Background: The suitability of using reversed items in typical response measures has been a matter of controversy for many years. While some authors recommend their use, others reject them due to ...their undesirable effects on tests' psychometric properties. The present research intends to analyse a third alternative based on the use of reversed items plus a procedure to control response bias effects. Method: We analysed two forms of the same test, one with direct and reversed items and another composed only of direct items, and compared them both before and after applying a procedure to control response biases. Results: The factorial structure and factorial reliability of both versions was almost equivalent after controlling response biases. When no effect biases were controlled, the version with both types of items exhibited less acceptable psychometric properties. Conclusions: The use of reversed items is not advisable without the application of a procedure to control response bias effects. When such effects are mitigated, the results are equivalent to those obtained with only direct items, but with the added value of controlling for acquiescence effects. Keywords: Response bias, personality, factor structure. Antecedentes: la utilizacion de ftems invertidos en medidas de respuesta tipica ha sido durante mucho tiempo una cuestion controvertida. Mientras algunos autores aconsejan su utilizacion, otros la rechazan debido a sus efectos indeseables en las propiedades psicometricas de las medidas. El presente estudio pretende analizar una tercera via, basada en el uso de items invertidos juntamente con un metodo para eliminar los efectos de los sesgos de respuesta. Metodo: se analizaron dos versiones de una misma prueba, una incorporando items directos e invertidos y otra compuesta unicamente de items directos. Posteriormente se compararon ambas versiones antes y despues de controlar los efectos de los sesgos de respuesta. Resultados: la estructura factorial y la fiabilidad de las puntuaciones factoriales de ambas versiones tras eliminar los efectos de los sesgos de respuesta fue equivalente, mientras que la version con ambos tipos de items sin control de sesgos mostro peores propiedades psicometricas. Conclusiones: la utilizacion de items revertidos sin la aplicacion de un metodo de control de sesgos esta claramente desaconsejada. Cuando dichos metodos se utilizan los resultados de ambas versiones son equivalentes con el anadido que en la version con items revertidos se controlan los efectos de aquiescencia. Palabras clave: sesgos de respuesta, personalidad, estructura factorial.
Research on the consequences of making attributions to prejudice for the psychological functioning of minority groups is still scare and rather inconsistent. In this study we set out to examine the ...consequences of making attributions to prejudice in response to social rejection for social wellbeing among immigrants in Spain. We tested this relationship and the mediating effects with representative samples of 1250 foreign-born immigrants who had lived for at least six months in the Basque Country, having been born in Bolivia, Colombia, Morocco, Romania, or Sub-Saharan African countries. The sample was drawn from public records and obtained through a probability sampling procedure by ethnicity with stratification by age and sex. We conducted mediation analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify whether the perceived ethnic discrimination effect on the five dimensions of social wellbeing was partially or completely explained by the attributions to prejudice. Our results indeed partially revealed that making attributions to prejudice protect social wellbeing form negative consequences of personal discrimination only the dimension of social contribution. In turn, attributions to prejudice explained the negative relationship between perceived discrimination and social acceptance and social actualization: that is, these dimensions of social wellbeing that reflect social trust. We discuss the results integrating social identity, social stigma, and positive psychology framework, through inclusion of societal aspects of wellbeing for measuring immigrants’ adaptation in the host society.
Summary Stigma and discrimination in relation to mental illnesses have been described as having worse consequences than the conditions themselves. Most medical literature in this area of research has ...been descriptive and has focused on attitudes towards people with mental illness rather than on interventions to reduce stigma. In this narrative Review, we summarise what is known globally from published systematic reviews and primary data on effective interventions intended to reduce mental-illness-related stigma or discrimination. The main findings emerging from this narrative overview are that: (1) at the population level there is a fairly consistent pattern of short-term benefits for positive attitude change, and some lesser evidence for knowledge improvement; (2) for people with mental illness, some group-level anti-stigma inventions show promise and merit further assessment; (3) for specific target groups, such as students, social-contact-based interventions usually achieve short-term (but less clearly long-term) attitudinal improvements, and less often produce knowledge gains; (4) this is a heterogeneous field of study with few strong study designs with large sample sizes; (5) research from low-income and middle-income countries is conspicuous by its relative absence; (6) caution needs to be exercised in not overgeneralising lessons from one target group to another; (7) there is a clear need for studies with longer-term follow-up to assess whether initial gains are sustained or attenuated, and whether booster doses of the intervention are needed to maintain progress; (8) few studies in any part of the world have focused on either the service user's perspective of stigma and discrimination or on the behaviour domain of behavioural change, either by people with or without mental illness in the complex processes of stigmatisation. We found that social contact is the most effective type of intervention to improve stigma-related knowledge and attitudes in the short term. However, the evidence for longer-term benefit of such social contact to reduce stigma is weak. In view of the magnitude of challenges that result from mental health stigma and discrimination, a concerted effort is needed to fund methodologically strong research that will provide robust evidence to support decisions on investment in interventions to reduce stigma.
