Combating Everyday Racial Discrimination without Assuming Racists or Racism: New Intervention Ideas from a Contextual Analysis

An Evidence-Based Approach for Treating Stress and Trauma due to Racism

Racism can be stressful or even traumatizing. Psychological unwellness emerges out of the confluence of historical, cultural, and individual experiences, and resulting syndromes may or may not fit into a DSM-5 PTSD diagnostic framework. Although racial stress and trauma are common presentations in therapy, few therapists have the resources or training to treat these issues. Based on the empirical evidence to date, this article describes the essential components of treatment for racial stress and trauma from a cognitive-behavioral perspective, called the Healing Racial Trauma protocol. Each technique is described with reference to the literature supporting its use for racial stress and trauma, along with guidance for how therapists might implement the method with clients. Also provided is information about sequencing techniques for optimal outcomes. Critical therapist prerequisites for engaging in this work are also discussed, with an emphasis on an anti-racist, empathy-centered approach throughout.

Variables involved in the acquisition and maintenance of racial aggression and its victims' reactions

This study aimed to investigate how behavior analysis can contribute to the understanding of some variables and processes involved in the acquisition and maintenance of racial aggressors' behaviors, as well as the victims' reactions. We describe how the concepts of rule-governed behavior and motivating operations may be involved in institutional racism: Individuals belonging to ethnic groups who hold the social administration in a context may keep important reinforcers available for their own group, while other racial groups may have their access to those reinforcers hindered. For these privileges to be perpetuated, the ruling group can arrange contingencies that reinforce the behavior of following certain rules that contribute to the maintenance of relevant reinforcers for the ruling group and exclusion of Black individuals and other people of color. For those underrepresented groups, motivating operations can be manipulated and reinforcers can be provided only when their responses are deemed appropriate by the dominant group. Individual learning through discriminative training, equivalence class formation, transfer of functions, stimulus generalization, and function altering were also discussed. Patterns such as aggression, escape, and avoidance, were identified in the actions of racial aggressors. Finally, the victim's reactions were also identified as escape, avoidance, or aggression of racial aggressors, but also as effects of processes such as learned helplessness, extinction after elimination of benefits, countercontrol, and respondent conditioning. Despite the lack of research in the field, behavior analysis has the power to elucidate some variables related to this theme, aiding, thus, evidence-based intervention proposals.

Exploring the Relation between Adolescents' Number of Perceived Reasons for Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms

Methodological impediments have presented challenges in identifying which individuals are at the highest risk of experiencing discrimination and its detrimental corollaries. In the current study, we examined whether adolescents' number of perceived reasons for everyday discriminations (i.e., number of identities and/or characteristics adolescents identify as the reasons(s) they are discriminated against) is associated with frequency of perceived everyday discriminations (PED) and depressive symptoms. Further, we evaluated indirect associations between number of perceived reasons for PEDs and depressive symptoms through frequency of PED, brooding, and reflection. The sample for this cross-sectional study consisted of 328 9th grade students between the ages of 13 and 16 (M = 14.19, SD = 0.56). Around 60% of the sample identified as male, and a majority of the adolescents identified their race as either Black (46%) or White (35%). Adolescents provided data on perceived reasons for PEDs, frequency of PED, brooding, reflection, and depressive symptoms using self-report measures. Adolescents' number of perceived reasons for PEDs was associated with frequency of PED and depressive symptoms. There were also multiple indirect associations between adolescents' number of perceived reasons for PEDs and depressive symptoms through frequency of PED, brooding, and reflection. Our results indicate that accounting for adolescents' number of perceived reasons for PEDs may be useful to both researchers and clinicians in identifying which individuals are at the greatest risk of experiencing PED and associated outcomes. Additional implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Anger, Fear, and Sadness: How Emotions Could Help Us End a Pandemic of Racism

