Jane Patricia Murray

The Evidence Issue and Taking Interventions to Scale: Strengthening the Evidence Base of Workplace Bullying Interventions Through Prevention and Implementation Research

Having learnt about the prevalence, behaviours and impacts of Workplace Bullying, the field is currently moving to focus more on interventions that prevent and manage the phenomenon. Rather than presenting evidence on particular interventions, this chapter introduces a framework that outlines the role of academics and practitioners in advancing this area of research, arguing that only collaboration and the sharing of expertise and perspectives will enable us to improve the design, delivery and refinement of interventions or programmes. Collaboration and the need for different perspectives are vital due to the complexity of the phenomenon. By focusing on scientific principles, the logic underpinning action is strengthened and will help inform the development of emergent practice. Fortunately, the field of Workplace Bullying can learn the lessons of academics and practitioners in the fields of Prevention Science and Implementation Science and the disciplines of Public Health and Human Services. Paying attention to these lessons and building upon their principles can assist in advancing how we in the field of Workplace Bullying respond to this phenomenon, either through prevention or management. This chapter presents an approach to intervention research, including concepts and principles from the fields of Prevention Science and Implementation Science that will guide both academics and practitioners as we move into the latest frontier of Workplace Bullying research.

Training emotional intelligence : Presenting the results of an experimental study

While classic intergroup theories have specified the processes explaining situational shifts in social identification, the processes whereby social identities change more profoundly and become integrated within the self have to be proposed. To this aim, the present studies investigate the processes by which group members integrate a new social identity as they are joining a new group. Combining a social identity approach and stress and coping models, this research tests if social factors (i.e., needs satisfied by fellow group members, social support), have an impact on the adaptation strategies group members use to deal with the novelty of the situation and to fit into their new group (seeking information & adopting group norms vs. disengaging). These strategies, in turn, should predict changes in level of identification with the new social group over time, as well as enhanced psychological adjustment. These associations are tested among university students over the course of their first academic year (Study 1), and among online gamers joining a newly established online community (Study 2). Path analyses provide support for the hypothesised associations. The results are discussed in light of recent theoretical developments pertaining to intraindividual changes in social identities and their integration in the self.This presentation outlines the results of an eighteen month study examining the effect of an emotions focused training intervention on the emotional intelligence of employees from a large public sector organisation. Utilising an experimental methodology, 280 staff attended a two-day program focused on training emotional intelligence skills and abilities. These interventions were created around Mayer and Salovey’s four-branch model of emotional intelligence (awareness, understanding, facilitation and management of emotions). The experimental group’s emotional intelligence was tested pre and post training using the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP). In addition, a control group from the same organisation also completed the same measure at three points during the same eighteen month period. Analysis of the control and experimental group data were conducted, and whilst no changes were found in the control group, the experimental group’s overall emotional intelligence significantly improved post training. To further strengthen these findings, a measure of effect size using Cohen’s d was also conducted to assess the magnitude of the training intervention’s overall effect. Full results will be presented during the presentation, with feedback on the study and methods utilised encouraged from participants.The current experiment focuses on the roles of social identity and social comparison in perceptions of procedural justice. Participants are randomly allocated to conditions in a 2 (whether the participant has the opportunity to voice an opinion), X 2 (whether the comparison other has the opportunity to voice an opinion), X 2 (whether the comparison other is an ingroup or an outgroup member), between subjects design. Participants are then asked to report the extent to which they perceive the procedure they are involved in to be fair. It is predicted that participants will have a strong feeling of procedural unfairness when they are not given an opportunity by the leader to voice their opinion, but learn that their comparison other is given that opportunity. It is also predicted that the feeling of unfairness should be stronger when the comparison other is an outgroup rather than an ingroup member. Additionally, participants receiving a fair treatment may regard the procedure as fair when their outgoup comparison other receives an unfair treatment. Results support these predictions and reveal that how people make judgments of procedural justice through social comparison is qualified by the social identities of the parties involved.This research examines the perceived relative power by two professional groups - doctors and nurses - towards each other and towards patients. A total of 204 doctors and 293 nurses are surveyed in a series of three studies. Doctors are consistently rated by both doctors and nurses as the most powerful group, as well as the ultimate decision-maker. Nurses are not seen as the ultimate decision-maker. There is agreement between doctors and nurses in their perceived status of doctor, but they disagree in the perceived relative power of patients. Doctors rate patients as having more decision-making power than nurses do, whereas nurses do not perceive a significant difference between themselves and patients. Doctors rate the current power distribution as significantly more legitimate and acceptable than nurses. Doctors and nurses do not differ significantly in perceived stability of the current power distribution. Doctors have a higher job satisfaction than nurses. To examine the context, ingroup and outgroup perceptions are collected; five doctors and five nurses are engaged for communication validation. The dynamics of the triadic intergroup relationship are analyzed with reference to the work context and team structure.Previous research on group criticism has focused on what people think and feel after criticism. But what people think and feel is only half the story; it is equally important to look at what people say and do in response to criticism. Depending on the status relationships between the audience and the speaker, receivers of criticism might pretend to be more or less defensive than they really feel. In Experiment 1, Australians received criticism of their country from either an ingroup or an outgroup member. When responses were private, participants reported being more defensive when criticised by an outgroup than an ingroup member. However, this intergroup sensitivity effect disappeared when participants were led to believe there was an ingroup audience. In Experiment 2, the attenuation of the intergroup sensitivity effect emerged only when the ingroup audience was high status, suggesting participants were motivated by strategic