The Influence of Affirmative Action on Perceptions of a Beneficiary's Qualifications1

Relative to females, males tended to discount the qualifications of a woman promoted into management. However, the male-female difference was dependent upon the promoting organization's Affirmative Action environment. There were no differences between males and females when females thought that the organization promoting the woman had an Affirmative Action program in place. Under these circumstances females behaved as males in discounting the woman's qualifications. In contrast, females who thought that the organization promoting the woman was anti-Affirmative Action augmented the woman's qualifications. The interpretation of this is that these women viewed the organization's anti-Affirmative Action position as an inhibitory factor that could only have been overcome on the basis of the promoted woman possessing the necessary qualifications. Results are interpreted in relation to practical implications for Affirmative Action programs.     

Visual perception,observation systems,and empiricism

Released time for this project was subsidized by the Affirmative Action Development Program, Spring 1987, CSUN. Special thanks to Professors Frank McGuinness, Jack Bender, and Dan Sedey for comments.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed:
Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa: Experiments in Democratic Persuasion . By James L. Gibson and Amanda Gouws. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. 262 pp. Reviewed by David B. Coplan University of the Witwatersrand
The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression . By Robert E. Gilbert. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. 2003. 288 pp. Reviewed by Donald F. Anderson University of Michigan-Dearborn
Affirmative Action is Dead; Long Live Affirmative Action . By Faye J. Crosby. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2004. 331 pp. Reviewed by John F. Dovidio University of Connecticut
Explaining Foreign Policy: U.S. Decision-Making and the Persian Gulf War . By Steve Yetiv. Balitmore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2004. 304 pp. Reviewed by J. David Singer University of Michigan     

The dynamics and impact of affirmative action processes on higher education,the curriculum,and black women

Affirmative action is perceived as a tool that can bring about significant social change. In higher education, it has yet to produce the desired results for which its policies were designed. In whatever stage of the affirmative action process colleges and universities find themselves, it can be observed that there are complex dynamics of formulating, implementing, and enforcing affirmative action goals that affect all participants in the process. The complex dynamics of achieving affirmative action goals within higher education deserve attention because they forecast the interactions between black women and higher education that we may expect to see in the future.     

But Affirmative Action hurts Us! Race-related beliefs shape perceptions of White disadvantage and policy unfairness

Drawing on social identity theory, we examine how Whites’ race-related beliefs drive their reactions to race-based Affirmative Action Policies (AAPs). Across laboratory and field settings, we find that Whites with relatively high modern racism (MR) or collective relative deprivation (CRD) beliefs perceive greater White disadvantage in organizations that have race-based AAPs, than in organizations that do not. Alternatively, race-based AAPs do not lead to perceptions of White disadvantage among Whites with relatively low MR and CRD beliefs. We also find that White disadvantage mediates the relationship between the combined effects of race-based AAPs, MR beliefs, and CRD beliefs and the perceived fairness of the organization’s selection and promotion policies. Our findings suggest that race-based AAPs do not necessarily lead to perceptions of White disadvantage, but are contingent upon the interpretive lens of Whites’ MR and CRD beliefs, and also offer practical insights for preventing negative reactions to race-based AAPs.     

Quality of Jobs for Female Workers: A Comparative Study of South Korea and Australia

This study conducts a comparative analysis regarding the quality of job in Australia and South Korea on the basis of ordered logit model using two countries’ household data sets during 2003–2009. We compose the quality of job into various subgroups by combining hourly wage, job security and working hours, and verify that despite having similar Affirmative Action (AA) systems in the two countries, Australian women are more likely to work in jobs with higher quality compared to South Korean women subject to the loose incentive operation of AA.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship. P aula C aplan .
Affirmative Action in Perspective , F. A. B lanchard and F. J. C rosby .
Equity and Gender: The Comparable Worth Debate , E llen F rankel P aul .
Can Psychotherapists Hurt You? J udy S triano .
Between Women: Love, Envy and Competition in Women's Friendships , L uisee E ichenbaum and S usie O rbach .     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Ekegren, G. Verbal reports about strategies in probabilistic inference learning tasks.
Frykholm, G. Action, intention gender, and identity, perceived from body movement.     

