The relationships of sexually harassing behaviors to organizational context factors and working men's dark personality traits.

This research examined the roles of organization contexts factors and dark personality traits in men's (N = 600) self-reports of sexually harassing behaviors toward women in the workplace. Four organization context factors (a permissive climate, a masculinized job/gender context, male/female contact, and Masculinity Contest Culture [MCC] Norms) and four dark personality traits (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism) were examined. While only one organizational context factor, MCC Norms correlated with men's admissions of sexually harassing behaviors at work, all four dark personality traits evidenced significant correlations. In a multiple regression analysis, MCC Norms emerged again as the single organizational context predictor and psychopathy as the single personality predictor of men's admissions of sexually harassing behaviors at work. Moderation analyses showed that a masculinized job/gender context interacted with psychopathy to produce more admissions of sexually harassing behaviors. Mediation analyses showed that psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism had indirect relationships with admissions of sexually harassing behaviors through MCC Norms. Higher levels on these traits were related to higher levels of these workplace norms which, in turn, predicted more admissions of sexually harassing behavior. This research sheds new light on how both organizational contexts and enduring personal characteristics of men are related to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Stigma by association and family burden among family members of people with mental illness: the mediating role of coping.

PURPOSE: When someone has a mental illness, family members may share the experience of stigma. Past research has established that family members' experiences of stigma by association predict psychological distress and lower quality-of-life. METHODS: The present study, conducted with 503 family members of people with mental illness examined the prevalence of 14 different coping strategies. Of greater importance, we examined the role of these coping strategies as mediators of the relationships between stigma by association and family burden, on the one hand, and outcomes, such as psychological distress and quality-of-life, on the other. RESULTS: The results showed that both perceived stigma by association and family burden are associated with greater psychological distress and lower quality-of-life, and that most coping strategies mediate these relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptive coping strategies were related to reduced negative outcomes, while most maladaptive coping strategies were related to enhanced negative outcomes. Implications for intervention development are discussed.

The Role of Burden and Deviation in Ostracizing Others.

Ostracism (being excluded and ignored) is a painful experience, so why do individuals ostracize others? Previous research suggests individuals often ostracize those who are deviate, but not always. We posit that there may be two types of deviation, burdensome and non-burdensome, and the former is most likely to be ostracized. Study 1 manipulated burdensome deviation by programming a group member to perform more slowly (8 or 16 sec.) than others (4 sec.) in a virtual ball-toss game. Participants perceived slower players as more burdensome and deviate than normal speed players. Additionally, participants ostracized (gave fewer ball tosses to) the slowest player. Study 2 examined participant responses to both burdensome deviation (8- and 16-sec. players) and non-burdensome deviation (goth appearance). Participants again perceived the slower players to be burdensome and deviate, and ostracized them. They perceived the goth player to be deviate but not burdensome and did not ostracize this player.

Stigma as a Barrier to HIV-Related Activities Among African-American Churches in South Carolina.

South Carolina has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the United States. More than 70% of those infected are African American. Traditionally, Black churches have been one of the primary sources of health outreach programs in Southern African-American communities. In this research, we explored the role of HIV-related stigma as a barrier to the acceptance of HIV-related activities in Black churches. A survey of African-American adults in South Carolina found that the overall level of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS was comparable to what has been found in a national probability sample of people in the United States. Consistent with the stigma-as-barrier hypothesis, the degree to which survey respondents endorsed HIV-related stigma was related to less positive attitudes concerning the involvement of Black churches in HIV-related activities.

Coping with stigma by association and family burden among family members of people with mental illness.

In this study, we explored stigma by association, family burden, and their impact on the family members of people with mental illness. We also studied the ways in which family members coped with these phenomena. We conducted semistructured interviews with 23 immediate family members of people with mental illness. Participants reported various experiences of stigma by association and family burden. Social exclusion, being blamed, not being taken seriously, time-consuming caregiving activities, and exhaustion appeared to be the predominant forms of stigma by association and family burden experienced by the participants. The participants used problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies, separately or simultaneously, to cope with the negative impact of stigma by association and family burden. The results suggest that family members should have access to services to address these problems. Social, instrumental, and emotional support should be given to family members by community members and mental health professionals.

Peer bystanders to bullying: who wants to play with the victim?