considerations. Furthermore, in both experiments, strategic reports of defensiveness were used only in response to an ingroup critic and not to an outgroup critic, suggesting that people were more interested in distancing themselves from internal critics than in defending the group per se. Theoretical and practical implications for intergroup and intragroup communication are discussed.Research in the area of infrahumanisation has consistently shown that people reserve the ability to experience uniquely human emotions to members of their ingroups over outgroups. However, it is presently not clear whether this differential attribution of humanness extends beyond emotions, in particular to the values attributed to groups. Moreover, following a recently-identified empirical distinction between characteristics that are “uniquely human” and “human nature”, we examine which conception of humanness provides a better explanation for this phenomenon. We report two studies that show the central role of “human nature” beliefs in attributions of both emotions and values to groups. The findings point to possible cultural differences in group-based attributions of humanness.The present project concerns inconsistency in the research literature on the effects of collective guilt, an intergroup emotion thought to motivate apology or reparation by advantaged groups towards disadvantaged groups. In some studies, collective guilt has motivated anti-racist action /attitudes, while in others it has failed to do so. We hypothesise that this contradiction occurs because the guilt is indirectly linked to anxiety, which moderates its impact on antiracist attitudes and behaviour. Whilst at low anxiety collective guilt may motivate those suffering it to atone via apology or restitution, high anxiety may in effect prevent them from doing so. It is proposed that the anxiety will freeze or inhibit positive reparative intentions, and link guilt to avoidance rather than atonement. The present study measures collective guilt and anxiety by White Australians in relation to Aboriginal Australians, and tests the proposition that at high anxiety White participants will be driven to reduce feelings of guilt by avoiding Aboriginal people and issues, rather than supporting them, or offering apology. Social identity variables, as well as the moderational and mediational roles of intergroup emotions are also tested.People with aphasia (PWA), manage their identities in the context of significant communication impairment that attracts negative stereotypes and expectations by others. In this study, three women with aphasia (ages 30 to 35), had two conversations with a non-aphasic female partner of the same age. In half the interactions, partners employed strategies designed to evoke optimal speech in PWAs. Participants (N=180), watched the videotapd conversations and gave behavioural judgements, selfand other-stereotypes of both interactants. Results indicated that the largest influence on judgements was severity of aphasia; the moderate speaker was rated more negatively than the mild or very mild speaker. Interestingly, this speaker was rated more positively but her partner more negatively when conversation strategies were employed, whereas ratings of other speakers and partners were unchanged. These results indicate that people with less severe aphasia may usefully employ a strategy of passing, while PWA with more significant impairment may profit from incorporating aphasia into their identity.The present research was conducted to investigate the relative persuasiveness of ingroup and outgroup messages dependent on group membership and perceived intergroup relations. Sixty-three students with rural backgrounds were given a pamphlet outlining a number of arguments against land-clearing. The source of the message was manipulated such that participants were either informed that the pamphlet was from a rural-based organisation (ingroup), or an urban-based organisation (outgroup). As expected, agreement with the message was greater for those exposed to the ingroup rather than the outgroup source. This effect was dependent on perceptions of status such that it was only when participants perceived the status of rural people to be much lower than that of urban people that the ingroup was agreed with more than the outgroup. When status was seen to be more equal there was no difference in agreement with ingroup and outgroup sources. This research highlights the importance of considering individuals’ perceptions of intergroup relations when attempting to change attitudes.A vast quantity of research has examined leadership outcomes, leadership effectiveness and leadership emergence, but there is less literature that explores why people want to become leaders and the factors that promote or develop aspirations to lead. This study, examined the role of individual differences (extraversion, conscientiousness and self-leadership) experiences with one’s leader or manager (transformational leadership and leader-member exchange), and broader organisational factors (perceived organisational support and psychological empowerment), as predictors of leader aspirations. A group of 109 employed students completed a selfreport survey about their personal characteristics, their leader and their workplace. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis revealed that employees’ perceptions of their leader and organisational factors explained a significant amount of additional variance in leader aspirations over and above individual factors. These findings support the idea of taking a multi-level approach to leadership aspirations and leadership in general.Recent events indicate increasing tensions between majority populations and Muslim immigrants, not only in Australia but in other Western nations such as Britain and the Netherlands. Much debate focuses on the extent to which minority cultural practice should be tolerated, raising the question: is tolerance of minority practice simply a matter of ideology about how societies should be run, or is it also affected by perceptions that particular minorities are inherently incompatible with Western culture and should therefore assimilate or leave? This paper will present findings from a series of studies looking at the relative role of pluralistic ideology and perceptions of intercultural threat from Muslims in White Australian tolerance of Muslim cultural practice, with particular focus on the role of media dependency and media stories of Muslims involved in international conflicts in shaping attitudes about the perceived ability of Muslims to fit in with Australian society and the extent to which their culture should be tolerated in Australia. Results of three studies indicate that media dependency can amplify the impact of intercultural threat on tolerance of Muslim practice, because it makes salient exemplars of Muslims in conflict with other groups. Implications and future directions will be discussed.The present study investigates whether the effects of mirror exposure on behaviour and affect can be attributed to increased self-thought or increased attention to internal states. Sitting either in front of a mirror or not, participants are instructed to write about a time they felt rejected and then read a potentially anger-provoking account of another person callously rejecting someone. Participants’ level of aggression is assessed by measuring the amount of extremely spicy sauce they allocate to the perpetrator of the rejection. Half the participants allocate the sauce while attending to an audio recording and calling out the pronouns they hear. Most of these pronouns are first-person, so that while attention to internal states is reduced, self-thought is primed. Overall, participants in the mirror condition allocate more hot sauce than