Marcos Emanoel Pereira

Cross-Cultural Differences in a Global “Survey of World Views”

We know that there are cross-cultural differences in psychological variables, such as individualism/collectivism. But it has not been clear which of these variables show relatively the greatest differences. The Survey of World Views project operated from the premise that such issues are best addressed in a diverse sampling of countries representing a majority of the world’s population, with a very large range of item-content. Data were collected online from 8,883 individuals (almost entirely college students based on local publicizing efforts) in 33 countries that constitute more than two third of the world’s population, using items drawn from measures of nearly 50 variables. This report focuses on the broadest patterns evident in item data. The largest differences were not in those contents most frequently emphasized in cross-cultural psychology (e.g., values, social axioms, cultural tightness), but instead in contents involving religion, regularity-norm behaviors, family roles and living arrangements, and ethnonationalism. Content not often studied cross-culturally (e.g., materialism, Machiavellianism, isms dimensions, moral foundations) demonstrated moderate-magnitude differences. Further studies are needed to refine such conclusions, but indications are that cross-cultural psychology may benefit from casting a wider net in terms of the psychological variables of focus.

Imagens e significado e o processamento dos estereótipos

Este trabalho avaliou a influencia da representacao do conhecimento mediante significados e imagens no processamento dos estereotipos. Utilizando a escala de distância social de Bogardus, procurou-se determinar se a avaliacao de uma categoria alvo, realizada por meio da simples apresentacao do rotulo verbal da categoria, diferia de uma avaliacao em que se acrescentava, durante a apresentacao, uma fotografia de exemplares tipicos de cada categoria. Um segundo foco de interesse procurou determinar os efeitos contextuais na avaliacao dos estereotipos, no caso, a influencia do tamanho da cidade de residencia do participante na avaliacao da distância social. Os resultados apontaram diferencas significativas na avaliacao da categoria alvo quando apresentada por meio de estimulos inteiramente abstratos, se comparada com a avaliacao realizada quando foram acrescentadas fotografias de exemplares do grupo alvo. Alem disso, o tamanho da cidade de residencia do participante influenciou o grau de distância social em relacao aos membros da categoria alvo.

Estereótipos e essencialização de brancos e negros: um estudo comparativo

Nowadays, one of the main problems of our societies is to fight against the negative effects of stereotypes, prejudices and social exclusion. One of the greatest challenges faced by anyone doing research on this topic is related to the role played by the categorical essentialist thinking. The main objective of this paper is to present the results of the essentialization of race as a social category. 101 Brazilians and 138 Spaniards took part in this study. The results obtained showed a clear effect of the country and the hegemony of the category on the level of essentialization. The analysis of the explanations used by the participants allows us to conclude that within common sense theories, internal causes were the ones most frequently pointed out, causal history was predominantly adopted to explain changes in behavior and, finally, situational pressures were presented to explain, preferably, stability in behavior.

Raça, racismo e saúde: a desigualdade social da distribuição do estresse

A presente revisao explora os conceitos de raca e racismo, delimitando particularidades quanto ao perfil de saude de individuos ou grupos submetidos a discriminacao ou preconceito racial. Alem disso, pretende-se levantar evidencias da relacao entre racismo e saude a partir dos estudos sobre o estresse. Apresenta-se a desigualdade social como um poderoso fator na causacao de iniquidades em saude, o que fomenta disparidades em relacao a prevalencia de estresse. Sendo o racismo um elemento criador e mantenedor de estressores no âmbito das relacoes sociais, discorre-se sobre como a discriminacao racial implica limitacoes fundamentais na vida dos individuos, o que impacta incisivamente na quantidade de estresse experienciada. Enfim, procurou-se sistematizar o conhecimento acerca das relacoes entre raca e saude, investigando-se o impacto deleterio do racismo sob o principio da distribuicao social do estresse.