As public awareness of implicit bias has grown in recent years, studies have raised important new questions about the nature of implicit bias effects. First, implicit biases are widespread and robust ...on average, yet are unstable across a few weeks. Second, young children display implicit biases indistinguishable from those of adults, which suggests to many that implicit biases are learned early. Yet, if implicit biases are unstable over weeks, how can they be stable for decades? Third, meta-analyses suggest that individual differences in implicit bias are associated weakly, although significantly, with individual differences in behavioral outcomes. Yet, studies of aggregate levels of implicit bias (i.e., countries, states, counties) are strongly associated with aggregate levels of disparities and discrimination. These puzzles are difficult to reconcile with traditional views, which treat implicit bias as an early-learned attitude that drives discrimination among individuals who are high in bias. We propose an alternative view of implicit bias, rooted in concept accessibility. Concept accessibility can, in principle, vary both chronically and situationally. The empirical evidence, however, suggests that most of the systematic variance in implicit bias is situational. Akin to the "wisdom of crowds" effect, implicit bias may emerge as the aggregate effect of individual fluctuations in concept accessibility that are ephemeral and context-dependent. This bias of crowds theory treats implicit bias tests as measures of situations more than persons. We show how the theory can resolve the puzzles posed and generate new insights into how and why implicit bias propagates inequalities.
Anti‐immigrant attitudes are not only widespread among Eurosceptic nationalists, but also among people who feel that immigration threatens European values and identity. We therefore assumed that the ...connection between nationalism and xenophobia can only partially explain the rise of hostile attitudes in the post‐2015 period. In two online surveys (N = 1,160), we compared how (a) glorification versus attachment and (b) national versus European identity can predict anti‐immigrant and anti‐Muslim attitudes in Hungary. In the first study, national and European glorification predicted higher anti‐immigrant and anti‐Muslim prejudice. However, attachment with Europe predicted positive, while attachment with Hungary predicted negative attitudes towards immigrants. We replicated this pattern in a second study and found that the different predictions of national versus European identities were mediated by attitudes towards the EU. Eurosceptic attitudes were associated with increased hostility towards both immigrants and Muslim people and reflected a perceived contradiction between the interest of the nation and that of the EU. We conclude that for a better understanding of intergroup hostility towards Muslim immigrants in Europe, we need to simultaneously consider the psychological phenomenon of ingroup glorification and the values and norms of the social categories with which people identify.
Prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, and the consequences of these negative attitudes and behavior, are key determinants of the economic, sociocultural, and civic-political future of ...receiving societies and of the individuals who seek to make these societies their new home. In this article I review and organize the existing literature on the determinants and nature of prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, summarizing what we know to date and the challenges in attributing effects to immigrant status per se. I also discuss the consequences of discrimination against immigrants for immigrants themselves, their families, and the societies in which they settle. I conclude by presenting key research questions and topics in this domain that should be at the top of the research agenda for those interested in intergroup relations in this age of mass migration.
In 2 meta-analyses, we examined the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being and tested a number of moderators of that relationship. In Meta-Analysis 1 (328 ...independent effect sizes, N = 144,246), we examined correlational data measuring both perceived discrimination and psychological well-being (e.g., self-esteem, depression, anxiety, psychological distress, life satisfaction). Using a random-effects model, the mean weighted effect size was significantly negative, indicating harm (r = −.23). Effect sizes were larger for disadvantaged groups (r = −.24) compared to advantaged groups (r = −.10), larger for children compared to adults, larger for perceptions of personal discrimination compared to group discrimination, and weaker for racism and sexism compared to other stigmas. The negative relationship was significant across different operationalizations of well-being but was somewhat weaker for positive outcomes (e.g., self-esteem, positive affect) than for negative outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, negative affect). Importantly, the effect size was significantly negative even in longitudinal studies that controlled for prior levels of well-being (r = −.15). In Meta-Analysis 2 (54 independent effect sizes, N = 2,640), we examined experimental data from studies manipulating perceptions of discrimination and measuring well-being. We found that the effect of discrimination on well-being was significantly negative for studies that manipulated general perceptions of discrimination (d = −.25), but effects did not differ from 0 when attributions to discrimination for a specific negative event were compared to personal attributions (d = .06). Overall, results support the idea that the pervasiveness of perceived discrimination is fundamental to its harmful effects on psychological well-being.
Increased use of online communication in everyday life presents a growing need to understand how people are influenced by others in such settings. In this study, online comments established social ...norms that directly influenced readers' expressions of prejudice both consciously and unconsciously. Participants read an online article and were then exposed to antiprejudiced or prejudiced comments allegedly posted by other users. Results revealed that exposure to prejudiced (relative to antiprejudiced) comments influenced respondents to post more prejudiced comments themselves. In addition, these effects generalized to participants' unconscious and conscious attitudes toward the target group once offline. These findings suggest that simple exposure to social information can impact our attitudes and behavior, suggesting potential avenues for social change in online environments.
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