those in the no mirror condition. A mirror by distraction interaction reveals that only those participants who are exposed to a mirror and have attention directed toward the self experience a more negative mood. Results support predictions, indicating that the effects of mirror exposure in this study are most attributable to increases in internal state awareness, rather than self-reflectiveness.in this talk, I explore the notion that self-esteem can be best understood as a reflection of an individual’s sense of her or his acceptability to important others. I begin by defining the self as one of a number of uniquely human characteristics associated with recursive information processing rules. I then argue that self-esteem reflects the operation of prehuman belongingness regulation mechanisms elaborated by this uniquely human form of information processing. In particular, the presence of conspecifics has promoted survival in social animals for millions of years, and thus selection pressures led to the ability to account for acceptability to others. State self-esteem represents the ability to consciously reflect on one’s currently acceptability to others, whereas global selfesteem involves the construction of internalised standards and imagined future social conditions providing for an assessment of future acceptability. Low levels of self-esteem are associated with a sense of threatened safety, leading to motivation for increasing acceptability to those who can provide such safety. High levels of self-esteem provide a sense of safety from threat, and permit the exploration of opportunities for growth. I conclude that self-esteem reflects the operation of prehuman safety-promotion mechanisms elaborated through uniquely human systems of meaning.Language has been seen as a central pillar to ethnic identity. When the possibility of heritage language loss becomes imminent, therefore, concern turns towards the consequences for feelings of ethnic group membership. Heritage language researchers have indicated that the heritage language is so strongly associated with the individual’s cultural background that heritage language loss could have negative implications for the sense of identity to the ethnic group. This study investigates the relationship between language and ethnic identity over time among Gaelic learners in Nova Scotia. In order to identify the specific processes of heritage language use, the Gaelic learners are compared to French (second language), learners living in the same English-speaking milieu. Path analyses reveal that, only among Gaelic learners, there is an initial separation of language and ethnic identity, but that, over time, ethnic identity is a direct outcome of language use. The results support Edwards’ (1985), contention, at least in the case of heritage languages, that language and identity are not always strongly linked. It is suggested that this may be especially true in contexts where there is little opportunity for contact with members of the heritage language group.The ability for team members to cooperate and trust one another in today’s culturally diverse work groups is crucial to organisational success. Willingness to cooperate or trust in/out group members varies as a function of boundary permeability and culture. For example, collectivists tend to have more of an inclusive and expansive self-concept than individualists. This implies that they are more likely to view their role and group boundaries as less permeable than individualists. Two hundred and forty university students (120 Australian and 120 Singaporean students), assessed hypothetical scenarios involving cooperation with an in-group or out-group team member of higher or equal organisational status in a multi-national organisation. It is predicted that Singaporeans’ willingness to cooperate would be greater under a permeable boundary structure than a less permeable boundary compared to Australians (Hypothesis 1). Hypothesis 2 predicted that Singaporeans would be more likely than Australians to trust in-group members who have higher organisational status. Findings suggest that Australians and Singaporeans differ in the way they distribute cooperation and trust among in-group and out-group members with different organisational status and boundary permeability. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.Within the criminal justice system female defendants have been found to be judged both more harshly and less harshly than their male counterparts. The continuum model of impression formation would propose that this variation in treatment is a function of the stereotype (offender or gender), against which the defendant is compared. The current study tested this model by manipulating defendant gender (male or female) and thus their congruence with offender stereotypes, and defendant traits (stereotypically feminine or masculine) and thus their congruence with gender stereotypes. One hundred and thirty-seven participants read a fictional court transcript in which the defendant had been charged with murder. Participants were then asked to find the defendant guilty or not guilty before evaluating both the defendant and the case. Results revealed male defendants were more likely to be found guilty than female defendants and that female defendants described as possessing masculine traits received longer prison sentences and their defence was considered less convincing than those described as possessing feminine traits. The theoretical implications, limitations, and future directions of this research are discussed.Terror Management Theory (TMT), is one of the few social-psychological theories with death at the heart of its theoretical framework. TMT theorists have noted that news media often makes mortality salient through the featuring of graphic death-related stories, but no-one to date has empirically assessed this. Data and the planned programme of research which applies TMT to the media effects area will be presented and the question of ‘How do we cope with repeated exposure to death in the news?’ will be addressed. Preliminary data that demonstrates that television news can make mortality personally salient will be contrasted with evidence that equally shows people often feel desensitised. The focus will be on what leads to personal mortality salience and under what conditions individuals report feeling desensitised. Additionally, attention will be given to the buffering role of individual difference characteristics related to self-esteem, thinking style, and romantic attachment on the TMT concept of cultural worldview defense within experiments using death-related television news conditions. It is hoped a greater understanding of why we can watch so much death in television news with so few negative side-effects will be communicated.One of the main criticisms levelled at social science research in the domain of juror decision-making is that it tends to rely on relatively poor simulations of the jury system, often with little consideration given to the impact of deliberation on jurors’ individual and collective decisions. This study investigated the impact of gender-related stereotypes before and after jury deliberation. Participants (N = 114), deliberated in groups of 6 for up to 1 hour after viewing photographs of the evidence and trial participants and reading one of two transcripts of a burglary case in which the home owner (male or female), killed the thief in the course of the robbery. Deliberations were video taped and coded for target of discussion. Results suggested that jurors were more influenced by benevolently sexist beliefs in private, but converged on a stereotype-congruent decision after group deliberation as female home-owners were seen as less guilty compared to males. Analysis of group discussion suggested