Racial and attitudinal factors affecting the perceptions of counselors by Black adolescents.

Presented to 247 Black male and female high school students racial and attitudinal information about a hypothetical male or female counselor and asked them to express their perceptions of the counselor. Attitudinal information about a counselor had a stronger effect than racial information on Ss' perception of the counselor: Counselors portrayed as attitudinally similar were rated significantly higher in attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertness, and social attraction than those portrayed as attitudinally dissimilar. Racial information also influenced perceived attractiveness: White counselors were rated higher than Black ones in attractiveness, although there was no difference in ratings of trustworthiness or expertise. White female counselors were perceived as more expert than their Black female counterparts, whereas the ratings of male counselors were not influenced by the racial variable. Implications for counselor–client relationships and the development of mental health services for minority populations are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of rater race on conclusions regarding differential prediction in cognitive ability tests.

The possibility of predictive bias by race in employment tests is commonly examined by across-group comparisons of the slopes and intercepts of regression lines using test scores to predict performance measures. This research assumed that the criteria, primarily supervisory ratings, were unbiased. However, a concern is that the apparent lack of differential prediction in cognitive ability tests may be an artifact of the predominant use of performance ratings provided by supervisors who are members of the majority group; a criterion that is potentially biased against members of the minority group. We posited that ratings by a supervisor of the same race as the employee being rated would be less open to claims of bias. We compared ability-performance relationships in samples of Black and White employees that allowed for between-subjects and within-subjects comparisons under 2 conditions: when all employees were rated by a White supervisor and when each employee was rated by a supervisor of the same race. Neither analysis found evidence of predictive bias against Black employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of ethnicity in observers’ ratings of mother–child behavior.

This study examined the role of ethnicity in untrained observers’ ratings of videotaped mother–child interactions. Participants were Black, White, and Latino undergraduates (N = 109), who rated videotapes of 4 Black, 4 White, and 4 Latino mother–child dyads. Overall, participants of different ethnicities showed more similarities than differences in their ratings of parent–child behavior. There was, however, evidence that participant ethnicity and parent–child ethnicity interacted for ratings of child defiance/negative emotion. Black and White participants differed in their ratings of Black and White children’s defiance/negative emotion, with members of each ethnic group favoring children of their own ethnic group. Intergroup contact appeared to play a role in ratings of parent behavior among Black observers. Black observers who reported low intergroup contact tended to rate Black mothers high on strictness and low on permissiveness. More research is needed to better understand the role of ethnicity in observers’ ratings of parent and child behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Stereotype Threat: Denial as an Impression Management Strategy.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress and coping among gay men: Age and ethnic differences.

Previous studies suggest that perceived stigmatization of sexual minority status, ethnicity, and age are associated with negative mental health outcomes, and other studies suggest that coping styles may influence these outcomes. However, no studies have examined these relationships among gay men of varying ethnicities and age groups. Three hundred eighty-three Black and White, younger, middle-aged, and older adult gay men completed measures of perceived stigmatization, coping style, and mental health outcomes. Black older adult gay men reported significantly higher levels of perceived ageism than the older White group, significantly higher levels of perceived racism than the younger Black group, significantly higher levels of homonegativity than the younger Black and the White groups, and were more likely to use disengaged coping styles than White gay men. However, Black older adult gay men did not experience significantly higher levels of negative mental health outcomes. Results suggest that further research should examine how older Black gay men, who perceive higher levels of stigma while reporting greater use of less effective coping styles, do not appear to be experiencing more negative mental health outcomes as a result. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Their ideas of beauty are, on the whole, the same as ours": Consistency and variability in the cross-cultural perception of female physical attractiveness.

