Affective and cognitive aspects of homophobia in Brazil: a psychophysiological study

• Grant number: 06/05144-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2007
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Orlando Francisco Amodeo Bueno
• Grantee: Cristina Lasaitis
• Host Institution: Departamento de Psicobiologia. Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Despite the social advance that has been taking place in the last decades concerning homosexuality and its legal issues, in Brazil, as though in a majority of countries, homophobia is still considered one of the last socially acceptable prejudices, remaining a serious threat to homosexuals. Intended to elucidate how homophobia is processed in the affective and cognitive dimensions, we came up with a proposal unique in literature. Previous studies that assessed the psychophysiology of social prejudices had relied on a sole physiologic measure, as eye-blink or heartbeat; and, as a matter of fact, any research in this field had ever used a variety of approaches for a global screening of the psychophysiological processes underlying the affective dominion of prejudice, as we propose in this project. Our goal is to study the affective dimension of homophobia through a wide psychophysiological assessment to be performed by a biofeedback system, which includes: face electromiographies, skin conductance, and heartbeat measures towards affective images of homosexual and heterosexual content (among other types of image from the International Affective Picture System). Furthermore, we intend to study the cognitive dimension of homophobia through self-report approaches (picture evaluation, social, ethnic and cultural forms, and social distance measures), and, thus, to establish the possible relations between implicit and explicit prejudice. These studies can provide evidence that may help planning programs against discrimination more effective for the Brazilian context; thus elucidating the social responsibility of this proposal, beyond its scientific importance. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CRISTINA LASAITIS; RAFAELA LARSEN RIBEIRO; MARCELO VENTURA FREIRE; ORLANDO FRANSCISCO AMODEO BUENO. Atualização das normas brasileiras para o International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Revista de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul, v. 30, n. 3, p. 230-235, 2008-12-00. (06/05144-7)