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European Journal of Social Psychology , 37 2: Lessons from Social-Cognitive Psychology. Journal of General Internal Medicine , 22 6: Medical Decision Making , 30 2: Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Stereotype Threat and Health Disparities: Journal of General Internal Medicine , 25 Supplement 2: Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved , 21 1: Commission to End Health Care Disparities The Role of Patient-Centered Care. Cognitive Biases in the Perception of Discrimination: The Importance of Format. Sex Roles , 14 Safety Errors in Emergency Medicine.
In Markovchick , V. Cognitions Associated with Attempts to Empathize: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , New York University Press. In Mackie , D. Interactive Processes in Group Perception , pp. In Zanna , Mark P. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology , pp.
Dovidio , John F.
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- Judgment of the Grave (Sweeney St. George Mysteries).
Group Representations and Intergroup Bias: Positive Affect, Similarity, and Group Size. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 21 8: From Intervention to Outcomes: Processes in the Reduction of Bias. In Stephan , W. Practice, Research, and Theory , pp. Status, Differentiation, and a Common in-Group Identity.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 75 1: Extending the Benefits of Recategorization: Evaluations, Self-Disclosure, and Helping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 33 4: Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: In Brown , R. Intergroup Relations , pp. The Nature of Prejudice: Automatic and Controlled Processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , Social Science and Medicine , 67 3: Archives of Surgery , 2: Racial Disparities in Coronary Heart Disease: Ethnicity and Disease , 14 3: American Journal of Public Health , Supplement 1: The Common Ingroup Identity Model.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 78 4: A Conversation with Claude M. Stereotype Threat and Black Achievement. Social Science Research on Race , 6 2: The Space Between Us: Stereotype Threat and Distance in Interracial Contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 94 1: The Other Side of We: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 34 Journal of General Internal Medicine , 22 9: Implementation Science , 2 1: Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: Meta-Analysis of Predictive Validity.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 97 1: Journal of General Internal Medicine , 23 Journal of Pain , 11 5: Johnson , Kareem J. Psychological Science , British Journal of Social Psychology , National Survey of Physicians, Part I: Doctors on Disparities in Medical Care. Medical Care , 43 3 Supplement: Le Cook , B. Medical Care Research Review , 66 1: Ethnicity and Disease , 19 3: Authoritarianism's Role in Medicine.
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American Journal of Medical Science , 3: The Self-regulation of Prejudice: Toward Understanding its Lived Character. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations , Suppression as a Stereotype Control Strategy. Personal Social Psychology Review , 2 1: The National Healthcare Disparities Reports. Health Affairs , 24 2: Permanente Journal , 13 4: Results of a National Survey of Physicians.
Journal of General Internal Medicine , 24 American Heart Journal , 3: A Field Experiment in Rwanda. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 96 3: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 46 2: Meta-Analytic Tests of Three Mediators. European Journal of Social Psychology , 38 6: The Role of Physician and Practice Factors. Pain Medicine , 10 7: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 32 6: The Active Control of Prejudice: Unpacking the Intentions Guiding Control Efforts. Journal of Personal Social Psychology , 96 3: At one school where White students were the majority, the librarian explained that the diversity theme purposefully connected students to the display: We had books in there as far as different races go, different religions …we have multiracial, gay and straight, any kind of student.
Examples of materials from a White-Majority school that linked Black History Month to larger issues of cultural diversity, Study 1. Another notable theme was the extent to which BHM representations focused on the individual achievements of African Americans. Such representations alluded to racial barriers without specifically referring to them.
There was also an emphasis on Civil Rights activists i. Interview respondents were sometimes explicit about this de-emphasis of racism themes. One Diversity counselor and designer of a BHM display at a majority White school expressed agreement with a co-worker who had described her ideal BHM display as one that focused on positive contributions:. Our students learn so much about slavery and different ways that people have been oppressed, but for BHM, in particular, to me that's a time to celebrate. Rather than watching the 12 h of Roots and be sad and defeated and cry—which is important, but not necessarily when it comes time to celebrate—like I'd rather, if the kids are going to watch things, for instance, I'd like them to see Something the Lord Made with Mos Def …or Soul Food.