The consistency of physical attractiveness ratings across cultural groups was examined. In Study 1, recently arrived native Asian and Hispanic students and White Americans rated the attractiveness of Asian, Hispanic, Black, and White photographed women. The mean correlation between groups in attractiveness ratings was r?=?.93. Asians, Hispanics, and Whites were equally influenced by many facial features, but Asians were less influenced by some sexual maturity and expressive features. In Study 2, Taiwanese attractiveness ratings correlated with prior Asian, Hispanic, and American ratings, mean r?=?.91. Supporting Study 1, the Taiwanese also were less positively influenced by certain sexual maturity and expressive features. Exposure to Western media did not influence attractiveness ratings in either study. In Study 3, Black and White American men rated the attractiveness of Black female facial photos and body types. Mean facial attractiveness ratings were highly correlated (r?=?.94), but as predicted Blacks and Whites varied in judging bodies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals.

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in two racial groups provide a rare window into social categorization and perception. In 5 experiments, we tested the extent to which a rule of hypodescent, whereby biracial individuals are assigned the status of their socially subordinate parent group, would govern perceptions of Asian–White and Black–White targets. In Experiment 1, in spite of posing explicit questions concerning Asian–White and Black–White targets, hypodescent was observed in both cases and more strongly in Black–White social categorization. Experiments 2A and 2B used a speeded response task and again revealed evidence of hypodescent in both cases, as well as a stronger effect in the Black–White target condition. In Experiments 3A and 3B, social perception was studied with a face-morphing task. Participants required a face to be lower in proportion minority to be perceived as minority than in proportion White to be perceived as White. Again, the threshold for being perceived as White was higher for Black–White than for Asian–White targets. An independent categorization task in Experiment 3B further confirmed the rule of hypodescent and variation in it that reflected the current racial hierarchy in the United States. These results documenting biases in the social categorization and perception of biracials have implications for resistance to change in the American racial hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social identities and intergroup bias in immigrant and nonimmigrant children.

Ethnic and American identity, as well as positivity and negativity toward multiple social groups, were assessed in 392 children attending 2nd or 4th grade in various New York City neighborhoods. Children from 5 ethnic groups were recruited, including White and Black Americans, as well as recent immigrants from China, the Dominican Republic, and the former Soviet Union. For ethnic minority children, greater positivity bias (evaluating one's ingroup more positively than outgroups) was predicted by immigrant status and ethnic identity, whereas negativity bias (evaluating outgroups more negatively than one's ingroup) was associated with increased age, immigrant status, and (among 4th graders only) ethnic identity. In addition, a more central American identity was associated with less intergroup bias among ethnic minority children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achieved eminence in minority and majority cultures: Convergence versus divergence in the assessments of 294 African Americans.

Although psychologists have often used eminence measures as individual-difference variables, no researcher has investigated the differential eminence of individuals belonging to disadvantaged minority groups. Here a sample of 294 illustrious African Americans is scrutinized from the standpoint of the majority (White) culture and the minority (Black) subculture. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of 7 Black and 10 White eminence measures indicate that (a) these measures can be explained by two latent variables but that (b) the two dimensions correlate very highly. Multiple regression analyses then showed that the Black and White composite assessments, although concurring on the impact of most predictor variables (e.g., gender, famous firsts, and Spingarn Award), could nonetheless disagree on the consequences of achievements in certain domains (e.g., athletes, blues and jazz musicians, and civil rights activists). The results have implications for the development of causal models that explain individual differences in achievement within minority- and majority culture populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Panel IV: Risk-taking and abusive behaviors among ethnic minorities.

The health status and health outcomes of many ethnic minorities have remained poor, or have deteriorated, despite massive health promotion campaigns. Multiple factors that encourage ethnic minorities to engage in high-risk behaviors and those that discourage health promotive behaviors must be closely examined before any health interventions are likely to be successful in decreasing substance abuse. high-risk sex, accidental deaths and injuries, and violence. Cultural and contextual factors may put some ethnic minorities in jeopardy and at higher risk for poorer health than their White counterparts (B. W. K. Yee, 1995, in press). This review article identifies contributing factors in high-risk behaviors and highlights research gaps for Americans of African. Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic descent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

American = White?