Essentialism and the expression of social stereotypes: a comparative study of Spain, Brasil and England

Over the past few years, one of the most productive directions in the study of the activation and application of stereotypes has been provided by the essentialist concept of categorization. The research presented here studied the impact of two dimensions of essentialist beliefs--naturalism and entitativity-by using data collected from Brazil, Spain and England. The aim was to test whether there was a greater degree of essentialization among the naturalizable categories (sex, age and race) than among the entitative categories (economic condition, religion, political orientation, nationality and social condition). The results not only showed that participants hold more essentialist beliefs with regard to naturalistic categories but also showed the differences in the degree of essentialization across the three cultures. A discussion is conducted on the implications of the present findings, and on the heuristic value of the theoretical model (of the bidimensional nature of essentialism) adopted by this research.

Vivência de estigma e enfrentamento em pessoas que convivem com o HIV

This study was aimed at widening the understanding of how subjects experience HIV seropositivity from its diagnosis by detecting the coping strategies used by HIV-positive adults and correlating them with that population’s perception of their stigmatization. For this cross-sectional, correlational and ex post facto study, 50 female and 50 male subjects, all dwelling in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), were characterized and assessed by means of the Stigmatization Scale for HIV-Positive Subjects and the Brazilian version of the Ways of Coping Scale (EMEP). Descriptive statistical analyses and correlations among variables were carried out. Problem-focused coping was found to be more employed than the emotion-focused one, being the latter directly related to higher levels of stigmatization experience. Significant gender differences were also found with female subjects experiencing more stigmatization, using more emotion-focused coping, seeking religion/fantasies, searching for social support. Those who work directly with seropositivity-oriented actions were shown to have lower levels of stigmatization experience and less emotion-focused coping, which reinforces the hypothesis that, in addition to dealing with their somatic status, HIV positive subjects need to cope with stigmatization issues, which may make it difficult to face the situation in a more active way.Buscou-se com este estudo ampliar a compreensao da vivencia da soropositividade a partir do diagnostico dos portadores, identificando as estrategias de enfrentamento utilizadas por pessoas soropositivas adultas, correlacionando-as com a percepcao que esta populacao tem sobre sua estigmatizacao. Realizou-se um estudo de delineamento transversal, correlacional, constituindo-se num desenho ex-post-facto. A amostra foi de 50 pessoas do genero feminino e 50 pessoas do genero masculino, residentes na cidade de Salvador, Bahia, caracterizadas e avaliadas a partir da Escala de Estigmatizacao para Portadores do HIV e Escala de Modos de Enfrentamento de Problemas (EMEP). Foram realizadas analises estatisticas descritivas e correlacoes entre as variaveis. Encontrou-se uma utilizacao maior do enfrentamento focalizado no problema e uma utilizacao menor do enfrentamento focalizado na emocao, estando este ultimo relacionado diretamente a uma maior vivencia do estigma. Tambem foram encontradas diferencas significativas entre os generos, sendo que, no genero feminino, observou-se uma maior vivencia de estigma, maior utilizacao do enfrentamento focalizado na emocao, busca de pratica religiosa/ pensamento fantasioso e busca de suporte social. Pessoas que trabalham diretamente com acoes voltadas para a soropositividade destacaram-se do restante da amostra, apresentando uma menor vivencia de estigma e menor utilizacao do enfrentamento focalizado na emocao. Conclui-se que as pessoas que convivem com a soropositividade, alem da necessidade de enfrentar a condicao somatica, necessitam enfrentar as questoes relativas a estigmatizacao, o que pode originar dificuldades na concretizacao de um enfrentamento mais ativo da situacao.El objetivo de este estudio fue ampliar la comprension de la experiencia de la seropositividad a partir del momento del diagnostico de los individuos infectados, identificando las estrategias de afrontamiento utilizadas por personas adultas seropositivas, correlacionandolas con la percepcion que estas personas presentan sobre su estigmatizacion. Se realizo un estudio de diseno transversal, correlacional que se constituyo en un diseno ex-post-facto. La muestra fue de 50 personas del genero femenino y 50 personas del genero masculino, residentes en la ciudad de Salvador, Bahia, caracterizadas y evaluadas a partir de la Escala de Estigmatizacion para Portadores del VIH y de la Escala de Estrategias de Afrontamiento de Problemas. Se realizo analisis estadistico descriptivo y correlaciones entre las variables. Fue encontrado un uso mas comun del afrontamiento centrado en el problema y un menor uso del afrontamiento centrado en la emocion, con este ultimo directamente relacionado a una mayor experiencia de estigmatizacion. Tambien se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los generos: en el genero femenino se observo una mayor experiencia de estigmatizacion, una mayor utilizacion de afrontamiento centrado en la emocion, busqueda de practica religiosa/pensamiento fantasioso y busqueda de apoyo social. Las personas que trabajan en actividades relativas a la seropositividad se destacaron en relacion al resto de la muestra, presentando una menor experiencia de estigma y un menor uso de afrontamiento centrado en la emocion. Se concluye que las personas seropositivas, ademas de tener que afrontar su condicion somatica, deben afrontar el estigma, lo que puede causar dificultades en el logro de una confrontacion mas activa de la situacion.

