The present research examined how daily experiences of intergroup contact through social interaction (direct contact) and exposure to outgroups in media (media contact) facilitate improvements in intergroup attitudes. A longitudinal diary study was conducted whereby participants indicated the amount of direct contact and media contact they had each day, as well as their intergroup attitudes. Results indicated that direct contact and media contact both independently predicted improvements in intergroup attitudes. For direct contact, but not media contact, this relationship was moderated by the perceived negativity of the contact. Time-lagged analyses indicated that direct contact on a given day predicted improved intergroup attitudes on a subsequent day above and beyond direct contact on that day, but that media contact has little or no residual impact. This suggests that although media contact and direct contact may both be effective at promoting more positive intergroup attitudes, direct contact may have a more lasting impact.

The present research examined how daily experiences of intergroup contact through social interaction (direct contact) and exposure to outgroups in media (media contact) facilitate improvements in intergroup attitudes. A longitudinal diary study was conducted whereby participants indicated the amount of direct contact and media contact they had each day, as well as their intergroup attitudes. Results indicated that direct contact and media contact both independently predicted improvements in intergroup attitudes. For direct contact, but not media contact, this relationship was moderated by the perceived negativity of the contact. Time-lagged analyses indicated that direct contact on a given day predicted improved intergroup attitudes on a subsequent day above and beyond direct contact on that day, but that media contact has little or no residual impact. This suggests that although media contact and direct contact may both be effective at promoting more positive intergroup attitudes, direct contact may have a more lasting impact.

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This study examined instructional strategies and their impacts on preservice teachers' attitude toward multicultural issues and learners. A qualitative phenomenological approach is used for this study because of my philosophical belief in multiple realities. / The research site was a classroom of the Multi-Cultured/Multi-Racial course offered by the Faculty of Education in an English University located in the Montreal area. The studied course was a compulsory preservice teacher training course implemented for the first time in response to the requirement of the Ministry of Education in Quebec. / The data were gathered through classroom observation, questionnaires distributed to preservice teachers in the classroom, interviews with five preservice teachers enrolled in the studied course, and an interview with the course director. / Sessions of cooperative learning and discussions following videos seemed to be effective to deepen preservice teachers' understandings of multicultural issues and teaching. The effects that the studied course had on preservice teachers differed among respondents depending on their previous experience. Preservice teachers with minimal multicultural experience felt that they learned a lot from the course, whereas preservice teachers with more multicultural experience felt that the course fell short of their expectations.

This study was conducted using the Leadership Scale for Sports research instrument on 61 high school, 62 CEGEP, 86 university, and 34 professional football players to determine if these players' preferences for five leadership behaviours differed with respect to level of play, unit of play (offensive and defensive), and team success. The leadership behaviours investigated in this study are training and instruction, autocratic, democratic, social support, and positive feedback. In addition, the data collected was analysed to determine if differences were present between football players' preferences for and perceptions of their unit co-ordinator coach's leadership behaviours taking into consideration level of play, unit of play, and team success. Multivariate and Doubly Multivariate Analyses of Variance Tests were used to interpret the data. / No differences were found among the football players' preferences for coaching leadership behaviours at the various levels of play, units of play, and team success. Differences were however found between players' preferences for and perceptions of their unit co-ordinators in training and instruction, social support, and positive feedback coaching leadership behaviours.

