Browsing by Subject "Heterosexism"
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Item Heteronormative enthymemes and ideographs: Unspoken assumptions about the child in Proposition 8 commercials(2012-05) Bressler, Jared; Langford, Catherine L.; Amy, Amy N.; Kendra, KendraThis thesis analyzes the debate over Proposition 8 in California by looking at how television commercials ran by both sides of the debate used enthymemes and ideographs to perpetuate heteronormativity through representations of the child and the mother ideograph. To conclude the thesis looks for a new way to construct same-sex marriage through argumentation to further challenge heteronormativity.Item Heterosexism within educational institutions: coping efforts of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students in West Texas(Texas Tech University, 1998-12) Mahan, Virginia J.This investigation illuminates the lived experiences of selfidentified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB/lesbigay) college students in West Texas, particularly with regard to heterosexism withineducational institutions. In addition, this work explores the strategies participants used to cope with the heterosexism they encountered in their daily interactions with others, as well as how these strategies were constructed, maintained, and internally revised over time. Accounts of participants' lived experiences indicate that from the elementary to the university levels, the Texas educational institutions in this investigation contributed, both actively and passively, to their many psychosocial stressors, as well as their marginalization. Some Texas educators were either unaware of or chose not to abide by the gay-affirmative philosophies of various professional organizations in education, failing both to provide equity with regard to sexual orientation and to establish a gayaffirmative environment devoid of physical and verbal harassment. For example, early in their school careers, a number of participants were punished and labeled as homosexual because they engaged in what educators and fellow classmates considered to be inappropriate gender behavior, particularly non-normative play. Having been labeled as homosexual, these participants were nonetheless unable to obtain judgment-free and accurate information regarding lesbigays from either parents or school personnel. By allowing epithets to be used for homosexuality while otherwise disallowing profanity and racism, school personnel not only tacitly condoned marginalization of lesbigays, but failed to furnish a gay-affirmative environment. Moreover, participants experienced a diminished sense of security and faced persistent danger to their physical and/or psychological safety. According to participants, only rarely did Texas educators intervene when, as frequently occurred, LGB students were targeted for verbal and physical harassment. In response to the aforementioned psychosocial stressors, participants reported a wide variety of coping efforts, both adaptive and maladaptive. Behavioral strategies targeting the problem situation far outnumbered emotion-focused coping. While many coping efforts were idiosyncratic, five or more participants reported assertiveness, counseling, cultural inversion/pride, direct action, social support, and use of the Internet as helpful. Moreover, ignoring, social withdrawal, and suicide attempts were each considered detrimental by four participants.Item Minority group status, perceived discrimination, and emotion-focused coping(2014-05) Vassilliere, Christa (Christa Theresa); Holahan, Charles J.In two studies, this thesis depicts the relationship between minority group status in the United States, perceived discrimination, and coping with stress. Past literature on coping and its types – problem-focused versus emotion-focused – is inconsistent in terms of differences between minority status groups and majority groups. It remains unknown whether or why Black Americans and lesbian or gay Americans may demonstrate coping patterns that differ from White Americans and heterosexual Americans, respectively. What is altogether absent from the literature is the possible mediating factor of perceived discrimination experienced by these minority groups. That is, differences in internal, stable coping processes that manage stress may have been molded by one’s experience with discrimination. Study 1 examines the relationship between race (Black versus White) and coping, mediated by perceived discrimination. Study 2 examines the relationship between sexual orientation (lesbian or gay versus heterosexual) and coping, mediated by perceived discrimination. Both studies confirm the thesis that minority group members exhibit maladaptive, emotion-focused coping more than majority group members – but that this difference is explained by the minority group members’ perceived discrimination. Historical and political relevance, social implications, and possible limitations in design and interpretation are discussed.Item The origins of heterosexist attitudes among young children(2015-05) Clark, Caitlin Marie; Bigler, Rebecca