Investigation of the Causes of Negative Attitudes towards Women Incompatible with Gender Stereotypes within the Context of Social Identity Theory

The primary gender stereotypes accepted in mainstream social psychology describe women as low in competence and high in warmth, men as having low warmth and high competence. Women who are incompatible with stereotypes are exposed to negative attitudes. Exposure to negative attitudes damages the psychological well-being of these group members. Stereotypes and negative attitudes towards members of social groups contribute to the persistence of their low status. Explaining the causes of gender stereotypes and negative attitudes towards women incompatible with stereotypes is an overlooked topic in mainstream social psychology. In order to change the ongoing gender system, where women have a disadvantageous status compared to men, it is necessary to understand the reasons for negative attitudes towards women who are incompatible with stereotypes. Based on the suggestions and findings of Social Identity Theory, explanations about negative attitudes towards women who are incompatible with gender stereotypes are presented in this study. It is concluded that most men reveal negative attitudes towards these women because women with high competency threaten men who can affirm their social identity through competency. Most men define their social identity through status-related traits such as competency. Due to the threat to men's social identity by women with high competence, it is concluded that negative attitudes towards these women are revealed by most of the men, based on theoretical suggestions. It is necessary to understand the identity management strategies to explain women's negative attitudes towards their fellows who are incompatible with stereotypes. According to the theoretical suggestions and related studies, it is concluded that the adoption of individual mobility and social creativity strategies reveal negative attitudes toward fellows who are incompatible with stereotypes. Although it is expected that women who adopt the social competition strategy have positive attitudes towards their fellows who are inconsistent with gender stereotypes, the level of adoption of this strategy is low. When theoretical suggestions and study findings are brought together, it is possible to understand the reasons for the negative attitudes towards women who are incompatible with gender stereotypes

The integration of “honorable woman” and “honorable man” representations into the stereotype content model and examination of the system-justifying function of the gender stereotypes