Movies that really the students can connect to and maybe learn something about themselves or the kids that they have class with. From this perspective, BHM provides teachers with an opportunity to celebrate African American culture. However, efforts to go beyond themes of racism and oppression in America's history may reinforce somewhat stereotypical portrayals of contemporary African American communities. This may especially be the case when individuals are presented as the exception to the rule. The theme of racism was typically absent from BHM displays aside from serving as background for celebrating achievements.
A librarian, who was also teaching reading enhancement at a predominately Black school, indicated that lessons are sometimes timed so that they occur during BHM:. I always try to make things …sort of relevant to the kids—and so the next unit we're going to do is on New Orleans. And, of course [Hurricane] Katrina and all of that stuff that happened there that affected African Americans on a greater scale than it did other groups of people and so that's another way of bringing Black history—that is current—that kids can relate to.
Within this conception, BHM is the time to discuss various manifestations of racial oppression in contemporary events that differentially impacted Black communities i. Although there were many commonalities across the schools, a primary interest in the present research is the possibility of systematic differences in representations of BHM as a function of the community the school serves.
A precise quantification of variation in themes was impractical for two reasons. First, the multiplicity of different and sometimes conflicting representations within a given school made it difficult to quantify precisely the extent to which a school's commemoration of BHM expressed relevant themes. Second, the small sample size precluded the use of statistical tests for differences as a function of community setting. Even so, the totality of qualitative evidence from interview responses, naturalistic observation, and photographic documentation affords more holistic conclusions about the distribution of themes as a function of community settings.
A summary of these ethnographic observations appears in Table 1. Taken as a whole, this evidence suggests that tendencies to emphasize collective self-enhancement over collective self-knowledge—that is to focus on values of diversity vs. Black History Month themes in central displays and other materials by school site. Although necessarily tentative, these conclusions are consistent with education research on history representations in the U. Banks, ; Alridge, ; Journell, Similarly, a comparison of historical knowledge revealed differences as a function of school setting such that White students were less likely than Black students to cite the Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, and slavery as important historical events Epstein, The objective of Study 1 was to provide a qualitative sense for everyday practices of BHM commemoration in different school communities Marecek et al.
Although this objective is especially appropriate for the naturalistic observation and description stages of the scientific method, the exploratory character of this initial study precluded strong conclusions about the distribution of themes in BHM displays. We return to this issue with respect to the present materials in Study 3, but more definitive conclusions about the distribution of themes require additional analysis of materials from a larger sample of schools. This remains a direction for future research. Study 2 considers the psychological constitution hypothesis.
In response to each photograph, we asked participants to make ratings of recognition and liking without providing information about the source of each display i. If cultural products from White-Majority schools resonate better with White American beliefs and desires than do cultural products from Black-Majority schools, then White American participants will express stronger recognition and liking of BHM displays from White-Majority schools than BHM displays from Black-Majority schools.
Moreover, this pattern of responses will bear traces of relevant social identity concerns. Specifically, White American identity will be more positively or less negatively related to positive affect, liking, and recognition for ratings of White-Majority displays than for ratings of Black-Majority displays. We report analyses using only data from the 47 participants 27 men and 18 women who indicated White and American identities. We recruited participants from an introductory psychology subject pool.
A White research assistant administered the study. Participants viewed a PowerPoint presentation containing photographs of the centralized BHM displays for example, see Figure 4 from the seven high schools with majority White Student populations i. We assigned participants at random to view these displays in one of two, alternating-order conditions i.
Participants completed ratings of affective responses, familiarity, and liking as they viewed each display. After completing the rating task, participants completed measures of identification and demographics. Immediately after viewing each display and before they viewed the next display , participants rated six positive emotions e. Participants responded to six evaluative questions using a 7-point scale ranging from 1 not at all to 7 very much.
A principal components analysis using varimax rotation yielded two reliable factors. This subscale measures individual differences in importance of a social identity category for self-definition e. Participants responded to these questions with a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 not at all to 7 very much.