Perceived Legitimacy of a Promotion Decision in Relation to Deservingness,Entitlement, and Resentment in the Context of Affirmative Action and Performance1

This study tests a model relating perceived legitimacy of a promotion committee's decision to the deservingness and entitlement of a male or female candidate for promotion and to resentment about the decision. University students responded to scenarios in which deservingness was manipulated by information about the quality of the candidate's performance; entitlement was manipulated by information about an affirmative‐action policy. Results showed strong positive effects of perceived deservingness on perceived legitimacy, which were partially mediated by resentment. Perceived entitlement was also a positive predictor of perceived legitimacy. Gender bias occurred, especially in regard to resentment and when the male candidate was promoted. The study extends deservingness theory to a new area and provides evidence for the distinction between deservingness and entitlement.     

Afro-communitarianism and affirmative action in South Africa: A response to David Benatar

In a 2008 article “Justice, Diversity and Racial Preference: a Critique of Affirmative Action”, published in the South African Law Journal, David Benatar argues that affirmative action in South African higher education institutions cannot be justified. In response to this argument and the views expressed in his article, I show that his conclusions depend on an individualistic, decontextualised, and dehistoricised conception of the person. I argue that if we take an Afro-communitarian understanding of the person as our starting point, Benatar's arguments fail. An upshot of my argument is that affirmative action emerges as a useful and critical measure of restorative justice in the South African context.     

Attitudes toward rape: Gender and ethnic differences across Asian and Caucasian college students

Previous research has demonstrated that males have a greater tendency to hold erroneous beliefs about rape than females. However, limited cross-cultural studies, particularly of Asians, have been done in this area. The present investigation examined attitudes toward rape victims and belief in rape myths across 302 Asian and Caucasian college students. Subjects were recruited from two college campuses in Orange County, California, and were from predominantly middle-income backgrounds. None of the Caucasian students and a minority (36.25%) of the Asian subjects identified their particular ethnic group(s) of origin. Of the Asian subjects who specified their ethnicity, the majority were of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Results indicated significant differences across ethnicity and gender. Asians were more likely to endorse negative attitudes toward rape victims and greater belief in rape myths than their Caucasian counterparts; males endorsed greater negativity toward rape victims and more acceptance of rape myths than did females. Asian subjects who endorsed greater acculturation (Western affiliation) differed significantly from low acculturated subjects on all dependent variables. Results are discussed in regard to cross-cultural differences and gender. Culturally sensitive rape awareness outreach targeting potentially high risk groups, such as Asian college students, is encouraged.This study was in part supported through an Affirmative Action Grant awarded to the first author by the Affirmative Action Faculty Development Program, California State University, Fullerton. Findings of the study were previously presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, August 1994, Los Angeles, California. The authors wish to thank the undergraduate and graduate research assistants who served as experimenters.     

PROMOTING REGULAR EXERCISE IN ORGANIZATIONAL FITNESS PROGRAMS: HEALTH-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN MOTIVATIONAL BUILDING BLOCKS

Hypotheses are proposed about relations among "building block" components of the motivation to attain exercise goals in an organizational fitness program, as well as about health-related individual differences in those components. The hypotheses are tested in a longitudinal field study involving questionnaire, physiological, and behavioral data from 107 participants in such a program. In support of the componential hypotheses, goal attainment was a positive function of goal commitment. Goal commitment was an additive function of goal attractiveness and goal-specific self-efficacy/perceived control. In support of the individual difference hypotheses, physiological variables were associated with work- and health-related perceived barriers to goal attainment. Employees with high health risks ranged from .5 to 1.2 SDs higher in perceived barriers than employees with low risks. Evidence suggests that for goal setting to succeed as a program intervention, managers must concentrate on reducing the perceived work- and health-related barriers to exercise participation and goal attainment, especially for employees with high health risks.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
EQUALITY AND LIBERTY: A Defense of Radical Egalitarianism Kai Nielsen Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985
LIBERTY AND EQUALITY Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul (eds.) Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985
EQUALITY (Key Ideas Series) Bryan S. Turner Chichester: Ellis Honvood Limited, 1986; London and New York: Tavistock Publications, 1986
UTILITY AND RIGHTS R.G. Frey (ed.) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
INALIENABLE RIGHTS: A Defense Diana T. Meyers New York
DEMOCRACY EAST AND WEST: A Philosophical Overview Howard P. Kainz New York
OUT OF ORDER: Affirmative Action and the Crisis of Doctrinaire Liberalism Nicholas Capaldi Buffalo     

