The American psychologist
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The American psychologist · Aug 2021
The Whiteness pandemic behind the racism pandemic: Familial Whiteness socialization in Minneapolis following #GeorgeFloyd's murder.
Family socialization into the centuries-old culture of Whiteness-involving colorblindness, passivity, and fragility-perpetrates and perpetuates U. S. racism, reflecting an insidious Whiteness pandemic. As a poignant case study, this mixed methods study examined Whiteness socialization among White mothers (N = 392, M = 37.99 years, SD = 4.34) in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the month following the May 2020 police killing of unarmed Black resident, George Floyd. ⋯ Racially silent participants (i.e., no mention of Floyd's murder or subsequent events on open-ended questions: 53%) had lower multiculturalism scores and lower psychological distress. Among mothers who were racially responsive (i.e., mentioned Floyd's murder or subsequent events: 47%), those with more advanced WRID (17%) had higher multiculturalism scores; lower ethnic group protectiveness scores; a more effective coping style featuring empathy, moral outrage, and hope; more color- and power-conscious socialization beliefs/values; and more purposeful racial socialization practices than their less advanced peers (30%). Collectively, color-evasion and power-evasion-pathogens of the Whiteness pandemic-are inexorably transmitted within families, with White parents serving as carriers to their children unless they take active preventive measures rooted in antiracism and equity-promotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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The American psychologist · Apr 2021
No body is expendable: Medical rationing and disability justice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The health threat posed by the novel coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic has particular implications for people with disabilities, including vulnerability to exposure and complications, and concerns about the role of ableism in access to treatment and medical rationing decisions. Shortages of necessary medical equipment to treat COVID-19 have prompted triage guidelines outlining the ways in which lifesaving equipment, such as mechanical ventilators and intensive care unit beds, may need to be rationed among affected individuals. ⋯ In addition to the grassroots advocacy and activism undertaken by the disability community, psychology is rich in its contributions to the role of attitudes, prejudice, and discriminatory behavior on the social fabric of society. We call on psychologists to advocate for social justice in pandemic preparedness, promote disability justice in health care settings, call for transparency and accountability in rationing approaches, and support policy changes for macro- and microallocation strategies to proactively reduce the need for rationing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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The American psychologist · Apr 2021
Making sense of crisis: Charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leadership in response to COVID-19.
The incursion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reached global scale in 2020, requiring a response from leaders worldwide. Although the virus is a ubiquitous problem, world leaders have varied appreciably in their responses resulting in substantially different outcomes in terms of virus mitigation, population health, and economic stability. One explanation for this inconsistency is that leaders have taken differential approaches to making sense of the crisis that, in turn, have driven their approaches to decision making and communication. ⋯ Through the charismatic, ideological, pragmatic (CIP) leadership model, a sensemaking-focused theory of leadership, it is explained how specific, relatively stable sensemaking approaches manifest and what actions leaders engaged in those styles are likely to take in times of crisis. These connections are then reinforced through case examples of 3 world leaders, framed through CIP, and demonstrate how their sensemaking approach has influenced their response to COVID-19. The article concludes with a discussion of the impacts that these differential approaches to COVID-19 may have on the global community, and recommendations for more explicit incorporation of sensemaking into our understanding of leadership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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The American psychologist · Feb 2021
The importance of adverse childhood experiences during the perinatal period.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti et al., 1998) has led to an understanding of how exposure to abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction in childhood are related to subsequent physical and mental health problems. These issues are important to consider during the perinatal period, with studies indicating that pregnant women who report adverse experiences in childhood may be at risk of experiencing mental health and substance use problems. This study examined the association of pregnant women's ACEs with symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and substance use, and examined the potential buffering effect of women's resilience against the deleterious effects of ACES on mental health and substance use. ⋯ Women exposed to child maltreatment reported more anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and were at risk for tobacco, cannabis, or opioid use during pregnancy. Women exposed to household dysfunction reported more posttraumatic stress symptoms and were at increased risk of tobacco and alcohol use during pregnancy. Women's resilience attenuated effects of household dysfunction on posttraumatic stress symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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The American psychologist · Dec 2020
The challenges and promises of transnational LGBTQ psychology: Somewhere over and under the rainbow.
This article explores the influence of psychology developed in WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) contexts and its relationship to transnational lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) concerns. It covers several points associated with an LGBTQ movement forward fallacy, including the limitations of identitarian methods of analysis; presumption of visibility as a necessary aspect of LGBTQ emancipation; the centering of oppression narratives in LGBTQ international scholarship; the assumption of the relevance and desirability of WEIRD concepts; and the difficulties in applying human rights discourses to achieve LGBTQ emancipation. A transnational LGBTQ psychology that honors the authentic lives of LGBTQ people and decolonizes and dismantles context-specific homophobia/transphobia-related stigma is discussed. Finally, the promising directions of transnational LGBTQ psychology through research directions, networking, and advocacy are described. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).