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Affirmative Action is the term used to describe the policies of
governments and other institutions that are designed to actively promote and advance the
status and the social and occupational participation of groups of people designated by
sex, ethnicity or other shared characteristic.
The intent of such policies or
affirmative action is to counteract perceived disadvantagement of such groups.
UNDERSTANDING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Faye J. Crosby Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz,
California 95064; email: fjcrosby@ucsc.edu
Aarti Iyer School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom;
email: a.iyer@exeter.ac.uk
Sirinda Sincharoen Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz,
California 95064; email: sirinda@qc2.com
Affirmative action is a controversial and often poorly understood policy. It is also a
policy that has been widely studied by social scientists. In this review, we outline how
affirmative action operates in employment and education settings and consider the major
points of controversy. In addition, we detail the contributions of psychologists and other
social scientists in helping to demonstrate why affirmative action is needed; how it can
have unintended negative consequences; and how affirmative action programs can be most
successful. We also review how psychologists have examined variations in people's
attitudes toward affirmative action, in part as a means for testing different theories of
social behavior. - arjournals.annualreviews.org
Manufacturing Discord: Media in the Affirmative Action Debate
Robert M. Entman
The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 2, No. 4, 32-51 (1997) DOI:
10.1177/1081180X97002004004 © 1997 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Depictions of intense conflict between African-Americans and whites have framed the news
media's coverage of the public debate over affirmative action. The conflict frame doubly
misleads. First, it does not describe the complicated, ambivalent state of white opinion
as registered by the (admittedly imperfect) mechanism of sample surveys. Second, it
misrepresents any substantive clash of interests created by affirmative action policies -
a clash of interests that does not arise exclusively or even mainly between whites and
African-Americans and that in the long run may not exist at all. This article documents
the emphases and shortcomings of the news coverage and explores its implications for race
relations and media theory. - hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/4/32
A Theory of Affirmative Action in College Admissions
Qiang Fu
Fu: Assistant Professor, Department of Business Policy, National University of Singapore,
Singapore 119752. Phone 65-6516-3775, Fax 65-6779-5059, E-mail bizfq@nus.edu.sg
To address the issue of when minority and nonminority candidates compete for admissions to
a college, we show that an academic quality–oriented college maximizes the test score
of its incoming class by adopting an admissions rule that favors the minority. Such a
"handicapping" rule increases competition and induces candidates to invest more
in educational attainment. These results reconcile the often-assumed conflicts between
diversity and academic quality. However, we also show that the non-minority responds to
the affirmative action admissions more aggressively, which tends to widen the racial test
score gap. - ei.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/420
Affirmative action and other special consideration admissions at the University of
California, Davis, School of Medicine
R. C. Davidson and E. L. Lewis
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, Davis, School of
Medicine, Sacramento 95817, USA. rcdavidson@ucdavis.edu
CONTEXT: The use of race as a criterion for admission to medical schools and other
professional schools has become increasingly controversial. This study documents the
experience of students at one medical school, admitted through a special admissions
process that included race as one consideration. OBJECTIVE: To examine the medical school,
postgraduate training, and career experiences of students admitted by a special
consideration admission program that included traditional affirmative action admissions.
DESIGN: Twenty-year, retrospective, matched-cohort study. SETTING: A public medical
school. STUDY POPULATION: All affirmative action and other special consideration
admissions between 1968 and 1987 (20 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Academic progress,
national board examination scores, graduation, residency evaluations, and practice
characteristics. RESULTS: During the study period, 20% of students were special
consideration admissions (range, 10%-45% per year). Of special consideration admissions,
53.5% were minority students, while 19% of regular admissions were minority students. When
only underrepresented minority groups are analyzed, 42.7% of special consideration
admissions and 4.0% of regular admissions were minorities. Of special consideration
admissions, 94% graduated vs 97% of regular admissions. Regular admission students were
more likely to receive honors or an A grade on core basic and clinical science courses.
There was no difference in failure rates of core courses. Regular admission students had
higher scores on Parts I and II of the National Board of Medical Examiners examination,
and special consideration students were more likely to repeat the examination to receive a
passing grade. Following graduation, the experience of the special consideration admission
students was very similar to that of regular admission students. There was no difference
in completion of residency training or evaluation of performance by residency directors.