To investigate whether representations of BHM from different school settings carry community-consistent understandings and preferences, we conducted within-subjects analyses of ratings about positive and negative emotions, liking, and recognition by White American participants in response to White-Majority and Black-Majority displays.
To explore the identity-relevance hypothesis, we tested whether the relationship between identification and responses to displays differed as a function of community source. We conducted a 2 Display Source: Follow-up analyses indicated a hypothesized effect of display source that was primarily true for positive emotion items. To summarize, something about viewing representations of Black History from White-Majority schools prompted White American undergraduates to feel better than they did after viewing representations of Black History from Black-Majority schools i.
Liking, Recognition repeated measures ANOVA to investigate the effect of display source on evaluations of liking and recognition. Consistent with the psychological constitution hypothesis, these White American participants expressed relatively high recognition and liking of BHM material from White-Majority schools, but they expressed less recognition and profoundly less liking of BHM material from Black-Majority schools. What accounts for the pattern of observed differences in affect, liking, and recognition as a function of display source?
Although there might be many factors that differ systematically across sets of BHM displays, an intentional worlds analysis suggests that ratings diverge, in part, because the displays resonate differently with beliefs and desires associated with White American identity concerns. To evaluate this feature of the psychological constitution hypothesis, we conducted one-tailed tests of within-subject differences in correlation coefficients. Results revealed the hypothesized pattern.
We created a single index of affective response for each participant by subtracting negative affect scores from positive affect scores. Study 2 provides evidence of hypothesized preferences among White American college students for culturally consistent constructions of BHM. Although they were unaware of the source of displays, White American undergraduates exposed to photographs of BHM displays reported more positive affect, greater recognition, and greater liking for displays from White-Majority schools than displays from Black-Majority schools.
An intentional worlds perspective suggests that these divergent reactions reflect the different affordances for identity present in displays from different settings. That is, displays from White-Majority schools are likely to rehearse content that affords White American students positive social identity, but displays from Black-Majority schools are likely to include themes that challenge White American identity. Although the exact features of BHM displays that afford divergent reactions remains an open question, evidence for the identity relevance of these features comes from hypothesized differences in the relationship between display ratings and White American identification.
The relationship between White American identification and responses to Black History representations was significantly more negative in reaction to displays from Black-Majority schools than White-Majority schools. Studies 1 and 2 provide evidence for one half of the intentional worlds framework, corresponding to the psychological constitution hypothesis. Specifically, results suggest that BHM representations in different communities are not neutral constructions of the past, but instead are directed products that realize and objectify community-specific beliefs and desires.
Study 3 examines the other half of the intentional worlds framework, corresponding to the cultural constitution hypothesis. A total of undergraduates 74 women and 62 men from a predominately-White, Midwestern U. We retained data from the participants who identified as American. Of these participants, After obtaining informed consent, we randomly assigned participants to one of two BHM conditions White-Majority or Black-Majority or a third, control condition. In the Black-Majority condition, participants viewed photographs of six displays from Black-Majority schools 4.
In the White-Majority condition, we selected photographs of six displays at random from the original set of seven displays from White-Majority schools that participants rated in Study 2. To encourage engagement with displays, participants rated each display on dimensions of liking and recognition as in Study 2. After engaging with the displays, participants completed a questionnaire.
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In the Control condition, participants completed the primary dependent measures i. Near the end of the survey, all participants responded to an open-ended prompt: Please think about the History display that you liked the most. Please describe it and tell us what you liked about the display. Last, participants completed the demographic questions. Participants used a 7-point Likert scale 1, not at all due to racism ; 7, certainly due to racism to indicate the extent to which features of U. Participants indicated the extent to which they agreed with the policies on a 7-point Likert scale 1, Strongly disagree ; 7, Strongly agree.
The first contrast tested the primary hypothesis that Black-Majority representations will produce greater perceptions of racism in ambiguous events and endorsement of anti-racism policy than the control and mainstream, White-Majority conditions. The second contrast tested a secondary hypothesis that perceptions of racism and anti-racism policy support will be greater among participants in the White-Majority condition than the control conditions.