Racism, recently referred to as another kind of pandemic, affects the health and safety of diverse individuals within the United States and around the world. Emotions are a powerful and integral aspect of the experience of racism; however, within the field of behavior analysis, we have been hesitant to acknowledge emotion or explore how it relates to behavior and behavioral contingencies. As a result, the scope of our understanding of emotion is limited. To better understand the current experience and perception of practitioners in the field of behavior analysis, as they relate to emotion and racism, a brief survey was conducted. Findings indicated that although many may be comfortable discussing emotion and displaying emotions for themselves and others, this was not the case for everyone. Further, many were uncomfortable discussing racism. Although participants believed that emotions of racism are important and should be addressed by the field of behavior analysis, they think the field has not done enough work in this area. The results of the study lead to several recommendations, including additional antiracism research and the acknowledgment of emotional experience, as well as for how individuals can better understand, and maybe reduce, the negative emotions associated with oppression.

Conditional Love: Threat and Attitudinal Perceptions of Immigrants Depend on Their Instrumentality to Locals' Basic Psychological Needs

Although threat perceptions are commonly used to explain attitudes toward immigrants, the psychological factors underlying threat are surprisingly understudied. Drawing from goal pursuit and self-determination theory, we examined the perceived instrumentality of immigrants as an antecedent of locals' threat and attitudinal perceptions. Through four studies (N = 1,372) with different configurations of local population segments and target immigrant groups, we investigated the impact of immigrants' instrumentality in terms of hindrances to locals' autonomy, belonging, and competence needs. Including hindrances to our proposed model of threats and attitudes led to an improvement in the overall fit with the data, allowed for a better specification of the threats-to-attitudes pathways, and elucidated the complexity and downstream consequences (endorsement of pro-immigration policies) of attitudes. The present findings underscore the utility of goal-driven approaches to studying intergroup conflicts, and implications for understanding and improving locals' attitudes toward immigrants are discussed.

Relational Density Theory: Nonlinearity of Equivalence Relating Examined through Higher-Order Volumetric-Mass-Density

We propose relational density theory, as an integration of stimulus equivalence and behavioral momentum theory, to predict the nonlinearity of equivalence responding of verbal humans. Consistent with Newtonian classical mechanics, the theory posits that equivalence networks will demonstrate the higher order properties of density, volume, and mass. That is, networks containing more relations (volume) that are stronger (density) will be more resistant to change (i.e., contain greater mass; mass = volume * density). Data from several equivalence experiments that are not easily interpreted through existing accounts are described in terms of the theory, generating predictable results in most cases. In addition, we put forward the higher-order properties of relational acceleration and gravity, which follow directly from the theory and may inspire future researchers to evaluate the seemingly self-organizing nature of human cognition. Finally, we conclude by describing avenues for real-world translation, considering past research interpreted through relational density theory, and call for basic experimental research to validate and extend core theoretical assumptions.

Can Behavior Analysis Help Us Understand and Reduce Racism? A review of the Current Literature

Despite ongoing efforts to eradicate racism, it persists globally, negatively affecting education, mental health, community relations, and economic development. Every behavior analyst can, and should, contribute to the reduction of racism in some way. Unfortunately, little behavior-analytic research exists to guide us. This article proposes ways that members of our scientific community can learn about racism from a behavioral perspective, extend experimental analyses of prejudice, and intervene to reduce racism in varied settings. It describes both traditional behavior-analytic and functional-contextualist accounts of racism and summarizes the small amount of related empirical and applied research. The review suggests that combining traditional behavior-analytic methods with acceptance and commitment training techniques may attenuate racism more effectively. The article ends with a call to collaborate around this globally important issue-and to do more to reduce racism.

Can We Make a Difference? Prejudice Towards Asylum Seekers in Australia and the Effectiveness of Antiprejudice Interventions

Over the past few decades, Australia has implemented increasingly restrictive measures to try and deter the arrival of asylum seekers. In our article, we review what is known in the literature about the antecedents of prejudice against asylum seekers. We outline 11 mechanisms, or variables, as being particularly important. We then draw out the practical implications as they relate to antiprejudice interventions. Within the research and implications, we discuss our own experiences of working directly with asylum seekers over the past decade and in running antiprejudice interventions. We conclude that even though the situation is bleak in Australia at the time of writing this article (at the end of 2014), we must continue with attempts to combat the demonisation of asylum seekers both on an individual level and a structural level.

