This diploma thesis is focused on selected psychological aspects of racism. In the introduction, I define basic concepts of the problem and I present wider context of psychology of racism. The main focus of the thesis is put on psychological forms of racism, racist attitudes, stereotypes and prejudices and their measurement. An important part also deals with psychological roots of racism and psychological theories that explain racism. The next chapter is focused on the specifics of adolescence in the context of racism. The research part is an explicit and implicit measurement of the attitudes of adolescents towards ethnic or national minorities that play animportan role in the Czech Republic. 404 high school students participated in the research. In addition to the results of the individual parts of the research, it is also beneficial the correlation of the methods and the comparison with the previous studies, which indicates the complexity of the problem.

This article focuses on the dialogues within and between Disney's The Princess and The Frog and a 1930s animated series about a young Black boy-Little Ol' Bosko. Both films feature Black characters who navigate a fairy tale world set in the swamps of southern Jim Crow era America in which they grapple with fears about reductive and demeaning black film stereotypes. Although they are in some ways trapped within the white gaze of the film's meaning, I argue that in their fantasies, both Bosko and Tiana outmaneuver the regime of representation that underlies racial stereotyping, opening a space for trans-coding and revision of its meanings. In addition, a comparison of the films demonstrates a clear improvement from the 1930s in terms of an increased differentiation in the representation of Black Americans, acknowledging, if not embodying, the fact that "Black America" is a diverse and complex reality.

Although some descriptions of stereotypes about drivers are documented in the literature, the specific behaviours representing these stereotypes have not been previously explored. In addition to identifying specific behaviours associated with stereotypes about female drivers, this thesis looks at the way that these stereotypes may be affected by the age of the stereotyped driver. Furthermore, a debate exists in the field of social psychology about whether the awareness of these stereotypes affects the performance of drivers from the stereotyped groups through the phenomenon known as stereotype threat. This thesis explores these topics through a series of three studies. In the first study, participants watched videos illustrating a variety of driving behaviours and indicated whether the driver was more likely to be male or female. In the second study, participants were told to imagine male and female drivers of different ages approaching a car, and the participants were asked to indicate which driver was more likely to take the wheel of the car and whether that driver was the safer of the two. In the third study, which consisted of two experiments, female participants were invited to complete several driving scenarios in a driving simulator. The first of the two experiments had two conditions: stereotype threat and neutral; the second experiment had an enhanced stereotype threat and a counterstereotype condition. The findings of the first study elucidated the specific behaviours that are stereotypically associated with male and female drivers. The second study showed that in many ways, driving is still considered to be a man’s prerogative, since men were frequently rated as more likely to drive and safer drivers than women. The results of the third study showed that the effects of these stereotypes on drivers can be difficult to detect using the stereotype threat paradigm in a driving simulator environment. Although stereotypes about male and female drivers from different age groups are still prevalent, their effects on the behaviour of the drivers from the stereotyped groups may be elusive and hard to reproduce in a simulated driving context.

This study is a qualitative content analysis, aiming to analyze the representation of African Americans in reports made by the Swedish newspaper Expressen, covering a journey with 53 youths from Chicago to Stockholm in 1966. This study has a critical approach to understanding how preferred meanings were reproduced in Expressen’s representation of the African American participants. Stuart Hall’s (2003) theory ‘the spectacle of the other’ and Homi Bhabha’s (1994) theory stemming from colonial discourse, ‘the process of subjectification’ are used to analyze the material. The material collected consists of text and images presented by Expressen which was an active reporter on the event, as well considered a co-partner of the project to travel from Chicago to Stockholm. This paper suggests the way in which the African Americans were represented is part of the representational practices of ‘racializing the othering’, significantly through the form known as stereotyping; which results in a clear distinction between them and Swedes on the basis of racial representations produced about the African Americans. The study is a modest contribution to expanding and developing the concept of how different races has been represented and perpetual to the history of differentiating people through racial and colonial discourse.

This study was conducted to examine the impact of various social comparisons on stereotype threat for Black college students attending predominantly White colleges and universities (PWCUs). Additionally, explored was whether the student's Black racial identity would moderate the relationship between social comparison and academic achievement. Social comparison theory posits that to gain an accurate self-evaluation, individuals compare themselves to others who are similar; therefore, for Black college students attending PWCUs their comparison is most likely to occur with White students. Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group membership. Participants were 144 self-identified Black college students (including bi-and multiracially identified individuals), currently enrolled in college in the U.S. Data were collected in four phases, with the fourth phase utilizing a participant panel. The study was available for 7 months and was self-administered online through a popular survey software. Participants completed self-report measures, read statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), completed two academic tasks, and viewed a slideshow presentation of images. Data patterns were similar for the White and neutral conditions and were similar for the matched minority and unmatched minority conditions; therefore, participants in the White comparison condition and neutral condition were grouped together to form one subordinate group (i.e., racial nonminority intervention group), and participants in the racially matched and unmatched minority comparison conditions were grouped together to form another subordinate group (i.e., racial minority intervention group). Results indicated a statistically significant effect for time by condition, F(1,142) = 4.776, p = .030, partial n2 = .033, with the racial nonminority group showing a greater impact on stereotype threat. Stereotype threat was positively impacted at a rate greater for the racial nonminority group than for the racial minority group.