that harsher verdicts were predicted by increased discussion of the female homeowner’s gender, whereas for males, harsher verdicts were predicted by increased discussion of the verdict itself.Research on interpersonal comparisons shows that people tend to judge themselves to be ‘better than average”. Our own woi-k indicates that people also tend to see themselves as embodying humanness better than others. This ‘self-humanising” effect appears to be robust, and is independent of self- enhancement. Three studies will be presented that attempt to clarify the processes that underpin the new effect. We show that people see themselves as more human than others in part because they attribute greater depth to themselves than to others, because they tend to focus more attention on themselves than on others, and because they represent others more abstractly than themselves. By implication, subtle forms of dehumanisation occur in everyday interpersonal perception, and not just in intergroup contexts of conflict and violence.Despite institutional commitment to diversity initiatives (e.g., affirmative action), employees often harbour negative attitudes towards such initiatives and their beneficiaries. Dispositional variables (e.g., neo-sexism), have often been implicated in these negative reactions. We reason that more immediate group-based beliefs (e.g., subjective beliefs about the intergroup context), also shape attitudinal and behavioural reactions and that individual and group-based beliefs are rationalised through appeals to justice and fairness concerns. In this study using early career academics we examined the role of individual differences and socio-structural beliefs (about the stability, legitimacy and permeability of the intergroup situation), to feelings of relative deprivation, perceived justice and attitudes towards gender equity initiatives. Results provided support for the role of group-based beliefs and for the mediating role of justice concerns.In this paper, the nature of boundary permeability and its impacts on cooperation and workgroup identification among Anglo-Saxon and South East Asian employees will be investigated. In Study 1, we interview 20 professional employees to explore the nature of boundaries and its impact during intercultural exchanges. Qualitative analysis identifies six boundary categories: Collectivist norm boundary; Individualist norm boundary; Ethnicity boundary; Relationship-oriented work boundary; Task-oriented work boundary and Communication boundary. Overall, South East Asians are more likely to be perceived to create and maintain more impermeable boundaries than Anglo Saxons. Impermeable boundaries are also found to restrict interactions between South East Asians and Anglo Saxons, making cooperation and communication more difficult. In Study 2, we survey 134 employees (i.e., 87 South East Asian and 47 Anglo-Saxon employees), to test the direct effect of workplace boundary permeability on organisational outcomes and the moderating role of culture (i.e., cultural grouping and self-construal). Results suggest that boundary permeability is positively related to cooperation but not work group identification. Furthermore, we find that cultural grouping and interdependent self-construal moderate the relationship between boundary permeability, cooperation and work group identification. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.As Australia continues to experience periodic shortages of blood supplies, there is immense pressure to maintain a safe and sufficient supply of blood products. However, only a very small proportion of eligible Australians currently donate blood. Drawing on an extended theory of planned behaviour, the present study aims to examine the interplay among attitudes, norms, perceived control, self-identity, and intention in relation to blood donation in an Australian context. Surveys measuring key predictor variables and intention to donate blood are mailed to 6,000 individuals across metropolitan, large regional, and small regional areas of Queensland. Preliminary results provide strong support for the extended theory of planned behaviour, highlighting the impact of attitudes, perceived control, self-identity, and community norms on individual intentions to donate blood. Notable regional differences are also observed. The findings of this study illustrate the complexity of blood donation decision and have implications for recruiting blood donors in Australia.One factor that research suggests impedes positive contact between outgroup members is the experience of anxiety that can occur when anticipating negative consequences of such interactions. Research examining attitudes and behaviour towards same-sex attracted individuals indicates that this intergroup anxiety is particularly evident when the anticipated interaction involves members of the same gender. The current studies investigate the effect of timing of disclosure of a person’s same-sex attractions in an effort to identify a means of reducing this anxiety. Study 1 uses a hypothetical scenario to gain insight into participants’ stated preferences for early or delayed knowledge of a person’s sexual orientation. Results reveal an association between experiencing close contact with gay individuals of the same gender in real life (but not opposite gender), and a preference for early disclosure. Results from an experimental study concur with these findings. After a face-to-face interaction task with a confederate of the same gender, participants sit further from the confederate for the late disclosure condition when compared with the early disclosure and no disclosure control. Future studies investigating the interaction between timing of disclosure of same-sex attractions and the intimacy of disclosure (casual vs. intimate), are discussed.Vast research on the social identity approach to attitude-behaviour relations, has operationalised group norms as a mixture of both descriptive (i.e., what people actually do), and injunctive aspects (i.e., what people think you should do). The results of two experiments designed to tease apart the relative impact of descriptive and injunctive group norms will be reported. In both studies, university students’ attitudes towards current campus issues are obtained, descriptive and injunctive group norms are manipulated orthogonally, and participants’ post-test attitudes, behavioural intentions, and behaviour are assessed. In both studies, injunctive and descriptive group norms interact to influence attitudes, intentions, and behaviour, such that the critical determinant of attitude-consistent behaviour is the extent to which the content of the two norms is consistent. Thus, this research illustrates that groups influence our attitudes and behaviours in two ways, not only by what they say, but also by what they do.The effectiveness of persuasive messages can vary greatly depending on who the source of the message is. When the communication is relevant to particular group memberships the target’s intergroup perceptions may also have a powerful effect on how the message is received. In response to mail-out questionnaires, rural landholders report much greater influence of land use information from rural sources than from urban sources. Moreover, perceptions of illegitimately low status of rural people compared to urban people are associated with a further decrease in support for the outgroup source. The preference for rural sources is also strongly related to trust such that rural sources are trusted more than urban sources and correspondingly are seen to be more influential. These results are part of a program of research which points to the difficulty inherent in changing attitudes in intergroup contexts, particularly those involving large status differences and threat to identities.

