Although Aboriginal people in Canada are subject to marginalization and racism, researchers have devoted limited attention to studying White Canadians’ prejudice toward this group. In addition, little qualitative research has been conducted with individuals known to possess prejudiced attitudes. This study addressed these gaps in the literature. A two-part mixed-methods approach was employed. In Phase 1, a questionnaire was administered to 192 non-Aboriginal undergraduate students. Endorsement of old-fashioned prejudice was somewhat low, though a sizeable minority of participants (29%) scored above the midpoint on this measure. The mean score on the modern prejudice measure was above the scale midpoint, and the majority of the sample (61%) scored above the midpoint, suggesting that modern prejudice toward Aboriginal people was fairly prevalent in this sample. Phase 1 participants who scored above the midpoint on one or both prejudice measures and reported a White ethnicity were invited to participate in an interview. Interviews with 13 of these individuals (nine women and four men) were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The themes that emerged have provided insight into the ways in which old-fashioned and modern prejudiced attitudes toward Aboriginal people are created and maintained. The socialization process emerged as a key contributor to participants’ attitudes toward Aboriginal people (e.g., internalization of stereotypes about Aboriginal people). Modern prejudiced sentiments mainly revolved around the perceived unfairness of the presumed special treatment of Aboriginal people in Canada. Ambivalence toward Aboriginal people, a core feature of modern prejudice, was also observed. Consistent with the conceptualization of old-fashioned prejudice, some participants implied that Aboriginal people possess inherent inferiorities (e.g., poor work ethic) that are responsible for the social problems they encounter. This was often linked to a perception that Aboriginal people have the choice to advance themselves, but many are content with being financially dependent on the government. It is posited that participants’ apparent surface-level evaluations and understandings of Aboriginal people and social issues demonstrate that increased awareness and education may be needed among the Canadian public (e.g., regarding societal factors that serve to maintain inequality). Limitations of this study along with avenues for future research are also discussed.

abstract: Traditional perspectives on sexual prejudice typically focus on the distinction between heterosexual ingroup and homosexual outgroup. In contrast, I focus on an affordance-management paradigm which views prejudices as resulting not from ingroup/outgroup relations, but instead from perceptions of the threats and opportunities posed by members of different groups. Past research has demonstrated that non-heterosexual target groups are perceived to pose a variety of threats, including threats to the socialization of young children, of child molestation, of disease, and to values. My research, however, suggests sexual prejudices arise for college students from beliefs that certain sexual orientation groups pose threats of unwanted sexual interest. For young adults, mating concerns are salient and should define relevant threats and opportunities--including those that might drive prejudices. For individuals with different active motivations, however, different threats and opportunities and threats are salient, and so the threats driving sexual prejudices may also differ. I extend my past research to consider how activating different fundamental goals (e.g., disease avoidance, parenting) alters patterns of sexual prejudice. I posit that activating disease concerns will increase prejudice specifically toward non-heterosexuals associated with disease (gay and bisexual me)--but not other non-heterosexuals (lesbians and bisexual women)--whereas activating offspring care will increase prejudice toward all non-heterosexual target groups, as all are perceived to pose socialization threats. To test this, heterosexual participants were randomly assigned to a parenting or disease-avoidance goal activation, or control condition, and then rated their general negativity towards heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual male and female targets. They also rated their perceptions of the extent to which each target posed unwanted sexual interest, socialization, and disease threats. Contrary to predictions, activating parenting and disease avoidance systems failed to affect sexual prejudices. Furthermore, although the pattern of observed data was largely consistent with previously observed patterns, women's attitudes towards gay men in the control condition were more negative than that found in previous studies, as were men's attitudes towards bisexual and lesbian women. Multiple mechanisms underlie sexual prejudices, and research is needed to better understand the circumstances under which alternative mechanisms are engaged and have their effects. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

In this thesis, I maintain that a focus on a narrowly defined sense of ‘fidelity’ is used to discourage and devalue adaptations that work to comment on class, racial, and gender dynamics that the original author did not. An emphasis on strict fidelity can also be a misogynistic response to Austen adaptations’ popularity among young women. While certainly one may have legitimate aesthetic concerns in regards to adaptations of any form—novel, film, YouTube, or otherwise—it is important to scrutinize the claim that such artistic differences are not, in fact, rooted in general disdain for narratives and media embraced by, or seemingly embraced by, women (particularly young women). Just as importantly, the motivations of those claiming to produce feminist narratives must be equally scrutinized, as I have found that these content producers at times use the very real misogyny directed at young women and their interests in order to shield themselves from criticism of their own portrayals of women and feminism. I discuss the discourse around contemporary film and book adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, as well as evaluate two recent adaptations that have made waves in popular culture: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Portugal has experienced various structural changes in recent history which have greatly contributed to the country having a sizeable and varied immigrant population at present. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 has severely impacted numerous countries in the European Union including Portugal. Conditions in Portugal had been gradually worsening, largely as a result of a stagnating national economy, where unemployment steadily increased in the years leading up to 2008. In the wake of the crisis, Portugal has experienced dramatic reductions in GDP, soaring unemployment rates and in particular regarding youth unemployment, social unrest and political instability. Further, the most vulnerable socioeconomic groups in Portugal have been worst affected, where social inequality, poverty and a whole array of other social issues have been exacerbated by the crisis and the austerity policies that were implemented in the wake of the economic crash. This thesis attempted to discover if attitudes towards immigrants have changed in light of worsening economic conditions in Portugal during three different time periods 2002-2006-2012, with a primary focus on the most recent period where conditions were most austere. Moreover, this research also sought to establish the determinants which influence attitudes towards immigrants over the same time period. Data was used from three rounds of the European Social Survey and in particular, round 1 (2002/2003), round 3 (2006/2007) and round 6 (2012/2013). Descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regressions were used in order to answer the research questions and realistic group conflict theory was utilised as a theoretical framework when analysing and explaining the findings. It was evident that attitudes towards immigrants have become more negative over the given time period and were indeed most pronounced in light of the recent economic crisis. It was also apparent that natives who were in greater competition with immigrants possessed the most pronounced levels of prejudice.

