Stigma, Strengths, and Social Change

Join the webinar here: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/91603113396

Social change is rife with dynamic challenges, it can require empowering marginalized social groups and securing intergroup buy-in from dominant social groups. This talk explores the promise of leveraging socio-cultural insights tied to psychological selves to meet such challenges, and to ultimately advance science and society. It theorizes and provides evidence that the psychological selves of marginalized social groups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, sexual violence survivors) while associated with stigma can also be related to strengths (e.g., resilience, intra-group pride, and interdependent motivations). Using longitudinal data and theory-driven intervention studies it provides evidence that efforts to minimize stigma while also affirming strengths tied to marginalized social identities can positively impact social change. It reveals evidence of advantageous intra-and intergroup consequences (e.g., empowerment, belonging, policy support) and impacts on outcomes linked to inequalities (e.g., academic achievement, well-being, and vaccine hesitancy). Theory and applied implications for psychological selves and intergroup dynamics are discussed.

Tiffany N. Brannon, PhD is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Social Psychology from Stanford University and her B.A. in Psychology from Florida International University. Her research examines socio-cultural identities in negatively stereotyped groups such as Latino/a/x and African Americans; and she investigates the potential for these identities to serve as psychological resources— strengths that can facilitate a variety of individual and intergroup benefits. She is the senior author of the book Selves as Solutions to Social Inequalities through Cambridge University Press; her research has been published in top academic journals including Psychological Science, American Psychologists, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Issues and Policy Review, and the Journal of Social Issues.