Six studies investigated the extent to which American ethnic groups (African, Asian, and White) are associated with the category "American." Although strong explicit commitments to egalitarian principles were expressed in Study 1, Studies 2-6 consistently revealed that both African and Asian Americans as groups are less associated with the national category "American" than are White Americans. Under some circumstances, a dissociation between mean levels of explicit beliefs and implicit responses emerged such that an ethnic minority was explicitly regarded to be more American than were White Americans, but implicit measures showed the reverse pattern (Studies 3 and 4). In addition, Asian American participants themselves showed the American = White effect, although African Americans did not (Study 5). The American = White association was positively correlated with the strength of national identity in White Americans. Together, these studies provide evidence that to be American is implicitly synonymous with being White. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining discrepancies in arrest rates between Black and White male juveniles.

The authors investigated discrepancies in arrest rates between Black and White male juveniles by examining the role of early risk factors for arrest. Two hypotheses were evaluated: (a) Disproportionate minority arrest is due to increased exposure to early risk factors, and (b) a differential sensitivity to early risk factors contributes to disproportionate minority arrest. The study included 481 Black and White boys who were followed from childhood to early adulthood. A higher incidence of early risk factors accounted for racial differences related to any juvenile arrest, as well as differences in violence- and theft-related arrests. However, increased exposure to early risk factors did not explain race differences in drug-related arrests. Minimal support was found for the hypothesis that a differential sensitivity to risk factors accounts for disproportionate rate of minority male arrests. In sum, most racial discrepancies in juvenile male arrests were accounted for by an increased exposure to childhood risk factors. Specifically, Black boys were more likely to display early conduct problems and low academic achievement and experience poor parent–child communication, peer delinquency, and neighborhood problems, which increased their risk for juvenile arrest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Panel I: Epidemiology of minority health.

Collecting epidemiologic data by ethnicity and race is a highly useful undertaking; but "benchmark" comparisons relative to majority Americans should not take priority over defining the determinants of health status within a minority group. Thus, it is necessary to identify factors contributing to the measured health status and to modify the environment, lifestyles, and behaviors to diminish the likelihood of undesirable health outcomes. This article presents an overview of the health status of African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. The goals are to provide a framework for the rational interpretation of both health status data and its determinants both within and between minority groups. This approach recognizes the heterogeneity of health status that exists within a minority group and encourages investigators to place more emphasis on the within-group health status differentials as they search for modifiable factors that underlie the risk for undesirable health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compositions in Black and White: Determinants of interaction in interracial dyads.

Examined the initial, unstructured interactions of 40 interracial (Black–White) dyads in which 3 factors were systematically varied. These factors were the disposition of the White dyad members to either seek out or shun interaction with Blacks, the race (Black vs White) of the experimenter, and the gender composition (male–male vs female–female) of the dyads. Results show that within dyads, White dyad members displayed more interactional involvement than their Black partners but experienced the interactions as more stressful and uncomfortable. Whites predisposed to avoid interaction with Blacks looked and smiled at their partners less than those predisposed to initiate interaction. Both Black and White members of these avoidance dyads reported heightened feelings of anxiety and concern about their interactions, but the moderating influences of the Whites' approach–avoidance dispositions on interaction behavior were essentially limited to conditions in which the experimenter was Black and the White S was a "solo minority." It is suggested that Black–White partner effects are attributable to differing amounts of cross-race contact typically experienced by Blacks and Whites. Black–White experimenter effects are interpreted in terms of S. E. Taylor's (1981) hypothesis that stereotypes and related dispositions are activated in social contexts in which group membership is made salient. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Challenging conventional wisdom about who quits: Revelations from corporate America.

