Unpacking Racial Discrimination: An Examination of the Processes and Consequences Involved in the Experience of Racial Discrimination.

[摘要] Racial discrimination is a common experience for many African Americans and has been implicated in the Black-White disparities in physical health outcomes. While it is clear that racial discrimination is linked to negative outcomes, the processes by which racial discrimination is linked to these outcomes is unclear. The dissertation uses a process-focused framework that focuses on interpretative and racial identity (attitudes about the meaning and significance of race) factors. Moreover, the dissertation examines how African Americans respond to an actual racial discrimination event across two days thereby allowing for the examination of how responses unfold over time. African American women were recruited from a large public university in the Midwest. On day 1, the participants arrived at the laboratory and were treated as if they are intellectually inferior by a White or African American confederate. The participants then reported their emotions and had their heart rate and blood pressure activity monitored. The participants returned to the laboratory approximately 24 hours later to provide additional emotional and physiological data and report on their experiences with the event. To test the relations among the key study variables, a series of univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), ordinary linear regression, and moderated mediation models were estimated. The findings revealed that the African American women who experienced the event as being more race-related reported being more angry, tense, and depressed than those who experienced the event as being less race-related (or not at all). Moreover, individuals who reported being highly race central and who experienced the event as being less race-related (or not at all) reported experiencing the most tension shortly after the unfair treatment and the most happiness on day 2. Finally, the findings suggest that the mechanisms by which causal attributions impact the emotional and physiological outcomes varied based on individuals’ racial identity attitudes.The study findings suggest that racial discrimination may be experienced more negatively than non-race-related stressors. Moreover, the findings suggest that the processes that explicate the link between racial discrimination experiences and its consequences are complex. The implications of the findings are discussed.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Emotions

[关键词] Racial Discrimination;Emotions;Physiology;Psychology;Social Sciences;Psychology