differently for perception of ambitious men and women. I use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research to address these questions. A series of studies was conducted to examine when ambition is perceived negatively, and how these negative perceptions can be ameliorated. In study 1, experimental manipulations indicated that although ambition was perceived more negatively than contentment with one’s position, it was viewed as more likely to lead to positive outcomes in the future. In study 2, a discursive

The health consequences of excess body weight have been widely documented and publicised, and the weight related health paradigm has come to be widely accepted in western society. With this acceptance however has come a construction of the overweight individual as irresponsible, lacking in ability to self-regulate and constituting a burden to society. Stigma has been attached to weight, with bias and discrimination toward overweight individuals, the outcome. Resisting such discrimination and attempting to de-stigmatize weight are two movements in particular, Health At Every Size and Fat Acceptance. These social and political movements pose a challenge to the dominant ideology, based on the harmful effects of weight stigma and the growing body of evidence suggesting the contentious nature of the weight-health relationship. This study examined responses to these resistance movements via a Critical Discourse Analysis of focus group discussions of these movements among Australian undergraduate women. Twenty one female participants took part in a series of focus group where messages and images from the Health At Every Size and Fat Acceptance movements were presented. Although participants were generally sympathetic to the problems caused by weight stigma and stereotypes of overweight people, and endorsed the view that all people should be treated with respect, they also frequently fell back on widespread understandings of weight as personally controllable and health as a moral obligation, as a rationale for rejecting these messages. These findings are discussed in terms of the challenges faced by these resistance movements providing a means of reducing weight stigma.

Drawing on social identity and self-categorization approaches to collective action from social psychology, and social movement theory from sociology, the empirical studies in this thesis investigate the identities and experiences of those engaged (and disengaged) in various social movements in Australia - including environmentalisms, international aid and development, human rights, and animal rights movements. The participants were at various points of commitment to these social movements - from being sympathetic, to actively engaged, and even in leadership positions. The two research aims were to: 1) expand current understandings of the ways that problematic aspects of social identity content and identity boundaries can prevent sympathizers from engaging in collective actions; and 2) examine strategies those committed to collective action use to manage problematic aspects of their social identities, and how they establish a unique contribution to social change in contrast to other social movement groups. Each of these questions speak to the other in that they centre on the ways that a narrowly defined but shared understanding of the “activist” or “protester” constrains and shapes alternative means of pursuing social change. The empirical work consists of four studies. Study 1 is a qualitative analysis of materials and interviews with members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I examined how members rhetorically construct their identities in order to frame their cause as legitimate, and how members come to personally identify themselves as members of the organization in a way that allows them to manage potential conflicts between multiple identities – as individuals, and as group members. Study 2 uses an inductive open-ended survey to understand how social barriers can shape people’s willingness to participate in collective actions during their early socialization into social movement groups. Study 3 is a quantitative analysis of survey data, using themes fro

The acts, accounts of and explanations for domestic violence are frequently misrepresented by professionals. The Interactional and Discursive View of Violence and Resistance framework and Response-Based therapy have contributed to understanding how this is accomplished through particular language practices. Research has shown that language is used strategically, not only by men who choose to use violence, but also by professionals to conceal violence, mitigate perpetrator’s responsibility, conceal victim’s resistance and blame and pathologise women (Coates and Wade, 2007). This current study used narrative analysis to examine how Relationships Australia’s men’s domestic violence group programs have changed language practices; in response to developing an increased knowledge and awareness of how domestic violence is misrepresented through language. It was found that program staff responded by reviewing and changing language practices in a deliberate effort to represent domestic violence accurately and align language with a feminist post-structural theoretical ideology across three sites in the program; program policy, practice and reporting. These data suggest that both social and structural organisational factors present difficulties in aligning theory, policy and practice.

In recent years, an explicitly sexualised style of femininity has become more visible in Western media and societies, accompanied by the idea that women can freely choose to use this mode of sexuality to signify their empowerment. This emergence of ‘raunch culture’ has sparked significant debates within the feminist literature as to how female agency should be conceptualised in a context wherein the seemingly continued objectification of women has come to be widely (re)interpreted as reflecting female empowerment and choice. This study seeks to contribute to these debates through a discursive analysis of talk produced in a series of focus groups with seventeen women, in which they discussed the raunch culture phenomenon and some of the related feminist arguments that have been raised. Whilst the participants frequently drew on the notions of ‘confidence/self-esteem’, ‘choice’ and ‘doing it for yourself’ as a defence for women’s participation in raunch culture, an underlying ambivalence and sense of discomfort about the quest for ‘empowerment’ via raunchiness was detected in their talk, though this was only rarely expressed as an explicit social critique of the gendered aspects of their lives. These findings are discussed in relation to the ways in which the participants’ use of these discourses allows them to position themselves as autonomous and freed from gendered constraints, as well as where these discourses become insufficient.

Contemporary Western society positions the individual as responsible for themselves and their bodies, with weight understood as being personally controllable. This study sought to explore the previously undiscussed relationship between obesity stigma and normative discontent by considering the idea that information challenging contemporary beliefs about obesity and weight might assist women of all sizes in feeling less accountable for their bodies. 70 women from Perth, Western Australia (M age= 26, SD=10.26) participated in this study. Participants were randomly allocated to three groups: 27 read an article prioritising scientific information that highlighted the powerful biological factors that can counteract weight loss attempts, 20 participants read an anecdotal article demonstrating the life-changing amounts of commitment required to maintain weight loss, and 23 participants readd a control article that represented contemporary views. Although expected, no significant differences were found between groups for antifat attitudes or responsibility for weight. The Scientific Evidence condition scored significantly higher than the Personal Story condition for worry about imperfection and significantly lower for overall appearance ratings. Unexpectedly, the Scientific Evidence condition scored significantly lower than the Control for self esteem. The results are discussed in the context of the complexity of delivering critical obesity messages that alleviate the burden of responsibility.

