An Examination of Systemic Influences on Our Attitudes and Biases and the Ethical Imperative of Recognizing and Managing Our Own Biases First

The purpose of this seminar is to educate participants on the ways in which attitudes and biases are perpetuated, maintained, and reinforced within organizations and societal systems. The seminar will highlight how systemic forms of oppression are maintained and reinforced through subtle patterns of thought and behavior. More specifically, the talk will home in on two psychological means through which systemic oppression is maintained and reinforced, biased nonverbal signals and microaggressions. Participants will learn how to identify how nonverbal signals and microaggressions operate in organizational contexts, and their impacts on members of the organizational community. Ethical considerations for psychologists will be discussed, particularly as it relates to promoting human rights and social justice in the practice of assessment, coaching, supporting, and working with a diverse group of people in organizations.  The talk will conclude with some recent research on paths through which these systems can be challenged and implications for challenging our own attitudes and biases. The format will be an informal discussion with audience participation encouraged throughout. Handouts will be provided as appropriate in advance of, or following, the session.

Delivery Mode: Remote (Live Zoom Webinar)

Intended Audience

This seminar is intended for a general audience at a postgraduate level; no specific content knowledge is required.

Learning Objectives

Based on the content of the session, participants should be able to:

• Analyze the impact of nonverbal messages in organizational contexts.

• Describe at least three of the most common microaggressions.

• Identify at least three of the messages conveyed by microaggressions.

• Recognize and assess at least three of the ways in which specific microaggressions impact organizations.

• Describe how to operate ethically in managing one’s own biases as it relates to professional practice.

• Identify the ethical implications in our work if biases are not considered and managed.

Agenda

Continuing Education (CE) Credits

This seminar is eligible for 3.0 continuing education credits for psychologists. To qualify for these credits, the entire program must be attended. There is no partial credits available. SIOP will email CE letters 30 days after the session to the individuals who responded "Yes" to question #1 on the post-event evaluation.

For more information about continuing education for psychologists, please visit the American Psychological Association at http://www.apa.org/education/ce

Your Presenter

Allison Skinner, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and chair of the diversity committee in the Psychology Department at the University of Georgia. She completed her PhD in experimental psychology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2015 and was a postdoctoral research associate at University of Washington from 2015 to 2017 and then at Northwestern University from 2017 to 2019. Her research examines how systemic social biases (e.g., racism) are established, maintained, and facilitated through situational cues in our social environments—and how social biases feedback to reinforce societal systems of inequality. She is also interested in how contextualizing social biases within the history and systems from which they emerged can serve to interrupt cycles of bias.