Utilising self-report and perceived change methods to assess the efficacy of an emotional intelligence training program

While classic intergroup theories have specified the processes explaining situational shifts in social identification, the processes whereby social identities change more profoundly and become integrated within the self have to be proposed. To this aim, the present studies investigate the processes by which group members integrate a new social identity as they are joining a new group. Combining a social identity approach and stress and coping models, this research tests if social factors (i.e., needs satisfied by fellow group members, social support), have an impact on the adaptation strategies group members use to deal with the novelty of the situation and to fit into their new group (seeking information & adopting group norms vs. disengaging). These strategies, in turn, should predict changes in level of identification with the new social group over time, as well as enhanced psychological adjustment. These associations are tested among university students over the course of their first academic year (Study 1), and among online gamers joining a newly established online community (Study 2). Path analyses provide support for the hypothesised associations. The results are discussed in light of recent theoretical developments pertaining to intraindividual changes in social identities and their integration in the self.This presentation outlines the results of an eighteen month study examining the effect of an emotions focused training intervention on the emotional intelligence of employees from a large public sector organisation. Utilising an experimental methodology, 280 staff attended a two-day program focused on training emotional intelligence skills and abilities. These interventions were created around Mayer and Salovey’s four-branch model of emotional intelligence (awareness, understanding, facilitation and management of emotions). The experimental group’s emotional intelligence was tested pre and post training using the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP). In addition, a control group from the same organisation also completed the same measure at three points during the same eighteen month period. Analysis of the control and experimental group data were conducted, and whilst no changes were found in the control group, the experimental group’s overall emotional intelligence significantly improved post training. To further strengthen these findings, a measure of effect size using Cohen’s d was also conducted to assess the magnitude of the training intervention’s overall effect. Full results will be presented during the presentation, with feedback on the study and methods utilised encouraged from participants.The current experiment focuses on the roles of social identity and social comparison in perceptions of procedural justice. Participants are randomly allocated to conditions in a 2 (whether the participant has the opportunity to voice an opinion), X 2 (whether the comparison other has the opportunity to voice an opinion), X 2 (whether the comparison other is an ingroup or an outgroup member), between subjects design. Participants are then asked to report the extent to which they perceive the procedure they are involved in to be fair. It is predicted that participants will have a strong feeling of procedural unfairness when they are not given an opportunity by the leader to voice their opinion, but learn that their comparison other is given that opportunity. It is also predicted that the feeling of unfairness should be stronger when the comparison other is an outgroup rather than an ingroup member. Additionally, participants receiving a fair treatment may regard the procedure as fair when their outgoup comparison other receives an unfair treatment. Results support these predictions and reveal that how people make judgments of procedural justice through social comparison is qualified by the social identities of the parties involved.This research examines the perceived relative power by two professional groups - doctors and nurses - towards each other and towards patients. A total of 204 doctors and 293 nurses are surveyed in a series of three studies. Doctors are consistently rated by both doctors and nurses as the most powerful group, as well as the ultimate decision-maker. Nurses are not seen as the ultimate decision-maker. There is agreement between doctors and nurses in their perceived status of doctor, but they disagree in the perceived relative power of patients. Doctors rate patients as having more decision-making power than nurses do, whereas nurses do not perceive a significant difference between themselves and patients. Doctors rate the current power distribution as significantly more legitimate and acceptable than nurses. Doctors and nurses do not differ significantly in perceived stability of the current power distribution. Doctors have a higher job satisfaction than nurses. To examine the context, ingroup and outgroup perceptions are collected; five doctors and five nurses are engaged for communication validation. The dynamics of the triadic intergroup relationship are analyzed with reference to the work context and team structure.Previous research on group criticism has focused on what people think and feel after criticism. But what people think and feel is only half the story; it is equally important to look at what people say and do in response to criticism. Depending on the status relationships between the audience and the speaker, receivers of criticism might pretend to be more or less defensive than they really feel. In Experiment 1, Australians received criticism of their country from either an ingroup or an outgroup member. When responses were private, participants reported being more defensive when criticised by an outgroup than an ingroup member. However, this intergroup sensitivity effect disappeared when participants were led to believe there was an ingroup audience. In Experiment 2, the attenuation of the intergroup sensitivity effect emerged only when the ingroup audience was high status, suggesting participants were motivated by strategic considerations. Furthermore, in both experiments, strategic reports of defensiveness were used only in response to an ingroup critic and not to an outgroup critic, suggesting that people were more interested in distancing themselves from internal critics than in defending the group per se. Theoretical and practical implications for intergroup and intragroup communication are discussed.Research in the area of infrahumanisation has consistently shown that people reserve the ability to experience uniquely human emotions to members of their ingroups over outgroups. However, it is presently not clear whether this differential attribution of humanness extends beyond emotions, in particular to the values attributed to groups. Moreover, following a recently-identified empirical distinction between characteristics that are “uniquely human” and “human nature”, we examine which conception of humanness provides a better explanation for this phenomenon. We report two studies that show the central role of “human nature” beliefs in attributions of both emotions and values to groups. The findings point to possible cultural differences in group-based attributions of humanness.The present project concerns inconsistency in the research