Stigma, false confessions, ethnicity, geography, employee health. What’s the connection? Possibly the only connection is that when my American Psychological Association Monitor arrived recently, I gleaned from its pages little chewy nuggets of ongoing psychological research on these themes.
Although I remain a clinician and am not a researcher, I applaud the scientists that give foundation to my face-to-face encounters in my work and that give us all a better understanding of human nature.
Stigma in the Workplace
While we may think that flexible workplace policies have become widely accepted as a good deal for both employer and employee, we may be disappointed. In the Journal of Social Issues (June 12, 2013), it is reported that employees fear stigma that use of such policies may engender. Both men and women worry about lower wages, fewer promotions, less favorable performance evaluations if they do opt for time for family. Unfortunately, their fears are not unfounded. In the various research studies reported, indeed it was found that women were “mommy tracked”—in essence, often detoured from their career path, and men were “feminized,” judged as “weaker” and “less dominant.”
Joan Williams, J.D., edited the journal’s workplace theme with Jennifer Glass, Ph.D., Shelley Carnell, Ph.D. and Jennifer Berdahl, Ph.D. They further report that lower income mothers are penalized when they have child care difficulties.
Distilled to its essence, it appears that stigma remains in the workplace for both men and women when it comes to balancing work with family and children.
Stress and False Confessions
Researchers at Iowa State conducted a study in which the researchers found that 43 percent of innocent participants accused of “misconduct” in the experiment could, due to raising stress levels, be pressured to “confess.” This is something to ponder, given the stories of innocent people convicted for crimes they didn’t do.
Geography
Geography has a personality profile? Psychologists at the University of Cambridge studied the personality traits of over 1.5 million people across the U.S., excluding Hawaii and Alaska. They concluded — after collecting data for 12 years — that people of the North Central Plains and the south tend toward “conventional and friendly;” people of the western and eastern seacoasts seem “more relaxed and creative;” and New England and Mid-Atlantic residents seem “more temperamental and uninhibited.” Hmmm… What happens when people who grew up in one area move to another? What changes? What stays the same?
Cross-Ethnic Friendships
Let’s hear it for diversity. In a study conducted jointly by UCLA and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, it was found that cross-ethnic friendships increased as diversity in the classroom increased. The students who made friends across groups reported feeling safer, less lonely, less victimized.
Employee Health
We began with workplace, so let’s end with the workplace. According to research conducted by HealthNEXT, companies who have commendable approaches to employee health and safety happen to have healthy performances in the stock market. What would happen if the researchers for this study combined efforts with the researchers on stigma about family caregiving in the workplace? Would they be able to convince employers that there is economic benefit to caring about their employees balancing act between work and home?
For further information see APA Monitor on Psychology, December, 2013, Briefs by Amy Novotney.
Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.
Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.