Book Reviews

Books reveiwed:
Rix, Rebecca, (ed.) Sexual Abuse Litigation: A Practical Resource forAttorneys, Clinicians, and Advocates
Griedman, Stewart D. and Greenhaus, Jeffrey H., Work and Family—Allies or Enemies?
Hirigoyen, Marie-France, Stalking the Soul: EmotionalAbuse and the Erosion of Identity
Riger, Stephanie, Transforming Psychology: Gender in Theory and Practice
Hornstein, Gail A., To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World: TheLife of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann
Cohen, Theodore F., Men and Masculinity: A Text Reader
Crosby, Faye J. and Vandeveer, Cheryl, (Eds.) Sex, Race, & Merit: Debating Affirmative Action in Education and Employment
Cleveland, Jeanette N. Stockdale, Margaret, and Murphy, Kevin R., Women and Men in Organizations: Sex and Gender Issues at Work     

A preventive,psychoeducational approach to increase perceived social support

Investigated the effects of a 13-week preventive, psychoeducational intervention program to improve perceived social support. Fifty-one, low-perceived support, community residents were randomly assigned to an intervention or wait-list control condition. Intervention subjects received training in social skills and cognitive reframing regarding the self and social relations. The intervention led to increased perceived social support from family, but not from friends. As hypothesized by social cognition models, increases in perceived support appeared to be mediated by changes in self-esteem and frequency of self-reinforcement. Further, such changes in cognition about the self were larger than the changes observed for perceived support, suggesting that it may be easier to change cognition about the self than perceptions of support.     

Person, situation, and person-by-situation interaction components in person perception

The hypothesis that people store situation and person-by-situation interaction information as well as trait information about one another's behavior was tested by administering modified S-R Inventories of Anxiousness and Hostility to 54 male and 59 female undergraduates. Subjects rated the strength of affect that would be evoked by a series of situations in the two same-sex college students whom they knew best, the best-known opposite-sex person, a casually known same-sex person, and the “average college student.” Indices were constructed to measure the extent of (a) perceived average differences among people (traits), (b)perceived average differences over situations, and (c) perceived person-by-situation interaction. Analyses of variance showed that: (a) the ratings of the two best-known same-sex persons and the best-known opposite-sex person contained more interactive information than did the ratings of a casually known person and (b) females perceived more situational variability in the behavior of their own sex than did males. The amount of perceived person-by-situation interaction did not differ as a function of sex of rater or affect to be rated. It was concluded that the naive psychologist, like many professional psychologists, is an interactionist.     

Prejudiced People Perceive More Community Support for Their Views: The Role of Own,Media, and Peer Attitudes in Perceived Consensus

People often overestimate others' support for their views (false consensus effect). Recent research has shown that this is particularly marked in the relation between perceived consensus and prejudice. The current research asked whether this partly arises in an in‐group stereotype of the community as prejudiced. We investigated relations between different sources of normative information (self, media, peers), estimates of community attitudes, and perceived consensus in a sample of 135 community members. Media prejudice predicted community attitudes, and this further predicted consensus. However, strongest was a direct relation between own prejudice and perceived consensus. The results indicate a desire to appear nonprejudiced, relative to others. Confronting prejudiced people with information about community norms is a promising intervention under these circumstances.     

Functional significance of psychological variables that are included in the Theory of Planned Behaviour: a Self-Determination Theory approach to the study of attitudes,subjective norms,perceptions of control and intentions

The Theory of Planned Behaviour was proposed by Ajzen (1985) in an attempt to expand the applicability of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to situations where behaviour is not under complete volitional control. However, recent research does not address the issue of the stability of intentions, yet this is considered a boundary condition of the TRA on theoretical grounds. Therefore, the purposes of the present article were, first, to make a theoretical approach to the study of the stability of behavioural intentions by discussing assumptions underlying self-determination theory. Second, because, according to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), stability of intentions is related to the functional significance of psychological events, investigation of the functional significance of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control was attempted through a study dealing with leisure-time physical activity. Because investigation of functional significance requires instruments assessing behavioural regulations, instrument development took place. Results partially supported the validity of behavioural regulations with respect to leisure-time physical activity. Furthermore, subjective norms were found to represent only the controlling dimension of functional significance. Attitudes and perceived behavioural control were found to represent both the controlling and informational dimensions of functional significance. Results are discussed in relation to assumptions underlying the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Trying. Implications for theory development are made. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.