1987 — 1991 |
Major, Brenda Crocker, Jennifer (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Social Stigma and Self-Esteem
It is well recognized that individuals who belong to stigmatized groups, such as the handicapped, homosexuals, and members of certain racial and ethnic groups, face a considerable degree of prejudice and discrimination, both socially and economically. Psychologists have long believed that this prejudice and discrimination should have quite negative effects on the self-concepts of members of these groups. In particular, it is commonly assumed that members of stigmatized groups have lower self-esteem than members of more advantaged groups. Surprisingly, however, research to date generally does not support this assumption. Blacks and whites, homosexuals and heterosexuals, unattractive and attractive individuals, women and men, generally do not differ in their overall levels of self-esteem. Why not? This is the focus of this research. This research will examine two types of strategies that people who are members of stigmatized groups may use to protect their self-esteem from the negative effects of prejudice and discrimination. First, members of such groups may come to personally devalue those attributes or qualities on which they fare poorly relative to more advantaged groups. Consequently, negative comments regarding those attributes may have a relatively minor impact on their overall feelings of self- worth. Thus, for example, a physically handicapped person might come to feel that physical agility is far less important than intellectual prowess, and hence might be relatively unfazed by negative comments of comparisons about the former skill. Second, members of stigmatized groups may blame negative feedback they receive on prejudice againt their group, rather than on themselves. As a result, they may be personally protected from such feedback. These ideas will be tested in nine studies, using five different types of experimental designs, and two types of stigmatized groups -- women and blacks. Results of this reseach will demonstrate some of the psychological mechanisms responsible for the paradoxically high self-esteem frequently found among people who are members of groups that are discriminated against. More importantly, it should indicate the conditions that are likely to put members of such groups at risk for lowered self-esteem.
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0.946 |
1990 — 1993 |
Major, Brenda |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mgr Honorable Mention: Monica Aparicio
This special award will give Ph.D student Monica Aparicico additional flexibility in pursuing her graduate studies and research initiation in psychological research. This award will strengthen minority participation in research in this area.
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0.946 |
1990 — 1994 |
Major, Brenda Crocker, Jennifer [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Social Stigma: the Consequences of Attributional Ambiguity
This research is focused on the effects of social stigma on self concept. The basic idea is that social stigma create a defensive state of interpretive ambiguity on the part of the stigmatized person, and that this ambiguity reduces the positive impact of success, and often undermines motivation to succeed. Thus, programs designed to provide successful experiences for stigmatized persons might, in fact, have paradoxical effects on their self-concepts. The studies undertaken here will provide important information about the manner in which stigma influences people's lives, and, perhaps more importantly, will suggest ways in which inappropriate (mis)interpretations which stigmatized individuals use to defend themselves psychologically can be overcome. The implications of this research for understanding the effects of stigma are very important. Even more important are the implications of the research for understanding the ways in which the effects of stigma might be overcome.
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0.946 |
1992 — 1995 |
Major, Brenda N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Predicting Psychological Adjustment to Abortion @ State University of New York At Buffalo |
0.958 |
1994 — 1998 |
Major, Brenda Crocker, Jennifer [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Reactions to Stigma: the Mediating Role of Deserving @ University of Michigan Ann Arbor |
0.949 |
2000 — 2005 |
Major, Brenda |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Stigma and Coping With Intergroup Threat @ University of California-Santa Barbara
Prejudice and discrimination remain ongoing and important problems for their targets as well as for society in general. This research builds on the principal investigator's earlier work examining how members of stigmatized, or low status, groups cope with being a potential target of negative stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. The past work is extended to examine how members of privileged, or high status, groups cope when they find themselves in a similar predicament. This research is guided by the assumption that these coping processes are influenced by motives to maintain personal and social self-esteem, as well as by motives to justify the status quo. It is hypothesized that the extent to which people believe existing status differences between groups are legitimate shapes how they cope with social rejection and other negative events experienced in intergroup encounters. It is further hypothesized that the impact of believing status differences are legitimate differs depending on the status of one's own group compared to other groups in a given context. These hypotheses are tested in a series of experiments examining how members of groups that are traditionally high in social status (e.g., men, European-Americans) versus traditionally low in social status (e.g., women, ethnic minorities) cope with threats to self-esteem in intergroup contexts. These experiments test the impact of group status and beliefs about the legitimacy of that status on the extent to which individuals: (1) attribute negative outcomes to discrimination based on their group membership; (2) selectively devalue domains in which their own group compares unfavorably relative to other groups; and (3) selectively compare their situations with members of their own group, rather than with members of other group. This research is important because it advances our understanding of intergroup conflict as well as of processes of coping and resilience among targets of prejudice.
