Janet K. Swim

Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices.

Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Be-nokraitis & J. R. Feagin, 1986). Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and dis-crimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form ofsexism. Support was found for a distinction between old-fashioned and modern beliefs about womensimilar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988).The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment ofwomen and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modernsexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward womens de-mands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education andwork). Research that compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racismand that validates our modern sexism scale is presented.

Prejudice: The target's perspective.

J.K. Swim and C. Stangor, Introduction. Encountering Prejudice: L.F. Barrett and J.K. Swim, Appraisals of Prejudice and Discrimination. J.K. Swim, L.L. Cohen, and L.L. Hyers, Experiencing Everyday Prejudice and Discrimination. M. LaFrance and J.A. Woodzicka, No Laughing Matter: Womens Verbal and Nonverbal Reactions to Sexist Humor. Consequences of Prejudice: J. Aronson, D.M. Quinn, and S.J. Spencer, Stereotype Threat and the Academic Underperformance of Minorities and Women. C. Stangor and G.B. Sechrist, Conceptualizing the Determinants of Academic Choice and Task Performance Across Social Groups. D.M. Quinn and J. Crocker, Vulnerability to the Affective Consequences of the Stigma of Overweight. K.W. Allison, Stress and Oppressed Social Category Membership. K. Truax, D.I. Cordova, A. Wood, E. Wright, and F. Crosby, Undermined? Affirmative Action From the Targets Point of View. Coping With Prejudice: C.T. Miller and A.M. Myers, Compensating for Prejudice: How Heavyweight People (And Others) Control Outcomes Despite Prejudice. B. Major and T. Schmader, Coping With Stigma Through Psychological Disengagement. N.R. Branscombe and N. Ellemers, Coping with Group-Based Discrimination: Individualistic Versus Group-Level Strategies. W.E. Cross, Jr., and L. Strauss, The Everyday Functions of African American Identity. D. Oyserman and K. Harrison, Implications of Cultural Context: African American Identity and Possible Selves. K. Deaux and K.A. Ethier, Negotiating Social Identity. Index.

Everyday Sexism: Evidence for Its Incidence, Nature, and Psychological Impact From Three Daily Diary Studies

Three daily diary studies were conducted to examine the incidence, nature, and impact of everyday sexism as reported by college women and men. Women experienced about one to two impactful sexist incidents per week, consisting of traditional gender role stereotypes and prejudice, demeaning and degrading comments and behaviors, and sexual objectification. These incidents affected womens psychological well-being by decreasing their comfort, increasing their feelings of anger and depression, and decreasing their state self-esteem. Although the experiences had similar effects on mens anger, depression, and state self-esteem, men reported relatively fewer sexist incidents, suggesting less overall impact on men. The results provide evidence for the phenomena of everyday prejudice and enlighten our understanding of the experience of prejudice in interpersonal encounters from the perspective of the target.

African American College Students’ Experiences With Everyday Racism: Characteristics of and Responses to These Incidents:

African American college students reported their experiences with everyday forms of racism at a predominantly European American university using a daily diary format. Their reported incidents represented verbal expressions of prejudice, bad service, staring or glaring, and difficulties in interpersonal exchanges (e.g., rudeness or awkward and nervous behavior). Both women’s and men’s experiences with interpersonal forms of prejudice were common, often occurred with friends and in intimate situations, and had significant emotional impact on them in terms of decreasing their comfort and increasing their feelings of threat during the interaction. Moreover, anger was the most frequently reported emotional reaction to these events. Participants were not passive targets, however, with many responding either directly or indirectly to the incidents. Findings from this study converged upon patterns of results found in in-depth interviews and surveys while also adding information to a growing body of literature on everyday experiences with racism.

White Guilt: Its Antecedents and Consequences for Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action

Four studies examine the strength of feelings of White guilt, the relationship between White guilt and possible antecedents to this guilt, and the consequences of White guilt for attitudes toward affirmative action. Even though mean White guilt tended to be low, with the mean being just below the midpoint of the scale, the range and variability confirms the existence of feelings of White guilt for some. White guilt was associated with more negative personal evaluations of Whites and the theoretical antecedents of stronger beliefs in the existence of White privilege, greater estimates of the prevalence of discrimination against Blacks, and low prejudice against Blacks. Finally, results indicate that White guilt mediated the relationship from White privilege and beliefs about the prevalence of discrimination to attitudes toward affirmative action, and both White guilt and prejudice independently predicted attitudes toward affirmative action.