Predictors of Heavy Episodic Drinking and Weekly Drunkenness Among Immigrant Latinos in North Carolina

Few studies have examined correlates of heavy drinking among rural immigrant Latino men. This analysis identified correlates of typical week drunkenness and past 30-day heavy episodic drinking, within a sample of immigrant Latino men in rural North Carolina (n = 258). In the bivariate analyses, Mexican birth, entering the United States as an adult, and year-round employment were associated with increased odds of typical week drunkenness, and higher acculturation and affiliation with a religion with strict prohibitions against drinking alcohol were associated with lower odds of typical week drunkenness. Being older, Mexican birth, entering the United States as an adult, and lower acculturation were associated with increased odds of heavy episodic drinking, and affiliation with a religion with strict prohibitions against drinking alcohol and completing high school were associated with decreased odds of heavy episodic drinking. In multivariable modeling, only religious affiliation was associated with typical week drunkenness. Mexican birth, entering the United States as an adult, and lower acculturation were associated with increased odds of heavy episodic drinking, and affiliation with a religion with strict prohibitions against drinking alcohol and completing high school were associated with lower odds of heavy episodic drinking. The health of minority men in the United States has been neglected, and immigrant Latino men comprise a particularly vulnerable population. This analysis provides initial data on some factors associated with heavy drinking within a population about which little is known. Future studies should examine moderating or mediating factors between age, acculturation, religiosity, and heavy drinking that might be targets for behavioral interventions.

Immigrant sexual minority Latino men in rural North Carolina: an exploration of social context, social behaviors, and sexual outcomes

Immigrant sexual minority Latino men-who may or may not self-identify as gay-constitute a minority within a minority. Often labeled "hidden" and "hard-to-reach," and marginalized along multiple dimensions, it is a subgroup about whom little is known. Informed by a social ecological framework, we sought to describe key social variables for 190 such men in rural North Carolina and to test associations with three sexual outcomes: consistent condom use, number of sex partners, and sexual compulsivity. Participants reported limited English-language use, predominantly Latino close friends, middle levels of social support despite numerous social ties, and frequent experiences of discrimination. There were unique sets of correlates for each sexual outcome. Findings may inform health promotion interventions and guide future research.

Bystander Antiprejudice: Cross-Cultural Education, Links With Positivity Towards Cultural ‘Outgroups’ and Preparedness to Speak Out

This article describes a 12-week intervention targeting positivity towards asylum seekers, Indigenous Australians and Muslim Australians. The study also assessed change in the intention to engage in bystander activism in four different scenarios: two Indigenous (old-fashioned and modern prejudice), one Muslim and one asylum seeker. There was a significant increase in positivity towards asylum seekers, Indigenous Australians and Muslim Australians. There was also a significant increase in ‘speaking out intention’, a form of bystander anti-prejudice, in three of the scenarios, but not in response to the Indigenous old-fashioned prejudice scenario. The study indicates that structured education on cross-cultural issues can improve attitudes to perceived ‘outgroups’ and, for the most part, increase participants' intention to speak out against prejudice.

Sexual and alcohol risk behaviours of immigrant Latino men in the South-eastern USA

Little is known about the intersections of immigration, masculinity and sexual risk behaviours among recently arrived Latino men in the USA. Nine immigrant Latino men from three urban housing communities in the South-eastern USA used photovoice to identify and explore their lived experiences. From the participants' photographs and words, thirteen themes emerged within four domains. The immigration experience and sociocultural norms and expectations of masculinity were factors identified decreasing Latino men's sense of power and increasing stress, which lead to sexual risk. Latino community strengths and general community strengths were factors that participants identified as promoting health and preventing risk. These themes influenced the development of a conceptual model to explain risk among immigrant Latino men. This model requires further exploration and may prove useful in intervention development.