Today, physical and psychological barriers can reduce opportunities for the type of direct face‐t... more Today, physical and psychological barriers can reduce opportunities for the type of direct face‐to‐face intergroup contact first identified by Gordon Allport. Consequently, social psychological researchers have identified, developed and tested a burgeoning array of different forms of indirect contact, including, extended contact, Electronic‐ or E‐contact, imagined contact, vicarious contact and parasocial contact. In addition to providing a critical review of each of these forms, we argue that indirect contact is more than just a simple “replacement” for direct contact, but instead has the potential to improve intergroup relations for both minority and majority members in its own right. Relatedly, we acknowledge that indirect contact occurs within specific normative contexts embodied in legislation, institutions, and media and political contents. In fact, we recognize that indirect contact requires an integrative understanding of the role of intergroup norms and affective processes in order to effectively achieve public policy objectives to optimize effects on prejudice reduction.
In order to bridge the psychological and physical divide between different groups, researchers ha... more In order to bridge the psychological and physical divide between different groups, researchers have harnessed the positive elements of the Internet to improve intergroup contact. One new and effective Internet strategy is Electronic- or E-contact. Unlike other contact approaches, E-contact is an experimental intergroup intervention that uniquely accommodates Allport’s contact theory and recategorisation processes, to create a structured, cooperative, synchronous and goal-directed online text interaction between members from different groups. E-contact has been found to successfully improve intergroup relations between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and Muslims and Catholics in Australia; and reduce bias against lesbian women and gay men, people with schizophrenia, Indigenous Australians, and transgender individuals. This paper discusses the unique engineering and advantages of E-contact interventions in comparison to existing contact strategies, identifies the theories that guide E-contact interventions, provides meta-analytic evidence of its effects, and discusses the strengths, limitations and future directions for E-contact research.
The current study experimentally examined the potential for a contemporary extension of the conta... more The current study experimentally examined the potential for a contemporary extension of the contact hypothesis, known as electronic- or E-contact, to reduce sexual prejudice, intergroup anxiety, and avoidant behavioral intentions among heterosexuals. It also extended the sexual minority contact literature by examining the role of participant and interaction partner sex as a possible boundary condition of this contact-prejudice relationship. To test our hypotheses, 140 heterosexual female and male university students were randomly allocated to interact with a homosexual or heterosexual, female or male E-contact partner, in a collaborative and text-only online interaction before completing the outcome measures. Overall, the results demonstrated that interacting online with a female, as opposed to a male, homosexual E-contact partner reduced heterosexual men’s feelings of intergroup anxiety, which in turn, was associated with lower sexual prejudice and outgroup avoidance. For heterosexual women, however, E-contact did not influence the outcome variables. In the context of sexual prejudice, these results suggest that E-contact may be particularly useful as a prejudice-reduction strategy among individuals who typically require it most: heterosexual men.
... children. Journal of Family Studies, Vol 2, No. 1, April 1996 43 Page 4. Fiona A. White Paren... more ... children. Journal of Family Studies, Vol 2, No. 1, April 1996 43 Page 4. Fiona A. White Parent ... peers. Biddle, Bank, and Marlin (1980) suggested that parents and peers may influence adolescent behaviour in a complementary way. In ...
This paper develops a model of the family's role in the moralization of the adolescent. To ac... more This paper develops a model of the family's role in the moralization of the adolescent. To achieve this aim, the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (Olson, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1979; Olson, 1983) provides the theoretical framework needed to identify levels of adaptability, cohesion, and communication within each family system. Once identified, these family processes are treated as possible predictors of certain moral preferences, in particular, the number and type of sources of moral authority held by the adolescent. The notion "source of moral authority" is based on Henry's (1983) reconceptualization of Kohlberg's stage theory of moral judgments. In light of this, a new measure, the Moral Authority Scale (MAS) has been developed to assess such adolescent preferences for different sources of moral authority. Overall, this unique approach identifies salient family processes as influencing adolescent moral reasoning by drawing together systems theory,...
