An Investigation of Cultural Sensitivity and Racial Bias in the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition

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dc.contributor.advisorSharp, Carla
dc.contributor.committeeMemberAhmed, Yusra
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBabcock, Julia C.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberWalton, Quenette L.
dc.creatorMcLaren, Ronnie
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-20T21:21:56Z
dc.date.available2024-01-20T21:21:56Z
dc.date.createdAugust 2023
dc.date.issued2023-08
dc.date.updated2024-01-20T21:21:56Z
dc.description.abstractMentalizing, or one’s ability to understand the mental states of oneself and others, is vital for social functioning and is predictive of a wide range of social and psychological outcomes. Mentalizing ability develops via social learning and is dependent upon the environment in which one is raised. The Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition is a widely used and ecologically valid measure of social cognition in which participants answer multiple-choice questions about the thoughts and feelings of characters in a short movie. While we know that there are cross-cultural differences in mentalizing, no study has yet investigated the impact of race within the USA on MASC scores. Thus, the aims of the proposed study are to, in a sample of young adults (N = 1,230), 1) investigate the factor structure of the MASC, 2) evaluate the MASC for bias based on race and ethnicity by evaluating its measurement invariance across racial and ethnic groups, 3) investigate the contribution of cultural sensitivity and racial ingroup effects to any cross-group differences in MASC performance using qualitative and quantitative exploratory analyses, and 4) evaluate cross-racial differences in patterns of mentalizing. Factor analytic results support a unidimensional factor structure, and measurement invariance analysis provides evidence for racial invariance. Non-Hispanic White individuals are more likely to select the “correct” answer than other racial groups, suggesting that optimal mentalizing strategy and mentalizing values and norms may differ based on racial group membership. However, limitations of measurement invariance in assessing sources of common method variance limit the strength of these conclusions.
dc.description.departmentPsychology, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/15952
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectmentalization
dc.subjectracial bias
dc.subjectcultural sensitivity
dc.subjectmeasurement invariance
dc.titleAn Investigation of Cultural Sensitivity and Racial Bias in the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition
dc.type.dcmitext
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentPsychology, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychology, Clinical
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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