Türkiye’de kadınlara ve erkeklere yönelik kalıpyargıların içeriklerini ve bu içeriklerin bir arada oluşturdukları kavramsal yapıyı incelemek, namusa ilişkin içeriklerin alanda tanımlanan toplumsal cinsiyet kalıpyargıları arasındaki yerini sorgulamak amaçları doğrultusunda dört görgül araştırma yürütülmüştür. İlk çalışma, Türkiye’de namus kavramının içeriğini anlamaya yöneliktir. Çalışmada ilk olarak, bir namus kültürü olan Türkiye’de kadınları namuslu kılan özelliklerle erkekleri namuslu kılan özelliklerin aynı olmadığı önermesi test edilmiştir. Bu amaçla, 157 katılımcıdan (76 erkek, 81 kadın) “namuslu kadın” ve “namuslu erkek” sosyal temsillerine ilişkin veri toplanmıştır. Verilere uygulanan prototip ve kümeleme analizleri sonucunda, beklentilerle uyumlu biçimde, namuslu kadın ve namuslu erkek sosyal temsil içeriklerinden bazılarının birbirleriyle örtüştüğü, bazılarının ise tek bir cinsiyete özgü olduğu görülmüştür. İkinci çalışmada, namuslu kadına ve namuslu erkeğe ait oldukları belirlenen sosyal temsil içerikleri, birer kalıpyargı içeriği olarak değerlendirilmiş, namus temsillerinin Kalıpyargı İçeriği Modeli’nde (KİM) tanımlanan temel kalıpyargı boyutlarıyla ilişkisi incelenmiştir. KİM’deki temel kalıpyargı boyutlarının -sosyallik/yetkinlik/ahlak- değerlendirilmesinde daha önce kullanılmış olan sıfatlar derlenmiş ve tüm bu sıfatlar ile namuslu kadını ve/veya namuslu erkeği temsil ettiği belirlenen sosyal temsil içeriklerini bir araya getirerek hazırlanan bir özellikler listesi 251 katılımcıya (112 erkek, 139 kadın) sunulmuştur. Katılımcılardan, listedeki özelliklerden her birinin bir kadını ve bir erkeği tanımlamada ne ölçüde uygun olduğunu toplumun görüşüne göre değerlendirmeleri istenmiştir. Elde edilen iki veri setinin (sıfatların kadınlara yönelik değerlendirildiği veri seti ile erkeklere yönelik değerlendirildiği veri seti) her birine ayrı ayrı uygulanan açımlayıcı faktör analizleriyle, kadınlara ve erkeklere özgü kalıpyargı boyutlarının ve bu boyutlardaki içeriğin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Cinsiyet kalıpyargılarını yetkinlik, sosyallik ve ahlak olmak üzere üç boyutta toplamanın ve namusa ilişkin temsil içeriklerini ahlak kalıpyargısının içerikleri ile bir arada kümelemenin uygun olduğu görülmüştür. Ardından, 451 katılımcıdan (225 erkek, 226 kadın) benzer şekilde veri toplanıp bu veriler üzerinde doğrulayıcı faktör analizi uygulanmış, böylelikle ikinci çalışmada elde edilen faktör yapısı doğrulanmıştır. Son çalışmada, toplumsal cinsiyet kalıpyargılarının cinsiyet sistemini, namus sistemini ve kadına yönelik şiddeti meşrulaştırma üzerindeki yordayıcı etkilerine ilişkin hipotezler ve araştırma soruları kadın ve erkek katılımcılar üzerinden ayrı ayrı incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla 230 katılımcıdan (114 erkek, 116 kadın) anket yoluyla veri toplanmıştır. Çalışmanın hipotezlerini destekler bir şekilde, kadınları yetkin tanımlamadaki azalma ve ahlaklı/namuslu tanımlamadaki artış ile erkekleri ahlaklı/namuslu ve yetkin tanımlamadaki artış, cinsiyet sistemini meşrulaştırıcı ideolojilerin benimsenmesindeki artış üzerinde güçlü etkiler göstermiştir. Bu etkiler özellikle kadın katılımcılarda saptanmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular, literatürdeki araştırma bulgularıyla karşılaştırılarak tartışılmıştır.Four empirical researches have been carried out to examine the stereotype contents and the conceptual structure of the contents of stereotypes about women and men in Turkey and to analyze the contents about the honor together with the gender stereotypes defined in the field. The first study is aimed to understand the content of the honor concept in Turkey. The suggestion was tested that the properties made women and men honorable are distinct from each other in Turkey which is a culture of honor. For this purpose, data were collected from 157 participants (76 men, 81 women) about "an honorable woman" and "an honorable man" social representations. As a result of prototype and cluster analyses, in accordance with the expectations it was found that while some contents of "an honorable woman" and "an honorable man" are specific to one gender and some of them are same. In the second study, content of honorable woman and honorable man representations were evaluated as the contents of stereotypes, and the relationship between the honor representation and the basic stereotype dimensions defined in the Stereotypical Content Model (SCM) -sociability/competence/morality- was examined. Adjectives previously used in the evaluation of basic stereotype dimensions -sociality/competence/morality- were collected together and with all these adjectives the adjective lists of honorable women and honorable men contents obtained in the first study were presented to 251 participants (112 men, 139 women). They were asked to what extent these adjectives define women and men when considering the opinion of society. Exploratory factor analyzes applied separately to each of the two data sets (where adjectives are evaluated for women and are evaluated for men) to determine the stereotype dimensions specific to women and men and the content of these dimensions. It has been found that grouping gender stereotypes in three dimensions as competence, sociability and morality, and clustering the contents of honor representation together with the morality stereotype contents is appropriate. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed in a third study with data collected from 451 participants (225 men, 226 women) and then the consistency of factor structure obtained in the second study was confirmed. In the last study, the hypotheses and research questions about the predictive effects of gender stereotypes on gender system justification, honor system justification and legitimizing violence against women were tested separately on male and female participants. For this purpose, data were collected from 230 participants (114 men, 116 women) through a questionnaire. Consistent with the hypotheses of the study, the decrease in defining women as competent and the increase in defining them as moral/honorable and the increase in defining men as moral/honorable and competent have strong effects on the increase of gender system justifying ideologies. These effects observed specifically among females. Results were discussed by compared with the findings of previous studies

Perceptions of patients and their relatives about schadenfreude towards doctors

Background: Violence in healthcare is a global issue that healthcare professionals experience. The concerning increase in violent incidents in Turkiye particularly makes it a significant problem to explore by examining the underlying psychological factors. In this sense, this study focuses on the concept of Schadenfreude, the malicious joy of someone else's misfortune, towards doctors, which is an under-researched topic in healthcare violence. Particularly, there is a lack of research on patients' and relatives' perceptions of doctors. Objective: This study aims to determine the level of schadenfreude in Turkish society towards the violence experienced by doctors and to develop a model revealing the underlying causes. Methods: Using a convenience sampling method, we recruited 402 participants, who are not first-degree relatives of healthcare professionals, for this quantitative study. For data collection, we developed a survey instrument to measure the level of schadenfreude and six different psychological factors including empathy, sympathy, anger, aggression, and deservingness. For data analysis, we used structural equation modeling. Results: The results showed that the lower the levels of empathy and sympathy towards doctors were, the higher the levels of both schadenfreude and aggression were. Envy had no significant effect on either schadenfreude or aggression, while deservingness directly affected aggression. The perceptions of participants regarding doctors that they deserve violence increased their aggression levels. Schadenfreude had a positive and significant effect on anger and aggression. Implications: The examination of underlying factors of violence towards doctors points to a lack of mutual understanding between patients and doctors. The results of this study indicate a need for increasing empathy towards health professionals by creating societal awareness of their experiences. Local authorities and healthcare organizations can create environments that bring together the public and health professionals to share their experiences with each other or conduct campaigns to draw public attention to the issue. Moreover, training sessions on effective communication can be offered for health professionals to help improve patient-doctor relationships and healthcare outcomes