2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

This symposium includes presentations representing chapters from an upcoming edited collection on women’s experiences of migration. Panelists explore the gendered personal and emotional costs of the dislocation of space in the contemporary global political/economic regime. Even though popular notions continue to perceive the immigrant as male, the presence of females is central to the process. And yet, most published work on immigration does not focus on the gendered processes that underlie the experience of migration. With very few exceptions, even when data about women and girls are presented, a gender analysis of the implications of these data tends to be absent. Through a combination of empirical research, personal narratives, and clinical insights about women immigrants and refugees, these presentations contribute an innovative and multicultural approach to the knowledge base on women’s experience of migration. The extant psychological literature about women who migrate tends to pathologize their experiences and/or emphasize the needs of clinical populations (e.g., studies of depression among immigrants). In other words, the focus tends to be on illness-based studies. By contrast, this panel provides other perspectives and healthy alternatives, including those of survival, resilience, and success. Presenters provide a gender analysis of women’s and girls’ experiences of migration, not simply examining women as subjects of scholarship, but exploring ways in which gender is an organizing structure of power relations. These presentations do not simply examine data about girls and/or women, but provide a feminist analysis in which gender is a central organizing axis of power, alongside other social structures such as age, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and so on. Specific topics explored by these presenters include gender identity, acculturation, language, food, violence, intersectionality and the psychology of place and space.

Paralleling the early research and unsuccessful attempts to change sexual orientation, clinicians and researchers continue to attempt to permanently change body weight. This symposium discourages lesbians to submit to the weight loss industry by reviewing studies on lesbians and weight, health, weight loss, and body satisfaction.

Males and females exhibit similar math and science achievement levels in K-12. Therefore, other variables are believed to play a considerable role in the continued underrepresentation of females and minorities in certain STEM career trajectories. This symposium will provide an overview and present data from three different types of studies that seek to impact attitudes about math, science, and gender stereotypes and enhance behavioral performance on STEM-related tasks. National and international data on female achievement in math and science will be reviewed. Math and science anxiety will be defined and operationalized and examples of assessment measures used in this area will be demonstrated. Gender stereotyping in STEM and the use of measures such as the Gender-Science Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT) are described. Methods for encouraging females to develop and maintain a strong math and science self-concept are explored. Data are presented from a study on pre-service teachers, suggesting that anxious attitudes about math and science and stereotypes about gender and science may be implicitly conveyed to K-12 students, impact female students more than male students, and could potentially be prevented. Outcome data are also presented on a brief mindful math intervention for female college students designed to increase math performance and decrease negative cognitions. Lastly, brief “reverse” stereotype threat interventions aimed at female, ethnic minority and low SES college students are described and discussed, with the goal of creating new and potentially quick methods for decreasing math and science anxiety and enhancing performance levels in these populations.

This symposium addresses the importance of social context in relationship to significant social identities (e.g., race and gender) and commitment to social justice. All three presentations utilize qualitative methodologies in efforts to understand the role of race, class, gender, and sexuality in shaping the lived experiences of young Latina/os. The first presentation focuses on the experiences of young Latina students attending an alternative high school in Northern California. Using data gathered from an ethnographic study, the authors explore from an intersectional perspective young Latinas’ experiences in a school setting designed primarily for the surveillance and training of young men. Findings show instances of gendered microaggressions that reproduce practices that may lead to harmful outcomes for young Latinas. The second presenter discusses the transformative power of higher education in facilitating a commitment to work on behalf of Latina/o and gender issues. The author draws from interviews conducted with a sample of educated Latinas. Data analyses are informed by the social engagement model (Hurtado, 1997) and highlight the importance of student organizations and exposure to feminist and ethnic studies courses in galvanizing political activism geared at contributing to social justice and “the public good.” The final presenter draws from interviews with a sample of Latino men attending a “Hispanic” Serving Institution on the central coast of California. The purpose of the study was to understand how social context (familial, community, and educational) influence young Latinos’ views in defining the word “manhood.” The author utilizes intersectionality as a guiding concept informing analyses of participants’ responses. Findings indicate that most participants defined manhood in relational and ethical ways, and none endorsed hegemonic definitions of masculinity. Taken together, all three presentations illustrate the importance of social context in shaping educational trajectories and life chances, consciousness around gender, and commitment to social justice for marginalized communities.

As the U.S becomes a more multiculturally diverse nation, the need for increased multicultural and cross-cultural research in psychology is an ethical imperative. The utilization of indigenous healing practices in the United States have greatly increased in popularity among minority populations. However, despite their increased utilization, indigenous forms of healing are often devalued or invalidated due to their differing epistemological worldview from the Western positivist paradigm. There has been little research done into understanding the healing mechanisms of these practices and understanding how and why they are effective. While indigenous approaches in psychology continue to be somewhat invisible within the dominant professional paradigm, attention to cultural healing practices was common among such founders of psychology as C. G. Jung, at a time when many other Western traditions dismissed any perspectives that were derived outside of the Western “scientific” paradigm. Sinha (1997), among the first psychology scholars to provide a definition of indigenous psychology, suggested that such psychology(ies) share emphasis on the cultural foundations of knowledge, local practices, interpretations grounded in local frames of reference, and locally relevant results. Undoubtedly, contemporary feminist psychology, embedded within Third and Fourth Waves of feminism, emphasizes these very same values. However, training, writing, and presentations on specific ways to integrate indigenous perspectives as well as research methods, remain scarce. Therefore, this proposed Symposium would provide not only a review of contemporary perspectives on indigenous, shamanic, and folk healing perspectives outside of traditional Western psychological paradigms, but also invite participants to learn about these practices within the context of clinical work, research, and personal experiences of three women-presenters. These presentations will draw upon research on indigenous healing practices in South America as well as contemporary shamanic work in North American context. Lastly, the presenters will introduce rationale for ways that indigenous approaches can function as liberatory, feminist, and socially relevant practices both outside and inside the Western context.

This symposium presents both quantitative and qualitative research and clinical strategies related to the experience of sexual minority stress and resilient responses to ward off their effects. Sexual minority stress is the stress that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people experience in addition to the every day stress that all people experience (e.g., Meyer, 2001). The presentation addresses questions about how sexual minority stressors function across different groups of women, about how resilience to sexual minority stressors can best be conceptualized, and about how the damage from sexual minority stress can best be repaired within our contemporary landscape. At the beginning of the symposium, researchers explore LGBQ women’s gender expression to see how masculinity in women influences minority stressors and mental health via a survey study. Outcomes explored include internalized homophobia, identity concealment, expectations of rejection and psychological distress. The second set of researchers examines the question of whether people who have multiple minority identities have increased resilience to sexual minority stressors by examining how LGBT women of color experience social well-being. The ways this population experiences connectedness to communities, loneliness, and social support is explored. Next, a qualitative study queries the ways that resilience functions to support LGB people. It sheds light upon the ways resilient responses can mitigate minority stressors but also upon the potential costs of those same responses. Finally, an eminent therapist examines how, as advances are being made in the social acceptance of LGBTQ populations, sexual prejudices are shifting in form to become increasingly subtle. These covert forms of sexual prejudice may be harder for both clients and therapists to recognize and resist. She shares her clinical insights on how practitioners can refine their practices to help clients repair the effects of sexual minority stressors. We request a 90-minute program slot, if possible.