Although contrast analyses provide the primary tests of hypotheses, we follow convention and report results of omnibus ANOVA tests. Participants exposed to Black-Majority representations of Black History perceived greater racism in U. The pattern of means—greatest in the Black-Majority condition, followed by the White-Majority condition, and least in the control condition—suggests a linear trend in effectiveness of Black History displays in promoting perception of racism.
This pattern of means suggests Black-Majority representations have greater effectiveness in promoting support for anti-racism policy than White-Majority representations and the control. To test the hypothesis that the effect of BHM representations on perception of racism mediates an indirect effect of BHM representations on support for remedial social justice policy, we used a statistical procedure for mediation analysis with a multicategory independent variable Hayes and Preacher, Specifically, we created two contrast-coded variables from the three-level independent variable in the manner that we did for ANOVAs.
This permitted a consideration of direct and indirect effects of Black-Majority BHM representations relative to the other two i. A bootstrapping analysis with iterations indicated that the relative indirect effect of the Black-Majority BHM representations Contrast 1 through racism perception on anti-racism policy endorsement was significant i.
This pattern of results is consistent with the interpretation that Black-Majority BHM representations promote support for anti-racism policy because they afford perception of racism. Multicategorical mediation model of the effect of Black History Month displays on policy support via racism perception, Study 3.
To analyze responses to this open-ended item, we developed a coding scheme based on a priori research questions and field observations from Study 1. Specifically, we created two categories to capture dynamics of critical, self-knowledge motivations vs. Two independent raters used this scheme to code two thirds of the essays each: Rater A coded essays , Rater B coded essays , and both raters coded essays 45— Table 2 describes the binary coding categories i.
Discrepancies were resolved by averaging the coders' responses. We then summed across instances of the coding categories struggle and historical barriers, historical racism, specific historical events, specific historical people , and educational value to provide a total score for each participant on the dimension of critical self-knowledge. The identity-relevance hypothesis suggests that celebratory self-enhancement themes will be more evident, but critical self-knowledge themes less evident, in responses to White-Majority displays than responses to Black-Majority displays.
Descriptions of essay coding categories and inter-rater reliability statistics, Study 3. We operationalized critical themes as those that included consciousness of historical barriers and promoted a focus on Black History information and facts e. Some participant responses reflected a focus on specific BHM content. I liked that there are many different pictures of Rosa Parks and various magazine covers, newspapers and books, which shows what an important part she had in ending segregation [ 15, White, female]. Similarly, the response of a participant in the Mainstream display condition reflected a focus on historical barriers faced by the Tuskegee Airmen.
We operationalized celebratory representations of BHM as those that deemphasized content in favor of broader inclusion, feel-good rhetoric Trawalter et al. In some cases, participants specifically commended a focus on broader diversity themes because they avoided negative information and afforded good feelings.
I liked the diversity theme. I feel that educating about others' cultures is best served on a more passive level rather than displays with the in your face approach. This display appeals to several minority groups, religious backgrounds, and achievements [ 69, White, male]. I enjoyed the fact it did not push the thought of discrimination as much. The books shown show that it leaves the reader to find out about diversity and the African American movement.
The display shows a door that can be opened to introduce African American information [ 21, White, male]. Analyses to probe the interaction revealed support for hypothesized differences in display content. These differences in frequency across open-ended responses provide some evidence that displays from different school settings bear or afforded perception of systematically different themes. That is, displays from Black-Majority schools may have produced more dislike among White American students in Study 2 in part because they include more critical representations that focus on historical barriers and racism than do displays from White-Majority schools.
Likewise, the relative emphasis on past racism in displays from Black-Majority schools may have alerted students in Study 3 to both the ongoing legacy of racism in the present and the need for energetic measures to overcome that legacy. Consistent with the cultural constitution hypothesis, results of Study 2 provide some evidence that BHM displays from Black-Majority schools were more effective at promoting perception of racism and support for anti-racist policy than were displays from White-Majority schools and a no-display control condition. Results also indicate that displays from White-Majority schools were somewhat effective at producing perceptions of racism relative to the no-display control condition, but just not as effective as displays from Black-Majority schools.
