Term of Award
Fall 2019
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Psychology
Committee Chair
C. Thresa Yancey
Committee Member 1
Jeff Klibert
Committee Member 2
Larry Locker
Abstract
Members of marginalized groups such as lesbian women and gay men are often at an increased risk of threat or harm compared to their heterosexual counterparts. They may experience prejudice in the form of discrimination and stigma related behaviors. Due to the stigma lesbian women and gay men face throughout various stages of their lives, it is important to examine and discover which factors increase more acceptance and empathy. Additionally, it is important to examine ways to increase positive regard and reduce discrimination in order to promote psychological and overall wellbeing for lesbians and gay men. Given what we know about stigma, the current study used a MANOVA to examine the impact of mood induction (i.e., happy, sad, and neutral mood groups) on participants’ empathy, openness to diversity, attitudes toward lesbian women and gay men, and stigma behavior following a passage about a lesbian woman overcoming adversity. The sample consisted of 67 undergraduate students. No differences were found on any dependent variable based on mood condition. In addition, there were no rural differences in reports of the dependent variables. The results of the two 2 x 3 factorial ANOVAs illustrated a main effect of time and a significant interaction between time and condition on positive affect. For negative affect, a main effect of time was not found, but there was a significant interaction between time and condition. Given these findings, more research needs to be done to explore other factors that may help in fostering more positive and accepting attitudes towards marginalized groups.
OCLC Number
1149150944
Recommended Citation
Adams, Angela, "The Effects of Mood on Empathy, Openness to Diversity, Attitudes, and Willingness to Help Marginalized Groups" (2019).
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