Due to the ageing population, an increasing number of older workers form the labour force. Unfortunately discriminatory practices against older workers are well documented and the antecedents of such discrimination are assumed to be negative attitudes towards older workers. No previous research has investigated implicit attitudes towards older workers or their behavioural consequences. Accordingly, the present research aimed to investigate both implicit and explicit attitudes towards older workers, and their predictive utility in an employment-related context. In addition, attitude malleability and the role it may play in the attitude-behaviour relationship was investigated. This thesis reports findings from 5 studies, a pilot study and 4 main studies. The pilot study determined that the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A.G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) was to be used in the main studies. The 4 main studies investigated implicit attitudes, and the malleability of such attitudes towards older, relative to younger, workers. The malleability of attitudes was investigated with a mental imagery intervention where the experimental group participants were asked to imagine and describe respected and valued older workers in their surroundings. The control group participants were asked to imagine holiday destinations they would like to visit. In general, it was expected that negative implicit and explicit attitudes would be found towards older workers but that such bias could be alleviated with a mental imagery intervention. In all studies, negative implicit attitudes against older workers were found and such attitudes were relatively uninfluenced by the mental imagery manipulation. Three studies included explicit measures of attitudes. Although some variation was found between the studies and the measures used, overall positive attitudes towards older and younger workers were found. The mental imagery manipulation was also found to influence the explicit attitudes to a greater degree than implicit attitudes. The final study investigated the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. Specifically, both implicit and explicit attitudes’ relationships with spontaneous and controlled-type behaviours towards an older and a younger target were examined. Overall, some evidence for youth-bias in the participants’ behaviour was found, as well as evidence for the relationship between explicit attitudes and spontaneous behaviours. Implicit attitudes were largely unrelated to behaviour. In general, the mental imagery intervention did not impact the attitude-behaviour relationship. Implications for older workers are discussed, as well as educational methods for reducing discrimination older workers face in employment.

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Kön och etnicitet är två centrala variabler vid diskriminering på arbetsplatsen. Dock finns en dubbelsidighet i attityder till ledare där å ena sidan forskning visar på att den västerländska mannen ses som den självklara ledaren samtidigt som det pekar mot att det inte finns någon skillnad i ledarskap i avseende på kön och etnicitet. Studien undersökte attityder till ledarskap beroende på kön och etnicitet utifrån tre hypoteser. I studien deltog 158 högskolestudenter, varav 59 män och 99 kvinnor med en medelålder på 22.28 år. Deltagarna besvarade en enkät som bestod av frågor från the Empowering Leadersip Questionnaire (ELQ) och Motivation To Controll Prejudice-scale (MTCP). Materialet analyserades med en korrelationsanalys och sex envägs variansanalyser för beroende mätningar. Resultatet visade på att den svenska kvinnan skattades bäst utifrån ELQ skalan. Slutsatsen drogs att kvinnor skattades bäst men att det inte råder någon statistisk skillnad i avseende på etnicitet.

As Arnold (2002) and Pritchard et.al. (2004) noted, one of the keys to success in public relations includes mentoring. Mentoring has been used among public relations practitioners to develop knowledge and skills and obtain career counseling. However, little work has been done to quantify the value practitioners ascribed to mentoring relationships.This study used Q methodology to examine feelings and thoughts of some of the top public relations mentors and proteges, attempting to fill that gap and quantify the value public relations professionals placed on mentoring relationships.The sample consisted of 20 public relations practitioners, ten mentors and ten proteges. Each sorted a sample of 48 Q statements containing positive and negative statements on four categories.The findings suggest that most public relations practitioners have quite positive feelings about mentoring; however, gender composition is still an issue in conflict. A mentor's experience, ability, and confidence are considered more when identifying a superior mentor. / Department of Journalism

Research has shown that attractive individuals are viewed more favorably than unattractive counterparts across different types of criminal trials, contributing to the belief that “what is beautiful is good” (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). However, this research has not been replicated in cases involving sexually coercive tactics. In the present experiment, participants read a case file that included one of two (attractive or unattractive) digitally altered photographs of a defendant and one of two vignettes (physical or verbal coercion). They then completed a questionnaire about the case. The results indicated that more women than men found the defendant guilty, and jurors assigned significantly longer sentences to the defendant in the physical tactic condition than in the verbal tactic condition. In contrast to two of the hypotheses, the more attractive defendant was evaluated more harshly than the unattractive defendant and an interaction between attractiveness and tactic was not found. / Department of Psychological Science