Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 8, 2009). Advisor: Paul Haridakis. Keywords: cultivation theory; rural; geographic identity. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-94).

Thesis PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 50 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-48).

Starting with Steele and Aronson (1995), research documents the performance decrements resulting from the activation of a negative task-relevant stereotype. I suggest that negative stereotypes can generate better performance, as they produce a prevention focus (Higgins, 2000; Seibt & Förster, 2004), because a prevention focus leads to greater cognitive flexibility in a task where points are lost (Maddox, Markman, & Baldwin, 2006). My prior work, Experiments 1 and 2, done in collaboration with Arthur B. Markman, W. Todd Maddox, and Grant C. Baldwin, used a category learning task that requires the participant test different explicit rules to correctly categorize stimuli. Half of the participants gained points for correct responses while half of the participants lost points for correct responses. We primed a positive or a negative gender stereotype. The negative prime matches the losses environment while the positive prime matches the gains environment. The match states are assumed to increase dopamine release into frontal brain areas leading to increased cognitive flexibility and better task performance whereas the mismatch states should not. Thus, we predict and obtain a 3-way interaction between Stereotype (Positive, Negative), Gender (Male, Female), and Reward structure (Gains, Losses) for accuracy and strategy. Experiments 3 and 4 used a category learning task, which requires the implicit learning system to govern participant responses. This task had an information-integration category structure and involves the striatum (e.g., Maddox & Ashby, 2004). Importantly, cognitive flexibility will hurt performance using this category structure. I therefore predicted that regulatory match states, created by manipulating Stereotype and Reward structure, will produce worse performance than mismatch states. I did not completely reverse the effects described in Experiments 1 and 2 as predicted. I found evidence supporting my predictions using computational models to test for task strategy in Experiment 3 and found results consistent with the flexibility hypothesis in Experiment 4. Importantly, I believe that stereotype threat effects should not be conceptualized as a main effect with negative stereotypes producing worse performance than positive stereotypes, but instead as an interaction between the motivational state of the individual, task environment, and type of task performed.

No description available.

Patriotism is an important value in American culture. Patriotism has obvious benefits such as increasing civic unity; however, researchers have acknowledged that it can take both positive and negative forms. Schatz (1994) developed the concepts of blind and constructive patriotism to characterize this difference. The current study, based on previous research linking blind patriotism and stereotyping to RWA and threat, predicted that blind patriotism would be related to increased stereotyping of African Americans, gay men, and lesbians while constructive patriotism would not. It was also predicted this relationship would be mediated by RWA, SDO, and threat. Results generally supported these predictions; blind patriotism was related to increased stereotyping and this relationship was largely mediated by RWA, SDO, and threat. Interestingly, constructive patriotism was also found to be related to increased stereotyping although this relationship was not mediated by RWA, SDO, and threat. / Department of Psychological Science

The linguistic intergroup bias is a phenomenon where people use more abstract language to talk positively about in-groups and negatively about out-groups (Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989). This has been established for many in-groups, but has not been extended to age-related stereotypes. This study extended the linguistic intergroup bias to attitudes towards older adults. It was predicted that statements about what participants liked about their peers and disliked about older adults would be more abstract than statements about what participants disliked about their peers and liked about older adults. Results supported these predictions. Also, a new measure of linguistic abstractness was tested, but was found not to be useful in this context. / Department of Psychological Science

The overall purpose of this study was to uncover, from among a sample of university students, naturally occurring, salient and less potentially harmful group categories and stereotype content. The reason for this was to learn more about which group categories and associated stereotype content ordinary South Africans naturally consider to be salient or important, rather than those group categories and stereotype content that South Africa’s academic establishment may unduly focus on. This was done because of a suspicion, which itself was based on an extensive review of the history of South African stereotype research, that the group categories and associated stereotype content of race and gender may be the subject of an undue focus on the part of South African academia. The results generated by this study were to be used to supply future stereotype threat studies in South Africa with accurate, relevant and specifically less potentially harmful group categorisations and associated stereotype content. The research questions of this study were posed at two hierarchical levels, the ‘higher’, more abstract “groups of people in South Africa” and the ‘lower’, more local, “groups of people on campus”. The reason for this was to learn how the manipulation of hierarchical group salience conditions would affect the group categories generated by the participants and the stereotype contents about those groups. The results of the study suggest that while the category of race seems to be the most salient or important among the participants, the category of gender was not salient at all. This occurred at both the national and campus hierarchical levels. The broad categories of economic status and social class were the second most salient, but only at the national level. There was some evidence of the effects that manipulating hierarchical group salience conditions had on group category and stereotype content generation. Certain group categories and stereotype content were generated exclusively at either the national or campus levels, and when they were generated at both levels, there was evidence to suggest that they were generated in slightly different ways. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (Leaves: 35-42)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2004. / Adviser: Robin Kanarek. Submitted to the Dept. of Experimental Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-53). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;