WHO/WHAT FOR: Dr Stefania Paolini, school of psychology, UON will deliver a research
presentation entitled “Valence asymmetries in intergroup relations: The challenges of improving
intergroup relations against the relative advantage of negative contact”, This talk is sponsored by the school’s Social and
Organisational Psychology research group.
WHEN: Tuesday 4th November, 12-1pm,
WHERE: Keats room, Aviation building, Callaghan
WHERELSE: video conferenced to: Humanities Meeting room (HO 1.73), Ourimbah (please advise Stefania if you plan to be
at the Ourimbah)
ABSTRACT: Due
to a focus on prejudice reduction, social psychological analyses of intergroup
contact have traditionally shied away from negative contact and
negative-positive contact comparisons. These analyses provide a more positive
report for contact than related disciplines; one that disagrees with global
trends of intergroup conflict. This paper showcases Australian-led research on
valence asymmetries aiming to redress these research disconnects. Stefania will
first introduce a Self-Categorization Theory’s inspired model of valence
asymmetries in intergroup relations. Based on this model, negative experiences
with the outgroup should worsen intergroup attitudes more than positive
experiences with the outgroup improve intergroup attitudes (i.e., negative valence asymmetry on intergroup
attitudes) because negative contact causes higher category salience than
positive intergroup contact (i.e., negative
valence asymmetry on social categorization). Stefania will then present a systematic
program of research testing the basic tenets of this model in a variety of
intergroup settings and with several research paradigms. She will identify a
series of moderating factors exacerbating, mitigating, and even reversing
negative valence asymmetries on social categorization and intergroup attitudes and
discuss the implications of these findings for theory, social interventions,
and future research.
BIO:
Stefania Paolini trained in social psychology at the
Universita’ di Padova (Italy), under the supervision of Prof Dora Capozza, and
completed her doctoral work in 2001 under the supervision of Prof Miles
Hewstone at Cardiff University (UK). For her PhD, she used models and methods
of intergroup contact and social categorization to explore ‘when’ and ‘why’
information about individual members of a social group affects the judgements
of the group as a whole. Since, she has published in leading international
journals and has been regularly invited to act as reviewer for leading journals
and grant bodies on the topics of member-to-group generalization, intergroup
contact, intergroup friendship, and intergroup emotions. Her current research
focuses on valence asymmetries on categorization and attitudes, on motivational
predictors of intergroup contact, and on the learning mechanisms of intergroup
anxiety and stereotyping. As part of this work, she has investigated
conflict-ridden intergroup contexts, like Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and
Arizona’ southern border. Stefania is currently senior lecturer in social psychology
at the University of Newcastle (Australia), co-chair of the
internationalisation committee of the Society for the Psychological Study of
Social Issues (SPSSI), and will be organising the upcoming annual meeting of
the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at Newcastle in 2015.
For more information on her work, visit: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/stefania-paolini
