Bernice Lott

Cognitive and Behavioral Distancing from the Poor.

The author argues that distancing is the dominant response to poor people on the part of those who are not poor and that distancing, separation, exclusion, and devaluing operationally define discrimination. Such responses, together with stereotypes and prejudice, define classism. The article focuses on classism in the United States. Classism is examined in the context of theoretical propositions about the moral exclusion of stigmatized others and is illustrated by cognitive distancing, institutional distancing (in education, housing, health care, legal assistance, politics, and public policy), and interpersonal distancing. The adoption of the Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status by the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives in August 2000 is cited as an important step in the direction of eliminating the invisibility of low-income persons in psychological research and theory.

TOLERANCE FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT RELATED TO SELF-REPORTED SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION

A sample of college women and men responded to a survey assessing attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors relevant to sexual harassment and assault. Men were more tolerant of sexual harassment, more likely to believe that heterosexual relationships were adversarial, more likely to subscribe to rape myths, and more likely to admit that they might sexually assault someone under some circumstances. Data from the present study support the proposition that relevant affective, cognitive, and behavioral indices of hostile sexuality directed against women are linked, supporting the assumption of a continuum of misogyny. Significant positive correlations were predicted and found among mens self-reported tolerance for sexual harassment, adversarial sexual beliefs, rape-myth acceptance, likelihood to rape, and experience as a sexual victimizer. Among women, belief and attitude measures were positively correlated but, as predicted, experience of sexual victimization was not reliably related to any other measure, supporting the conclusion that personal characteristics are not relevant to college womens sexual victimization.

Low‐Income Parents and the Public Schools

This article addresses the responses likely to be received by low-income parents from teachers and staff in their children’s public schools in the United States. A review of the relevant literature reveals that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children’s schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education. This article presents examples of such middle-class bias in the words and actions of individual teachers, and research findings that tend to contradict these stereotypes. The barriers that exist for low-income parents in interacting with the schools are discussed, and suggestions are offered for ways in which schools can recognize and respect the standpoint and potential contributions of these parents.

Who Are the Poor

Here we present the subject of poverty in the United States as one that is central to a concern with social issues and justice and argue that its relative invisibility in psychology reflects the discipline’s dominant middle-class standpoint. We describe, first, the articles in this issue, which are focused particularly on the voices of poor women in the United States. Then we examine poverty in terms of its economic indicators as well as its experiential correlates.

The Power of Liking: Consequences of Interpersonal Attitudes Derived from a Liberalized View of Secondary Reinforcement

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the expected consequences of interpersonal attitudes derived from a theoretical position in which persons who evoke attitudes are conceptualized as secondary reinforcers. The intent is to show that interrelated hypotheses regarding consequences can be generated by placing the concept of attitude within a learning theory framework, that a substantial number of empirical relationships can be interpreted as supporting these hypotheses, and that the behavioral effects of interpersonal attraction have far-reaching social implications, making the potential application of verified propositions an enticing possibility. The chapter proposes a number of expectations for the behavior of individuals when liked or disliked persons (or their symbolic representations) are present either prior to, during, or contingent upon the behavior. It illustrates by reference to data on human behavior that findings relevant to the effects of differential liking for persons by one another can be systematized and explained by the general behavior principles relating to secondary reinforcers and that interpersonal attitudes affect a wide variety of socially significant behavior. The chapter discusses the areas of applicability of the power of liking.

The social psychology of class and classism.

In the United States, one is born into a family that can be identified as working class, middle class, or affluent-divisions that denote status and power, as defined by access to resources. This article explores the relationships between social class membership and a wide array of personal and social daily life experiences. It concludes with a discussion of classism, which contributes to diminished opportunities for low-income families.

Personal reflections: barriers and strategies in increasing diversity in psychology.

In this article, six faculty and students of color who participated in a panel discussion at a symposium during the National Multicultural Conference and Summit of 2003 talk about the barriers they encountered and continue to encounter in their graduate training and places of employment. They also discuss strategies they found to be effective, enhancing, and positive and suggest other possibilities. The contributors describe their relationships with dominant-group and minority peers and talk about how issues of social class, disability, and sexual orientation as well as color have been part of their experience.

Building a Research and Advocacy Agenda on Issues of Economic Justice

In this article we call for a research agenda focused on classism and poverty and for advocacy of social justice. Examples of recent efforts toward such an agenda are discussed, including the American Psychological Associations adoption of its “Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status.” In response to the resolutions call for more research on classist attitudes and discrimination against the poor, we outline several directions for future research. Recommendations for how psychological research can be used to advocate for economic justice are offered.

School Consultants Working for Equity With Families, Teachers, and Administrators

The aim of this special issue is to explore issues of equity within the context of school-based consulting with nonmainstream parents and their children. Ample evidence documents the difficulties faced by nonmainstream parents in the public schools in being respected as cocontributors to their children’s educational achievement (Ho, 2002; Kozol, 1991; Nelson & Rogers, 2002), having their voices heard and welcomed by teachers and administrators (Christenson, Rounds, & Franklin, 1992; Fine, 1993), and getting their special interests recognized (Lott, 2001, 2003). This is especially problematic given research indicating that parental involvement in the schools is an important contributor to children’s academic success (Heller & Fantuzzo, 1993; Henderson, 1987), classroom behavior (Comer & Haynes, 1992), and eventual school completion (Christenson, Sinclair, Lehr, & Godbar, 2001; Marcus & Sanders-Reio, 2001). Clearly, parents play a significant role in ensuring positive educational outcomes for their children so finding ways to facilitate their involvement needs to be a priority. Working with school-based consultants is an important way that parents can interact with the schools to achieve positive outcomes. To date, the parent consultation literature has addressed an array of topics including parent consultation models (e.g., Sheridan, 1993), problem-solving steps used in parent consultation (Elliott & Sheridan, 1992), factors related to the effectiveness of parent consultation (Cobb & Medway, 1978), and home-based parent consultation (Edens, 1997; Greene, Kamps, Wyble, & JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION, 16(1&2), 1–16 Copyright

Relation of Ethnicity and Age to Women's Responses to Personal Experiences of Sexist Discrimination in the United States

Abstract The authors explored self-reported experiences of interpersonal sexist discrimination and responses to such incidents in a heterogeneous sample of 262 women in the northeastern United States. They divided the sample into 2 categories for age (< 30 years, > 30 years) and for ethnicity (women of color, European American women). Across categories of age and ethnicity, the participants (a) commonly experienced sexist discrimination and (b) viewed men as the primary perpetrators of the discrimination. Although the womens reports of sexist experiences were similar for the most part, the authors found significant age differences in the frequency of categories of sexist events and in specific events, as well as in some general responses to such incidents. Ethnicity, operationalized here as women of color and European American women, did not have a significant influence.