Eileen L. Zurbriggen’s research while affiliated with University of California, Santa Cruz and other places

Using thematic analysis of interview data, the present study assessed teen girls’ and young adult women’s attitudes toward posting sexualized profile photos on Facebook. In addition, sexualization behaviors depicted in participants’ profile photos were examined. Participants overwhelmingly disapproved (either in a reluctant or a clear manner) of posting a profile photo of oneself in underwear on social media. A somewhat different pattern emerged in attitudes about posting a swimsuit photo in which specific conditions were laid out determining whether swimsuit photos were acceptable or not. Sexualization cues in profile photos were generally low. Findings suggest that posting a sexualized photo on social media comes with relational costs for girls and women. Strategies for educating young people about new media use and sexualization are discussed.

Social media pose a privacy paradox: Most users indicate that they are concerned about their privacy, yet they share personal information widely on social media platforms. The affordances of social media (connectivity, visibility, social feedback, persistence, and accessibility) and their ability to enhance social communication and interpersonal relationships help to explain their attraction for users. At the same time, the risks to privacy are real and serious. We review privacy issues in a variety of domains of social media use including friendships, romantic relationships, parental, workplace/professional, and therapist/client. Resolving the privacy paradox and fully protecting privacy will likely require changes in laws, technology, and individual and social practices. These changes are worth pursuing so that people can reap the benefits of social media use without losing the many benefits of privacy.

To better understand why individuals come to support economic policies that increase inequalities, we suggest a more expansive understanding of ideology. A broad understanding of ideology predicts that daily engagement with the material world will produce certain narratives about the self and the obstacles faced by people. We review studies on child-rearing practices and social psychological studies on diverging understandings of the self that highlight the contrasting narratives of working and middle class people. We argue that these different narratives play a role in explaining why individuals come to support certain economic policies. This more expansive understanding of the concept of ideology can help researchers trace the links between material conditions, ideological narratives, and support for socialist or capitalist economic policies, heeding Lott's (2015) call for a structural analysis. © 2016 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Prior research shows that undergraduates tend to identify more strongly with the field of science after participating in scientific research. However, mediators that might account for this association are not well understood. In the current study, we propose that science self-efficacy may serve this mediational function. Specifically, data from a 2-year longitudinal study were used to test a model in which science self-efficacy was expected to mediate the association between research involvement and identity as a scientist. The ethnically diverse sample included 251 undergraduates who were recruited from colleges and universities across the United States. The hypothesized mediation model was tested with a cross-lagged panel analysis. As expected, greater levels of research experience at Time 1 predicted higher identity as a scientist at Time 3, and this association was mediated by science self-efficacy at Time 2. Exploratory analyses testing for ethnic and gender differences in the model suggested that the associations in the model were similar for undergraduates from diverse backgrounds. From a theoretical standpoint, the current study provides novel insight into how research experience, efficacy, and identity relate to one another over time. Applied implications center on the importance of involving undergraduates in research that has the potential to bolster their science self-efficacy. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach

Changes in child safety knowledge concerning bullying, boundary-setting, and help-seeking were evaluated after participation in the Kidpower Everyday Safety Skills Program (ESSP), a workshop designed to increase children’s knowledge of safe choices. The program consisted of an in-school workshop, weekly follow-up sessions, and homework assignments over 10 weeks and included skills-training, parental involvement, and opportunities to practice safety skills. Third-grade students (n = 128) participated in pre- and post-tests of safety skills, and were compared to a comparison group (n = 110) that did not participate in the program. Findings indicate that students who participated had increases in safety knowledge (maintained for 3 months) greater than the comparison group. Additional assessments indicate that the program was implemented with high fidelity and both teachers and students found the program successful. Children’s understanding of the competency areas boundary-setting, stranger safety, help-seeking, and maintaining calmness and confidence improved.

Using an experimental methodology, the present study assessed adolescent girls’ and young adult women’s perceptions of a peer who presented herself on Facebook in either a sexualized or nonsexualized manner. Fifty-eight adolescent girls and 60 young adult women viewed a Facebook profile with either a sexualized profile photo or a nonsexualized profile photo and then evaluated the profile owner. Results indicated that the sexualized profile owner was considered less physically attractive, less socially attractive, and less competent to complete tasks. There was a main effect of age in the judgment of social attractiveness, with young adult women giving higher ratings than adolescent girls. There were no other main effects of age or interactions between age and condition. Findings suggest that using a sexualized profile photo on Facebook comes with relational costs for girls and women. Strategies for educating young people about new media use and sexualization are discussed.

Play with Barbie dolls is an understudied source of gendered socialization that may convey a sexualized adult world to young girls. Early exposure to sexualized images may have unintended consequences in the form of perceived limitations on future selves. We investigated perceptions of careers girls felt they could do in the future as compared to the number of careers they felt boys could do as a function of condition (playing with a Barbie or Mrs. Potato Head doll) and type of career (male dominated or female dominated) in a sample of 37 U.S. girls aged 4–7 years old residing in the Pacific Northwest. After a randomly assigned 5-min exposure to condition, children were asked how many of ten different occupations they themselves could do in the future and how many of those occupations a boy could do. Data were analyzed with a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed factorial ANOVA. Averaged across condition, girls reported that boys could do significantly more occupations than they could themselves, especially when considering male-dominated careers. In addition, girls’ ideas about careers for themselves compared to careers for boys interacted with condition, such that girls who played with Barbie indicated that they had fewer future career options than boys, whereas girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported a smaller difference between future possible careers for themselves as compared to boys. Results support predictions from gender socialization and objectification theories.

This review focuses on the ways in which the objectification of individuals and groups of people, as well as the self-objectification that typically develops from such treatment, is implicated in positive and negative societal change. Four areas are reviewed: (a) objectification (including dehumanization, infra-humanization, dehumanized perception, sexualization, and colonialism), (b) self-objectification (including double consciousness, internalized oppression, and colonial mentality), (c) genocide and mass violence, and (c) collective action. After reviewing theories in each area, a set of underlying constructs is presented, organized under higher-order categories. Finally, connections between objectification and genocide perpetration, as well as between self-objectification and collective action, are described. It is concluded that the objectification of other people contributes to societal change that runs counter to principles of equality and respect for others, threatens civil rights, and ultimately can result in genocide or mass killings. Furthermore, self-objectification impairs the ability of oppressed groups to act collectively on their own behalf. In contrast, the process of decolonization supports collective action and positive societal change, in part because it liberates oppressed people from self-objectification.

Jewish Americans’ opinions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict influence both the Israeli and the U.S. governments. Consequently, the Jewish American diaspora can act to promote or inhibit the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Several different sociopsychological beliefs have been postulated to lead individuals to support the perpetuation of conflict. Among these beliefs are a sense of collective victimhood, dehumanization and delegitimization of the other side, a zero-sum view on the conflict, and a monolithic narrative about the conflict. In this exploratory study we examined the role of these beliefs in predicting Jewish Americans’ rejection or support of compromise solutions to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. A survey study of 176 Jewish Americans shows that a monolithic view on the conflict, dehumanizing and delegitimizing of the other side, and a zero-sum view on the conflict played an important role in predicting opposition to compromise solutions for the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. Beliefs about collective victimhood did not predict support for compromise solutions. Findings are discussed in terms of the centrality of narrative misrecognition in preventing agreement to concessions toward the other side.