Findings from 20 corporations from the Attrition and Retention Consortium, which collects quit statistics about 475,458 professionals and managers, extended and disputed established findings about who quits. Multilevel analyses revealed that company tenure is curvilinearly related to turnover and that a job's past attrition rate strengthens the (negative) performance- exit relationship. Further, women quit more than men, while African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans quit more than White Americans, though racial differences disappeared after confounds were controlled for. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American women quit more than men of the same ethnicities and White Americans, but statistical controls nullified evidence for dual discrimination toward minority women. Greater corporate flight among women and minorities during early employment nonetheless hampers progress toward a more diversified workforce in corporate America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age patterns of smoking in US black and white women of childbearing age

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to describe age patterns of smoking among Black and White women of reproductive age, with cohort membership controlled for. METHOD: Data from the 1987 National Health Interview Survey Cancer Supplement, weighted to be nationally representative, were used to calculate the fractions of women who were ever smokers, quitters, and current smokers by age and race. Summary distributions of age patterns of smoking behaviors by race were estimated; proportional hazard models were used to avoid confounding of age and cohort. RESULTS: White women begin smoking at younger ages than do Blacks but are more likely to quit and to do so at young ages. Rates of current smoking converge between Blacks and Whites by age 25, and may cross over by 30. Education-standardized results show larger Black-White differentials in ever smoking and smaller differences in quitting. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that women's age patterns of smoking vary by race. Age x race interactions should be considered in smoking research and anti-tobacco interventions. For Black women, delayed initiation and failure to quit call for increased emphasis on interventions tailored to adults. These findings have possible implications for understanding Black-White differences in low birthweight, child health, and women's health.     

Daydreaming: A Black–White comparison for 17–34-year-olds.

Matched 112 White and 112 Black 17–34 yr olds on religious preference, self-described socioeconomic status, years of education, area/population of residency, and annual income. All Ss responded to a retrospective questionnaire on daydreaming and associated mental activity. ANOVAs followed by multiple regression analyses found significant race-related effects on the factors measuring Daydreaming Vividness and Its Hallucinatory Quality, Negative or Frightening Aspects of Daydreaming, Achievement-Oriented Daydreams, Hostile Daydreams, and The Present in Daydreams. These Black–White differences were analyzed to determine if they were atypical or due, spuriously, to nonracial differences resulting from the matching procedure. Most salient was the apparently real difference found in Achievement-Oriented and Hostile daydreams. Also noted was the lack of any tendency for Black women to be more like Black men on daydreaming than were White women like White men. Results are discussed in the context of Black–White personality differences and the existence of a Black minority culture within a White majority culture. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective well-being evaluations among older Black Americans.

The causal relations among social status and resource, health, and stress factors, and a single-item measure of subjective well-being (i.e., happiness) were examined among a national sample of 581 Black adults aged 55 years and over. Results indicated that although social status and resource factors had a limited impact on happiness ratings, these measures were important in predicting intermediate factors related to health status and satisfaction and stress. Happiness was directly influenced by stress and reported satisfaction with health, whereas the effect of health disability was mediated by stress and health satisfaction. The findings suggest that certain groups of older Blacks (i.e., relatively younger, widowed, and separated) may be at specific risk for diminished well-being. However, adverse health and life conditions, which are determined by status and resources, represent circumstances that further jeopardize the well-being of older Black adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of psychosocial and background variables to older adults' end-of-life decisions.

Aims were to determine acceptability of a full range of end-of-life decision options and identify related variables; 388 Black and White older adults ages 60–100 responded to 17 decision situations depicting terminal and nonterminal conditions with a very low quality of life, rating the acceptability of 7 end-of-life options per decision situation, and completed demographic, health, and psychosocial measures. Despite low quality of life, maintaining life (striving to live and seeking treatment) was the most acceptable option, but a significant minority of participants wished to end life (suicide, assisted suicide, or euthanasia) and a moderate number wished to defer the decision to others. In hierarchical regressions, psychosocial variables (religiosity, values, fear of death, etc.) contributed significantly (p?