Given widespread concern associated with school-based bullying, researchers have looked beyond a dyadic perspective (i.e., bullies and victims only), and now consider the broader social ecology of the peer group. In this research, we examined how the behaviors of peer bystanders influence subsequent reactions to bullies and their victims. Two hundred and six 10- to 15-year-old boys (Mage = 12.46) were invited to play a computer game with three other boys allegedly located at another school. Before the start of the game, participants "met the other players" apparently sitting in a waiting room. These child actors depicted an escalating bullying episode in which the behavior of the bystander was manipulated: aide to the bully, defender of the victim, or passive outsider. Immediately after exposure to the bullying, each participant played a ball toss game (Cyberball) with the three other boys in the video. Individual differences among participants were examined as moderators of the effect of bystander behavior on participants' willingness to include the "victim" in the game. Results indicated that, when exposed to a passive bystander, boys' normative beliefs about aggression, as well as their tendency to morally disengage from observed egregious acts, decreased their willingness to include the victim in the game.

The influence of social norms upon behavioral expressions of implicit and explicit weight-related stigma in an interactive game.

This research explored the roles of social influence and stigma-related attitudes in how people behaved toward an overweight female in an interactive computer game. Photographs were used to manipulate whether one of the players in the game was overweight or average weight. We found that both explicit and implicit anti-fat attitudes influenced interactions with an overweight player, but only when other players ostracized the overweight player, not when they included her. Under conditions of ostracism, explicit attitudes were better predictors of more controllable behaviors, while implicit attitudes were better predictors of more automatic behaviors.

Experiences of stigma by association among family members of people with mental illness.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships between public stigma, stigma by association (SBA), psychological distress, perceived closeness, perceived heredity, and the type of family relationship among family members of people with a mental illness. METHOD: In this cross-sectional survey, data from 527 family members of people with a mental illness were analyzed. RESULTS: Perceptions of public stigma were found to be positively related to SBA and SBA correlated with greater psychological distress and less perceived closeness. SBA also mediated relationships between perceived public stigma and psychological distress, and between perceived public stigma and perceived closeness. Further, among participants who reported SBA, immediate family members showed lower levels of perceived closeness than extended family members. Also, the perceived heredity of mental illness was associated with perceptions of public stigma and psychological distress. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that family members of people with a mental illness could benefit from education on mental illnesses, their treatment, and the extent to which they are hereditary. Additionally, particular attention should be paid to the psychological needs that arise from being a caregiver of someone with a mental illness.

The infection of bad company: stigma by association.

Stigma by association represents the process through which the companions of stigmatized persons are discredited. Conduits for stigma by association range from the strong and enduring bonds of kinship to the arbitrary occasions of being seen in the company of someone who is stigmatized. A theoretical model is proposed in which both deliberative and spontaneous processes result in the spread of stigma to the companions of stigmatized persons. Support for this model was found across 3 studies that examined how explicit and implicit stigma-relevant attitudes moderate stigma-by-association effects. When social relationships were meaningful (e.g., kinship), both explicit and implicit attitudes moderated the devaluation of stigmatized persons' companions. On the other hand, when social relationships appeared coincidental only implicit attitudes moderated companion devaluation.

HIV-related stigma in African and Afro-Caribbean communities in the Netherlands: manifestations, consequences and coping.

HIV-related stigma in African and Afro-Caribbean diaspora communities in the Netherlands was investigated. Interviews with HIV-positive and HIV-negative community members demonstrated that HIV-related stigma manifests as social distance, physical distance, words and silence. The psychological consequences of HIV-related stigma among those diagnosed with HIV reported were emotional pain, sadness, loneliness, anger, frustration and internalised stigma. The social consequences included decreased social network size, limited social support and social isolation, and resulted from not only enacted stigma but also self-imposed social withdrawal. Also, poor treatment adherence was a health-related consequence. People living with HIV employed both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of stigma. Problem-focused coping strategies included selective disclosure, disengagement, affiliating with similar others, seeking social support and, to a lesser extent, activism. Emotion-focused strategies included distraction, positive reappraisal, religious coping, external attributions, disidentification and acceptance. HIV-related stigma clearly permeates African and Afro-Caribbean communities in the Netherlands, and should be targeted for intervention.

Psychological and social correlates of HIV status disclosure: the significance of stigma visibility.

HIV-related stigma, psychological distress, self-esteem, and social support were investigated in a sample comprising people who have concealed their HIV status to all but a selected few (limited disclosers), people who could conceal but chose to be open (full disclosers), and people who had visible symptoms that made concealing difficult (visibly stigmatized). The visibly stigmatized and full disclosers reported significantly more stigma experiences than limited disclosers, but only the visibly stigmatized reported more psychological distress, lower self-esteem, and less social support than limited disclosers. This suggests that having a visible stigma is more detrimental than having a concealable stigma. Differences in psychological distress and self-esteem between the visibly stigmatized and full disclosers were mediated by social support while differences between the visibly stigmatized and limited disclosers were mediated by both social support and stigma. These findings suggest that social support buffers psychological distress in people with HIV.

Unreliability and error in the military's "gold standard" measure of sexual harassment by education and gender.

