 Today's society is becoming increasingly more and more diverse which means that today's children, youth and young adults need to be able to succeed in multicultural settings, whether those be school, home, work, club groups or other living situations such as roommates. But America is still segregated within schools and neighborhoods which could make it difficult for people to learn how to adapt to these increasing multicultural settings later in life. So how do interracial interactions occur? What makes interracial interactions more positive or more negative experiences? These are questions that I am pursuing with my adviser Dr. Samuel R. Sommers at Tufts University. We are not only exploring this question with monoracial individuals but with biracial individuals as well. The mixed-race population increased by 32% over the last ten years, yet bulk of psychology research has not studied this population and how they may differ in their behavior and racial perceptions from their monoracial counterparts. I am very interested in further examining the fluid like nature of biracial or multiracial people's racial identities. Would priming one identity affect their behavior or perceptions? Hypothetical interactions are also another focus of some of my research. In-person interactions are not the only way that people learn their perspectives and perceptions of others. It is known that a myriad of influences and experiences aid in forming one's views of others, one of those influences being the media. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) states that under certain conditions, such as through repeated messages, viewers can and do learn from what they see in the media. Therefore, media representations have the potential to mold and reflect social attitudes. Racial and ethnic minorities, however, have been underrepresented in prime time television shows and commercials over time, but are often overrepresented in certain types of news coverage. We are interested in learning more about people's perceptions of the media, specifically in examining one's experiences with the media and how those experiences have affected one's attitudes about what types of stories and shows the media should be showing. (photo courtesy of time.com) |