Controversy over immigration and integration intensified in German news media following Chancellor Merkel’s response to the refugee crisis of 2015. Using multidimensional scaling of word associations in reporting across four national news publications in conjunction with key event, moral panic and framing theories, we argue that reporting of events at Cologne station on New Year’s Eve 2015–2016 reframed debate away from terror-related concerns and towards anxieties about the sexual predation of dark-skinned males, thus racializing immigration coverage and resonating with a long history of Orientalist stereotyping. We further identify an increased clustering of ‘race’, gender, religion, crowd-threat and national belonging terms in reporting on sexual harassment incidents following Cologne, suggesting an increased criminalization of immigration discourse. The article provides new empirically based insights into the dynamics of news media reporting on migrants in Germany and contributes to scholarly debates on media framing of migrants, sexuality and crime.

Small groups of friends—or peer groups—are a central feature of adolescence that contribute to the development of social identity and feelings of self-worth for group members. Additionally, adolescents value music highly and view it as a vital part of their lives. The purpose of this study was to examine and clarify the extent to which adolescents use music as an identity resource in small peer groups. Using Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory as a framework, I conducted a collective case study to understand (a) the ways in which adolescents use music to form and maintain a peer group, (b) the extent to which peer groups use music for the social categorization and stereotyping of other groups of adolescents, (c) the ways by which adolescents use music associated with their peer group to maintain a positive self-concept, and (d) how the peer group influences members’ enjoyment of music and music participation. I conducted group interviews with three adolescent peer groups that contained 5–8 seventh- and eighth-grade students. The peer group members shared experiences of bonding and socializing as a part of a peer group, and described time spent in their music classes. During the discussions, group members explained the role that music plays in their lives. The group members explained their peer group in the context of the school, describing instances of social categorization and stereotyping, in-group and out-group distinction, and self-concept maintenance made from comparisons to the out-groups. The participants discussed their views on school music courses, advocating for the implementation of new classes that included non-traditional instruments and the inclusion of more popular styles of music. Keywords: social identity, adolescent peer groups, in-group, out-group, social categorization, self-concept, stereotyping, adolescence music preference, positive distinctness

The analogue study was designed to extend previous research on clinical sex-role stereotyping of individual clients into the realm of marital counseling. The effects of clinician and couple sex-role style and type of marital problem on clinical judgements of couples was examined through ratings of four audiotaped couples constructed from two scripts depicting either couple financial or sexual problems. Each script produced both a stereotypical and counterstereotypical sex-role styled couple through reversal of spouse verbalizations. A sample of 40 (32 male, 8 female) practicing doctorate-level psychologists rated either two stereotypical or two counterstereotypical couples for level of maladjustment, need for treatment, and prognosis. Individual spouse ratings were also obtained to examine client gender effects.

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Eleni-Ioanna Malafouri, International Migration and Ethnic Relations, University of Malmö.Abstract of Master's Thesis, Submitted 22 May 2015: Who are they and why are they here? A media analysis of the negative portrayal of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press. This study is an initial attempt to investigate the negative depiction of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press of the 2000s. Our goal is to identify the dimensions of negativeimage-making and discuss the dichotomy of the ''identity'' and the ''otherness'' projected in the contemporary press. In order to accomplish that, data, collected from selected articles in a number of best-selling Greek newspapers, were scrutinised with regards to their content, style of writing, presentation as well as their readability and triggering of a wider social discourse at the time of their publication. Using a retroductive approach, to wit travelling back and forth from the general phenomenon to specific incidents, we showed that via the presentation of the negative association of the immigrants with a) criminality, b) the obscure market and c) their unworthiness to bear national symbols, the mainstream Greek press intensifies the presence of certain dichotomies. Such dichotomies, as they appeared in the text and presentation of the articles, are the “identity” versus the “otherness”, “we” versus “they”, as well as one’s race “superiority” versus the “inferiority” of the other, “locals” versus “immigrants”.

This thesis is a postcolonial discussion about stereotype imagery of the third world, asconveyed by aid organization, and the implications of such images. Stereotyping is ahuman rights issue because it concerns inferiority and superiority, and can in the end beboiled down to a matter of equality. It is therefore an issue that needs to be up for constant review in aid organizations, who mainly claim human rights as their value base.The thesis is a single case study, looking intensely into the phenomenon of stereotypingas located within aid organizations. It looks through the lens of postcolonial theory,as it is a perspective that revolves mainly around concepts like identity, racism and stereotyping. It is constructed in two major parts, where the first part goes through the history of imperialism and the representations of ‘the Other’ it produced, and the seconddetermines through empirical observations that aid organizations do convey stereotypicimages, albeit more in terms of how they deal with the images than what they contain.The results of the empirical investigation matches well with the explanations of postcolonial theory, as the way the images are dealt with by aid organizations contributes to establish the aid receivers as ‘the Other’. Research also show that advertisement canfunction to both strengthen and alter previously established perceptions, which calls fororganizations to design ads and information material with caution. It is however also agood thing, as it is possible to begin the process of reversing stereotypes.The conclusion is that postcolonial theory can provide awareness for the origins andmechanisms of stereotyping, which is an issue any organization who claim human rightsas their value base should engage in a debate about. If we truly care about equality thisis an area of the work that needs review.

