This study examined how Japanese American elders conceptualize depression. Japanese American elders age 65 years and older (N = 120) were recruited from a senior center in Los Angeles, CA. Participants read a brief vignette that described an individual who met the criteria for major depression and then filled out a series of questionnaires. Counter to prior theories, these Japanese American elders emphasized that the interpersonal criteria contributed to the individual's problem to a lesser degree than the somatic, emotional, and cognitive criteria. These elders expressed Explanatory Models of depression that were similar to Western Conceptualizations of depression. The results also indicated that having an important role within one's family and higher activity levels tended to be related to lower Geriatric Depression Scale scores. Finally, acculturation, generational status, sex, educational level, and income were not related to problem conceptualization. Clinical implications and directions for future research were discussed. / Department of Psychological Science

The utilization of counseling services by Black college students has been a focus of the help seeking literature. The help seeking literature has focused on the nature of the potential problem, attitude toward counseling, rank of potential helpers, characteristics of help seekers, and the characteristics that Black students most prefer when choosing to see a counselor. The majority of this literature has primarily focused on the differences between White and Black students while ignoring within group differences. The present study examined the help seeking attitude and counselor preference of Black college students. The following hypotheses were investigated: a) whether African self-consciousness, socioeconomic status, sex, cultural mistrust, and prior counseling experience would predict attitudes toward counseling, b) whether African selfconsciousness, sex, socioeconomic status, prior counseling , and cultural mistrust would predict counselor preference for personal concerns, c) whether African self-consciousness, sex, socioeconomic status, prior counseling , and cultural mistrust would predict counselor preference for educational/vocational concerns, and d)whether African selfconsciousness, sex, socioeconomic status, prior counseling , and cultural mistrust would predict counselor preference for environmental concerns.A regression analysis using SPSS revealed that socioeconomic status, sex, and cultural mistrust were statistically significant predictors of attitude toward counseling. Three separate canonical correlations revealed that African self-consciousness, cultural mistrust, and gender were significant predictors of race and gender preferences for personal, educational /vocational, and environmental concerns experienced by Black students. Generally, Black students who were culturally committed, as measured by African self-consciousness, preferred a Black female counselor when faced with personal, educational/vocational, or environmental concerns while those Black students who were less mistrustful preferred a White female counselor for these same concerns. Limitations and implications for theory, practice, and research of the findings are discussed / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Theoretical models of parenting that explain parenting behaviors (e.g., Belsky's (1984) model) generally lack consideration of cultural variables among various ethnic groups, particularly Chinese Americans. One such concept is guan that literally means training (Chao, 1994) (or called training parenting attitude in the present study). Moreover, literature has shown that acculturation and family socioeconomic status significantly influence parenting attitudes and behaviors pertaining to various forms of punitive parenting, namely, authoritarian parenting, corporal punishment, and child physical abuse among the Chinese American population. The training parenting attitude (as a culture-specific parenting attitude) and disciplinary belief (as a traditional parenting attitude) are taken into consideration in the proposed theoretical models of parenting for Chinese Americans.One hundred and seventeen Chinese American mothers who have at least one child in the age range of 4 to 12 years old participated in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test viable models of punitive parenting. Results indicated that the originally proposed primary model was incorrectly specified. The primary model was then respecified and re-estimated by eliminating the unreliable measures and correlating between the error terms of some observed variables. Consistent with the theory of planned behavior, results indicated that Chinese American mothers with favorable attitudes toward authoritarian parenting were more likely to engage in authoritarian parenting behavior. However, neither acculturation nor family socioeconomic status was found to significantly influence either parenting attitudes or behaviors pertaining to authoritarian parenting. Discriminant function analysis was performed to predict thelevels of engagement (i.e., presence or absence) in corporal punishment and physical abuse from a set of predictors. Findings revealed that only the discriminant function for corporal punishment was significant. Authoritarian parenting and disciplinary belief were found to be the most significant predictors of the levels of engagement in corporal punishment.Further research is needed to explore the predictors for the engagement in authoritarian parenting, corporal punishment, and child physical abuse among the Chinese American population. In addition, professionals should interpret parenting behaviors in terms of the cultural meaning of Chinese American parents. Finally, the limitations of the present study include the lack of access to a diversified sample, self-report bias, low reliabilities of some measures, and the weaknesses of structural equation modeling along with discriminant function analysis. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Since the 1970s, several researchers have questioned the applicability of theories of career development based on research with White males to women, minority group members, andindividuals from low socioeconomic milieus. This study examined the validity of D.E. Super's theory of career development in an underresearched subject population, African-American male and female university students. A conceptual model of career maturity composed of determinants derived from Super's theory (1953, 1972, 1990) and based on research with Caucasians was hypothesized and examined. The rationale was that finding a good fit of the model that also accounted for a significant proportion of the variance would support the adequacy of Super's theory in explaining the career maturity of African-American students as well.The co-determinants of career maturity in the model were sex, educational level, and socioeconomic status (SES) as exogenous variables, and causality and work salience as endogenous variables. Causality and work salience were depicted as latent variables mediating the effects of the demographic variables on career maturity. The model was tested on a sample of 288 African-American students from freshman to doctoral levels. Additional hypotheses investigated which variables in the model were the best predictors of career maturity, sex differences in commitment to the work-role and in career maturity, and the relationship between SES and career maturity.Structural equation modeling using the EQS software program (Bentler, 1989) indicated that, while a good fit of the hypothesized model was obtained, only 12% of the variance in career maturity was explained by the variables in the model. The results suggested that Super's theory may not be wholly adequate in explaining the career maturity of African-American university students. Only commitment to work and educational level were found to be significant predictors of career maturity. Female students were found to be more committed to the work-role and to be more career mature than male students. In general, African-American students exhibited higher participation, commitment, and value expectations in the role of home and family than for the work-role. No significant relationship between SES strata and career maturity was found. Implications for theory, research, and practice were delineated and variables that may be more salient for African-American students' career maturity were also identified. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-121). / xi, 121 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