The Department of Defense's "gold standard" sexual harassment measure, the Sexual Harassment Core Measure (SHCore), is based on an earlier measure that was developed primarily in college women. Furthermore, the SHCore requires a reading grade level of 9.1. This may be higher than some troops' reading abilities and could generate unreliable estimates of their sexual harassment experiences. Results from 108 male and 96 female soldiers showed that the SHCore's temporal stability and alternate-forms reliability was significantly worse (a) in soldiers without college experience compared to soldiers with college experience and (b) in men compared to women. For men without college experience, almost 80% of the temporal variance in SHCore scores was attributable to error. A plain language version of the SHCore had mixed effects on temporal stability depending on education and gender. The SHCore may be particularly ill suited for evaluating population trends of sexual harassment in military men without college experience.

HIV status disclosure among HIV-positive African and Afro-Caribbean people in the Netherlands.

HIV status disclosure is often characterized as a dilemma. On the one hand, disclosure can promote health, social support, and psychological well-being. On the other, disclosure can lead to stigmatization, rejection, and other negative social interactions. Previous research has shown that HIV status disclosure is a reasoned process whereby the costs and benefits to oneself and to others are weighed. As such, understanding disclosure requires understanding the reasons for and against disclosure employed by people living with HIV (PLWH). In this study, disclosure among a population disproportionately affected by HIV in the Netherlands, namely African and Afro-Caribbean diaspora, was investigated. Reasons for nondisclosure were fear of stigmatization, previous negative experiences with disclosure, having observed the stigmatization of other PLWH, shame, the desire to protect others - particularly one's children and family - from stigmatization by association and/or worrying, and the belief that one's HIV status is a private matter. Participants reported disclosing because they were in a close and supportive relationship, disclosure led to emotional release, disclosure could lead to emotional or financial support, they felt a perceived duty to inform, and they had a desire to educate others about sexual risk-taking. The findings suggest that stigma plays an important role in disclosure decisions among these populations. They further point to a need for HIV-related stigma reduction interventions in African and Afro-Caribbean communities and culturally sensitive counseling for PLWH whereby caregivers do not automatically assume that disclosure is best but rather provide a safe environment in which the costs and benefits of disclosure can be weighed and strategies for disclosure can be developed, if perceived as beneficial by PLWH.

The association between military sexual stress and psychiatric symptoms after controlling for other stressors.

OBJECTIVE: Several researchers have identified associations between exposure to occupational sexual stressors (e.g., sexual harassment) and severer psychiatric symptoms in military personnel. However, few controlled for participants' exposures to other high-magnitude stressors, which could have confounded results. We examined the unique association between military sexual stress and severity of participants' psychiatric symptoms after controlling for their other high-magnitude stressor experiences. Organizational- and individual-level predictors of military sexual stress were also assessed. METHOD: We surveyed by mail all active duty troops registered in the Department of Veterans Affairs' Enrollment Database (2001-2003). The questionnaire contained well-validated measures. RESULTS: Eighty-four percent responded (total sample N = 611); of these 56% reported at least one sexual stressor exposure. A highly significant association between military sexual stress and psychiatric symptoms attenuated by two thirds and lost statistical significance once other stressor experiences were controlled. Besides sociodemographics, the strongest correlates of military sexual stress were working in an environment perceived to tolerate sexual harassment, reporting severer childhood maltreatment, and reporting more high-magnitude stressors. A gender-stratified analysis generated similar findings for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Little unique variance in psychiatric symptom reporting was explained by military sexual stressor exposure after controlling for other stressors. Childhood maltreatment and other high-magnitude stressors acted as risk factors for and confounders of military sexual stress. Understanding how and why these stressors inter-relate could lead to better, more effective interventions to reduce them all-and their sequelae. Findings also highlight the need to routinely include men in sexual stress research.

HIV-related stigma and psychological distress: the harmful effects of specific stigma manifestations in various social settings.

OBJECTIVES: Recent research has shown that experiences of stigmatization have an adverse impact on the psychological well being of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Most studies investigating this relationship employ an aggregate measure of stigma. Although this approach provides useful information about the psychological implications of HIV-related stigma in general, it neglects to acknowledge the possibility that some manifestations in specific settings may be psychologically more detrimental than others. The present study examines which specific stigma experiences are most strongly related to psychological distress across a number of social settings. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 667 PLWHA in the Netherlands. We examined participants' experiences of 11 manifestations of HIV-related stigma in six social settings. Linear regression analyses were conducted to determine which setting-specific manifestations best predict psychological distress after controlling for marital status, education and health status. RESULTS: Three manifestations in family settings, namely receiving advice to conceal one's status, being avoided and being treated with exaggerated kindness, and one manifestation in healthcare settings, namely awkward social interaction, best predicted psychological distress in PLWHA. CONCLUSION: Manifestations of HIV-related stigma vary according to setting. Certain manifestations in specific social settings impact the psychological well being of PLWHA more than others. In this study, certain experiences of stigmatization with PLWHA's families and in healthcare settings were more strongly related to psychological distress than experiences occurring in other social settings. These findings suggest that stigma reduction interventions focusing on these influential settings may benefit the psychological well being of PLWHA.

