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When people are transgressed against, they are usually motivated to restore personal power that was threatened by the transgression. We argue and test the new idea that while revenge and forgiveness responses are typically seen as opposites, both may be empowering, depending on the offender's intent to harm. Across two studies, one experimental (N = 381) and one employing an autobiographical recall paradigm (N = 251), we tested a moderated mediation model. Notably, we found that revenge is empowering at high levels of intent and forgiveness is empowering regardless of intent. Importantly, we also demonstrate that empowerment provides an explanation for the process by which getting revenge and forgiving are each associated with improved affective outcomes for victims., (© 2019 The British Psychological Society.)

Narratives of homophobia and the repathologization of gay men now emerge and coalesce in often unconsidered ways. Within this paper, we present a deconstructive analysis of a recent paper published within the British Journal of Social Psychology (Crossley, 2004) and highlight how a narrative of repathology emerges through the selective appropriation of particular textual sources. By employing pathological constructions of sexual conduct between men; focusing upon singular homogenized constructions of gay men and simplistic constructions of health promotion and through a process of reconstructing HIV as a gay plague and it is possible to embroider a moral tale which constitutes a further deviant ‘othering’ of gay men. We contend that by employing (functional) discourses of ‘unconscious motivation’, together with a constellation of disclaimers, caveats and tokenistic pluralization, it becomes possible for psychologists to engage in homophobic knowledge production whilst maintaining an identity as a (dis)interested professional. Our analysis raises issues pertinent to all social psychologists engaged in ‘suspicious’ research on ‘the other’. To this end, we expand our critique by employing ideas from Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology to provide more general discussion of ethical and constructive ways of engaging in textual analyses of persons outside one's own tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings from a conversation analytic study of experimenter—participant interaction in parapsychology experiments. It shows how properties of communication through which the routine business of the experiment is conducted may have an impact on the research participant's subsequent performance. In this, the study explores social psychological features of the psychology laboratory. In particular, it examines aspects of Orne's (1962) account of what he called the demand characteristics of the psychological experiment. The data come from a corpus of audio recordings of experimenter-participant interaction during experiments on extrasensory perception. These kinds of experiments, and the phenomena they purport to study, are undoubtedly controversial; however, the paper argues that there are grounds for social psychologists to consider parapsychology experiments as a class (albeit distinctive) of psychology experiments, and, therefore, as sites in which general social psychological and communicative phenomena can be studied. The empirical sections of the paper examine interaction during part of the experimental procedure when the experimenter verbally reviews a record of the participant's imagery reported during an earlier part of the experiment. The analysis shows that the way in which the experimenter acknowledges the research participants' utterances may be significant for the trajectory of the experiment and explores how the participants' subsequent performance in the experiment may be influenced by interactionally generated contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) with Sacks' Conversation Analysis (CA), arguing that CA has answered several questions that originally motivated the development of IPA, and while doing so, it has re-specified the phenomena of interaction research. These two research traditions are in many ways diametrically opposed: the former is quantitative, theory-oriented and aims at global characterizations of interactional situations, while the latter is qualitative, inductive and aims at characterizing specific layers of organization (such as turn taking or sequence organization) that give structure to interactional situations. Their primary objects of study are different. For the Balesian tradition, it is the functioning and the structure of a small group, whereas in the Sacksian tradition, it is the structures and practices of human social interaction per se. It is argued, however, that CA has radically expanded understanding of the questions IPA was originally developed to address. These questions include allocation of resources, control and solidarity. Bales' research deals with them in terms of the differentiation of participants of a group, whereas CA has re-specified them as emergent aspects of the very rules and structures that constitute and regulate interaction sequences. The uniqueness of the CA perspective on social interaction is demonstrated by exploring the display of emotion as an interactional phenomenon. It is argued that the display of emotion is intrinsically embedded in the sequential organization of action. Sensitive 'coding and counting' approaches can detect emotion displays, but the contribution of CA is to show the specific ways in which they are part of the business of interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes two experiments investigating the impact of group relations on personal space. In Study I, participants (N = 39) in minimal groups were told that they would be interacting with another person. In line with expectations, personal space (as measured by the distance between chairs) was significantly less in the intragroup context than in the intergroup and interpersonal contexts. This finding was replicated in Study 2 (N = 80) using an improved experimental design. These results are discussed in terms of developing a self-categorization account of personal space and crowding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I