Jennifer Fehr

Willing and able: How internal motivation and failure help to overcome prejudice

Internal motivation to behave nonprejudiced reduces automatic and controlled prejudice. The present studies examined the impact of internal motivation to behave nonprejudiced on reactions to one s failure to behave nonprejudiced. In Study 1 higher levels of internal motivation led to more negative self-directed affect when failing to behave nonprejudiced, but not when failing in other domains. In Study 2 higher levels of internal motivation led to less prejudice after failure to behave nonprejudiced, but not in a non-failure condition. These findings suggest that failure to behave nonprejudiced plays a key role for highly internally motivated individuals in learning to regulate prejudice successfully.

Eine sozialpsychologische Analyse zur Reduzierung sozialer Diskriminierung von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund

Zusammenfassung. Migration hat die deutsche Gesellschaft verandert. In jungster Zeit wird dies auch auf politischer Ebene verstarkt diskutiert. Wenngleich die Integration von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund angestrebt wird, so sind sie dennoch haufig sozialer Diskriminierung ausgesetzt, die einer erfolgreichen Integration entgegensteht. Ausgehend vom sozial-kognitiven Ansatz und dem Ansatz der sozialen Identitat gibt der vorliegende Beitrag einen Uberblick zum Stand der Forschung bezuglich der Faktoren, die zu sozialer Diskriminierung beitragen bzw. ihr entgegenwirken. Dieser Uberblick dient in Folge als Grundlage fur die Ableitung von Empfehlungen bezuglich der Gestaltung politischer und gesellschaftlicher Prozesse mit dem Ziel, durch die Reduzierung sozialer Diskriminierung einen Beitrag zur erfolgreichen gesellschaftlichen Integration von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund zu leisten. Die resultierenden Empfeh- lungen werden abschliesend integriert und diskutiert. Die Praxisrelevanz, aber auch die diesbezuglichen Grenzen sozialpsychologischer Forschung werden ebenfalls dargestellt. Abstract. Migration has changed German society. Recently, this is being increasingly discussed also at the political level. Even though an integration of migrants is being aspired, migrants often face social discrimination - which in turn impedes successful integration. Based on the social-cognitive approach and the social identity approach, the current article gives and overview on the current research on factors both leading to and counteracting social discrimination. This overview in turn serves as a basis for deriving recommendations regarding the design of political and societal processes aiming at a successful societal integration of migrants by means of a reduction of social discrimination. Subsequently, the derived recommendations are integrated and discussed. Also, both the relevancy to practice as well as boundaries of social psychological research for these issues is illustrated.

Does Identity Incompatibility Lead to Disidentification? Internal Motivation to Be a Group Member Acts As Buffer for Sojourners from Independent Cultures, Whereas External Motivation Acts As Buffer for Sojourners from Interdependent Cultures

Most individuals possess more than one relevant social identity, but these social identities can be more or less incompatible. Research has demonstrated that incompatibility between an established social identity and a potential new social identity impedes the integration into the new group. We argue that incompatibility is a strong risk factor for disidentification, i.e., a negative self-defining relation to a relevant group. The current research investigates the impact of incompatibilities on disidentification in the acculturation context. We propose that incompatibility between one’s cultural identities increases the disidentification with the receiving society. It has, however, been shown that the motivation to be a group member serves as a buffer against negative integration experiences. Moreover, research from the intercultural domain has shown that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has specific effects for members of cultures that differ in self-construal. In a European sample of High school exchange students (Study 1, N = 378), it was found that incompatibility was positively related to disidentification, but only for less (but not more) intrinsically motivated newcomers. In an Asian sample of international university students (Study 2, N = 74), it was found that incompatibility was also positively related to disidentification, but only for less (but not more) extrinsically motivated newcomers. Thus, the findings demonstrate that the effect of incompatibility between social identities on disidentification can be buffered by motivation. The results suggest that, depending on cultural self-construal, individuals have different resources to buffer the negative effect of incompatibility on the social identity.