Nicola Curtin

Femininity Ideology and Sexual Health in Young Women: A focus on Sexual Knowledge, Embodiment, and Agency

ABSTRACT Traditional femininity ideology is associated with diminished sexual agency in women; yet we know little about its connection to sexual knowledge or experiences of ones body during sex. This study examined how femininity ideology related to sexual health knowledge, body comfort during sex, condom self-efficacy, and sexual assertiveness in college-age women. Femininity ideologies were related to decreased sexual-risk knowledge and lowered body esteem during sex. Femininity ideologies were also related to decreased sexual assertiveness and condom use self-efficacy. Results highlight the importance of understanding the association between femininity ideologies and sexual knowledge acquisition as an aspect of sexual agency, as well as sexual embodiment, in addition to the more commonly studied sexual self-efficacy and assertiveness.

Fostering Academic Self-Concept: Advisor Support and Sense of Belonging Among International and Domestic Graduate Students

International doctoral students in the United States face challenges of acculturation in academia yet complete graduate school at higher rates and more quickly than their domestic counterparts. This study examined advisor support, sense of belonging, and academic self-concept among international and domestic doctoral students at a research university in the Midwestern United States. International students placed a higher value on research-related and other academic experiences than domestic students; they also reported a stronger sense of belonging. Advisor support was associated with a stronger sense of belonging and academic self-concept for both groups. However, while sense of belonging was related to academic self-concept among domestic students, there was no relationship between the two among international students.

Social Class and Belonging: Implications for Graduate Students' Career Aspirations.

We examined the role that social class background plays in graduate students’ career goals. Class background was significantly related to the extent to which students struggled financially in graduate school, which related to their sense of belonging in graduate school. Sense of belonging related to academic self-concept, which predicted students’ interest in becoming professors at “top research universities.”

What Makes the Political Personal? Openness, Personal Political Salience, and Activism

People who attach personal meaning to social and political events or are high in Personal Political Salience (PPS) are more likely to engage in political activism (Duncan & Stewart, 2007). Although research suggests that PPS is consequential for activism, we know little about its origins or, more generally, about indirect effects of personality on activism. In this study we examined the possibility that the personality trait of Openness to Experience may be one source of PPS and an indirect predictor of activism. In addition, we proposed that Openness would also be directly related to political activism in young adults but not in middle-aged and older adults. Analyses confirmed these predictions in cross-sectional and over-time data from six samples. We argue that Openness may predispose some individuals both to find personal meaning in distant political events and to engage in social activism in their youth.

Where Is Social Structure in Personality Research? A Feminist Analysis of Publication Trends

For decades, feminist scholars have argued that to understand a person’s behavior, one must understand not only that individual but also the social structure in which she or he is embedded. Has psychology heeded these calls? The authors investigated this question using the subfield of personality as an exemplar. Based on a systematic analysis of publication trends in nine prominent journals, the authors found that social-structural analyses rarely appear in highly cited journals specifically devoted to personality research. Instead, these analyses appear in journals that focus on certain social structures (gender and race/ethnicity), while still neglecting others (social class and sexual orientation). To illustrate how greater attention to social structure can advance the scientific understanding of individuals, the authors then identified specific research programs that look closely at both personality and structure. The article concludes with specific recommendations for research and teaching in personality psychology, gender and race psychology, and beyond.

Challenging the Status Quo The Role of Intersectional Awareness in Activism for Social Change and Pro-Social Intergroup Attitudes

Intersectionality theory is increasingly seen as a valuable tool for understanding and contextualizing the complexity of individual lives. However, psychologists have generally focused on intersectionality as defining a social location rather than as an individual difference that affects social attitudes and behavior. Using secondary data analyses from three separate studies, we examined the antecedents and implications of intersectional awareness (IA), or an understanding of structural inequality from an intersectional perspective. Data from Study 1 were used to establish construct validity and test the relationship between IA and activism in a student sample. Study 2 was a limited replication of Study 1 using a non-student sample. Finally, Study 3 examined the longitudinal relationship between IA and pro-social attitudes toward out-groups as well as the intention to be politically engaged. In this third study, IA was related to basic personality traits, beliefs about the social status quo, pro-social attitudes toward out-groups, intentions to be active, and activism but was unrelated to changes in pro-social attitudes toward out-groups or intentions to be active over time. We discuss how IA can help explain why people may reject prejudicial attitudes and social inequalities as well as when they may engage in collective action.

