The Effects of Perceived Discrimination on Mental and Physical Health

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究考察了慢性和尖锐的歧视知觉对心理和生理应激反应的影响。人们普遍认为，感知到的歧视会对心理和身体健康产生负面影响，但直接解决这一问题的研究很少。借鉴压力和情绪的模型，假设认为他人对自己有偏见是有压力的，并引发一连串负面的自我和与他人相关的认知和情绪，这些认知和情绪反过来又引发一般的生理应激反应(例如，血压反应性、皮质醇升高)以及与威胁(例如血管阻力)或愤怒(例如心输出量)相关的更具体的应激反应。如果随着时间的推移反复经历这些生理反应，会对健康产生不利的影响(McEwen，2000)。还预测到，在应对被察觉到的歧视时，可能会出现复原力和脆弱性。10个实验设计(有三个重复)被用来评估拉美裔美国人、非裔美国人和女性对急性歧视相关事件的认知、情感和生物(荷尔蒙和心血管)反应之间的相互关系。实验1检验了一种假设，即慢性或情景诱导的偏见预期会导致更多的生理应激反应，并在评估模糊的群体间情景中产生更大的威胁。实验2-4测试了负面社会反馈和歧视期望对愤怒和威胁相关压力反应的独立影响。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考察了被污名化的目标的情境激活或长期持有的偏见期望如何与非被污名化的伴侣的偏见水平相互作用，以影响自然发生的二元社会互动中的压力反应。实验9-10测试了这一假设，即性格乐观和被操纵的乐观主义提高了处于偏见中的个人的韧性。所有实验都假设对潜在歧视情境的生理反应是由情境和人的特征形成的，并检验了否定认知和情感反应中介对歧视相关应激源的生理反应的假设。

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.