Jealousy and infidelity: The role of gender identity and culture of honour

Abstract This research is aimed at examining whether gender and the culture of honour were associated with the type of infidelity (sexual or emotional) that is perceived as most disturbing. A total of 748 Spanish university students (336 men and 412 women), answered to six dilemmas which raised the type of infidelity that had greater impact on them (sexual or emotional), a scale of gender identity and a scale of culture of honour. The results showed that both men and women were more affected by emotional infidelity. In addition it was found that the effect of sex on the type of infidelity that stresses the participants more was moderated by sociocultural variables such as the culture of honour, masculinity and femininity.

Crenças Essencialistas Sobre Policiais e Delinquentes

The purpose of this article is to report the results of an experimental study about essentialistic beliefs conducted according to the brain transplant paradigm. A sample of Brazilians (101) and Spaniards (138) were submitted to a mental experiment in a 2 (Country) x 2 (direction of the brains transplant) design. A log-linear analysis showed no clear main effects of the country, but an interaction between country and brain transfer. The justifications given by the participants were analyzed showing that contextual pressures were adopted to justify the stability of behavior while other type of explanations were mainly used to justify behavioral changes after the presumed brain transplant. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Estereótipos, mentiras e videotape: estudos experimentais sobre a acurácia na identificação da mentira

The aim of this study is to experimentally investigate the lying behavior. Three hypotheses have been advocated. The first concerns the kind of cues which are conducive to identifying a lie (auditory and/or visual). The second is about the degree of accuracy in identifying mistakes among social categories. Lastly, the third relates to stereotypes effects and proposes a different pattern structure with regard to mistakes made by participants about lies presented by individuals from the social groups under investigation. The first assumption did not lead to any differences in lie identifying when the clues are either visual and auditory or visual only. It has been found that the social category depicted in the scene holds little significance. The third group of assumptions, on its turn, made it clear that stereotyped beliefs were not strong enough to distort judgment and thus influence the mistakes.

Social Psychology: research methods and techniques

The objective of this paper is to identify the research methods adopted by researchers in the field of Social Psychology, differentiating them by considerations derived from the four epistemic dimensions. Our starting point was a study conducted to identify the theoretical references and research methods used by educators and researchers in the field of social psychology. The results presented here refer to data, obtained in the years 2011 and 2012, relating to 545 social psychologists and professors of social psychology, of which 157 responded in Portuguese and 388 in Spanish. The average age of participants was 41.5 years (standard deviation = 11.4; minimum = 21 years; maximum = 78), being 54% female and 43% male. The participants originated from 19 countries, with Spain (158), Brazil (149), Mexico (64), and Argentina (45) the most frequent. Based on the results, we sought to classify and subsequently to estimate the frequency of use of the methods, considering them based on the distribution of the researchers from two geographic regions, Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Since geographical distribution did not provide a consistent criterion for differentiating between methods, we tried to understand the differences by considering ultimately the theoretical approach embraced by the researcher.