Difference Matters: Teaching Students a Contextual Theory of Difference Can Help Them Succeed

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Stephens ◽  
MarYam G. Hamedani ◽  
Sarah S. M. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Disadvantaged Students ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Academic Benefits ◽  
Contextual Understanding ◽  
Potential Benefits

Today’s increasingly diverse and divided world requires the ability to understand and navigate across social-group differences. We propose that interventions that teach students about these differences can not only improve all students’ intergroup skills but also help disadvantaged students succeed in school. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this article theorizes that teaching students a contextual understanding of difference can accomplish both of these important goals. Understanding difference as contextual means recognizing that social-group differences come from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. This article begins by reviewing research that highlights two distinct understandings of social-group differences—as contextual or essential—and demonstrates their consequences for intergroup outcomes. We then review research on multicultural and social justice education that highlights the potential benefits of educating students about social-group differences. We propose that these educational approaches are associated with intergroup and academic benefits for one key reason: They teach students a contextual theory of difference. Finally, to illustrate and provide causal evidence for our theory of how a contextual understanding of difference affords these benefits, this article provides an overview of the first social psychological intervention to teach students a contextual understanding of difference: difference-education.

Difference-Education Improves First-Generation Students’ Grades Throughout College and Increases Comfort With Social Group Difference

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722098290
Author(s):  
Sarah S. M. Townsend ◽  
Nicole M. Stephens ◽  
MarYam G. Hamedani
Keyword(s):  
College Transition ◽  
Social Group ◽  
First Generation ◽  
First Generation Students ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Academic Benefits ◽  
Education Interventions ◽  
First Time ◽  
New Evidence

Difference-education interventions teach people a contextual theory of difference: that social group difference comes from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. At two universities, we delivered difference-education interventions during the college transition and examined long-term academic and intergroup outcomes. Nearly 4 years later, first-generation students who received a difference-education intervention earned higher grades and were more likely to attain honors standing than those in the control condition. Based on an end-of-college survey with students at one of the two universities, both first-generation and continuing-generation students showed greater comfort with social group difference compared with students in the control condition. Our results demonstrate for the first time that teaching first-generation students a contextual theory of difference can lead to long-term academic benefits that persist until graduation. This work also provides new evidence that difference-education can improve comfort with social group difference.

Construing the Essence: The Effects of Construal Level on Genetic Attributions for Individual and Social Group Differences

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (9) ◽  
pp. 1395-1407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime L. Napier ◽  
Jamie B. Luguri ◽  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
Kathleen A. Oltman
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Racial Group ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Construal Level ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Contextual Influence ◽  
Mind Set

The present research links a nonsocial, contextual influence (construal level) to the tendency to endorse genetic attributions for individual and social group differences. Studies 1 to 3 show that people thinking in an abstract (vs. concrete) mind-set score higher on a measure of genetic attributions for individual and racial group differences. Study 4 showed that abstract (vs. concrete) construal also increased genetic attributions for novel groups. Study 5 explored the potential downstream consequences of construal on intergroup attitudes, and found that abstract (vs. concrete) construal led people to endorse genetic attributions in general and this was associated with increased anti-Black prejudice.

scholarly journals Recommended psychological crisis intervention response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in China: a model of West China Hospital

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Weili Wu ◽  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Wei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Intervention ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
West China Hospital ◽  
West China ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Abstract The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic has brought serious social psychological impact to the Chinese people, especially those quarantined and thus with limited access to face-to-face communication and traditional social psychological interventions. To better deal with the urgent psychological problems of people involved in the COVID-19 epidemic, we developed a new psychological crisis intervention model by utilizing internet technology. This new model, one of West China Hospital, integrates physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers into Internet platforms to carry out psychological intervention to patients, their families and medical staff. We hope this model will make a sound basis for developing a more comprehensive psychological crisis intervention response system that is applicable for urgent social and psychological problems.

Does Holland's Hexagon Travel Well?

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-26
Author(s):  
Mark B. Watson ◽  
Graham B. Stead ◽  
Carol Schonegevel
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
South African ◽  
Black Adolescents ◽  
Hexagonal Structure ◽  
Disadvantaged Students ◽  
Career Counselling ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Black South African ◽  
Structural Equivalence ◽  
And Gender

John Holland's career theory has influenced career counselling for several decades. However, recent research has questioned the cross-cultural and gender structural equivalence of his theory. The present research examines whether 529 black South African disadvantaged students’ interest structures fit Holland's hexagonal model and whether such structures differ according to gender and socioeconomic status. The results indicate that the structure of interests of black adolescents does not provide an acceptable level of fit to Holland's hexagonal structure. This finding was evident across gender and socioeconomic status groups. There were also no within-group differences for gender and socioeconomic status. The implications of these findings for career practitioners who use Holland's measures are discussed.