As existing cultural products, representations of BHM from White-Majority schools may have included a mix of content, some of which promoted perception of racism and support for anti-racist policy and some of which promoted denial of racism and opposition to anti-racist policy.
Indeed, analysis of open-ended responses reveal that critical history themes were present in White-Majority displays, although not to the same extent as in Black-Majority displays. A primary strength of the preceding studies is ecological validity and the use of existing cultural products to examine the hypothesis that representations of history reflect and promote goals of different communities.
Consistent with the psychological constitution side of the intentional worlds framework, Study 2 provides evidence that these cultural products bear the beliefs, desires, and preferences of people in the communities from which they originate. Consistent with the cultural constitution side of the intentional worlds framework, Study 3 provides evidence that these cultural products differentially promote identity-relevant action. In order to provide a more precise test of the cultural constitution hypothesis and the role of different representations of history in promoting identity-relevant perception and action, Study 4 includes an experimental manipulation of celebratory and critical constructions of BHM.
A total of 37 white American undergraduates 20 women and 17 men from a predominately-White, Midwestern U. After obtaining informed consent, we assigned participants at random to one of three conditions associated with different constructions of American history. After exposure to one of the different sets of historical information, each participant completed measures of racism perception, policy endorsement, and demographics similar to Study 3. The historical achievements condition replaced 5 of the 12 facts from the control condition with information about celebratory achievements of Black Americans to model a BHM approach found primarily in White-Majority schools and to a lesser extent in Black-Majority schools e.
The historical barriers condition replaced the same 5 facts with critical historical information about racial barriers in American history to model a BHM approach primarily found in Black-Majority schools e. The Supreme Court ruled that he was property and could not sue in federal court. To encourage engagement with the facts, participants rated each fact on dimensions of importance and familiarity. After reading the facts, participants completed a questionnaire. The same four items in Study 3 assessed endorsement of policies aimed to address racial inequalities in the U. The first contrast tested the primary hypothesis that the relatively critical, barriers condition produced greater perceptions of racism and endorsement of anti-racism policy than the relatively sanitized, celebratory achievements and control conditions.
The second contrast tested whether perceptions of racism and policy support differed for participants in the latter two conditions. Although these orthogonal planned contrasts provided the primary test of hypotheses, we again follow convention and report results of the omnibus ANOVA tests. A more precise test of the hypothesis comes from planned contrasts.
We used the same procedure for mediation analysis with a multicategory independent variable Hayes and Preacher, to test the hypothesis that the effect of information about historical barriers on perception of racism mediates an indirect effect of information about historical barriers on support for anti-racism policies. Specifically, we created two contrast-coded variables from the three-level independent variable to permit evaluation of direct and indirect effects of the historical barriers condition relative to the other two i.
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Bootstrapping tests with iterations indicated that the relative indirect effect of the critical historical barrier representations Contrast 1 through racism perception on anti-racism policy endorsement was significant i. This pattern of results is consistent with the interpretation that critical BHM representations depicting historical barriers increase support for anti-racism policy because they increase perceptions of racism. Multicategorical mediation model of the effect of Black History Month facts on policy support via racism perception, Study 4.
Similar to Study 3, participants in the historical barriers condition modeled after BHM displays from Black-Majority schools perceived more racism in ambiguous events and endorsed anti-racism policy to a greater extent than did participants in both the historical achievements modeled after BHM displays from White-Majority schools and control conditions. Perhaps reflecting more precise control over the content of representations, these effects were stronger in Study 4 than Study 3.
This research draws upon a diverse methodological toolkit—including qualitative field research, quantitative analyses, and experimental design—to investigate sociocultural variation in BHM representations and their consequences for perceptions of racial inequality in the U. The intellectual foundation of the project lies in the theoretical perspective of cultural psychology and its emphasis on the intentional character of everyday worlds.
