Effect-Perceived Discrimination-Mental & Physical Health

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究探讨了慢性和急性歧视的心理和生理应激反应的影响。人们普遍认为，感知到的歧视会对身心健康产生负面影响，但直接解决这一问题的研究很少。根据压力和情绪的模型，假设感知他人对自己有偏见是有压力的，并引发一系列与自我和他人相关的负面认知和情绪，进而引发一般的生理压力反应（例如，血压反应性，皮质醇升高）以及与威胁相关的更具体的应激反应（例如，血管阻力）或愤怒（例如，心输出量）。如果随着时间的推移反复经历这些生理反应，则会对健康产生不良影响（麦克尤恩，2000）。人们还预测，弹性以及脆弱性可能会出现在应对感知到的歧视。提出了10个实验设计（三次重复），以评估拉丁美洲人，非洲裔美国人和妇女之间的认知，情感和生物（激素和心血管）对急性歧视相关事件的反应之间的相互关系。实验1检验了这一假设，即慢性或情境诱导的偏见预期导致增加的生理应激反应和更大的威胁，在评价模糊的组间情况。实验2-4测试暴露于负面的社会反馈和歧视的愤怒和威胁相关的压力反应的预期的独立影响。实验5 - 6考察了基于社会认同的明确拒绝或选择的生理效应。实验7-8研究如何污名化的目标的情境激活或长期持有的偏见期望与偏见水平的nonstigmatized合作伙伴的互动，影响压力反应自然发生的二元社会互动。实验9-10测试的假设，性格乐观和操纵乐观增加个人之间的韧性暴露于偏见。所有的实验都假设，潜在的歧视性情况下的生理反应的情况和人的功能塑造，并测试的假设，即负面认知和情感反应介导的生理反应歧视相关的压力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research examines the impact of chronic and acute perceptions of discrimination on psychological and physiological stress responses. Perceived discrimination is widely assumed to negatively affect both mental and physical health, but research directly addressing this issue is scarce. Drawing on models of stress and emotion, it is hypothesized that perceiving others to be prejudiced against the self is stressful, and initiates a cascade of negative self-and other-related cognitions and emotions that in turn, initiate general physiological stress responses (e.g., blood pressure reactivity, elevated cortisol) as well as more specific stress responses associated with threat (e.g., vascular resistance) or anger (e.g., cardiac output). These physiological responses have adverse health implications if repeatedly experienced over time (McEwen, 2000). It is also predicted that resilience as well as vulnerability can occur in response to perceived discrimination. 10 experimental designs (with three replications) are proposed to assess the interrelationships among cognitive, affective, and biological (hormonal and cardiovascular) responses to acute discrimination-relevant events among Latino-Americans, African-Americans, and women. Experiment 1 tests the hypothesis that chronic or situationally induced expectations of prejudice lead to increased physiological stress responses and greater threat in evaluatively ambiguous intergroup situations. Experiments 2-4 test the independent effects of exposure to negative social feedback and expectations of discrimination on anger and threat-related stress responses. Experiments 5 - 6 examine the physiological effects of clear rejection or selection based on social identity. Experiments 7-8 examine how a stigmatized target's situationally activated or chronically held prejudice expectations interact with the prejudice level of a nonstigmatized partner to influence stress responses in naturally occurring dyadic social interactions. Experiments 9-10 test the hypothesis that dispositional optimism and manipulated optimism increase resilience among individuals who are exposed to prejudice. All experiments assume that physiological reactions to potentially discriminatory situations are shaped by features of the situation and of the person, and test the hypothesis that negative cognitions and affective responses mediate physiological responses to discrimination-relevant stressors.