Transcript Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination over Time: Implications for Coping Mindi Foster, Wilfrid Laurier University Method and Data Analysis Participants Time x Pervasiveness Interactions • 27 female, 2

Perceiving Pervasive Discrimination over Time:
Implications for Coping
Mindi Foster, Wilfrid Laurier University
Method and Data Analysis
Participants
Time x Pervasiveness Interactions
• 27 female, 2 male (Mean age = 19, SD = 1.43)
• 42.4% White women , 57.6% Visible Minority
It may appear then, that there are two competing theories and empirical findings:
pervasiveness of discrimination can have negative psychological but positive social
consequences. However, if we consider that a political consciousness and activism is the
result of a process (e.g., Taylor & McKirnan, 1984), then the two perspectives on perceived
pervasiveness may instead be consistent, reflecting two different points in the process.
Initially, perceiving discrimination to be pervasive may be overwhelming to the point of
impairing well-being. Over time however, believing discrimination to be “everywhere” may
become empowering.
• Initial interview, including several pre-measures for possible
covariates
• 28-day diary
• Entries included a written description of discrimination,
perceived pervasiveness of each experience, and daily coping
strategies
7
Time x Time-pervasiveness
on ACTIVE coping
Note:
Measures
controlling for two significant
covariates: group identity,
number of incidents
• Potential covariates: Neuroticism (John & Srivastava, 1999),
Group Identity, Past Discrimination (Contrada et al., 2001),
perceived severity (“How severe was today’s incident”), number
of incidents
• Time-pervasiveness (“Would today’s experience likely happen
again in the future”)
• Context-pervasiveness (“Would today’s experience likely affect
other situations in your life”)
•BriefCope (Carver, 1997)
6
p = .06
p = .03
5
High Pervasiveness
Low Pervasiveness
4
3
B = -.056, p = .03
2
1
14
28
DAY
8
Time x Context-pervasiveness
on ACTIVE coping
Analysis
• Multi-level modeling procedures were used (Singer & Willet, 2003)
•Lagged analyses were conducted to assess potential causal
relationships. Thus, an appraisal of Experience 1 predicted coping
with Experience 2 etc.
•After specifying the unconditional mean, growth and main effects
models, the interaction model (time x perceived pervasiveness) was
specified:
Note:
7
6
USE OF STRATEGY
At the same time however, group consciousness theories (GCT; e.g., Bowles & Duellli Klein,
1983) suggest that defining discrimination as pervasive has positive consequences on a
social level, namely taking action to combat discrimination. Such theories are based in the
grass-roots experiences of the 1970s whereby women came together to talk about everyday
experiences. In hearing about the wide variety of ways in which discrimination affected all
women, they began to reinterpret what was previously thought to be an isolated incident into
something that was affecting many aspects of their lives. (e.g., “its happening at home, work,
school . . . everywhere!”). The recognition of the pervasiveness of discrimination was in turn
said to be empowering on a psychological level (“It’s not just me”) and on a collective level
(“what happens to me happens to them”). Indeed, research has shown that the more women
define their discrimination experiences as pervasive, the more they feel connected to other
women, which in turn is related to enhanced collective action (Foster, 2000;2001).
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controlling for two significant
covariates: group identity,
number of incidents
High Pervasiveness
Low Pervasiveness
5
B = -.059, p = .02
4
3
p = .06
p = .05
2
1
14
28
DAY
Yij = γ00 + γ10DAYij + + γ20APPRAISAL + γ30DAY x
APPRAISAL (εij + ζ0i + ζ1iDAYij)
8
7
Types of Experiences
Perceived
Pervasiveness
over Time
60
50
Time x Context-pervasiveness
on
BEHAVIOURAL
DISENGAGEMENT
6
USE OF STRATEGY
Media references to “The Rodney King Incident” and “The Anita Hill Incident” portray
isolated events rather than issues representative of larger problems, namely racism and
sexual harassment. In reality however, discrimination is rarely isolated. Instead, as studies
supporting the Rejection Identification Model (RIM) show, victims of discrimination report
discrimination that is chronic and widespread (e.g., Branscombe, Schmitt & Harvey, 1999). In
turn, experiencing pervasive rejection in the form of discrimination has negative
psychological consequences (e.g., Foster & Dion, 2003; Schmitt et al., 2002).
Procedure
USE OF STRATEGY
Introduction
5
High Pervasiveness
Low Pervasiveness
p = .05
p = .07
4
7
Thus, this study used a daily diary method to examine the effects of perceived pervasiveness
over time.
3
40
B = -.027, p = .03
6
2
1
30
14
28
•Consistent with RIM, it was expected that those who perceived discrimination to be
pervasive at the start of the study would show less active coping than those perceiving it
as isolated
PERCEIVED PERVASIVENESS
DAY
20
10
0
5
4
Conclusions
3
Percent of experiences
Negative Comments/Stereoptypes
•Consistent with GCT, it was expected that over time, those perceiving discrimination to be
pervasive would show increases in active coping.
This research was supported by a Spencer Foundation grant
and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada
Exclusion
Harassment
Negative Comments: “Today my
male friend made the comment
that “girls aren’t as smart as guys”
Exclusion: “I came to the conclusion
that the only reason I didn’t have
the option to join in was because I
was female”
Harassment: “Last night while we were
coming out at the campus bar, I noticed
that the way a lot of our male friends
addressed me was by coming up and
grabbing my butt”
2
1
1
14
28
DAY
Time-pervasiveness
Context Pervasiveness
• A non-significant growth
model shows no changes
in perceived pervasiveness,
thus the methodology did not
appear to increase sensitivity
to discrimination
1. Consistent with hypotheses, those defining discrimination as pervasive
• were less active initially
• maintained their activity level over time
• reduced their inactivity over time
2. Those defining discrimination as isolated
• maintained their inactivity level over time
• became less active over time
3. Perceived pervasiveness appears to have different effects, depending on
the point in time