Both populations selected primary care disciplines at the same rate. The practice
characteristics of the 2 populations were remarkably similar. CONCLUSIONS: Criteria other
than undergraduate grade point average and Medical College Admission Test scores can be
used in predicting success in medical school. An admissions process that allows for
ethnicity and other special characteristics to be used heavily in admission decisions
yields powerful effects on the diversity of the student population and shows no evidence
of diluting the quality of the graduates. -
jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/278/14/1153
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AT SCHOOL AND ON THE JOB
Shannon Harper and Barbara Reskin Department of Sociology, University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington 98195; email: reskin@u.washington.edu
Affirmative action (AA) addresses individuals' exclusion from opportunities based on group
membership by taking into account race, sex, ethnicity, and other characteristics. This
chapter reviews sociological, economic, historical, and legal scholarship on AA. We first
consider the emergence of group-based remedies, how protected groups are defined, and
proportional representation as a standard for inclusion. We then summarize the research on
AA in education (including busing) and in employment. The concluding section reviews
societal responses to AA, including attitudes, challenges, and political responses. As
public and judicial support for AA has waned, employers and educators have increasingly
turned toward diversity as a rationale for including underrepresented groups. Despite this
change, many employers and educators continue to take positive steps to include minorities
and women. - arjournals.annualreviews.org
Black Applicants' Reactions to Affirmative Action Plans: Influence of Perceived Procedural
Fairness, Anticipated Stigmatization, and Anticipated Remediation of Previous
Injustices
Authors: Slaughter, Jerel E.; Bulger, Carrie A.; Bachiochi, Peter D.
Source: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 35, Number 12, December 2005, pp.
2437-2476(40)
Abstract: This research was conducted to understand why Black applicants might react
negatively to affirmative action plans (AAPs) designed to benefit them. Black engineering
students (N = 2,480) reacted to 1 of 8 AAPs, to which they were randomly assigned. Two
manipulations were used to form the 8 different plans: plan content (eliminate
discrimination, recruitment, training, weak preferential treatment) and plan frame
(affirmative action vs. diversity). The effect of plan content on job-pursuit intentions
was mediated by perceived procedural fairness, anticipated remediation of injustice, and
anticipated stigmatization. Job-pursuit intentions were related to interactions between
perceived fairness and anticipated remediation, between perceived fairness and anticipated
stigmatization, and between plan content and respondent experiences with discrimination
and racism. Plan frame affected only anticipated remediation of previous injustice.
Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. -
ingentaconnect.com
Support for Race-Based Affirmative Action: Self-Interest and Procedural Justice
Aberson C.L.
Source: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 33, Number 6, 1 June 2003, pp.
1212-1225(14)
Abstract: The current study examines attitudes toward affirmative action. Hypotheses
related to self-interest concerning perceptions of the benefits of affirmative action and
hypotheses derived from procedural justice research regarding the structure of policy
statements both received support. A survey completed by 387 undergraduate and graduate
student participants found greater perception of benefits resulting from affirmative
action policies, defined in terms of increased opportunity (concrete benefit) and
increased satisfaction (abstract benefit), related to greater support for affirmative
action. Policies presented with justification received more support than did policies
presented without justification. Ethnicity did not directly affect support for affirmative
action; however, ethnicity did affect perceptions of the benefits of affirmative action.
Perceptions of the benefits of affirmative action mediated ethnicity effects. Suggestions
for increasing support for affirmative action are provided. - ingentaconnect.com
Framing Affirmative Action
The Influence of Race on Newspaper Editorial Responses to the University of Michigan
Cases
John D. Richardson, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs,
john.richardson@uccs.edu
Karen M. Lancendorfer, Department of Advertising at Michigan State University
The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 9, No. 4, 74-94 (2004) DOI:
10.1177/1081180X04271863 © 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
A content analysis of U.S. newspaper editorials (N = 158) examined framing of U.S. Supreme
Court rulings on affirmative action at the University of Michigan. Results showed that
remedial action and no preferential treatment, frames dominating affirmative action
discourse in news media from the 1960s through the mid-1990s, were overshadowed in 2003
newspaper editorials by diversity, a frame asserting that a mix of racially and ethnically
different people serves to strengthen organizations and society. The Newsroom Diversity
Index (the ratio of the proportion of minorities professionally employed by the newspaper
to the proportion of minorities living in its market) was positively associated with
choosing the diversity frame and negatively associated with choosing the no preferential
treatment frame. - hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/4/74
Gender, Race, and Affirmative Action
Operationalizing Intersectionality in Survey Research
Amy C. Steinbugler, Temple University, amys@temple.edu
Julie E. Press, Janice Johnson Dias, University of Michigan
Gender & Society, Vol. 20, No. 6, 805-825 (2006) DOI: 10.1177/0891243206293299 © 2006