literature on the effects of collective guilt, an intergroup emotion thought to motivate apology or reparation by advantaged groups towards disadvantaged groups. In some studies, collective guilt has motivated anti-racist action /attitudes, while in others it has failed to do so. We hypothesise that this contradiction occurs because the guilt is indirectly linked to anxiety, which moderates its impact on antiracist attitudes and behaviour. Whilst at low anxiety collective guilt may motivate those suffering it to atone via apology or restitution, high anxiety may in effect prevent them from doing so. It is proposed that the anxiety will freeze or inhibit positive reparative intentions, and link guilt to avoidance rather than atonement. The present study measures collective guilt and anxiety by White Australians in relation to Aboriginal Australians, and tests the proposition that at high anxiety White participants will be driven to reduce feelings of guilt by avoiding Aboriginal people and issues, rather than supporting them, or offering apology. Social identity variables, as well as the moderational and mediational roles of intergroup emotions are also tested.People with aphasia (PWA), manage their identities in the context of significant communication impairment that attracts negative stereotypes and expectations by others. In this study, three women with aphasia (ages 30 to 35), had two conversations with a non-aphasic female partner of the same age. In half the interactions, partners employed strategies designed to evoke optimal speech in PWAs. Participants (N=180), watched the videotapd conversations and gave behavioural judgements, selfand other-stereotypes of both interactants. Results indicated that the largest influence on judgements was severity of aphasia; the moderate speaker was rated more negatively than the mild or very mild speaker. Interestingly, this speaker was rated more positively but her partner more negatively when conversation strategies were employed, whereas ratings of other speakers and partners were unchanged. These results indicate that people with less severe aphasia may usefully employ a strategy of passing, while PWA with more significant impairment may profit from incorporating aphasia into their identity.The present research was conducted to investigate the relative persuasiveness of ingroup and outgroup messages dependent on group membership and perceived intergroup relations. Sixty-three students with rural backgrounds were given a pamphlet outlining a number of arguments against land-clearing. The source of the message was manipulated such that participants were either informed that the pamphlet was from a rural-based organisation (ingroup), or an urban-based organisation (outgroup). As expected, agreement with the message was greater for those exposed to the ingroup rather than the outgroup source. This effect was dependent on perceptions of status such that it was only when participants perceived the status of rural people to be much lower than that of urban people that the ingroup was agreed with more than the outgroup. When status was seen to be more equal there was no difference in agreement with ingroup and outgroup sources. This research highlights the importance of considering individuals’ perceptions of intergroup relations when attempting to change attitudes.A vast quantity of research has examined leadership outcomes, leadership effectiveness and leadership emergence, but there is less literature that explores why people want to become leaders and the factors that promote or develop aspirations to lead. This study, examined the role of individual differences (extraversion, conscientiousness and self-leadership) experiences with one’s leader or manager (transformational leadership and leader-member exchange), and broader organisational factors (perceived organisational support and psychological empowerment), as predictors of leader aspirations. A group of 109 employed students completed a selfreport survey about their personal characteristics, their leader and their workplace. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis revealed that employees’ perceptions of their leader and organisational factors explained a significant amount of additional variance in leader aspirations over and above individual factors. These findings support the idea of taking a multi-level approach to leadership aspirations and leadership in general.Recent events indicate increasing tensions between majority populations and Muslim immigrants, not only in Australia but in other Western nations such as Britain and the Netherlands. Much debate focuses on the extent to which minority cultural practice should be tolerated, raising the question: is tolerance of minority practice simply a matter of ideology about how societies should be run, or is it also affected by perceptions that particular minorities are inherently incompatible with Western culture and should therefore assimilate or leave? This paper will present findings from a series of studies looking at the relative role of pluralistic ideology and perceptions of intercultural threat from Muslims in White Australian tolerance of Muslim cultural practice, with particular focus on the role of media dependency and media stories of Muslims involved in international conflicts in shaping attitudes about the perceived ability of Muslims to fit in with Australian society and the extent to which their culture should be tolerated in Australia. Results of three studies indicate that media dependency can amplify the impact of intercultural threat on tolerance of Muslim practice, because it makes salient exemplars of Muslims in conflict with other groups. Implications and future directions will be discussed.The present study investigates whether the effects of mirror exposure on behaviour and affect can be attributed to increased self-thought or increased attention to internal states. Sitting either in front of a mirror or not, participants are instructed to write about a time they felt rejected and then read a potentially anger-provoking account of another person callously rejecting someone. Participants’ level of aggression is assessed by measuring the amount of extremely spicy sauce they allocate to the perpetrator of the rejection. Half the participants allocate the sauce while attending to an audio recording and calling out the pronouns they hear. Most of these pronouns are first-person, so that while attention to internal states is reduced, self-thought is primed. Overall, participants in the mirror condition allocate more hot sauce than those in the no mirror condition. A mirror by distraction interaction reveals that only those participants who are exposed to a mirror and have attention directed toward the self experience a more negative mood. Results support predictions, indicating that the effects of mirror exposure in this study are most attributable to increases in internal state awareness, rather than self-reflectiveness.in this talk, I explore the notion that self-esteem can be best understood as a reflection of an individual’s sense of her or his acceptability to important others. I begin by defining the self as one of a number of uniquely human characteristics associated with recursive information processing rules. I then argue that self-esteem reflects the operation of prehuman belongingness regulation mechanisms elaborated by this