Jessica R. Abrams

Ethnic Identity Gratifications Selection and Avoidance by African Americans: A Group Vitality and Social Identity Gratifications Perspective

Abstract This study explores the relatively new idea that individuals engage with media in an effort to meet their social identity needs. Specifically, the study broadens the social identity gratifications (SIG) approach to the domain of ethnicity by examining how African Americans’ ethnic identity gratifications selection and avoidance are related to their perceptions of ingroup vitality. Two mediation models involving level of ethnic identification are proposed. Although the model of television selection is not supported, the model of television avoidance is supported. Implications and future research are discussed.

An examination of the validity of the Subjective Vitality Questionnaire

Abstract The concept of group vitality was developed over 30 years ago to assist in understanding of power relations between language groups. However, vitality has also been an important consideration when attempting to understand intergroup relations more generally. Vitality researchers distinguish subjective vitality from objective vitality. This study focuses on subjective vitality. Specifically, the paper examines the validity of the Subjective Vitality Questionnaire (SVQ), the instrument frequently utilised to quantitatively assess vitality perceptions. Data collected in the USA from three ethnic groups (African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans) who rated the vitalities of Caucasian, African, and Hispanic Americans, were analysed using both first-order confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis. Both types of analysis failed to uncover the underlying factor structure of status, demography, and institutional support proposed by vitality researchers. Although the factors could not be validated, when the SVQ was analysed as a unidimensional measure, it posted strong reliability. The discussion offers suggestions on how to improve the SVQ in future research.

A Social Identidy Model of Media Usage and Effects

Abstract. We propose a social identity model of media usage and effects. This model explains how the media might cultivate power arrangements (i.e., promote social stasis) on the one hand, and contribute to social change on the other. We argue that current media theories are ill-equipped to meet both of these explanatory challenges. The model integrates (1) social identity processes with (2) Herman and Chomsky’s (1988) propaganda model, and (3) Abrams, Eveland, and Giles’s (2003) work on media images and group vitality. Social stasis is produced when the social environment is stable, and when people with status quo-consistent beliefs (i.e., social mobility and social creativity) engage with the media to confirm their beliefs. Social change occurs when people with socially competitive beliefs engage in actions (e.g., riots, peace marches) that re-inform others as to the instability and illegitimacy (among other things) of the current status and power relations in the world. If these actions are sufficientl...

The Effects of Television on Group Vitality: Can Television Empower Nondominant Groups?

The concept of vitality was first introduced to account for factors affecting language use in the late 1970s. Today, vitality has developed into a broader theory addressing issues related to ethnicity, gender, age, and intergroup communication. Theorists propose that the more vitality a group has, the more likely that group will survive as an entity in an intergroup context. Intergroup researchers claim that perceptions of vitality may be influenced by mass media. This relationship has yet to be explored in detail. Based on mass media theory, we offer a number of contrasting propositions about how television might function to impact subjective group vitality and, ultimately, intergroup communication. The integration of relevant intergroup and mass communication literature reflects the extent to which television empowers minority groups as well as how levels of empowerment are manifested in nondominant groups’ behaviors.

New Contexts for Relational Communication in Groups

This article discusses the importance of relational communication in groups. Connections are made with potentially fruitful theoretical concepts, while findings from related group research are used to discuss new and interesting directions with regard to relational communication in three pivotal group contexts. Each section provides a rationale for why these group contexts should be studied and suggests propositions to guide future research. The discussion highlights the many facets of the relational side of members’ intentions in groups: cooperation, connection, autonomy, similarity, flexibility/rigidity, cohesion/withdrawal, harmony/conflict, stereotyping, and stigmatization. Concerning group process analysis, the authors revisit the family, as one’s first group experience, from a relational communication perspective. Next, the influence of heterogeneity of group membership and intercultural diversity is discussed with regard to relational dynamics. Finally, the effects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on relational communication in groups are investigated.

An Intergroup Investigation of Disparaging Humor

This article takes an intergroup approach to studying disparaging humor. Specifically, this study tests the in-group favoritism/out-group rejection tenet of social identity theory in the context of disparaging gender-based jokes. The experiment manipulated the number of jokes men and women read about their gender and the opposite gender, and then measured joke funniness, in- and out-group typicality, and collective self-esteem. The findings revealed that both men and women exhibited in-group bias by rating jokes about the opposite gender funnier and more typical than jokes about their own gender, although only the findings for women were significant. Women’s evaluations of male-targeted joke(s) were particularly affected by the number of jokes they read. Explained from a social identity theory perspective, the findings underscore how jokes contribute to intergroup division and the utility of intergroup theory in understanding the social cognitive processes of jokes.

Gender disparaging jokes: An investigation of sexist-nonstereotypical jokes on funniness, typicality, and the moderating role of ingroup identification

Abstract This experiment relied on social identity theory to investigate jokes that express superiority and denigration toward social groups. In particular, the social identity of gender is examined in the context of sexist-nonstereotypical jokes. Results revealed that sexist-nonstereotypical jokes had the greatest impact on women. Specifically, women rated jokes about men funnier than jokes about themselves, and highly identified women found jokes targeting men significantly funnier than jokes targeting women. These results, and others relating to prototypicality, offer insight into how disparaging intergroup jokes function to accentuate and attenuate intergroup relations.

Proactive Performance: A Context for Intergroup Contact

Over the years, Allports (1954) contact hypothesis has become the primary theoretical approach to intergroup contact, yet researchers are just now beginning to explore specific contact contexts. This article introduces proactive performance as a context for intergroup contact. Specifically, interACT, a collegiate performance troupe located at California State University, Long Beach, is used to demonstrate how proactive performance meets the requisite conditions of the contact hypothesis; i.e., promoting social change. Moreover, proactive performance is able to account for several important mediating and moderating variables in intergroup contact. With this in mind, this article is illustrative of praxis, or the intersection between theory and practice.

Attitudes toward Muslims: a test of the parasocial contact hypothesis and contact theory

Abstract The present research relied on intergroup theory to explain attitudes toward Muslim Americans. In particular, the parasocial contact hypothesis was relied on to develop a set of hypotheses about the relationship between news consumption as a vicarious form of intergroup contact and attitudes toward Muslim Americans. A set of competing hypotheses was also offered based on contact theory. Both theories were supported, but attitudes toward Muslim Americans were related in opposite ways. At the same time, actual intergroup contact with Muslims was reported to be low. Level of religiosity, political identity, gender, and ethnicity were also related to attitudes toward Muslim Americans.

Gendering Jokes Intergroup Bias in Reactions to Same- Versus Opposite-Gender Humor

Based on social identity theory, this study tests whether individuals demonstrate out-group rejection by rating jokes targeting the opposite gender funnier and more gender typical than jokes targeting their gender. Prior research is extended by examining individuals’ level of gender identification and propensity to discriminate against a hypothetical man or woman after exposure to sexist jokes. Results indicated that women exhibited in-group rejection, whereas men showed bias toward women only in the 1-joke (vs. 5- and 10-joke) condition. Men and women with low gender identification rated jokes about their gender funnier and more gender typical than those about the opposite gender, and highly identified women also rated jokes about women as gender typical. The findings did not support the basic assumptions of social identity theory; however, the theory remained useful in interpreting the results, which undoubtedly reflect the intergroup dynamics inherent in gender relations.