This thesis reports research in the Country-of-Origin (COO) area of international business, into the postulated phenomenon of Negative Image. Image has been regarded as a potential purchase decision influencing factor but to date not investigated in-depth. Research was carried out in the business to business area, across cultures and between developed and developing countries, using an example from Zimbabwe. The primary research methodology comprised semi-structured elite interviews with Zimbabwean footwear exporters and UK footwear importers. A questionnaire incorporating sections on topics related to the international image of manufactured goods exporters based in Third World countries was also administered to the UK footwear importers. This dealt with political, commercial and image aspects of importer-exporter relationships and also addressed directly the issue of Third World businessmen's image. Results from the field work demonstrate that the Negative Image of Third World manufactured goods exporters directly affects importer decision making and that Negative Image has an exclusively negative impact. Data from inductive analysis of interviews and supporting correlations arising from the questionnaire were used to construct a model of the relationships and formalise the concepts and constructs of Negative Image. These included disparities in exporter and importer expectations of quality, price, delivery and performance. In addition unreliability, inefficiency, professionalism, lack of both marketing skills and social conversation contribute to the phenomenon. A potential conflict was identified at the individual level between personal and professional perspectives and a reciprocal Negative Image of importers was identified from the Zimbabwean exporters' perspective. Suggestions are made regarding the key factors in exporter-importer relationship development and conclusions are then drawn suggesting that improvement to levels of importer-exporter contacts and information flows can be useful in ameliorating the Negative Image effect. Scenarios for image improvement are offered at government, firm and individual levels. Finally, limitations of the research are discussed and recommendations for further research are given

The purpose with this thesis is to study three theology teaching materials to analyze the Sami people involvements in these. A comparison has been made with Old Scandinavian religion since the textbooks I have studied are all placed in the same category. In the thesis, I will also investigate how the Sami and their religion is represented. I will research this from a qualitative and quantitative approach due the fact that reviews of today's learning material are limited and that teachers now have the responsibility to review this. Studies show, however, that eight out of ten teachers lack the proper time for these reviews. The theoretical approach I have used is Ninian Smarts seven dimensions of religion combined with post-colonialism. The Post-colonial theory is broad and has not been applied as a whole in this thesis, just its main concepts. These concepts are; essentialism, exoticism, stereotyping and ethnocentrism. The result from this thesis shows that you cannot for certain determine if the Sami religion has a larger or smaller presence compared to Old Scandinavian religions due to the fact that all three textbooks analyzed differ in this matter. One can also note that hints of a negative picture towards the Sami is still present judging by interpretations of certain concepts.

This thesis explores the experiences, encounters, responses and reactions to Islamophobia through a narrative study of forty female Pakistani and British students with a Pakistani heritage in universities across England. In exploring Islamophobia as a ‘racialised’ phenomenon, the participant narratives locate the experiences and encounters of Islamophobia within their ‘intersubjective’ realities, across various ‘communities’ of ‘discourse.’ These realities are informed by the wider socio-political milieu of a war against Al Qa’ida and its affiliates that ‘securitizes’ the Muslim and Pakistani identity(s) particularly in Britain. The university is also implicated in the counter terrorism agenda of the state, depicted as a ‘vulnerable’ space for radicalizing students. However, females in this discussion are predominantly absent within the academic and public narratives. Therefore, this research will explore the experience of Islamophobia, the way it is perceived by the British/Pakistani/Muslim/female student, and the way students respond and react to it within the university. The research employs a narrative method of inquiry. The narrative analysis is informed by a Bakhtinian notion of ‘dialogics’ to explore the multiplicity of ‘meanings’ that emerge through individual accounts of Islamophobia located within their public and private realms. In exploring these narratives the thesis illustrates how ‘degrees of religiosity’ influences encounters and experiences of Islamophobia, and highlights responses and reactions of students to such experiences, that include individual and group activism to challenge Islamophobia and the insecure meta-narrative about Muslims and terrorism. The research further focuses on both the religious identity of the Muslim student, and their problematic ethnic identity, Pakistani demonstrating how in a securitized socio-political milieu Muslim students are further vulnerable to experiences of Islamophobia, in the form of Pakophobia, where both their religious and ethnic identities are held suspect. These narratives have implications for the emerging understanding of Islamophobia as a ‘racialised’ phenomenon. They further have implications for universities that are encouraged to participate in the government’s counter-terrorism agenda. The narratives by locating the research within the particularities of a wider socio-political milieu that ‘racialises’ and ‘securitizes’ Muslims raises critical questions about the nature of discrimination in a post 9/11, 7/7 era that may have repercussions for other Muslim minority groups.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary project in experimental social psychology, psychopharmacology, neuroscience, and neuroethics. The role of emotion in higher order psychological processes – social and moral judgments – was investigated. Specifically the role of noradrenergic mediated emotional arousal was researched. Behavioural studies demonstrated that acute beta adrenergic blockade with propranolol led to a reduction in negative implicit racial associations and also a modification of moral decision making. These findings suggest that basic affective processes might be causally relevant for higher order evaluations. However, enhancement with the noradrenergic potentiating agent reboxetine did not show effects opposite to those of propranolol on racial attitudes or moral judgments, which might indicate that emotional arousal, specific to beta-adrenoceptors might be involved in the effects of propranolol. Further a pharmacological fMRI study demonstrated that the activation pattern in brain regions commonly associated with intergroup bias -- such as the amygdala, insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and fusiform gyrus -- was affected by propranolol, and that the effect in the amygdala was correlated with implicit racial bias. Taken together the research suggests that automatic emotional arousal plays a role in higher order psychological processes, such as moral and social judgments, which aids the understanding of the underlying neurobiology of such processes. Finally, the ethical implications – such as the prospect of pharmacological moral enhancement – are discussed. The findings also suggest that the moral and social effects of already widely used psychotropic medications should be subject to further empirical and ethical investigation.