Denna kvalitativa studie har i syfte att förstå hur stereotypa föreställningar påverkar unga kvinnor med ursprung i Mellanöstern. Studien är baserad på sex unga kvinnors tolkningar av samhällets stereotypa föreställningar kring denna grupp.  Resultatet visar att majoriteten av informanterna blev någorlunda påverkade av dessa föreställningar. Fyra av respondenterna påverkades mer och upplevde att de många gånger var i behov av att bevisa att de negativa föreställningarna inte alltid stämmer. Föreställningarna om invandrarfamiljen är enligt informanterna överdramatiserade. Majoriteten ansåg att reglerna som fanns i hemmet inte handlade om kontroll, istället betonade de att föräldrar gör det av omsorg. Dock påvisades det under intervjuernas gång att de negativa föreställningarna som de unga kvinnorna talade om ibland stämde överens med några av respondenternas familjeförhållande. Vidare visar studien på mångfald och variation bland de unga kvinnornas levnadssätt. Invandrarkvinnan som de unga intervjuade kvinnorna själva benämner sig som, är inte en homogen grupp, och behöver inte leva under samma villkor bara för att man kommer från samma land eller har en gemensam kultur eller religion. / This qualitative study aims to understand how stereotypes affect young women, with Middle Eastern roots, living in Sweden. The study is based on six young women's interpretations of society’s stereotypes regarding young women originating from the Middle East. The result shows that the majority of the respondents were somewhat affected by these stereotypes. A majority of the respondents also came to the conclusion that the social stereotypes were not accurate and they often felt the need to prove those negative perceptions wrong. Moreover, the respondents felt that the perceptions of the stereotypical immigrant family present in today’s society are exaggerated. The majority stated that the rules existing in those families were not about control of young girls. They instead highlighted that the perceived “controlling” aspect was grounded in the parents need for the care and protection of their children rather than having a cultural connection. It became however apparent during the interviews that some of the negative perceptions that the young women talked about, occasionally coincided with some of the respondents' family conditions. Furthermore, this study shows diversity and variation among the respondents and their ways of life. “Immigrant women”, as the respondents call themselves, aren’t a homogeneous group and its members do not necessarily live under the same conditions, even if they come from the same country or have a common culture or religion.

People differ, often strikingly, in their views on desired social structures and processes. For example, while some value ethnic diversity in their society, others believe non-indigenous individuals (whatever that might mean) should be repatriated to their land of origin. Similarly, whereas some believe religion should play no role in determining social policy, others strongly advocate the importance of living according to religious scripture, including at a social level. This variation in attitudes, and its implication for societal cohesion, has made research on the origins of social and political attitudes of enduring interest to psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, among many others. The goal of the current thesis was to extend work in this literature in two key ways: Firstly, I examined whether political attitudes can be understood within a personality system model. This work addresses previous mixed results on the links of basic personality traits to political conservatism. In Chapter 3, I test predictions from this model; namely, that direct influences on political behaviour flow from moral values, with personality mostly acting indirectly via these moral values, rather than directly affecting political attitudes. Findings from two studies (published as Lewis & Bates, 2011a) supported these predictions suggesting that the new model helps explain inconsistencies in previous research attempting to link personality to political orientation that have not included the intermediary level of values. Secondly, I examined the genetic architecture of social attitudes constructs in three separate studies. Chapter 4 addressed whether in-group favouritism reflects heritable effects, and, secondly, whether race-favouritism was accounted for broad or specific genetic effects. Results indicated that a common biological mechanism exists facilitating generalised favouritism, with evidence for additional genetic effects specific to each form of group favouritism. These findings(published as Lewis & Bates, 2010) suggest that (at least) at the genetic level, race favouritism is multiply determined. In Chapter 5, I examined whether prosocial obligations across the domains of welfare, work, and civic obligation share a common genetic basis, or reflect specific heritable components (published as Lewis & Bates, 2011b). In females, results indicated the existence of a common heritable factor underlying each of these prosocial obligations. In males, a prosocial factor was also observed; familial effects (genetic and shared-environment effects were indistinguishable) influenced this general mechanism. At the domain-specific level, modest genetic effects were observed in females for civic and work obligations, with shared environment effects influencing welfare obligations. In males, genetic influences were observed for welfare obligation, with unique-environments affecting work and civic duty. Finally, in Chapter 6, I present work examining the genetic architecture of religious belief. Although genetic factors are known to influence strength of religious belief, the psychological mechanism(s) through which this biological influence is manifest are presently unknown. Two non-theological constructs – 1) need for community integration and 2) need for existential certainty – were hypothesised to account for the genetic effects on religiosity. The results supported this hypothesis, with genetic influences on these traits wholly accounting for the heritable basis of religiosity, suggesting that religion “re-uses” systems involved in meeting both social and existential needs.

