Psychodynamic Factors in Racial Relations

The Palliative Effects of System Justification on the Health and Happiness of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals

“…Even the earliest psychological theories posited that being a victim of prejudice exerts negative effects on mental and physical health (McLean, 1946), a point that continues to be supported by contemporary data (e.g., Cochran, Sullivan, & Mays, 2003; Hatzenbuehler, 2014). Among members of disadvantaged groups, personal experiences with discrimination are linked to multiple indicators of poorer mental and physical health across multiple indicators, including psychological distress (Sellers & Shelton, 2003), lower self-esteem and feelings of mastery (Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003), heightened stress responses (Pascoe & Smart-Richman, 2009), increased frequency of unhealthy behaviors (and lower levels of healthy behaviors; Pascoe & Smart-Richman, 2009), and depression (Schmitt, Branscombe, Postmes, & Garcia, 2014).…”

Psychology and prejudice: A historical analysis and integrative framework.

“…A variety of psychodynamic processes were implicated in prejudice. These included projection (Ackerman & Jahoda, 1950; McClean, 1946), frustration (MacCrone, 1937), scapegoating (Veltfort & Lee, 1943), and the displacement of hostility (Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939). A number of these processes could be integrated into a coherent explanation of prejudice in terms of aggression—originating from chronic social frustrations—that is displaced onto minorities as scapegoats (Dollard et al, 1939; MacCrone, 1937).…”

A Multivariate Analysis of Social Distance in Hawaii

“…STUDIES OF RACIAL ATTITUDES have traditionally focused on the folIowing three sets of related factors: the psychological, social-psychological , and sociological. The psychological attempts to explain the psychopathology of prejudice (Grier & Cobbs, 1968;Kovel, 1970;McLean, 1946), the socialpsychological explores the group context of racial orientations (Rinder, 1965;Rose, 1964;Wirth, 1945), and the sociological delineates societal factors behind varying patterns of intergroup relations (Banton, 1967;Mason, 1970;Rex, 1970;van den Berghe, 1978). Recognizing that all three dimensions were relevant, I explored their interactive rather than isolated effects on social distance attitudes in Hawaii with respect to an individual's length of residence in the society, class background, level of group involvement, and authoritarianism, controlling for race.…”