S.; Woolley, Jacqueline; Echols, CatherineStereotyping and prejudice on the basis of sexual orientation are common among adolescents and adults. Although empirical data on the topic are lacking, theoretical work indicates that such biases are likely to emerge in childhood. Children attend to gender and the distribution of genders into roles--including familial roles--by three years of age. Furthermore, young children's limited cognitive skills, and a reliance on the inherence heuristic, lead to especially strong endorsement of many forms of stereotypes and prejudices. The primary goal of this thesis was to test theoretically derived hypotheses concerning the emergence of, and age-related changes in, children's heterosexist views of relationships across early and middle childhood. As part of this goal, I created a reliable, valid, and practical measure of heterosexist attitudes for use with 5- to 10-year-old children. Children viewed 12 advertisements that portray diverse types of human relationships, including both same- and cross-sex couples and families, and answered questions concerning their interpretation and liking of each image. Children also completed measures of their gender stereotyping and the inherence heuristic. Participants included 72 racially diverse children from a large city in the southwest United States. Results indicated that children were much more accurate at interpreting cross-sex than same-sex romantic relationships, and girls were better at this interpretation than boys were. Children's attitudes varied as a function of whether they had accurately or inaccurately labeled the same-sex pairs; those who incorrectly interpreted the same-sex couples as heterosexual had no difference in attitudes, but the children who correctly identified the same-sex romantic pairs showed more positive attitudes towards the cross-sex than the same-sex romantic pairs. There was an interaction of participant gender and image gender for children’s attitudes; children preferred the images that matched their own gender. There were no effects of gender stereotyping on children's attitudes or interpretation. Children who interpreted the same-sex romantic pairs correctly had high levels of inherence heuristic adherence. The study was successful in creating an original measure for assessing heterosexist attitudes in young children, and this opens up many promising venues for research on the development of heterosexist attitudes in young children.Item Reducing heterosexist attitudes toward relationships in young children(2016-05) Clark, Caitlin Marie; Bigler, Rebecca S.; Church-Lang, Jessica; Echols, Catharine; Russell, Stephen; Woolley, JacquelineSchool climates in the U.S. are typically characterized by heterosexism, or bias against sexual minority students. Research suggests that elementary school children might benefit from lessons that acknowledge and support same-sex romantic relationships (Jetlova & Fish, 2005; Griffin & Oullet, 2010). The primary aim of this project is to design and test the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at teaching children about the existence of families with same-sex parents and improving their attitudes toward these families. A secondary aim is to explore whether several individual differences variables moderate attitudinal changes. The study took place at a local private school, and 106 children participated in the assessment. Children were assigned to the sexual minority inclusive or sexual minority non-inclusive condition. Inclusive lessons provided age-appropriate, active lessons about families that included the explicit modeling and valuing of same-sex parents. Non-inclusive lessons were identical, but did not include any explicit instruction about same-sex parents. Data collection occurred at a pretest before the lessons occurred and an immediate posttest following lesson completion. The efficacy of the lessons was assessed with three measures: the Heterosexist Attitudes Toward Relationships Scale (Clark & Bigler, 2014); a family creation task, in which children grouped photographs into possible families; and a behavioral task in which children were presented with five children’s books, each about a different kind of family, and asked to select their favorites. Additionally, I assessed four factors hypothesized to moderate children’s reactions to the lessons, including participants’ a) age, b) gender, c) gender stereotyping (COAT-AM; Liben & Bigler, 2002), and d) reliance on inherence heuristic (Sutherland & Cimpian, in press). Results indicate that children, regardless of condition, improved in their knowledge of and attitudes toward same-sex couples after intervention. For the measure of same-sex romance knowledge, there was interaction of time and condition. Children in the inclusive condition had higher levels of same-sex romance knowledge than those in the non-inclusive condition. Contrary to our hypothesis, none of our predicted individual difference factors moderated children’s reactions to the lessons. This study provides useful information for educators who wish to implement LGB inclusive curricula in their elementary classrooms.