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1 |
2006 |
Major, Brenda N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Effect-Perceived Discrimination-Mental &Physical Health @ University of California Santa Barbara
[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research examines the impact of chronic and acute perceptions of discrimination on psychological and physiological stress responses. Perceived discrimination is widely assumed to negatively affect both mental and physical health, but research directly addressing this issue is scarce. Drawing on models of stress and emotion, it is hypothesized that perceiving others to be prejudiced against the self is stressful, and initiates a cascade of negative self-and other-related cognitions and emotions that in turn, initiate general physiological stress responses (e.g., blood pressure reactivity, elevated cortisol) as well as more specific stress responses associated with threat (e.g., vascular resistance) or anger (e.g., cardiac output). These physiological responses have adverse health implications if repeatedly experienced over time (McEwen, 2000). It is also predicted that resilience as well as vulnerability can occur in response to perceived discrimination. 10 experimental designs (with three replications) are proposed to assess the interrelationships among cognitive, affective, and biological (hormonal and cardiovascular) responses to acute discrimination-relevant events among Latino-Americans, African-Americans, and women. Experiment 1 tests the hypothesis that chronic or situationally induced expectations of prejudice lead to increased physiological stress responses and greater threat in evaluatively ambiguous intergroup situations. Experiments 2-4 test the independent effects of exposure to negative social feedback and expectations of discrimination on anger and threat-related stress responses. Experiments 5 - 6 examine the physiological effects of clear rejection or selection based on social identity. Experiments 7-8 examine how a stigmatized target's situationally activated or chronically held prejudice expectations interact with the prejudice level of a nonstigmatized partner to influence stress responses in naturally occurring dyadic social interactions. Experiments 9-10 test the hypothesis that dispositional optimism and manipulated optimism increase resilience among individuals who are exposed to prejudice. All experiments assume that physiological reactions to potentially discriminatory situations are shaped by features of the situation and of the person, and test the hypothesis that negative cognitions and affective responses mediate physiological responses to discrimination-relevant stressors. [unreadable] [unreadable]
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0.958 |
2007 — 2010 |
Major, Brenda N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
The Effects of Perceived Discrimination On Mental and Physical Health @ University of California Santa Barbara
This research examines the impact of chronic and acute perceptions of discrimination on psychological and physiological stress responses. Perceived discrimination is widely assumed to negatively affect both mental and physical health, but research directly addressing this issue is scarce. Drawing on models of stress and emotion, it is hypothesized thatperceiving others to be prejudiced against the self is stressful, and initiates a cascade of negative self-and other-related cognitions and emotions that in turn, initiate general physiological stress responses (e.g., blood pressure reactivity, elevated cortisol) as well as more specific stress responses associated with threat (e.g., vascular resistance) or anger (e.g., cardiac output). These physiological responses have adverse health implications if repeatedly experienced over time (McEwen, 2000). It is also predictd that resilience as well as vulnerability can occur in response to perceived discrimination. 10 experimental designs (with three replications) are proposed to assess the interrelationships among cognitive, affective, and biological (hormonal and cardiovascular) responses to acute discrimination-relevant events among Latino-Americans, African-Americans, and women. Experiment 1 tests the hypothesis that chronic or situationally induced expectations of prejudice lead to increased physiological stress responses and greater threat in evaluatively ambiguous intergroup situations. Experiments 2-4 test the independent effectsof exposure to negative social feedback and expectations of discrimination on anger and threat-related stress responses. Experiments 5 - 6 examine the physiological effects of clear rejection or selection based on social identity. Experiments 7-8 examine how a stigmatized target's situationally activated or chronically held prejudice expectations interact with the prejudice level of a nonstigmatized partner to influence stress responses in naturally occurring dyadic social interactions. Experiments 9-10 test the hypothesis that dispositional optimism and manipulated optimism increase resilience among individuals who are exposed to prejudice. All experiments assume that physiological reactions to potentially discriminatory situations are shaped by features of the situation and of the person, and test the hypothesis that negative cognitions and affective responses mediate physiological responses to discrimination-relevant stressors.