In one direction, the psychological constitution hypothesis , the idea of intentional worlds emphasizes the directed character of everyday cultural ecologies. The relative prominence of different BHM representations in a given environment does not emerge by accident. Instead, the prominence or absence of particular ideas in material reality is the residue of purposeful activity: In the other direction the cultural constitution hypothesis , the idea of intentional worlds emphasizes the directive character of everyday cultural ecologies.
The BHM representations prominent in different ecologies are not the inert end-product of previous activity. Instead, they systematically afford courses of action consistent with identity concerns of different communities. Support for the psychological constitution hypothesis came from field research in public schools Study 1 and participants' open-ended reactions to photographs Study 3. Celebratory BHM representations were most commonly found in material from White-Majority schools, and BHM representations highlighting historical racism were most commonly found in Black-Majority schools.
Study 2 provides additional support for the psychological constitution hypothesis. Moreover, the relationship between White American identification and responses to BHM representations was significantly more negative in response to displays from Black-Majority schools than in response to displays from White-Majority schools. Together, these results suggest the extent to which BHM displays are not identity-neutral. Instead, displays from White-Majority settings reflect and objectify preferences and understandings that resonate with dominant constructions of White Americans identity. Displays from Black-Majority settings reflect and objectify preferences and understandings that conflict with dominant constructions of White American identity.
Studies 3 and 4 provide support for the cultural constitution hypothesis. In Study 3 we exposed participants to existing BHM displays from different communities to investigate the extent to which these cultural tools afford different tendencies of racism perception and policy support. In Study 4, we experimentally manipulated exposure to themes that we distilled from existing representations.
Results again indicated that exposure to critical history representations that emphasized historical barriers led subsequent participants to perceive greater influence of racism in American society and to express greater support for anti-racism policy than did exposure to both celebratory BHM representations that emphasized individual achievements i.
Together, these results suggest the extent to which BHM displays are not psychologically inert objects. Instead, displays from different communities bear beliefs and desires of their producers that systematically direct perception and action toward different ends. Instead, whether or not they are conscious of the source of their preferences, White American undergraduates may prefer these displays precisely because these displays afford denial of racism, opposition to anti-racism policy, and preservation of the system of racial domination from which they benefit.
As students and teachers act on these preferences, choose to emphasize diversity or individual accomplishments, and omit information about racist barriers, they selectively reproduce cultural worlds of sanitized history representations that in turn afford denial of racism and weak support for anti-racism policy.
Although results are consistent with hypotheses, the research is not without limitations. We mention three that constitute important directions for future research. One limitation is the basis in a relatively narrow sample of BHM displays from schools in a single U. Accordingly, we make no claims that results reflect the broader distribution of BHM themes across a wider set of cultural products and cultural ecologies. Indeed, we are doubtful of any claims about characteristic tendencies that apply uniformly across African American or European American settings.
Variation in BHM constructions within and across communities and over time remains a fruitful direction for research. Another limitation concerns the narrow sample of participants e. Although the focus on White American spaces is appropriate for addressing our theoretical interest in historical representations as tools of domination, an important task for future research is to consider identity-relevant influences on reproduction of historical representations among people from historically oppressed groups.
Black American students vary in preferences for Black History as a function of their prior racial socialization experiences Thornhill, , and their preferences may change across the life course if they move from predominantly Black American to predominantly White American spaces Starck et al.
Another reason to consider a broader diversity of participants concerns consequences of engagement with different BHM constructions. The present research demonstrates that an emphasis on critical history narratives promotes greater awareness of racism in contemporary U. Although we have interpreted this outcome in a relatively positive light as a precursor to anti-racist action among White Americans , previous research has emphasized that racism perception can put people with marginalized identities at risk for negative psychological outcomes e.
Extension of the present research to participants with marginalized identities would permit investigation of this important dilemma that parents and educators face regarding socialization about racism Tatum, ; Hughes et al. Finally, our investigation focused on the implications of historical representation for perception of racism and support for anti-racist policy.
We did not consider racist attitudes or other individual difference measures that have figured more prominently in social psychological research. Our focus on outcomes of racism perception and support for anti-racist policy is consistent with emerging perspectives that express misgivings about constructions of racism as a matter of individual prejudice i. However, it remains unclear whether the patterns we observed in the present research would extend to measures of individual prejudice.