Overt, Covert, And Subtle Sexism: A Comparison Between the Attitudes Toward Women and Modern Sexism Scales

The Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) is routinely used as a general measure of sexism. In this article, it is argued that the AWS (Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973) actually measures overt or blatant sexism (harmful and unequal treatment of women that is intentional, visible, and unambiguous), whereas the Modern Sexism Scale (MS) measures covert or subtle forms of sexism (sexism that is either hidden and clandestine or unnoticed because it is built into cultural and societal norms). Support for this distinction is shown by way of (a) confirmatory factor analyses, (b) correlations with affective reactions to different categories of women and men (i.e., women and men in general, traditional women and men, feminists, and chauvinists), and (c) correlations with perceptions of sexual harassment. These analyses indicate that the AWS and MS scales measure distinct but related constructs.

Experiencing Everyday Prejudice and Discrimination

Publisher Summary An individuals actions and efforts to fight against prejudice and discrimination that he may encounter in everyday life depends on how both the blatant and subtle forms of prejudice may have affected the lifestyle and thought process. In order to understand the entire reaction process, it is very important to study the everyday incidents in the life of an individual who has been the target of prejudice. This chapter aims to study how these individuals or even communities manage their own social worlds, keeping the factors of prejudice and discrimination aside. As has been highlighted in the studies of Simpson and Yinger, avoidance gradually becomes the obvious response to prejudice when subjected to it continuously. Avoidance can also be classified into psychological or behavioral, based on the reactions of the individual or the community that has been the target of prejudice. The responses demonstrated by targets of prejudice and discrimination have also been elaborately described in this chapter. An in-depth understanding of people and their experiences with prejudice and discrimination helps us learn a lot about these behaviors in general.

Psychology's Contributions to Understanding and Addressing Global Climate Change

Global climate change poses one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in this century. This article, which introduces the American Psychologist special issue on global climate change, follows from the report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. In this article, we place psychological dimensions of climate change within the broader context of human dimensions of climate change by addressing (a) human causes of, consequences of, and responses (adaptation and mitigation) to climate change and (b) the links between these aspects of climate change and cognitive, affective, motivational, interpersonal, and organizational responses and processes. Characteristics of psychology that cross content domains and that make the field well suited for providing an understanding of climate change and addressing its challenges are highlighted. We also consider ethical imperatives for psychologists involvement and provide suggestions for ways to increase psychologists contribution to the science of climate change.

He's Skilled, She's Lucky: A Meta-Analysis of Observers' Attributions for Women's and Men's Successes and Failures

This meta-analysis builds on past qualitative reviews examining different attributions that observers give for other womens and mens successes and failures. Results suggest the greatest support for the argument that differences in expectations for womens and mens performances on masculine tasks influence the selection of stable or unstable causes. However, the results also indicate that the strength of the findings for all but one of the attributions is a function of the lack of independence in measuring the different attributions. The only attribution that is unaffected by this artifact is effort for successes and failures. Suggestions for pursuing new perspectives on the impact of gender on attribution processes are discussed.

Adapting to and Coping with the Threat and Impacts of Climate Change.

This article addresses the nature and challenge of adaptation in the context of global climate change. The complexity of climate change as threat, environmental stressor, risk domain, and impacting process with dramatic environmental and human consequences requires a synthesis of perspectives and models from diverse areas of psychology to adequately communicate and explain how a more psychological framing of the human dimensions of global environmental change can greatly inform and enhance effective and collaborative climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and research. An integrative framework is provided that identifies and considers important mediating and moderating parameters and processes relating to climate change adaptation, with particular emphasis given to environmental stress and stress and coping perspectives. This psychological perspective on climate change adaptation highlights crucial aspects of adaptation that have been neglected in the arena of climate change science. Of particular importance are intra-individual and social psychological adaptation processes that powerfully mediate public risk perceptions and understandings, effective coping responses and resilience, overt behavioral adjustment and change, and psychological and social impacts. This psychological window on climate change adaptation is arguably indispensable to genuinely multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and policy initiatives addressing the impacts of climate change.