Reducing AIDS-related stigma in developing countries: the importance of theory- and evidence-based interventions.

In many developing countries persons living with HIV and AIDS experience strong stigma and discrimination, and AIDS-related stigma has an enormous negative impact on their social relationships, access to resources, and psychological well being. Moreover, AIDS-related stigma hampers HIV-related health promotion, including voluntary HIV counselling and testing. In this article, we will argue that programs to reduce AIDS-related stigma are most likely to be effective if these programs are based upon thorough needs assessments, theory- and evidence-based intervention strategies and collaborative planning. A protocol for health promotion programs design is outlined. Furthermore, psychosocial correlates of AIDS-related stigma in developing countries, social-psychological theories that might be useful in designing intervention strategies to reduce stigmatisation and successful elements of previous interventions aimed at stigma reduction are discussed. It is concluded that psychological theory does provide guidelines for the development of stigma-reducing intervention programs, but that such programs can only be effective when based upon context-specific needs assessment and collaborative planning.

Impressions of Milgram's obedient teachers: situational cues inform inferences about motives and traits.

The research investigated impressions formed of a "teacher" who obeyed an experimenter by delivering painful electric shocks to an innocent person (S. Milgram, 1963, 1974). Three findings emerged across different methodologies and different levels of experimenter-induced coercion. First, contrary to conventional wisdom, perceivers both recognized and appreciated situational forces, such as the experimenter's orders that prompted the aggression. Second, perceivers' explanations of the teacher's behavior focused on the motive of obedience (i.e., wanting to appease the experimenter) rather than on hurtful (or evil) motivation. Despite this overall pattern, perceptions of hurtful versus helpful motivation varied as a function of information regarding the level of coercion applied by the experimenter. Finally, theoretically important relationships were revealed among perceptions of situations, motives, and traits. In particular, situational cues (such as aspects of the experimenter's behavior) signaled the nature of the teacher's motives, which in turn informed inferences of the teacher's traits. Overall, the findings pose problems for the lay dispositionism perspective but fit well with multiple inference models of dispositional inference.

Dual psychological processes underlying public stigma and the implications for reducing stigma.

People with serious illness or disability are often burdened with social stigma that promotes a cycle of poverty via unemployment, inadequate housing and threats to mental health. Stigma may be conceptualized in terms of self-stigma (e.g., shame and lowered self-esteem) or public stigma (e.g., the general public's prejudice towards the stigmatized). This article examines two psychological processes that underlie public stigma: associative processes and rule-based processes. Associative processes are quick and relatively automatic whereas rule-based processes take longer to manifest themselves and involve deliberate thinking. Associative and rule-based thinking require different assessment instruments, follow a different time course and lead to different effects (e.g., stigma-by-association vs attributional processing that results in blame). Of greatest importance is the fact that each process may require a different stigma-prevention strategy.

Stigma, secrecy, and discrimination: ethnic/racial differences in the concerns of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The HIV Stigma Scale is a measure that assesses stigmatization perceived and experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Using Item Response Theory (IRT) methodologies, the present study examined HIV Stigma Scale responses from 224 Black and 317 White PLWHA to determine whether cross-cultural differences exist in responses to items of the scale. IRT analysis revealed that eleven out of forty items functioned differently across groups. Black respondents had a higher probability of indicating greater stigmatization on items that described situations in which others discriminated against them, and White respondents had a higher probability of indicating greater stigmatization on items that described a resolve to keep their status a secret and fears of interpersonal rejection. These differences suggest that PLWHA have different experiences of stigma based on their ethnic/racial background, either because of cultural differences or the ways in which the participants interpreted items of the HIV Stigma Scale.

On attributing negative motives to others who disagree with our opinions.

The research explores the tendency for people to attribute negative motives to others who hold an attitude position that is discrepant from their own. In Studies 1 and 2, American and Canadian respondents indicated their perceptions of U.S. President Bush's motives for initiating war in Iraq. Consistent with the proposed bias, respondents who disagreed with the war attributed more selfish motivations than did those who supported the war. Study 3 revealed a similar bias when respondents rated the motives of the general citizenry concerning their attitudes about the war, and Study 4 provided evidence of the bias on different attitudinal issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). Study 4 also indicated that biased attributions of motive were primarily confined to respondents who were highly involved in the attitude issue. Discussion centers on naïve realism, social identity concerns, and attitude justification as relevant underlying theoretical factors.