Exploring Process Dissociation as a Tool for Investigating Discrimination in Hiring Situations

Process dissociation is introduced as a way to overcome methodological limitations currently hindering sexism research. Researchers have identified two main types of sexism in hiring contexts. Meta-analyses confirm that men are traditionally advantaged over women (Tosi & Einbender, 1985), and that both genders encounter discrimination when applying to a job typically associated with the other gender (Davison & Burke, 2000). One problem is that these two biases are often confounded. As a result, researchers have hitherto been limited to showing that the two biases exist, but are largely unable to quantify them. A possible solution might be process dissociation. It provides a way of measuring processes without the need to isolate them (Jacoby, 1991). The purpose of the dissertation was to explore process dissociation within the context of hiring decisions. The current dissertation consisted of three parts. A pretest developed materials for use in the main studies. Study 1 then explored how process dissociation estimates compare to existing tools commonly used to study sexism. The pro-male bias was found to relate to old-fashioned sexism. The gender-job fit bias related to benevolent sexism. Measures of bias appeared uncontaminated by internal and external motivation to respond without sexism. Biases did not relate as expected to other measures of sexism, including hostile, modern, and neo-sexism, and two Implicit Association Tests. Finding differential relationships with some expected correlates supports the validity of process dissociation parameters and helps elucidate how the parameters fit within existing sexism constructs. Study 2 further investigated validity through independent manipulation. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of four word-sorting tasks containing primes intended to selectively influence one of the two types of bias. These manipulations had the desired effect for only some participants. Though both biases were selectively affected, a full double dissociation was not achieved. Consequently, Study 2 results provide only partial support for the proposed causal mechanisms and independence of process dissociation parameters. Overall, results illustrate that process dissociation may be a helpful tool for use in research on sexism in hiring decisions. Limitations of process dissociation and potential next steps are discussed

Race and Representation: A Case Study of Racial Diversity in Student Government

Colleges and universities in the United States have attempted for years to implement policies and procedures to promote racial diversity in their student bodies, as well as to ensure reflective minority representation in student programs at their institutions. I have done an independent evaluation assessment of the necessity and program theory for a policy aimed at assuring diversity of the undergraduate student government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, covering the period 2003-2005. The policy in effect during those years was a system which guaranteed minority representation reasonably mirroring the known minority population of the undergraduate student body by reserving 13 percent of Senator positions in the Student Government Association for students affiliated with the African, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American caucus. The policy intent was to achieve campus fair and just minority representation in UMass student government. In reality, however, that policy produced unintended consequences instead – bitter, and sometimes violent racial tensions, and widespread and prolonged charges of reverse and illegal discrimination. As a result of this evaluation of that policy, and its attendant procedures for implementation, in the conclusion I offer recommendations which would allow UMass to replace a problematic policy with one which could achieve reflective minority representation in student government acceptable to, and supported by, the majority of the undergraduate population

Tuateawa

The Tuateawa project seeks to inform ecological understanding using analyses of soundscapes. Sound recordings are made in specific locations near Tuateawa in the Coromandel peninsula. This area is being monitored for the eradication of pests such as possums, stoats and rats. The research looks at how the soundscapes change over time, in particular: how is bird life affected by the presence of introduced noxious pests? And, how does human activity influence natural behaviours? The project is a form of documentary capturing detailed sound recordings every season for three or more years. The sound data is analysed for noticeable shifts in frequency and loudness, and output as various visual abstractions, the first of which is an audio visual work for LCD screens and speakers at Ramp Gallery 7-11 December 2020. The intended audience is intermediate age children to get them thinking about how these soundscapes might be understood and focused on through a less ‘scientific’ medium

The early Pliocene Titiokura Formation: stratigraphy of a thick, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic shelf succession in Hawke's Bay Basin, New Zealand

This paper presents a systematic stratigraphic description of the architecture of the early Pliocene Titiokura Formation (emended) in the Te Waka and Maungaharuru Ranges of western Hawke's Bay, and presents a facies, sequence stratigraphic, and paleoenvironmental analysis of the sedimentary succession. The Titiokura Formation is of early Pliocene (Opoitian-Waipipian) age, and unconformably overlies Mokonui Formation, which is a regressive late Miocene and early Pliocene (Kapitean to early Opoitian) succession. In the Te Waka Range and the southern parts of the Maungaharuru Range, the Titiokura Formation comprises a single limestone sheet 20-50 m thick, with calcareous sandstone parts. In the vicinity of Taraponui Trig, and to the northeast, the results of 1:50 000 mapping show that the limestone gradually partitions into five members, which thicken markedly to the northeast to total thicknesses of c. 730 m, and concomitantly become dominated by siliciclastic sandstone. The members (all new) from lower to upper are: Naumai Member, Te Rangi Member, Taraponui Member, Bellbird Bush Member, and Opouahi Member. The lower four members are inferred to each comprise an obliquity-controlled 41 000 yr 6th order sequence, and the Opouahi Member at least two such sequences. The sequences typically have the following architectural elements from bottom to top: disconformable sequence boundary that formed as a transgressive surface of erosion; thin transgressive systems tracts (TSTs) with onlap and backlap shellbeds, or alternatively, a single compound shellbed; downlap surface; and very thick (70-200 m) highstand (HST) and regressive systems tracts (RST) composed of fine sandstone. The sequences in the Opouahi Member have cryptic TSTs, sandy siltstone to silty sandstone HSTs, and cross-bedded, differentially cemented, fine sandstone RSTs; a separate variant is an 11 m thick bioclastic limestone (grainstone and packstone) at the top of the member that crops out in the vicinity of Lake Opouahi. Lithostratigraphic correlations along the crest of the ranges suggest that the Titiokura Formation, and its correlatives to the south around Puketitiri, represent a shoreline-to-shelf linked depositional system. Carbonate production was focused around a rocky seascape as the system onlapped basement in the south, with dispersal and deposition of the comminuted carbonate on an inner shelf to the north, which was devoid of siliciclastic sediment input. The rates of both subsidence and siliciclastic sediment flux increased rapidly to the northeast of the carbonate "platform", with active progradation and offlap of the depositional system into more axial parts of Hawke's Bay Basin

Tuateawa: A study in soundscape ecology

Ramp Gallery 7-11 Dec 2020 A multimedia work by Kent Macpherson Rhys Jones & Paul Nelson The Tuateawa project seeks to inform Ecological Understanding using Analyses of Soundscapes. Sound recordings are made in specific locations near Tuateawa in the Coromandel peninsula. This area is being monitored for the eradication of pests such as possums, stoats and rats. The work looks at how the soundscapes change over time. In particular, How is bird life affected by the presence of introduced noxious pests? How does human activity influence natural behaviours. The project is a form of documentary capturing detailed sound recordings every season for three or more years. The sound data is analysed for any noticeable shifts in frequency and loudness, then output as various visual abstractions, the first of which is an audio visual work for LCD screens and speakers at Ramp Gallery 7-11 December 2020. The intended audience is intermediate age children to get them thinking about how these soundscapes might be understood and focused on through a less ‘scientific’ mediu

The impact of Chinese import penetration on the South African manufacturing sector

This article uses a Chenery-type decomposition and econometric estimation to evaluate the impact of Chinese trade on production and employment in South African manufacturing from 1992 to 2010. The results suggest that increased import penetration from China caused South African manufacturing output to be 5 per cent lower in 2010 than it otherwise would have been. The estimated reduction of total employment in manufacturing as a result of trade with China is larger – in 2010 about 8 per cent – because the declines in output were concentrated on labour-intensive industries and because the increase in imports raised labour productivity within industries