Psychology and the Current Situation
Tony StavelyDepartment of Psychology
Keene State College
http://wcb.keene.edu/~tstavely/[email protected]
•Overview
• Who am I and what's this about?
• Some psychology
• Applications
• What is one to do?
•Psychology
• Thoughts, feelings, and actions
• Assessing situations
• Attitudes and social participation
• Stress
Thoughts, feelings, actions
• Thoughts• Theory-making, story-telling• Information, absence of information,
misinformation, disinformation• Estimation: biased and representative
sampling
Thoughts
• Same vs. different• In psychology, generalization vs. discrimination
• Distortions of judgment• Assimilation (underestimating small
differences - "we" are all alike)
• Contrast (overestimating larger differences "they" are very different from us)
• Mainstream culture's tendency to treat marginal people as Other, different, beyond normal
Thinking: complexity
• Afghanistan• Multiple ethnic groups
• Pakhtun, Hazara, Tajik, Uzbek, Turkmen, Baloch, Nuristani
• Indo-European, Turkic, Mongol languages
• "Tribal," "urbanized" groups
• Multiple religious groups• Sunni, Shi'a
Complexity: Afghanistan
from the University of Texas at Austin library online map collection
Complexity: Afghanistan
BBC map
Thoughts, feelings, actions
• Feelings• Questions
• What am I feeling?
• What's causing this feeling?
• What to do about it?
• Response depends on accuracy of answers:• Changes the situation for the better
• Fails to change the situation
• Changes the situation for the worse
Thoughts, feelings, actions• Feelings
• Culture teaches range of possible answers• What can be felt
• What causes such feelings
• Display rules
• These days• Anger
• Fear, anxiety
• Depression
• Patriotism, courageous determination
Thoughts, feelings, actions
• Actions• Based on assessment of situation
• Based on accessible experience
• Subject to social influence
• Produce consequences
• Action/consequence pairs stored in memory
• Memory contents only part of what gets "remembered"
Assessing situations
• Reality vs human judgment
Assessing situations
• What affects judgment?• Reality itself
• Our expectations from past experience, other people's claims, cultural learning
• Benefits and costs• Benefits of true positive, true negative judgments
• Costs of false positive, false negative judgments
Attitudes
• Definition: thoughts, feelings, actions about some target
• like/dislike, attraction/repulsion
• Rooted in self• Assessing things, situations
• Ego defense
• Ego enhancement, value expression
Attitudes
• Rooted in community• Social adjustment
• Social expression
• Social identity
• Objects of attitudes are socially constructed too
Social participation
• Our narrative: the individual is the basic element in society
• Many other cultures: the individual is a creature of the group
• Both individualistic and communal perspectives are true - examine both
• Thoughts, feelings, actions have a major social dynamic
• Origination, process, target
Stress
• Heightened tension, vigilance
• Stress equation• Stress = Motivation x (Demands - Coping resources)
• Coping resources• Social support
• Knowledge of the situation
• Action plans
• Self-management capabilities
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Authoritarian personality syndrome• Characteristics
• Excessive conventionalism• Aggression against disobedience• Submission to superiors• Importance of power, toughness• General hostility, cynical worldview
• Increases under threat• "They" are bad, "we" are good• Anyone not with us is against us
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Intractable ethnonational conflicts• Characteristics
• Totality
• Protractedness
• Centrality
• Violence
• Perception of irreconcilability
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Intractable ethnonational conflicts• Example: Israel-Palestine confrontation
• Clash of narratives• Villainization of opponent• Exclusive legitimacy• History of victimization• Intermingled populations• Double asymmetry of power• Politicization of religion
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Intractable ethnonational conflicts• Psychological dynamics
• Coping mechanisms become societal beliefs, shared cognitions
• Our goals are just
• Opponent has no legitimacy
• We can do no wrong
• We are the real victims
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Intractable ethnonational conflicts• More psychological dynamics
• Maintenance of societal beliefs
• Biased selection of information
• Biased interpretation of information
• Biased elaboration of information
Combining thoughts, feelings, actions
• Intractable ethnonational conflicts• Possibilites of resolution
• Change beliefs that keep sides from negotiating
• Leaders and negotators must change many beliefs
• Society at large must do so too
• Change definitions
• Time is required, especially because narratives are self-maintaining, all-encompassing
What to do
• Keep seeking information
• Treat statements as tentative
• Ask questions• About own reactions
• About other people's claims
• Clarify values
• Look again
Afgan refugees
Returning with food: BBC photos from refugee camp near Peshawar