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0.958 |
2011 — 2016 |
Major, Brenda |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Diversity Structures Create Illusions of Fairness @ University of California-Santa Barbara
Today, organizations spend a great deal of time and money to create structures and procedures for managing organizational diversity. However, relatively little is known about how the diversity structures that are created actually affect members of underrepresented groups. This research project focuses on one significant, unintended cost of diversity structures for those they intend to help -- "the illusion of fairness." The investigators propose that diversity structures have the potential to cause an illusion of fairness concerning the treatment of members of underrepresented groups among members of high status groups. This illusion leaves members of high status groups blind to discrimination against underrepresented groups, and unsympathetic toward those who claim to experience discrimination. The research is based upon two theoretical assumptions: 1) most diversity structures do not actually make organizations fairer for members of underrepresented groups; and 2) most high status group members believe that diversity programs make organizations fairer for members of underrepresented groups. The experiments included in this project test whether White Americans believe that diversity programs create procedurally fair environments for members of underrepresented groups, whether the perceptions of procedural fairness for underrepresented group members lead them to be blind to discrimination; whether participants' group status (e.g., Whites or minorities; men or women) and endorsed or primed beliefs that legitimize status differences moderate the illusion of fairness; and whether the illusion of fairness extends to instances of "reverse discrimination" in which high status group members claim to experience discrimination.
As part of the Science of Broadening Participation, this research offers insight into increasing the effectiveness of diversity structures as well as reducing animosity directed at members of underrepresented groups. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners studying anti-discrimination law and policy, as well as to organizations seeking to build and manage a more diverse workforce. In addition, the research promotes teaching, training, and learning. Both investigators run active teaching labs that include a diverse group of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates. These students will be involved in the implementation of this research as well as its dissemination in presentations and papers.
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1 |
2013 — 2015 |
Major, Brenda N |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Psychological, Physiological, and Behavioral Effects of Weight Stigma @ University of California Santa Barbara
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Obesity is a global epidemic, affecting people of all ages and socioeconomic levels. Being overweight or obese puts people at risk for serious health problems. It also exposes them to profound stigmatization and discrimination across a wide variety of domains. Experiencing racial and ethnic discrimination has been linked to poorer mental and physical health, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, blood pressure reactivity, and depression. The effects of experiencing weight-based stigmatization (WS) on health, however, have been largely ignored. The proposed research addresses the psychological, behavioral, and biological effects on overweight men and women of experiencing or anticipating WS. We propose that WS is stressful and triggers a cascade of negative emotions, cognitions and biological responses that can damage mental and physical health. We also propose that experiencing or anticipating WS impairs health by activating processes that contribute to weight gain among those who are or perceive themselves to be overweight. These include increasing stress-related eating and reducing self-control capacity essential for regulating diet and exercise. We propose that WS also increases motivation and intentions to avoid stigma by losing weight while simultaneously decreasing the capacity to do so via the processes described above. This further exacerbates threat and can lead the overweight to engage in stigma-avoidance behaviors with negative health implications, such as avoiding exercise, or engaging in unhealthy behaviors to lose weight. We propose to conduct 4 experiments to test these hypotheses. Our aims are to demonstrate that for individuals who are overweight, social contexts that activate concerns about WS, including exposure to public health messages about the obesity epidemic: 1) are stressful, as indexed by increased blood pressure, cortisol reactivity, emotions, and activated stereotypes, 2) decrease self-regulatory capacity, as indexed by poorer performance on cognitive tasks requiring self-control and by reduced capacity of people who are overweight to resist consuming fattening food, and 3) increase motivation and intention to avoid stigma by attempting to lose weight, while decreasing individuals' capacity to do so, thus contributing to unhealthy eating behaviors and avoidance of exercise. We also propose to test three potential moderators of the above effects as well as several mediators of these effects. In addition, we will examine the downstream consequences of eating in response to WS. Collectively, these experiments will provide a better understanding of the psychological, physiological, and behavioral effects of weight stigma, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease, depression, and weight gain, and how these effects may be mitigated. Findings hold enormous potential to illuminate psychological processes that may contribute to, and potentially reduce, obesity and will have implications for the design of public campaigns to reduce the obesity epidemic.
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0.958 |