contest the view of the group as a source of bias and irrationality, especially prevalent within social psychology. I argue that this negative evaluation often arises by applying inappropriate standards, relating to the wrong level of analysis (often the individual level). Second, the image of the group as bad and biasing is often overstated. For example, the evidence suggests that intergroup discrimination, rather than being universal or generic, is often constrained, proportionate and reflects functional and rational strategies for managing threats and opportunities at the group level. Third, although the recent upsurge of interest in group emotions could be seen to reinforce the dualism between rationality and emotion, the contemporary functional approach argues for group emotions as augmenting rather than contradicting rationality. However, we should be wary (and weary) of narrow economic and individualist notions of rationality; group identity may offer the opportunity to redefine rationality in more collective and prosocial ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a critical exploration of the discursive and socio-historical practice of 'dyadic-containment' as a principle index for how we know, experience, and authenticate romantic relationships. Making intelligible an 'authentic' relationship as something which is fixed, enclosed and exclusive, the pervasive principle of dyadiccontainment has considerable implications for what it means to live out 'authentic' but ostensibly liberated relationships. Using post-structuralist discourse analysis to explore ways in which people can account for their consensual non-monogamous relationships (same and cross-sex, dyadic and non-dyadic), we critique the liberal-humanist framework from which such relationships can be played out. In that dyadic-containment as an aspect of an ontology of interiorized and contained 'realness' can be viewed as serving to characterize and authorize monogamous relationships (as we illustrate), practices of consensual non-monogamy that reproduce dyadic-containment as an organizing and authenticating principle are problematized. Limits to understandings and practices of some 'alternative' romantic relationships are therefore expounded and consideration is given to how relational difference might be otherwise premised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the diffusion and transformation of scientific information in everyday discussions. Based on rumour models and social representations theory, the impact of interpersonal communication and pre-existing beliefs on transmission of the content of a scientific discovery was analysed. In three experiments, a communication chain was simulated to investigate how laypeople make sense of a genetic discovery first published in a scientific outlet, then reported in a mainstream newspaper and finally discussed in groups. Study 1 (N = 40) demonstrated a transformation of information when the scientific discovery moved along the communication chain. During successive narratives, scientific expert terminology disappeared while scientific information associated with lay terminology persisted. Moreover, the idea of a discovery of a faithfulness gene emerged. Study 2 (N = 70) revealed that transmission of the scientific message varied as a function of attitudes towards genetic explanations of behaviour (pro-genetics vs. anti-genetics). Pro-genetics employed more scientific terminology than anti-genetics. Study 3 (N = 75) showed that endorsement of genetic explanations was related to descriptive accounts of the scientific information, whereas rejection of genetic explanations was related to evaluative accounts of the information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widely recognized tendency for people to positively differentiate Self from Other. The present paper asks: What counter dynamic constrains this othering tendency? A phenomenon, termed identification through differentiation is presented in which the positive differentiation of Self from Other collapses in a moment of identification. This phenomenon is demonstrated and explored using quasi-naturalistic group discussions with tourists in India. Three excerpts are analysed. The first demonstrates a tourist's attempt to positively differentiate him from other tourists. The second demonstrates how such an effort can collapse in a moment of identification with the previously derogated ‘other’ tourists. The third is used to explore how issues of self-presentation complicate identification through differentiation. The discussion uses concepts from Mead (1934) and Ichheiser (1949) in order to theorize about the preconditions, interactional mechanisms and wider applicability of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper presents findings from an experimental investigation of the attitudes that people hold towards animals when they are reminded of the fact that humans and animals are creatures alike. We tested the hypothesis that mortality salience (MS) would lead participants reminded of human creatureliness to evaluate animals more negatively, especially when they reported lower self-esteem. Student participants were randomly assigned to conditions in which MS was made salient and thoughts about human creatureliness were manipulated. Participants then reported their attitudes towards animals. Lending support to the hypothesis of this study, MS led participants with lower self-esteem to rate animals more negatively, when they were reminded of human—animal similarity. The implications of these results for understanding people's attitudes towards animals were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an experimental study that examines the influence of work-goal differences and informational differences on the formation of a common identity in dyads. We show that when both kinds of differences are present within a dyad, these differences — just like similarities — come to be seen as defining dyadic features. Furthermore, mediational analysis shows that as the accumulation of differences results in a clearer conception of the dyad, it fosters dyadic identification. This is not the case when dyad members only differ from each other in one respect (i.e. either in work