Wolfaardt (1995) states that organizations in South Africa are experiencing immense pressure to implement affirmative action due to political, socio-economic and social factors. Many of these organizations however, are still persisting with the status quo. Affirmative action has been incorporated into the philosophies and values of organizations, yet little progress has been made to this effect. The Anncron Clinic is one of more than 80 private hospitals and clinics of Afrox Healthcare Ltd, which aims to make employees in the hospital more representative of the community within which it is functioning. Affirmative action and equal job opportunity programs are implemented at the Anncron Clinic, but the outcome of the implementation of these programs is perceived to have a negative effect on productivity and mutual personnel relationships. The aim of this study was to determine the experiences of affirmative action of a private hospital's staff members. The researcher made use of an exploratory research design which aided him through the various stages of the research. This research helped the researcher in determining and understanding the experiences of affirmative action of the Anncron Clinic's staff members. A sample was drawn by selecting a group of six individuals from the services department. The total number of respondents was 15, which make up 8,6% of the Anncron Clinic's 174 employees. Various themes have been identified which influence employees of the &on Clinic's experience of affirmative action. These themes include pressure, suspicion, motivation, frustration, the behaviour of doctors, and management. Recommendations are presented regarding the acceptance of affirmative action in the Anncron Clinic. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

In the wake of the death of a prominent atheist figure in 2011, an especially unsavory side of anti-atheist prejudice became evident as many celebrated the death of a prominent atheist, rejoicing that he would be in hell. The current study explores how these attitudes reveal a sense of schadenfreude in anti-atheist prejudice previously unexplored in the literature. Potential origins of this schadenfreude are discussed, and a study to experimentally explore this phenomenon was carried out. Using the repeated taste-test paradigm, this study gave participants atheist primes and hell primes between identical drinks and measure perceived taste after these manipulations, intending for the hell primes to induce schadenfreude after atheist primes as a result from participants thinking about the atheists going to hell for their lack of faith. All predicted main effects and interactions were non-significant. Exploratory analyses were carried out to explain these null results. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Wolfaardt (1995) states that organizations in South Africa are experiencing immense pressure to implement affirmative action due to political, socio-economic and social factors. Many of these organizations however, are still persisting with the status quo. Affirmative action has been incorporated into the philosophies and values of organizations, yet little progress has been made to this effect. The Anncron Clinic is one of more than 80 private hospitals and clinics of Afrox Healthcare Ltd, which aims to make employees in the hospital more representative of the community within which it is functioning. Affirmative action and equal job opportunity programs are implemented at the Anncron Clinic, but the outcome of the implementation of these programs is perceived to have a negative effect on productivity and mutual personnel relationships. The aim of this study was to determine the experiences of affirmative action of a private hospital's staff members. The researcher made use of an exploratory research design which aided him through the various stages of the research. This research helped the researcher in determining and understanding the experiences of affirmative action of the Anncron Clinic's staff members. A sample was drawn by selecting a group of six individuals from the services department. The total number of respondents was 15, which make up 8,6% of the Anncron Clinic's 174 employees. Various themes have been identified which influence employees of the &on Clinic's experience of affirmative action. These themes include pressure, suspicion, motivation, frustration, the behaviour of doctors, and management. Recommendations are presented regarding the acceptance of affirmative action in the Anncron Clinic. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

We often think of stigmatized individuals as encountering only one stereotype set at a time. Yet, many individuals belong to multiple stigmatized groups, and stereotypes associated with these groups jointly influence how perceivers evaluate targets. Research suggests that perceivers integrate stereotypes about targets’ obvious identities during impression formation; however, no work has examined whether targets’ obvious (e.g., race) and ambiguous (e.g., sexual orientation) identities jointly influence impressions. Given that gay stereotypes are activated automatically, I expected the co-activation of contradictory Black (e.g., aggressive) and gay (e.g., warm) stereotypes to arouse conflict, weakening activation of negative stereotypes and improving evaluations of Black gay targets compared with Black straight targets. Participants in Study 1 rated faces of White straight men as more likable than White gay men, but rated Black gay men as more likable than Black straight men. Participants in Study 2 performed a race-categorization task designed to make race salient; nevertheless, sexual orientation still influenced impressions, producing a pattern similar to Study 1. Participants in Studies 3A (approach-avoidance task) and 3B (evaluative priming task) formed implicit impressions that converged with the explicit evaluations in Studies 1 and 2. In 3A, participants approaching Whites responded faster to straights than gays, whereas participants approaching Blacks responded faster to gays than straights. In 3B, participants recognized positive words somewhat (but not significantly) faster when primed with White straight (versus White gay) and Black gay (versus Black straight) faces. Studies 4A – C suggest that ambiguous categories modify the activation of obvious stereotypes, but do not make targets’ features look less prototypical of their obvious groups. In 4B, participants were slower to recognize Black-stereotypic words (piloted in 4A) when primed with Black gay (versus Black straight) faces. In 4C, participants rated Black straight and gay faces as similarly prototypical of Black phenotypes. Taken together, this work presents implications for stereotyping in the case of multiply-categorizable targets and for impression formation involving ambiguous categories.

