Clare Cassidy

Perceived Discrimination and Psychological Distress: The Role of Personal and Ethnic Self-Esteem

The present study aimed to draw on 2 theoretical models to examine the relationship between perceived ethnic discrimination and psychological distress in a sample of ethnic minority young people (N=154). Analysis provided no support for the hypothesis derived from the self-esteem theory of depression that self-esteem (personal and ethnic) moderates the discrimination-distress relationship. There was, however, partial support for a mediating role of self-esteem, as predicted by the transactional model of stress and coping. This mediational relationship was moderated by gender, such that both forms of self-esteem exerted a mediating role among men but not women. The authors consider the implications of their findings for theory and future research examining the consequences of discrimination on psychological well-being.

Helping to Improve the Group Stereotype: On the Strategic Dimension of Prosocial Behavior

Three studies consider a basis for intergroup helping. Specifically, they show that group members may help others to disconfirm a stereotype of their own group as mean. Study 1 shows that Scots believe they are seen as mean by the English, resent this stereotype, are motivated to refute it, and believe out-group helping is a particularly effective way of doing so. Study 2 shows that increasing the salience of the English stereotype of the Scottish as mean leads Scots to accentuate the extent to which Scots are depicted as generous. Study 3 shows that increasing the salience of the stereotype of the Scots as mean results in an increase in the help volunteered to out-group members. These results highlight how strategic concerns may result in out-group helping. In turn, they underscore the point that helping others may be a means to advance a groups interest.

Predicting hopelessness: The interaction between optimism/pessimism and specific future expectancies

Improving our understanding of hopelessness is central to suicide prevention. This is the first study to investigate whether generalised expectancies for the future (optimism/pessimism) and specific future-oriented cognitions (future thinking) interact to predict hopelessness and dysphoria. To this end, participants completed measures of future thinking, optimism/pessimism and affect at Time 1 and measures of affect and stress at Time 2, 10–12 weeks later. Results indicated that changes in hopelessness but not dysphoria were predicted by the interaction between positive future thinking (but not negative future thinking), optimism/pessimism and stress beyond initial levels of hopelessness and dysphoria. Additional moderating analyses are also reported. These findings point to the fruits of integrating personality and cognitive processes, to better understand hopelessness.

A longitudinal investigation of the rejection–identification hypothesis

The rejection-identification model (RIM; Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999) is supported by a number of previous studies (e.g., Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz, & Owen, 2002; Schmitt, Spears, & Branscombe, 2003). This suggests that rejection by an outgroup can lead minority group members to identify more with their ingroup, thereby buffering them from the negative effects of discrimination. However, contradictory findings have been produced by other research (e.g., Eccleston & Major, 2006; Major, Quinton, & Schmader, 2003; McCoy & Major, 2003; Sellers & Shelton, 2003), suggesting that the relationship between rejection and identification is far from being completely understood. In the present study, we followed a cohort of 113 international students for a period of 2 years. The study sought to extend the previous work in two important ways. First, it examined the RIM within a longitudinal perspective. Second, building on important work on the multidimensionality of social identification (e.g., Ellemers, Kortekaas, & Ouwerkerk, 1999; Jackson, 2002), it tested the RIM using a three-dimensional approach to group identification. Results supported the predictions of the RIM and indicated that perceived discrimination causes minority group identification and not the reverse. The multidimensional approach also served to reveal a specific effect of discrimination on the cognitive components of identification.

Female status predicts female mate preferences across nonindustrial societies

Most studies demonstrating the contribution of economic constraints on women to sex differences in mate preferences have used samples from postindustrial societies with similar social structures. The authors investigate the effects of female status on female mate preferences in a subsection of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Whytes (1978) codes provide indicators of female status, and mate preferences are obtained through qualitative analysis of ethnographic data in the Human Relations Area Files. Two measures of female status are found to relate to the relative importance of physical appearance to access to resources in attraction to a partner: Domestic authority is associated with greater importance placed on appearance relative to resources, whereas ritualized female solidarity is associated with lower importance of appearance relative to resources. Results are discussed in the context of the contribution of social and economic constraints on women to sex differences.

The implicit identity effect: identity primes, group size, and helping.

Three studies consider the implicit bystander effect in the light of recent advances in social identity approaches to helping. Drawing on the social identity model of deindividuation effects we argue that the implicit bystander effect is shaped not by the number of others imagined, but by who those others are imagined to be. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that, when group membership is primed, increasing group size can facilitate helping in line with the norms and values of the group. Study 3 explores mediation processes in group level helping. As group size increases, female participants react faster to words associated with communalism when others are imagined as women rather than strangers. The paper demonstrates that group size and helping behaviour is qualified by an implicit identity effect.

Female reproductive strategy predicts preferences for sexual dimorphism in male faces

Abstract The aim of the current studies was to test an assumption that variation in female preferences for sexually dimorphic male facial characteristics reflects strategic optimisation of investment in offspring. A negative relationship was predicted between ideal number of children and preferences for masculine male face shapes, as the benefits of securing paternal investment should outweigh the benefits of securing good genes as the costs of raising offspring increase. In Study 1 desired number of children and preferences for masculine face shapes were compared in a sample of female students. In study 2, the prediction was tested in a sample with a wider age profile while controlling for relationship status. Preferences for explicit partner characteristics were also assessed. The prediction was supported: women who desired a higher number of children preferred more feminine male face shapes and ranked cues to investment of parental care over cues to immunocompetence in a partner more highly than those ...

The effects of control of resources on magnitudes of sex differences in human mate preferences.

We tested the hypothesis that magnitudes of sex differences in human mate preferences would be inversely related to control of resources. Specifically, we predicted that the ideal partner age, maximum and minimum partner ages tolerated and preferences for “physical attractiveness” over “good financial prospects” of female participants would approach parity with that of men with increasing control of resources. In a sample of 3770 participants recruited via an online survey, the magnitudes of sex differences in age preferences increased with resource control whereas the sex difference in preferences for “physical attractiveness” over “good financial prospects” disappeared when resource control was high. Results are inconsistent, and are discussed in the context of adaptive tradeoff and biosocial models of sex differences in human mate preferences.

A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Discrimination on the Acculturation Strategies of International Students

The current study investigated the impact of discrimination on the acculturation strategies of international students in the United Kingdom. In a longitudinal study that followed students (N = 113) for 1 year, the authors drew on social identity theory to understand the processes by which discrimination affects their acculturation strategies. Specifically, the study examined an indirect effect by which perceived discrimination affects acculturation strategies through perceived permeability of group boundaries. Results showed that perceiving discrimination is associated with a perceived lack of permeability, which in turn results in avoiding the host society and simultaneously endorsing one’s own cultural background. Implications for international students and other cultural groups are discussed.

AN EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION OF FEMALE PERCEPTIONS OF THE STATUS OF WOMEN: EFFECTS ON MATE PREFERENCES

Abstract We tested the relationships between female status and mate preferences demonstrated in previous correlational studies in an experimental manipulation of female perceptions of the status of women. To achieve this, 147 female undergraduate students considered either the advantages (positive condition) or disadvantages (negative condition) experienced by women as a result of belonging to the female gender and reported their mate preferences. We hypothesised that women in the positive condition would exhibit less traditional mate preferences (i.e. have younger ideal partner ages and maximum and minimum partner ages tolerated and stronger preferences for cues to genetic quality relative to material resources) than those in the negative condition. Condition did not affect preferences, therefore our hypotheses were not supported. There were, however, positive relationships between number of thoughts associated with the special social treatment of women and maximum partner age tolerated and number of tho...