The focus of the study was to explore to what degree culturally sensitive HIV/AIDS curriculum and materials were perceived as important by African-American students. Students selected for the research (N=121) were from a high school in San Bernardino, California, an area that represents a multiethnic population. Frequency descriptions and bivariate corrrelations were conducted to analyze the data. Trends found in this study indicated African-Americans did not perceive cultural sensitivity as an important aspect of HIV/AIDS education, and correlations between the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) score of African-Americans and their perceptions of the need for culturally sensitive HIV/AIDS education materials were non-significant. Outcomes of this study suggest a more defined meaning of "cultural sensitivity" and "culturally sensitive" materials as it pertains to HIV/AIDS education.

Due to high profile police shootings, collective action movements addressing racial bias in policing, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, have come to the forefront of societal concern. Though these movements and actions directly address police use of force against Black people, a number of non-Black racial minority individuals and organizations have declared solidarity and joined in protests with BLM. This study takes an intersectional approach to examine racial intraminority attitudes (i.e., racial minorities' attitudes toward other racial minority outgroups) toward support for and participation in protests against police excessive use of force and the BLM movement, through its relationship with modern racist beliefs and racial centrality. Participants completed a survey assessing perspectives on policing, racial protests, and BLM, along with racial identity measures. Results show significant differences in both support for and participation in protests and BLM, with women and Black people reporting higher in both outcomes than men and other racial groups, respectively. Within some racial groups, women show higher overall support for (Latinx, White) and participation in (Black, White) protests and BLM than men in the same racial group, though these differences were not found for other groups. Within each intersecting race and gender group, these effects were mediated by levels of modern racism, highlighting a common factor between all groups and an important point of possible malleability and intervention. Further, the relationship between race and gender identities and modern racism was moderated by racial centrality for some groups (Black and Latina women), though this relationship was again not universally found. By examining within group differences, this study highlights the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understand intraminority attitudes and relations as they pertain to participation in collective action movements towards social change. This study has implications for the generalizability of a number of social psychological theories on minority-minority intergroup race relations (i.e., Black-Latinx), as much of the past literature focuses on majority-minority intergroup relations (i.e., Black-White). Additionally, results from this study may provide useful information for community organizers and social justice activists in promoting intergroup collaboration and coalition building towards more equitable social change that is both more tailored for specific groups and more generalizable across groups.

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This dissertation proposes a theoretical framework of attitude change under threatening conditions based on parallel updating. More specifically, I focus on public preferences for policies to address terrorist attacks, pandemics, climate change and natural disasters in periods when these threats are elevated. I test my argument with four original survey experiments, which include eleven interventions and draw on a nationally diverse sample of a total of 9,110 American citizens. These interventions identify the effects of factual information, partisan cues, incidental emotions, ideological and non-ideological framing, and memory priming. Evidence from these experiments provides consistent support that public opinion updating exhibits five characteristics. First, citizens change their views by a small amount. Second, citizens’ opinions move in the direction of information. Third, attitude change occurs regardless of political predispositions and individual attributes. Fourth, exposure to information about a specific policy area does not impact preferences for policies unrelated to this area. The only exception to this rule is when the treatment is emotionally strong. Finally, attitude- and identity-based cross pressures may introduce only minimal bias in the manner citizens update their opinions. These conclusions strongly challenge theories of public opinion which argue that individual differences in more-or-less enduring political and psychological characteristics can lead to political polarization. Although the persuasive techniques studied here are not equally potent in changing political views, the findings invite cautious optimism about the capacity of citizens to update opinions in a reasonable and accurate manner, even when the circumstances are unfavorable. Finally, the results suggest that the roots of polarization should be searched for more directly, notably in the increasingly fragmented political, social, and media environments.

The purposes of this study were to compare the childrearing attitudes of church-related Korean American immigrant parents and Korean parents as measured by the Parent As A Teacher Inventory (PAAT), and to identify relationships between the PAAT childrearing subsets and demographic variables including sex of child, sex of parent, education of parent, family income level, maternal employment, accessibility to the child, language of parent, and length of residence in America.