Domestic violence is a prevalent social problem even in communities where it is widely recognised as unacceptable. This thesis uses psychological methods to explore the broader social context of domestic violence and, in particular, the possible role of witnesses of incidents of domestic violence in sustaining or reducing domestic violence. A key focus is the reticence of bystanders to notify authorities about a domestic violence incident. In particular, the thesis examines the psychological processes involved in triggering reticent behaviour even amongst people who are opposed to domestic violence. I approach this issue by considering these circumstances as an instance of a principle-implementation gap. Consistent with the principle-implementation gap tradition, I argue that there is a principle-implementation gap between people’s widespread endorsement of the unacceptability of domestic violence in principle and lower willingness to contact authorities when they become aware of an incident of domestic violence. The empirical goal of this thesis is to identify some of the conditions under which the anti-domestic-violence principles might not be implemented, and to explain the psychological processes that contribute to, or hinder, their implementation. The thesis describes a set of seven empirical studies that are divided into three chapters that address, firstly, responses to actual incidents of domestic violence among professionals and an online support group (Chapter 3) and, secondly, responses to hypothetical incidents of domestic violence in general community (Chapter 4) and student (Chapters 5) samples. In chapter 3, I present two qualitative studies that analyse the responses of trained and dedicated communities with expertise in dealing with domestic violence. These two studies show a consistent pattern of advice regarding the termination of the relationship and limited discussion of the need to treat the violence as a reportable, criminal matter, but not be

People with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are thought to experience a „loss‟ of self, theoretically assumed to be the direct result of their "disease‟ or mental illness. This investigation proposes that constructions and reconstructions of self-identity and the relationships surrounding these sense-making activities are an ongoing process and result in a multitude of alternate versions of self. Using discursive and conversational analyses, this study examined detailed responses to questions of self from nine people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and the four support workers who assisted them at a local social support service centre. Diagnosed participants tended to rationalise and „normalise‟ their behaviours and experiences in order to present a socially acceptable self-identity. Support staff accounts of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were interwoven with medically discursive diagnostic criteria and behavioural characteristics. Once a label had been attached to the person, the process of reconstructing the self had to incorporate the pervasive, disabling associations attached to their diagnosis, where the only acceptable version of self was discursively medical. People receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia experience a compromised sense of self-identity and thus, their diagnosis becomes the defining characteristics of their self – an identity classification.

In this thesis I will revisit debates concerning the use of natural scientific methods in the discipline of psychology. I take the position that natural scientific methods are inappropriate for investigating human experience. My central aim is to unravel the dilemma embedded in psychological practice. Psychologists specifically investigate people but, by using methods based on natural science, they are forced to admit that meaningful human experience is either irrelevant or inaccessible to their investigations of human behaviour. Initially, I take up ethnomethodologically informed discursive psychology (EM-informed DP) as an alternative to, and a viable replacement of, the natural scientific methods in the discipline of psychology. EM-informed DP proceeds from Harold Garfinkel’s appropriation of Edmund Husserl’s critique that natural scientific investigations have lost their life-world foundation. Garfinkel reads Husserl as issuing a practical instruction to go out and investigate lived practices, without any specialised theoretical framework. In doing so, one area that we can investigate, according to Garfinkel, is the lived practices of natural scientists and how they collaboratively produce their research findings. Hence, I proceed by empirically describing how clinical psychologists, as trained natural scientists, interpret people’s everyday experience in and through their actual practices. Following three investigations of clinical psychological interactions, based on three different interpretations of Garfinkel’s ethnomethodological (EM) program, I demonstrate that, despite claims to the contrary, EM in fact presupposes the same ground as natural science. EM-informed researchers mistakenly conflate the natural scientific attitude with the theoretical attitude and, hence, seek to eliminate both in their attempts to clarify the lived practices of natural scientists or everyday people. By contrast, for phenomenologists, the theoretical attitude and the natural sc

In many societies around the world the position that members of a privileged majority should take regarding institutionalised inequalities experienced by some minority groups is the site of contentious debate. Despite, or perhaps even because of, such debate there is often a lack of progress of these views into well-defined and effective movements that produce social change. This thesis starts with the assumption that reducing intergroup inequality involves, at least in part, the effective mobilisation and engagement of majority members. Using Australia as a case example, the central research question is what are the social psychological factors that help movements take a form that is consistent with action to produce change in minority-majority relations? From a social identity perspective, it is argued that such movements encounter challenges due to the conflicting (and potentially conflicted) emotions and beliefs that their members and other members of the society hold. The research is based on a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods and is conducted in the context of significant socio-political transformations in Australian society, starting with the defeat of a social conservative Australian Prime Minister and the succeeding Prime Minister‘s apology to the minority Indigenous population for past wrongs. In a review of Australia‘s recent socio-political history, social psychological factors of potential relevance to the research question are proposed (Chapter 1). Evidence for some of these claims is then offered through the reporting of interviews of social activists (Chapter 2). In light of the Prime Minister‘s apology to Australia‘s Indigenous population and the findings from the interviews, the remaining chapters focus specifically on Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations. In Chapter 3, the social psychological theoretical concepts and research relevant to this issue are critically reviewed. In three cross-sectional studies during the year a