Fostering research collaborations in LGBT psychology: an introduction to the special issue

We introduce the special issue by providing an overview of the 2008 and 2010 International Summer Institutes in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) psychology at the University of Michigan. Using the literature on stigmatization of LGBT peoples, minority stress, and the demonstrated under-representation of LGBT issues (including heterosexism) in psychology, we argue that the Institutes served a necessary and timely – if not overdue – intervention to establish an ‘invisible college’ that allowed emerging scholars to connect with eminent senior scholars. This was the starting point for systematic and sustained collaborations among the scholars in attendance, and some of the fruits of those collaborations are included in this issue. Post-institute participant surveys from both sessions revealed that the Institutes not only facilitated the formation of an ‘invisible college’, but that participants also reported individual shifts in perspective associated with an increased commitment to social change: the development of new networks, critical perspectives on the inclusion of LGBT people/and issues, shifts in identity, and new possibilities for reaching (and changing) other people through research and teaching. We discuss these findings and their implications for the future directions of LGBT Psychology.

Not your model minority: Own-group activism among Asian Americans.

Objectives: Research on Asian American activism is neglected in the collective action literature. This study examined a model of Asian American activism that included a context-specific variable, model minority beliefs, and 3 traditional predictors of collective engagement: experiences of discrimination, collective racial identity, and structural awareness. Method: Participants completed a survey on their sociopolitical attitudes and behaviors. All participants identified as Asian American (N = 187; Mage = 32.99) and were generally well-educated (76.8% had a college degree or higher), politically liberal (68.5%), and female (74.2%). Results: Controlling for gender, age, political orientation, and immigrant generation, the results of the serial mediation model revealed that structural awareness, collective racial identity, and model minority beliefs significantly mediated the relationship between discrimination and own-group activism. Results also showed that model minority beliefs negatively predicted own-group activism. Conclusions: In addition to replicating broad findings from the collective action literature among Asian Americans, this research highlights the importance of contextualized group-based beliefs about inequality (model minority beliefs) for understanding engagement among racial minority groups.

Journeys Through Feminist Psychological Science: Lessons Learned and a Look to What Lies Ahead

This volume sought to highlight not only the ways in which feminist psychological science can move us beyond a simple focus on gender differences, but also the best practices currently in use by feminist scholars. In our conclusion, we consider some important lessons learned from this volume and from a survey of the landscape of feminist psychological science today. We will also offer some thoughts about ways in which feminist psychology can move forward—as it is already doing—and continue to shape how we investigate, understand, and work to address pressing social issues, both within the academy and beyond its borders.

Building a Better Psychological Science of Gender: Reflections on Theory, Research, and Action

In this volume, we bring together a number of prominent and emerging feminist scholars to consider the ways in which psychology addresses gender, especially as it moves beyond a simple consideration of gender differences. Springing from work done by a Society for the Psychology of Women (SPW, APA Division 35) Task Force appointed by Stephanie Shields, these chapters represent our best thinking about empirical and theoretical approaches in feminist psychological research, the state of our subdisciplines with regard to gender, and reflections on the challenges and joys of doing feminist research and action in the real world. Throughout these chapters, authors consider the role of power, the intersectionality of identities, and offer recommendations for best practices for people wanting to do feminist psychological research and for finding avenues and audiences both within psychology and more broadly to give that research away in the service of a more equitable society.