Sociologists for Women in Society
In this article, the authors operationalize the intersection of gender and race in survey
research. Using quantitative data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, they
investigate how gender/racial stereotypes about African Americans affect Whites’
attitudes about two types of affirmative action programs: (1) job training and education
and (2) hiring and promotion. The authors find that gender/racial prejudice towards Black
women and Black men influences Whites’ opposition to affirmative action at different
levels than negative attitudes towards Blacks as a group. Prejudice toward Black women has
a larger effect on Whites’ policy preferences than does prejudice toward Black men or
Blacks in general. In future research, survey methodologists should develop better
intersectional measures to further document these gender/racial attitudes. -
gas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/6/805
Affirmative Action and Percent Plans as Alternatives for Increasing Successful
Participation of Minorities in Higher Education
Jorge Chapa, Latino Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, jchapa@indiana.edu
Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, Vol. 4, No. 3, 181-196 (2005) DOI:
10.1177/1538192705276544 © 2005 SAGE Publications
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grutter decision, universities must now make the
judgment that student diversity is essential to their educational mission. This article
examines the prospects for increasing Latino representation in higher education in this
post-Grutter era. The article further explores the effect of affirmative action plans and
the Top 10% plan in higher education admissions on Latino students. -
jhh.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/4/3/181
Resistance to Affirmative Action - Self-Interest or Racism?
Cardell K. Jacobson, Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 29, No. 2, 306-329 (1985) DOI:
10.1177/0022002785029002007 © 1985 SAGE Publications
Despite the decade-long debate in the media and in the social science literature over
affirmative action programs, relatively little information has appeared about attitudes
toward these programs. In this article racial threat or self-interest, new symbolic
racism, and old-fashioned racism are examined as predictors of attitudes about affirmative
action programs. The data are from a national survey conducted in the late fall of 1978 by
Louis Harris and Associates for the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Self-interest, new symbolic racism, and old-fashioned racism are all found to be related
to attitudes about affirmative action programs and remain so when a variety of control
variables are included in the regression analyses. The new racism scale was clearly the
best predictor of attitudes about affirmative action programs but is shown to have many
underpinnings from traditional sources of racism. Possible reasons for the effect of
self-interest on attitudes about affirmative action programs that had not been related to
racial attitudes in earlier studies are discussed. -
jcr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/306
United States: Supreme Court rules on affirmative action
Mark Tushnet, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University
Law Center
International Journal of Constitutional Law 2004 2(1):158-173;
doi:10.1093/icon/2.1.158
Affirmative action—Fourteenth Amendment and equal protection clause—distributive
and corrective justice rejected as basis for affirmative action—history of
affirmative action cases—University of Michigan undergraduate and law school
decisions—diversity; "critical mass" versus quota—comparative
constitutional considerations - icon.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/158
Job queues, discrimination, and affirmative action
TO Bisping and JR Fain, Department of Economics, Oklahoma State University, USA
Abstract: If employers have different Becker-type discrimination coefficients for
different demographic groups, then the implementation of affirmative action may have a
differential impact on those groups. We estimate two vector autoregressive models of the
U.S. economy, including the unemployment rates of four demographic groups. We find that a
job queue existed before the implementation of affirmative action and that affirmative
action changed the ordering of the job queue in manner that had a negative impact on
nonwhite males. We find evidence that affirmative action may have increased the
unemployment rate of nonwhite males by increasing their duration of unemployment. -
ei.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/38/1/123
Affirmative Action Under Fire
The Current Controversy and the Potential for State Policy Retrenchment*
J. Edward Kellough, University of Georgia
Sally Coleman Selden, Syracuse University
Jerome S. Legge, University of Georgia
Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 17, No. 4, 52-74 (1997) DOI:
10.1177/0734371X9701700406 © 1997 SAGE Publications
The controversy over affirmative action has grown to such a point in recent years that
many observers have questioned whether the policy can long endure. Legislation aimed at
prohibiting the use of affirmative action has been introduced m numerous states.
Gubernatorial orders or citizen initiatives to overturn affirmative action also have
occurred. This article examines the rise of recent anti-affirmative action policy
proposals. A modest positive relationship is found between the size of a state's minority
population and the expression of anti-affirmative action sentiment Given the direction of
current trends, affirmative action in the future is likely to be limited to programs
typical of those m the early 1960s based on minority outreach and recruitment rather than
the granting of preferences. - rop.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/52 |
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