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 1997
This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the revised Moral Authority Scale (MASR), ... more This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the revised Moral Authority Scale (MASR), a unique content-based scale, which measures an individual's attributed level of influence to sources of moral authority in their moral decision making. In order to examine these psychometric properties, the MAS-R, Rest's (1979) Defining Issues Test (DIT) and Shelton & McAdams (1990) Visions of Morality Scale (VMS) were administered to 186 adolescents and their parents. Results indicated that the test-retest and split-half reliabilities of the MAS-R subscales were high. With regard to the validity of the scale, predicted levels of convergence were found between MAS-R subscales and the DIT stage scores but not between the MAS-R subscales and the VMS subscales. It was also found that the MAS-R discriminated between subjects' political and religious affiliations, further strengthening its validity. Moreover, the item-total correlational analysis suggests that the MAS-R has stron...
The author investigated the relationship between salient family processes and adolescent moral th... more The author investigated the relationship between salient family processes and adolescent moral thought among a sample of 271 adolescents and their parents. Family-process variables measured were adaptability, cohesion, and parent-adolescent communication; adolescent moral thought was measured by the influence the adolescent participants attributed to sources of moral authority. Perceptions of high family cohesion were associated with the greatest influence attributed to the family as a source of moral authority. Perceptions of high family adaptability were associated with greater influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. Parent-adolescent dyads who perceived high positive communication showed strong parent-adolescent agreement on the levels of influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. The findings (a) support the view that a strong relationship exists between family-socialization processes and the content of adolescent moral thought and (b) redress an empirical imbalance in research literature.
Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlber... more Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlbergian claims that moral reasoning development is cognitive in nature. Because a psychometrically appropriate moral comprehension instrument does not appear to exist, the Moral Comprehension Questionnaire (MCQ) was constructed in Study 1 and displayed some positive reliability and validity findings. Study 2 used this questionnaire to examine
Page 1. Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1996 421 Sources of Influence in Moral Though... more Page 1. Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1996 421 Sources of Influence in Moral Thought: the new Moral Authority Scale FIONA A. WHITE University of Sydney, Australia ABSTRACT Current interest in theorising about ...
Today, physical and psychological barriers can reduce opportunities for the type of direct face‐t... more Today, physical and psychological barriers can reduce opportunities for the type of direct face‐to‐face intergroup contact first identified by Gordon Allport. Consequently, social psychological researchers have identified, developed and tested a burgeoning array of different forms of indirect contact, including, extended contact, Electronic‐ or E‐contact, imagined contact, vicarious contact and parasocial contact. In addition to providing a critical review of each of these forms, we argue that indirect contact is more than just a simple “replacement” for direct contact, but instead has the potential to improve intergroup relations for both minority and majority members in its own right. Relatedly, we acknowledge that indirect contact occurs within specific normative contexts embodied in legislation, institutions, and media and political contents. In fact, we recognize that indirect contact requires an integrative understanding of the role of intergroup norms and affective processes in order to effectively achieve public policy objectives to optimize effects on prejudice reduction.
In order to bridge the psychological and physical divide between different groups, researchers ha... more In order to bridge the psychological and physical divide between different groups, researchers have harnessed the positive elements of the Internet to improve intergroup contact. One new and effective Internet strategy is Electronic- or E-contact. Unlike other contact approaches, E-contact is an experimental intergroup intervention that uniquely accommodates Allport’s contact theory and recategorisation processes, to create a structured, cooperative, synchronous and goal-directed online text interaction between members from different groups. E-contact has been found to successfully improve intergroup relations between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and Muslims and Catholics in Australia; and reduce bias against lesbian women and gay men, people with schizophrenia, Indigenous Australians, and transgender individuals. This paper discusses the unique engineering and advantages of E-contact interventions in comparison to existing contact strategies, identifies the theories that guide E-contact interventions, provides meta-analytic evidence of its effects, and discusses the strengths, limitations and future directions for E-contact research.