This study examined the influence of television viewing and interpersonal contact on young adults' stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans. White American undergraduate students (N = 231) at a small private university in the western United States completed an anonymous self-administered group questionnaire. Regression analysis revealed that the Hispanic negative index is highly positively correlated with White Americans who perceive that they learn about other races from watching TV and positively correlated with White Americans who identify with many TV portrayals. Regression analysis also revealed that the Hispanic positive index is highly positively correlated with White Americans who evaluate their contact with Hispanic Americans as very pleasant and positively correlated with White Americans who talk with Hispanic Americans very often. The study shows that television viewing has a significant impact on White Americans' negative stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans when White Americans perceive that they learn about other races from watching television. Also, the contact hypothesis has strong support in this study. Talking to Hispanic Americans was found to have an impact on White Americans' positive stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans and evaluation of contact was found to have a significant impact on White Americans' positive stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans. These results suggest that television viewing and interpersonal contact may have a significant influence on stereotype development towards Hispanic Americans.

The increased use of online dating sites has further encouraged corporations’ attempts to capitalize on these mate-seeking trends. Match.com, eHarmony, and OkCupid are primary competitors in a growing market of individuals seeking out potential romantic partners. They offer several mainstream dating options as well as niche-dating sites. Similar to society at large where dating still occurs offline, scholars have revealed that racial hierarchies exist within various online platforms. As such, the roles of gender and ethnicity in online dating environments merit study. Specifically, the experiences of Black women who use Internet dating sites, a virtually unexplored demographic, form the basis of this dissertation. This study consisted of 16 interviews and a demographic survey, which were used to examine Black women’s online dating experiences from their perspectives to determine whether or not online dating sites are productive, love-seeking spaces. Data analysis was conducted utilizing a Google Form survey to collect demographic data and NVivo 11 qualitative software to help generate themes that guided analysis. Themes that emerged included: negative and positive perceptions from men; physical and non-physical attributes participants possessed that men found attractive; whether or not men’s perceptions impacted interview participants’ success or failure in online dating, and whether or not participants viewed their online dating experiences to be in line with those of other Black women. Participants discussed how perceptions from men online influenced their racially-gendered online dating experience.

This research examined cover blurbs on popular men’s and women’s magazines and the messages they communicate to their readers about women. The content analysis looked at the covers of Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Vogue, and Good Housekeeping from 1999 through 2003 to see what these magazines were cultivating and framing through their cover text during the time surrounding the new millennium. The women’s magazines examined promoted gendered messages, messages encouraging an idealistic or unattainable ideal of women, to their readers more so than the men’s magazines researched. There also appeared to be an increase of gendered messages in the men’s and women’s magazine sample as a whole from 1999 through 2003. In order to counteract these findings and for progress to be made during the current millennium, individuals working within the communication field must realize the power of the written word and make efforts to discourage the presentation of gendered messages.

This study presents the analysis of Mormon characters in seven young adult novels: Emily Wing Smith's The Way He Lived and Back When You Were Easier to Love, Louise Plummer's A Dance for Three, A.E. Cannon's Charlotte's Rose, Kimberly Heuston's The Shakeress, Susan Campbell Bartoletti's The Boy Who Dared, and Angela Morrison's Taken by Storm. The characters in these novels are negatively stereotyped as typical Mormons. In four of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by other Mormon characters. In two of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by non-Mormon characters. The Mormon narrators in six of the novels prove the stereotypes incorrect, but the last novel, Taken by Storm, portrays a Mormon character fitting the stereotype. In all of the novels, the faith of the characters influences how they act, think, and speak.

Sexual minorities are the target of numerous negative stereotypes in the United States, and are sometimes perceived as deviant and devalued as compared to heterosexuals. Stereotype threat, the anxiety of confirming a negative stereotype about oneself or one's group, has been linked to perceived stress; and stress has been linked to low job satisfaction. Sexual minorities provide a unique test of stereotype threat theory because they may choose to conceal their minority status at work. Thus, this study also examines whether the visibility of the stigma is a necessary precursor to the experience of stereotype threat. Given the uniqueness of this population, a new and presumably more comprehensive model of stereotype threat (the Multi-Threat Framework) was also examined to ensure that stereotype threat was being adequately measured by examining every possible type of stereotype threat. Job satisfaction has been linked to many organizational outcomes such as poor performance, absenteeism, and turnover intentions; thus, it is important to examine predictors of low job satisfaction. Thus, the current study tested perceived stress as a mediator between stereotype threat and low job satisfaction in a sample of 150 sexual minorities who were employed full time. Internalized homophobia was predicted to moderate the relation between stereotype threat and perceived stress. Results indicated support for the moderated mediation model using only the traditional measure of stereotype threat; that is, stereotype threat predicted low job satisfaction through job stress. Moreover, at high levels of internalized homophobia, individuals reported high job stress, regardless of levels of experienced stereotype threat. However, those with low internalized homophobia reported high job stress only when stereotype threat was high. No differences were found with regards to degree of concealing, suggesting that the deleterious effects of high stereotype threat on job stress occurred regardless of whether participants were concealing. Additionally, the moderated mediation model was not supported when measured using the new Multi-Threat Framework, suggesting that the measure may not be measuring the same construct as the traditional measure. Finally, results suggest that stereotype threat added significant incremental validity in predicting job dissatisfaction over perceived discrimination. These findings, in total, suggest that stereotype threat is a valuable construct for predicting negative work outcomes for stigmatized individuals. Implications for improving the work lives of sexual minorities were discussed.