BUILDing SCHOLARS: A program exemplar at a Hispanic serving institution to develop biomedical researchers.

The student development initiatives of the BUILDing SCHOLARS Center at The University of Texas at El Paso comprise a program intended to prepare undergraduate students to enter and succeed in advanced graduate and professional biomedical degree programs, ultimately contributing to the diversity of the biomedical research workforce. The program adopted the Johnson/Bozemann Asset Bundles model, which recommends addressing five areas necessary to support minority students as they prepare for and continue towards scientific careers: a) educational endowments, b) science socialization, c) network development, d) family expectations and e) material resources. Through a variety of activities, which included a minimum of two years of research training, all five asset bundles were integrated into the program.

Retention and Graduation of STEM Students at a Majority Hispanic Serving Institution: Effect of Participation in a Freshman Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Sequence.

Research training is an important intervention for preparing undergraduate students to pursue further studies and develop research skills. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence indicating that mentored research impacts student success metrics. At the University of Texas at El Paso, a Freshman Year Research Intensive Sequence (FYRIS) was developed to prepare first-year students for research experiences.

On the Defensive: Identity, Language, and Partisan Reactions to Political Scandal.

We investigated how individuals judge politicians embroiled in scandal. Drawing on social identity and realistic group conflict theory, we predicted that beyond an overall ingroup bias, partisans would be particularly forgiving of in-party politicians who denied or justified their misconduct rather than apologize for it. By insisting that they did nothing wrong, these politicians defend the public image of their party and signal their commitment to partisan goals.

Cultural Inertia: Framework of Change and Intergroup Relations.

Cultural change is theorized to generate intergroup hostility. Three experiments apply the Cultural Inertia Model to test the effects of change on intergroup relations. Two predictions of cultural inertia were tested: (a) cultures at rest tend to stay at rest and (b) individual difference variables function as psychological anchors.

Individual and contextual moderators of the relationship between authoritarianism and religiosity.

Social scientists have devoted much attention to explaining individual and contextual variation in religiosity. Among other things, authoritarianism is reliably found to be associated with greater religiosity. Though education and human development are often thought to reduce religiosity, we show in this study that the relationship between authoritarianism and various indices of religiosity is stronger in the presence of greater educational attainment and living in a society with a higher level of human development.

When the personal is political: Ethnic identity, ally identity, and political engagement among Indigenous people and people of color.

Objectives: The present mixed-methods study examines allyship as a politicized collective identity and its associations with ethnic identity, personality traits, and sociopolitical engagement among IPPOC.

Method: Participants in two samples in 2016 ( = 256) and 2017 ( = 305) completed measures of ally identity, ethnic identity, personality traits, and political engagement.

Results: Results indicate two factors of ally identity (ally beliefs and behaviors).