The current study experimentally examined the potential for a contemporary extension of the conta... more The current study experimentally examined the potential for a contemporary extension of the contact hypothesis, known as electronic- or E-contact, to reduce sexual prejudice, intergroup anxiety, and avoidant behavioral intentions among heterosexuals. It also extended the sexual minority contact literature by examining the role of participant and interaction partner sex as a possible boundary condition of this contact-prejudice relationship. To test our hypotheses, 140 heterosexual female and male university students were randomly allocated to interact with a homosexual or heterosexual, female or male E-contact partner, in a collaborative and text-only online interaction before completing the outcome measures. Overall, the results demonstrated that interacting online with a female, as opposed to a male, homosexual E-contact partner reduced heterosexual men’s feelings of intergroup anxiety, which in turn, was associated with lower sexual prejudice and outgroup avoidance. For heterosexual women, however, E-contact did not influence the outcome variables. In the context of sexual prejudice, these results suggest that E-contact may be particularly useful as a prejudice-reduction strategy among individuals who typically require it most: heterosexual men.
... children. Journal of Family Studies, Vol 2, No. 1, April 1996 43 Page 4. Fiona A. White Paren... more ... children. Journal of Family Studies, Vol 2, No. 1, April 1996 43 Page 4. Fiona A. White Parent ... peers. Biddle, Bank, and Marlin (1980) suggested that parents and peers may influence adolescent behaviour in a complementary way. In ...
This paper develops a model of the family's role in the moralization of the adolescent. To ac... more This paper develops a model of the family's role in the moralization of the adolescent. To achieve this aim, the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (Olson, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1979; Olson, 1983) provides the theoretical framework needed to identify levels of adaptability, cohesion, and communication within each family system. Once identified, these family processes are treated as possible predictors of certain moral preferences, in particular, the number and type of sources of moral authority held by the adolescent. The notion "source of moral authority" is based on Henry's (1983) reconceptualization of Kohlberg's stage theory of moral judgments. In light of this, a new measure, the Moral Authority Scale (MAS) has been developed to assess such adolescent preferences for different sources of moral authority. Overall, this unique approach identifies salient family processes as influencing adolescent moral reasoning by drawing together systems theory,...
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 1997
This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the revised Moral Authority Scale (MASR), ... more This paper investigates the psychometric properties of the revised Moral Authority Scale (MASR), a unique content-based scale, which measures an individual's attributed level of influence to sources of moral authority in their moral decision making. In order to examine these psychometric properties, the MAS-R, Rest's (1979) Defining Issues Test (DIT) and Shelton & McAdams (1990) Visions of Morality Scale (VMS) were administered to 186 adolescents and their parents. Results indicated that the test-retest and split-half reliabilities of the MAS-R subscales were high. With regard to the validity of the scale, predicted levels of convergence were found between MAS-R subscales and the DIT stage scores but not between the MAS-R subscales and the VMS subscales. It was also found that the MAS-R discriminated between subjects' political and religious affiliations, further strengthening its validity. Moreover, the item-total correlational analysis suggests that the MAS-R has stron...
The author investigated the relationship between salient family processes and adolescent moral th... more The author investigated the relationship between salient family processes and adolescent moral thought among a sample of 271 adolescents and their parents. Family-process variables measured were adaptability, cohesion, and parent-adolescent communication; adolescent moral thought was measured by the influence the adolescent participants attributed to sources of moral authority. Perceptions of high family cohesion were associated with the greatest influence attributed to the family as a source of moral authority. Perceptions of high family adaptability were associated with greater influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. Parent-adolescent dyads who perceived high positive communication showed strong parent-adolescent agreement on the levels of influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. The findings (a) support the view that a strong relationship exists between family-socialization processes and the content of adolescent moral thought and (b) redress an empirical imbalance in research literature.
Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlber... more Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlbergian claims that moral reasoning development is cognitive in nature. Because a psychometrically appropriate moral comprehension instrument does not appear to exist, the Moral Comprehension Questionnaire (MCQ) was constructed in Study 1 and displayed some positive reliability and validity findings. Study 2 used this questionnaire to examine
Page 1. Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1996 421 Sources of Influence in Moral Though... more Page 1. Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, 1996 421 Sources of Influence in Moral Thought: the new Moral Authority Scale FIONA A. WHITE University of Sydney, Australia ABSTRACT Current interest in theorising about ...
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