Linguistic analysis of dialect “correction” and its interaction with cognitive salience

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcah Yaeger-Dror
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
Community Influence ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Image Position ◽  
Degree Of Convergence ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cognitive Salience

ABSTRACTThis article considers language variation within one “ethnic” group: Israelis of Middle Eastern origins. Earlier studies (Yaeger-Dror, 1988, 1991) found that singers from the dominant “koiné” -speaking social group (Blanc, 1968) use [r] in pop songs and [R] in casual interviews. This can be defined as a register distinction. On the other hand, singers from a MidEastern ethnolinguistic background, whose underlying dialect includes [r], use [R] even in songs. Given that singers whose vernacular consonant invetory does not even include [r], and who should find it easire to use it categorically, have such a difficult time maintaing [r] consistently (and appropriately) in the song register? One of the recorded variants for these singers “merges” the [r] and [R] into coarticulated [rR]. Why does this previously unattested sound arise, and what does it tell us about the linguistic and sociolinguistic situation? Data from various registers are analyzed in order to discover the answers to these questions. This analysis is concerned with the quantifiable evidence of systematic patterns in the use of these three pronunciations for [r] and uses this evidence to demonstrate that subconscious sociolinguistic pressures on members of the minority community influence them to assimilate to the dominant social group while still retaining ethnolinguistic proof of a narrower ethnic identity. For example, the use of [rR] is found to be correlated with a wish to affiliate with both an [R]-using group and an [r]-using group, showing that sociolinguistic techniques can reveal social psychological ethinc affiliation. Like Trudgill's (1986) discussions of dialects in contact, the present theoretical discussion takes advantage of proposals advanced by Giles, to explain why the data reveal both convergence (toward the dominant out-group) and divergence (toward the in-group) (Giles & Coupland, 1991). Sociolinguistic methods permit a quantitative analysis of the strength of these conflicting tendencies, both of which are subsumed under the technical term “accommodation.” Methods are proposed to determine if choice of the[R] or [rR] variant is conscious or not, and variable rule analysis reveals that for most of the singers the less cognitive salience, the greater the degree of convergence to the Koiné norm [R]. The linguistic factors that are correlated with the relative degree of salience can be used in future studies when the relationship between convergence toward another dialect or language and relative cognitive salience is also at issue.

The Social Psychology of Intergroup Toleration

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Pluralistic Societies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Global Increase ◽  
Prejudice And Discrimination

The global increase in cultural and religious diversity has led to calls for toleration of group differences to achieve intergroup harmony. Although much social-psychological research has examined the nature of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and its impact on targets of these biases, little research has examined the nature and impact of toleration for intergroup relations. Toleration does not require that people give up their objections to out-group norms and practices but rather mutual accommodation. Integrating research from various social sciences, we explore the nature of intergroup tolerance including its three components—objection, acceptance, and rejection—while drawing out its implications for future social-psychological research. We then explore some psychological consequences to social groups that are the object of toleration. By doing so, we consider the complex ways in which intergroup tolerance impacts both majority and minority groups and the dynamic interplay of both in pluralistic societies.

scholarly journals From the Outside Looking in: How an Awareness of Difference Can Benefit the Qualitative Research Process

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Tinker ◽  
Natalie Armstron
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Potential Benefits

While much has been written on the problems that can arise when interviewing respondents from a different social group, less attention has been paid to its potential benefits for the research process. In this paper we argue that, by being conscious of one’s outsider status , an interviewer can use it as a tool through which to elicit detailed and comprehensive accounts from respondents, and ensure rigorous and critic al analysis of the data produced.

Brief Report on the Psychophysiological Effects of a Yoga Intervention for Chronic Stress

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlin N. Harkess ◽  
Paul Delfabbro ◽  
Jane Mortimer ◽  
Zara Hannaford ◽  
Sarah Cohen-Woods
Keyword(s):  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Wait List Control ◽  
Yoga Class ◽  
Yoga Group ◽  
Potential Benefits

Abstract. This paper evaluates the results of a longitudinal investigation of the potential benefits of yoga in a nonclinical sample of chronically stressed women (N = 116). Women undertook a twice weekly, hour-long yoga class for a period of 2 months, measuring psychological and physical indicators of health periodically. Changes in both areas were compared against a wait-list control group. The reported energy expenditure between groups was estimated to be similar, which suggests that the control group engaged in physical activities other than yoga. Of the six psychological outcomes measured, we found improvements in three. Specifically, those in the practicing yoga group experienced increases in positive affect, decreases in levels of distress and stress, as well as a decrease in waist circumference and increased flexibility. No between-group differences were found in mindfulness, well-being, and negative affect. These findings are generally consistent with an emerging literature, suggesting that yoga may provide both psychological and physiological effects that extend beyond its more obvious physical benefits, and are discussed in terms of the body’s allostatic load. These results should be considered in light of this study’s limitations, which include its small sample size, lack of an “active” control group, and female-only participants.

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