No description available.

Despite ongoing changes in the national sociopolitical landscape, negative attitudes toward non-heterosexuals continue to permeate throughout our society. Not only is sexual prejudice still prevalent, but experiencing it can have severe and far-reaching effects on LGBT individuals’ mental and physical health. Additionally, previous research has consistently found sexual prejudice to be a predictor of aggression directed toward sexual minorities. In fact, the recurrence and consistency of this finding has motivated researchers to suggest the development of intervention programming for the reduction of sexual prejudice. One major prospect for intervention involves interpersonal contact with sexual minorities. Evidence in favor of the contact hypothesis has been found with a wide variety of target minority groups, including sexual minorities. However, a review of the literature in this area reveals a significant measurement gap. Overall, most studies across all areas of contact research have neglected to follow the proper procedures necessary for the development and refinement of measures. This study sought to address this gap by validating a more robust psychometric measure of intergroup contact with sexual minorities developed by Daboin and Peterson (2012). Since this measure was previously constructed, this validation study relied on secondary data analyses. To achieve the purpose of this study, a series of analyses were conducted including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and path analysis, as well as reliability and validity analyses. Results indicated that the CSMQ has an underlying structure of three factors: “Quantity of Casual Contact and Contact with Male Sexual Minorities,” “Quantity of Intimate Contact and Contact with Female Sexual Minorities,” and “Overall Perceived Quality of Contact with Sexual Minorities.” These three factors are significantly correlated with one another and negatively correlated with both negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Additionally, results showed that the revised CSMQ and its resulting subscales have excellent internal consistency, and provided supporting evidence for their convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity.

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Spencer D. Wood / In the wake of Barack Obama becoming the first nonwhite President of the United States and the diminishing instances of explicit racism, a number of Americans believe that the United States has surpassed race and therefore racism (Neville et al. 2000; Nayak 2006; Brayboy et al. 2007; Gawronski 2008; Quillian 2008; Wise 2009; Bonilla-Silva 2010; Gusa 2010; Ikuenobe 2010; Moras 2010; Gainous 2012). On the surface, the problem of overt racial discrimination has dramatically declined, yet, there are key studies that argue that new and subtler forms of racism are still prevalent (Feagin 2000; Krysan 2000; Sydell and Nelson 2000; Swim et al. 2003; Leach 2005; Henkel et al. 2006; Williams and Land 2006; Anderson 2007; D’Andrea and Daniels 2007; Sue et al. 2007; Gawronski et al. 2008; Wise 2009; Gainous 2012; Torres-Harding et al. 2012). This thesis will focus on assessing the dimensions of present-day racism and racial prejudice by replicating and updating Forman’s (2004) study of racial apathy. Using data from 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, I explore the persistence of racial apathy, which proposes that the blatant racial discrimination of the past has manifested into racial indifference and lack of caring for existing racial inequalities (Perry and Shotwell 2009; Forman 2004; Forman and Lewis 2006; Gafford 2010; Maly et al. 2012). Consistent with previous research, this study finds that the expression of racial apathy has continued to increase, but also that political preference, gender, father’s education level and religiosity affect one’s level of racial apathy.

Två utsatta grupper i dagens Sverige, som ideligen faller offer för nedlåtande fördomar, är invandrare och individer som lider av psykisk ohälsa. Syftet var att undersöka huruvida manipulation av en misshandlande gärningspersons etnicitet och psykiska hälsotillstånd kunde ge skilda resultat med avseende på bedömningen av brottets allvarlighetsgrad, straffvärde, medkänsla för gärningsmannen samt förståelse för den begångna handlingen. Deltagare var 151 studenter i åldrarna 20-64 år, varav 103 kvinnor, från en högskola i Sverige. Fyra olika vinjetter användes. För att undersöka eventuell samvariation korrelationstestades de beroende variablerna samt kontrollvariablerna. Olika 2 x 2 ANCOVA-analyser för oberoende mätningar gjordes. Resultatet motsade hypoteserna och visade inga signifikanta medelvärdesskillnader mellan vinjetterna, samt innebar inga mätbara fördomar; människors bedömning av gärningspersonen och handlingen tycks inte påverkas av dennes etnicitet och psykiska hälsotillstånd. Resultaten diskuterades och visade på en positiv trend, där människor med olika bakgrund värderas allt mer jämlikt iSverige.