This study is primarily concerned with employers' reactions toward blacks and ex-mental patients who seek menial and unskilled jobs. Structural characteristics of black and white employment are examined. A number of studies on racial discrimination against blacks and discrimination against the mentally ill are reviewed. Then, an attempt is made to conceptualize employers' reactions within the context of the Labeling/Societal Reaction perspective. A major proposition of this perspective is that blacks and the mentally ill possess stigmas and that they are more likely than those without stigmas to be rejected by society. The following hypotheses were deduced from this proposition: (1) Employer reaction toward black job applicants will be more negative than employer reaction toward white job applicants; (2) Employer reaction toward job applicants with a psychiatric record will be more negative than employer reaction toward job applicants without a psychiatric record; (3) Older employers will be more likely than younger employers to reject job applicants with stigmatized statuses, and (4) The less educated will be more likely than the better educated to reject job applicants with stigmatized statuses. / Eight confederates (four black and four white) and a random sample of 80 employers were involved in the study. Both experimental and survey data were used to test the above hypotheses. Support was found for the mental illness hypothesis but not for the race hypothesis. Employer reaction was more negative toward job applicants with a record of mental illness than it was toward job applicants without a record. Race did not have a significant effect on employer reaction. The findings with regard to age and education were mixed. In some of the analyses, age and education supported the hypotheses regarding employer reaction toward the confederates, and in others age and education did not support the hypotheses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-10, Section: A, page: 4513. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74325 |
| Contributors | WEBBER, AVERY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 112 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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