Although confronting prejudice can be effective in reducing bias, it is potentially costly to confronters. Research on confronting racism or sexism has shown confronters from the targeted group are viewed more negatively than confronters who are not. It is unknown whether confronting antigay bias produces similar reactions, particularly since group membership is concealable. In my research, participants read two male profiles followed by a scripted conversation which included an antigay comment. Profiles varied in their depiction of the confronting individual’s sexual orientation, and conversations either included a confrontation or not. I found that confronting antigay bias is double-edged. On the positive side, confrontation increased awareness that prejudice occurred, and this awareness mediated the relation between confrontation viewing and participants’ own intention to confront. On the negative, individuals may be deterred from confronting antigay prejudice because confronters were perceived as more gay (a stigmatized identity), regardless of actual orientation.

We often think of stigmatized individuals as encountering only one stereotype set at a time. Yet, many individuals belong to multiple stigmatized groups, and stereotypes associated with these groups jointly influence how perceivers evaluate targets. Research suggests that perceivers integrate stereotypes about targets’ obvious identities during impression formation; however, no work has examined whether targets’ obvious (e.g., race) and ambiguous (e.g., sexual orientation) identities jointly influence impressions. Given that gay stereotypes are activated automatically, I expected the co-activation of contradictory Black (e.g., aggressive) and gay (e.g., warm) stereotypes to arouse conflict, weakening activation of negative stereotypes and improving evaluations of Black gay targets compared with Black straight targets. Participants in Study 1 rated faces of White straight men as more likable than White gay men, but rated Black gay men as more likable than Black straight men. Participants in Study 2 performed a race-categorization task designed to make race salient; nevertheless, sexual orientation still influenced impressions, producing a pattern similar to Study 1. Participants in Studies 3A (approach-avoidance task) and 3B (evaluative priming task) formed implicit impressions that converged with the explicit evaluations in Studies 1 and 2. In 3A, participants approaching Whites responded faster to straights than gays, whereas participants approaching Blacks responded faster to gays than straights. In 3B, participants recognized positive words somewhat (but not significantly) faster when primed with White straight (versus White gay) and Black gay (versus Black straight) faces. Studies 4A – C suggest that ambiguous categories modify the activation of obvious stereotypes, but do not make targets’ features look less prototypical of their obvious groups. In 4B, participants were slower to recognize Black-stereotypic words (piloted in 4A) when primed with Black gay (versus Black straight) faces. In 4C, participants rated Black straight and gay faces as similarly prototypical of Black phenotypes. Taken together, this work presents implications for stereotyping in the case of multiply-categorizable targets and for impression formation involving ambiguous categories.

Although confronting prejudice can be effective in reducing bias, it is potentially costly to confronters. Research on confronting racism or sexism has shown confronters from the targeted group are viewed more negatively than confronters who are not. It is unknown whether confronting antigay bias produces similar reactions, particularly since group membership is concealable. In my research, participants read two male profiles followed by a scripted conversation which included an antigay comment. Profiles varied in their depiction of the confronting individual’s sexual orientation, and conversations either included a confrontation or not. I found that confronting antigay bias is double-edged. On the positive side, confrontation increased awareness that prejudice occurred, and this awareness mediated the relation between confrontation viewing and participants’ own intention to confront. On the negative, individuals may be deterred from confronting antigay prejudice because confronters were perceived as more gay (a stigmatized identity), regardless of actual orientation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [134]-145).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: [134]-145).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--RAND Graduate School, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.