uniquely human form of information processing. In particular, the presence of conspecifics has promoted survival in social animals for millions of years, and thus selection pressures led to the ability to account for acceptability to others. State self-esteem represents the ability to consciously reflect on one’s currently acceptability to others, whereas global selfesteem involves the construction of internalised standards and imagined future social conditions providing for an assessment of future acceptability. Low levels of self-esteem are associated with a sense of threatened safety, leading to motivation for increasing acceptability to those who can provide such safety. High levels of self-esteem provide a sense of safety from threat, and permit the exploration of opportunities for growth. I conclude that self-esteem reflects the operation of prehuman safety-promotion mechanisms elaborated through uniquely human systems of meaning.Language has been seen as a central pillar to ethnic identity. When the possibility of heritage language loss becomes imminent, therefore, concern turns towards the consequences for feelings of ethnic group membership. Heritage language researchers have indicated that the heritage language is so strongly associated with the individual’s cultural background that heritage language loss could have negative implications for the sense of identity to the ethnic group. This study investigates the relationship between language and ethnic identity over time among Gaelic learners in Nova Scotia. In order to identify the specific processes of heritage language use, the Gaelic learners are compared to French (second language), learners living in the same English-speaking milieu. Path analyses reveal that, only among Gaelic learners, there is an initial separation of language and ethnic identity, but that, over time, ethnic identity is a direct outcome of language use. The results support Edwards’ (1985), contention, at least in the case of heritage languages, that language and identity are not always strongly linked. It is suggested that this may be especially true in contexts where there is little opportunity for contact with members of the heritage language group.The ability for team members to cooperate and trust one another in today’s culturally diverse work groups is crucial to organisational success. Willingness to cooperate or trust in/out group members varies as a function of boundary permeability and culture. For example, collectivists tend to have more of an inclusive and expansive self-concept than individualists. This implies that they are more likely to view their role and group boundaries as less permeable than individualists. Two hundred and forty university students (120 Australian and 120 Singaporean students), assessed hypothetical scenarios involving cooperation with an in-group or out-group team member of higher or equal organisational status in a multi-national organisation. It is predicted that Singaporeans’ willingness to cooperate would be greater under a permeable boundary structure than a less permeable boundary compared to Australians (Hypothesis 1). Hypothesis 2 predicted that Singaporeans would be more likely than Australians to trust in-group members who have higher organisational status. Findings suggest that Australians and Singaporeans differ in the way they distribute cooperation and trust among in-group and out-group members with different organisational status and boundary permeability. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.Within the criminal justice system female defendants have been found to be judged both more harshly and less harshly than their male counterparts. The continuum model of impression formation would propose that this variation in treatment is a function of the stereotype (offender or gender), against which the defendant is compared. The current study tested this model by manipulating defendant gender (male or female) and thus their congruence with offender stereotypes, and defendant traits (stereotypically feminine or masculine) and thus their congruence with gender stereotypes. One hundred and thirty-seven participants read a fictional court transcript in which the defendant had been charged with murder. Participants were then asked to find the defendant guilty or not guilty before evaluating both the defendant and the case. Results revealed male defendants were more likely to be found guilty than female defendants and that female defendants described as possessing masculine traits received longer prison sentences and their defence was considered less convincing than those described as possessing feminine traits. The theoretical implications, limitations, and future directions of this research are discussed.Terror Management Theory (TMT), is one of the few social-psychological theories with death at the heart of its theoretical framework. TMT theorists have noted that news media often makes mortality salient through the featuring of graphic death-related stories, but no-one to date has empirically assessed this. Data and the planned programme of research which applies TMT to the media effects area will be presented and the question of ‘How do we cope with repeated exposure to death in the news?’ will be addressed. Preliminary data that demonstrates that television news can make mortality personally salient will be contrasted with evidence that equally shows people often feel desensitised. The focus will be on what leads to personal mortality salience and under what conditions individuals report feeling desensitised. Additionally, attention will be given to the buffering role of individual difference characteristics related to self-esteem, thinking style, and romantic attachment on the TMT concept of cultural worldview defense within experiments using death-related television news conditions. It is hoped a greater understanding of why we can watch so much death in television news with so few negative side-effects will be communicated.One of the main criticisms levelled at social science research in the domain of juror decision-making is that it tends to rely on relatively poor simulations of the jury system, often with little consideration given to the impact of deliberation on jurors’ individual and collective decisions. This study investigated the impact of gender-related stereotypes before and after jury deliberation. Participants (N = 114), deliberated in groups of 6 for up to 1 hour after viewing photographs of the evidence and trial participants and reading one of two transcripts of a burglary case in which the home owner (male or female), killed the thief in the course of the robbery. Deliberations were video taped and coded for target of discussion. Results suggested that jurors were more influenced by benevolently sexist beliefs in private, but converged on a stereotype-congruent decision after group deliberation as female home-owners were seen as less guilty compared to males. Analysis of group discussion suggested that harsher verdicts were predicted by increased discussion of the female homeowner’s gender, whereas for males, harsher verdicts were predicted by increased discussion of the verdict itself.Research on interpersonal comparisons shows that people tend to judge themselves to be ‘better than average”. Our own woi-k indicates that people also tend to see themselves as embodying humanness better than others. This ‘self-humanising” effect appears to be robust, and is independent of self- enhancement. Three studies will be presented that attempt to clarify the processes that underpin the new effect. We show that people see themselves as more human than others in part because they attribute greater depth to themselves than to others, because they tend to focus more attention on themselves than on others, and because they represent others more abstractly than themselves. By implication, subtle forms of dehumanisation occur in everyday interpersonal perception, and not just in intergroup contexts of conflict and violence.Despite institutional commitment to diversity initiatives (e.g., affirmative action), employees often harbour negative attitudes towards such initiatives and their beneficiaries. Dispositional variables (e.g., neo-sexism), have often been implicated in these negative reactions. We reason that more immediate group-based beliefs (e.g., subjective beliefs about the intergroup context), also shape attitudinal and behavioural reactions and that individual and group-based beliefs are rationalised through appeals to justice and fairness concerns. In this study using early career academics we examined the role of individual differences and socio-structural beliefs (about the stability, legitimacy and permeability of the intergroup situation), to feelings of relative deprivation, perceived justice and attitudes towards gender equity initiatives. Results provided support for the role of group-based beliefs and for the mediating role of justice concerns.In this paper, the nature of boundary permeability and its impacts on cooperation and workgroup identification among Anglo-Saxon and South East Asian employees will be investigated. In Study 1, we interview 20 professional employees to explore the nature of boundaries and its impact during intercultural exchanges. Qualitative analysis identifies six boundary categories: Collectivist norm boundary; Individualist norm boundary; Ethnicity boundary; Relationship-oriented work boundary; Task-oriented work boundary and Communication boundary. Overall, South East Asians are more likely to be perceived to create and maintain more impermeable boundaries than Anglo Saxons. Impermeable boundaries are also found to restrict interactions between South East Asians and Anglo Saxons, making cooperation and communication more difficult. In Study 2, we survey 134 employees (i.e., 87 South East Asian and 47 Anglo-Saxon employees), to test the direct effect of workplace boundary permeability on organisational outcomes and the moderating role of culture (i.e., cultural grouping and self-construal). Results suggest that boundary permeability is positively related to cooperation but not work group identification. Furthermore, we find that cultural grouping and interdependent self-construal moderate the relationship between boundary permeability, cooperation and work group identification. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.As Australia continues to experience periodic shortages of blood supplies, there is immense pressure to maintain a safe and sufficient supply of blood products. However, only a very small proportion of eligible Australians currently donate blood. Drawing on an extended theory of planned behaviour, the present study aims to examine the interplay among attitudes, norms, perceived control, self-identity, and intention in relation to blood donation in an Australian context. Surveys measuring key predictor variables and intention to donate blood are mailed to 6,000 individuals across metropolitan, large regional, and small regional areas of Queensland. Preliminary results provide strong support for the extended theory of planned behaviour, highlighting the impact of attitudes, perceived control, self-identity, and community norms on individual intentions to donate blood. Notable regional differences are also observed. The findings of this study illustrate the complexity of blood donation decision and have implications for recruiting blood donors in Australia.One factor that research suggests impedes positive contact between outgroup members is the experience of anxiety that can occur when anticipating negative consequences of such interactions. Research examining attitudes and behaviour towards same-sex attracted individuals indicates that this intergroup anxiety is particularly evident when the anticipated interaction involves members of the same gender. The current studies investigate the effect of timing of disclosure of a person’s same-sex attractions in an effort to identify a means of reducing this anxiety. Study 1 uses a hypothetical scenario to gain insight into participants’ stated preferences for early or delayed knowledge of a person’s sexual orientation. Results reveal an association between experiencing close contact with gay individuals of the same gender in real life (but not opposite gender), and a preference for early disclosure. Results from an experimental study concur with these findings. After a face-to-face interaction task with a confederate of the same gender, participants sit further from the confederate for the late disclosure condition when compared with the early disclosure and no disclosure control. Future studies investigating the interaction between timing of disclosure of same-sex attractions and the intimacy of disclosure (casual vs. intimate), are discussed.Vast research on the social identity approach to attitude-behaviour relations, has operationalised group norms as a mixture of both descriptive (i.e., what people actually do), and injunctive aspects (i.e., what people think you should do). The results of two experiments designed to tease apart the relative impact of descriptive and injunctive group norms will be reported. In both studies, university students’ attitudes towards current campus issues are obtained, descriptive and injunctive group norms are manipulated orthogonally, and participants’ post-test attitudes, behavioural intentions, and behaviour are assessed. In both studies, injunctive and descriptive group norms interact to influence attitudes, intentions, and behaviour, such that the critical determinant of attitude-consistent behaviour is the extent to which the content of the two norms is consistent. Thus, this research illustrates that groups influence our attitudes and behaviours in two ways, not only by what they say, but also by what they do.The effectiveness of persuasive messages can vary greatly depending on who the source of the message is. When the communication is relevant to particular group memberships the target’s intergroup perceptions may also have a powerful effect on how the message is received. In response to mail-out questionnaires, rural landholders report much greater influence of land use information from rural sources than from urban sources. Moreover, perceptions of illegitimately low status of rural people compared to urban people are associated with a further decrease in support for the outgroup source. The preference for rural sources is also strongly related to trust such that rural sources are trusted more than urban sources and correspondingly are seen to be more influential. These results are part of a program of research which points to the difficulty inherent in changing attitudes in intergroup contexts, particularly those involving large status differences and threat to identities.