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In the process, the project illuminates a cultural psychological approach to the collective character of psychological experience. Social-psychological research in the field of cultural psychology has typically emphasized comparison across settings of psychological tendencies and occasionally, cultural products; Snibbe and Markus, ; Markus et al. Such work has been indispensable for illuminating both sociocultural variation in psychological processes and the particular constructions of reality that underlie conventional scientific wisdom. Critics of this work have noted that it often presents an overly static and essentialist understanding of culture associated with Orientalism and other kinds of cultural imperialism e.
Against this background, the present work contributes to a more dynamic account of cultural variation that emphasizes the active, mutual constitution of cultural context, and psychological experience Shweder, ; Markus and Hamedani, Regarding the cultural constitution hypothesis, our investigation focuses less on broad, national spaces, and instead emphasizes a more local form of cultural-ecological variation: It likewise makes contact with sociocultural-historical perspectives in cultural psychology e.
The result is a dynamic account of cultural psychology that avoids broad, essentialist generalizations about reified, monolithic groups. Regarding the psychological constitution hypothesis, our investigation focuses on the active reproduction of everyday worlds through repeated acts of preferential selection. Although previous work has emphasized the role of social cognitive processes or personal motivations on preferential selection of cultural units e.
By considering ways in which people who occupy positions of dominance act on identity considerations to reproduce identity-charged realities, the present research lays the foundation for a cultural psychology of power, privilege, and oppression. More generally, this focus on preferential selection and active maintenance contributes to a dynamic account of cultural psychology that retains an appreciation for human agency Gjerde, An important implication of this account is that even when everyday realities appear to be static and unchanging across generations, this apparent stability masks dynamic activity as people repeatedly select or de-select features that resonate with their understandings and desires.
With respect to the present work, identity-relevant acts of preferential selection produce everyday worlds that are intentional in two important senses. The intentionality of these behavioral products is an underappreciated feature of psychological experience with important implications for theorizing collective manifestations of mind. Consider the topic of memory. The bidirectional relationship between memory and identity has been an enduring theme of psychological research.
Yet, most discussions have considered how individuals reconstruct autobiographical memories in ways that serve present identity concerns or how different autobiographical memories have implications for experience of personal identity Wilson and Ross, Recent work has begun to explore this relationship at the level of collective self, investigating how different understandings of history both reflect and impact present experience of social identity Wertsch, ; Liu and Hilton, ; Roccas et al.
In many of these discussions, collective refers to individual experience of identity or memory when people imagine themselves in terms of a social identity category. A cultural psychology emphasis on the intentionality of everyday worlds provides a broader understanding of collective as a process that is evident not only when people imagine themselves in terms of a social identity category, but any time that they appropriate cultural tools and other culturally evolved affordances Rogoff, Thus, the collective character of memory is not merely evident when categorizing self in terms of social identities, but more generally any time a person appropriates psychologically constituted, cultural affordances for understanding the past.
This distinction becomes especially important for understanding the concept of collective self-regulation in referencing the present work. We propose that the present work is an investigation of collective self-regulation not in the sense of regulation of the collective self, but instead in the double sense of collective regulation of collective self.
To illustrate, consider a teacher who commemorates BHM with mass-marketed, mainstream artifacts that—by focusing on individual achievements of black heroes without mentioning the racism that required heroic resistance—reflect and promote racism denial.
Even if the teacher displays these artifacts without personal motivations to deny the extent of racism, the products she deposits nevertheless bear identity-defensive beliefs and desires of the people who produced them see Study 2. Similarly, even if the teacher personally intends to promote awareness of racism and support for reparative policy, her actions nevertheless reconstitute ecologies filled with cultural tools that promote denial of racism and opposition to reparative policy as in Studies 3 and 4.
In other words, the motivations and intentions associated with the teacher's action are not reducible to her personal motivation to deny racism or personal intention to oppose antiracist policy; instead, the relevant motivations and intentions reside in the cultural tools for memory and identity on which the teacher draws.