goals or information), while remaining similar in the other. The results are explained in the light of recent insights and developments in the social identity tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientific work on the suppression, mitigation or denial of prejudiced attitudes has tended to focus on the strategic self-presentation and self-monitoring undertaken by individual social actors on their own behalf. In this paper, we argue that existing perspectives might usefully be extended to incorporate three additional considerations. First, that social actors may, on some occasions, act to defend not only themselves, but also others from charges of prejudice. Second, that over the course of any social encounter, interactants may take joint responsibility for policing conversation and for correcting and suppressing the articulation of prejudiced talk. Third, that a focus on the dialogic character of conversation affords an appreciation of the ways in which the status of any particular utterance, action or event as ‘racist’ or ‘prejudiced’ may constitute a social accomplishment. Finally, we note the logical corollary of these observations — that in everyday life, the occurrence of ‘racist discourse’ is likely to represent a collaborative accomplishment, the responsibility for which is shared jointly between the person of the speaker and those other co-present individuals who occasion, reinforce or simply fail to suppress it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper consists of a discourse analysis of data collected from websites that have been created by and for people who wish to share experiences of eating disorders in a positive and supportive environment. These sites have earned the broad description ‘pro-ana’ (where ‘ana’ is short for ‘anorexia’). Site users have come to see themselves as a broad on-line community of like-minded individuals, but within this community there are many subgroups, and the boundaries between these subgroups are fiercely contested. In addition, frequent attacks on such websites in the media (charged with ‘promoting eating disorders’), and by occasional hostile site visitors, have often forced the community into a defensive mode. The result is a rich tapestry of identity work. The analysis examines several ‘pro-ana’ sites and explores the way in which the identity is used to police the boundaries of the community, and ultimately, what it means ‘to be ana’ rather than ‘mia’ (bulimic), ‘a normal’, ‘a faker’, or even ‘a hater’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research in intergroup relations concerns the potential for interventions (e.g. intergroup contact) to reduce majorities' discrimination against minorities. In this paper we focus on how minority group members construe such interventions, especially as they affect their abilities to act in terms of their collective identity to realize social change. In addressing this issue, we focus on a minority's beliefs and theories concerning the intergroup dynamics lying behind their marginalization. Our data are qualitative and concern British Muslims' analyses of the dynamics of Islamophobia. Specifically, we explore two theorizations of Muslims' marginalization. Both share a concern with improving Muslims' collective position in Britain. However, they construe the dynamics to Islamophobia in very different ways, and this shapes their approach to intergroup contact and dialogue. Our analysis is informed by, and seeks to complement, social psychological theorizing on social change and intergroup contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interactional construction of neighbour relationships in the context of disputational talk. Neighbour dispute data were recorded in two contexts: community mediation and televised documentaries. The data were transcribed and subsequently analysed using an approach that combined ethnomethodological methods with discursive psychology, focusing on participants' orientations to and constructions of spatial categories and place formulations. Three broad themes emerged from our analysis. First, we found that the construction and regulation of normative neighbour relationships were formulated in a discourse of spatial practice. Second, we found that, through complaints about spatial transgressions and 'good' and 'bad' neighbours, the moral order was reproduced and maintained. Finally, we found that, although participants were oriented to a distinction between 'private' and 'public' spaces, talk about boundaries revealed the highly contingent nature of spatial division. We suggest that in order to better understand neighbour relationships, social psychologists must explore the way people construct and account for the spaces they interact within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of societal change, like changes in gender roles, one may compliment men deciding to spend more time on childcare, or women pursuing a job higher up, to support their pioneering behaviour. However, we predict that while compliments may communicate appreciation of someone's behaviour, they simultaneously communicate that a norm has been breached, and thus that the behaviour is not considered 'normal'. In four studies (total N = 821), we show that men receive more compliments for reducing work hours for childcare than women (Study 1). Moreover, compliments (compared to neutral responses) signal more descriptive norm deviance, and this has downstream consequences for perceptions of the target's gender belonging and decision doubt and for perceived societal norms (Studies 2–4). Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of normative communication patterns as well as potential paradoxical reinforcement of gender norms through compliments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People perceive and treat women as sex objects in social exchanges. The interaction processes through which women are objectified, however, have rarely been considered. To address this gap in the literature, we propose the Social Interaction Model of Objectification (SIMO). Rooted in social exchange and objectification theories, the SIMO predicts objectifying behaviours stemming from sexual goals between men and women. We propose that the behavioural dynamics of objectification can be understood through a series of goal‐based exchange processes that are shaped by patriarchy. Articulating the SIMO and its predictions for behaviour in social interactions, we describe the scant social psychological studies in this area. Not only is the SIMO useful for understanding objectifying interaction processes, but it can be used to understand why women sometimes evaluate objectification positively as well as instances of sexual violence. Finally, we discuss critical directions for future research and provide promising methodological approaches for testing the SIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two studies we show that people make environments norm-relevant and this increases the likelihood that environments influence norm-relevant judgments. When people see environments without having people on their mind, this effect does not occur. Specifically, when exposed to an environment (a library), people's perceived importance of environment-relevant norms (be silent in libraries) increases, when the concept of `people' is primed compared to when this is not the case. The impact on normative judgments of priming significant others (Study 1) is stronger than priming people in general (Study 2). Additional effects on conformism and public self-consciousness are discussed, as well as implications for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments examine how experimentally induced differences in state self-esteem moderate emotional and behavioural responses to ambiguous and unambiguous discrimination. Study 1 (N=108) showed that participants who were exposed to ambiguous discrimination report more negative self-directed emotions when they have low compared to high self-esteem. These differences did not emerge when participants were exposed to unambiguous discrimination. Study 2 (N=118) additionally revealed that self-esteem moderated the effect of ambiguous discrimination on self-concern, task performance, and self-stereotyping. Results show that ambiguous discrimination caused participants with low self-esteem to report more negative self-directed emotions, more self-concern, an inferior task performance, and more self-stereotyping, compared to participants in the high self-esteem condition. Emotional and behavioural responses to unambiguous discrimination did not depend on the induced level of self-esteem in these studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies were conducted to examine the predictions that (a) in-group identification depends on optimal distinctiveness needs (Study 1), and (b) that social identity threat overrides the predictive value of these needs to determine identification (Studies 2 and 3). In Study 1, need for assimilation and need for differentiation were assessed among natural groups. We found support for the optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT) prediction that there is a curvilinear relationship between identification and optimal distinctiveness needs satisfaction. In Studies 2 and 3, interactive effects of the extent to which groups satisfy assimilation and differentiation needs (groups are either too small, of moderate size, or too large) and social identity threat were examined. In the no identity threat condition identification was higher in moderately sized groups (where both needs are balances) compared to groups were either assimilation or differentiation dominates. However, when facing an identity threat, identification was highest in very small groups, providing evidence that social identity concerns override individual need satisfaction. Discussion focuses on comparing and integrating ODT and social identity theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we apply Mikhail Bakhtin's model of a 'divided self' to R.D. Laing's eponymous work on the lived experience of divided selves in psychosis'. Both of these authors offer intriguing insights into the fracturing of self through its social relationships (including the 'micro-dialogues' staged for oneself) but from uniquely different perspectives. Bakhtin (1984) uses Dostoevsky's novels as his material for a theory of self, centrally concerned with moments of split identity, crisis, and personal transformation, while Laing relies on his patient's accounts of 'psychosis'. We will outline how two key Bakhtinian divisions of the self (spirit/soul and authoritative/internally persuasive discourse) help to make sense of Laing's descriptions of his patient's experiences and micro-dialogues. Conversely, when refracted through Laing's phenomenology Bakhtin's account of the self becomes richer and somewhat darkened in terms of a double-edged ontology, which describes a maximally open self but one that is consumed by ideas, unable to manage their contradictions. The implications of this for managing the dilemmas of self-identity will be drawn out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses transcripts of interactions recorded between computer technicians and users to investigate the activities related to attribution and problem solving in the context of institutional computer support. We explore how achieving consensual attributions (in the context of diagnosis) is integral to managing moment-to-moment social demands, and how the outcomes are subject to negotiations about the definition of the problem and the nature of the social contract between interactants. We also show that these immediate interactional interests are subject to the longer-term 'moral careers' of the participants which are themselves subject to the roles, obligations, and concerns that participants have by virtue of their social and institutional positions. These immediate and longer-term layers of concern are interrelated and contingent, and all are important elements of how consensual attributions are socially accomplished in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theories in social psychology suggest that explicitly measured attitudes are particularly valuable for the prediction of deliberate, controlled behaviour. In contrast, implicitly measured attitudes are assumed to be more important for the prediction of less controlled, more impulsive behaviour. Yet, conclusive evidence for the differential predictive validity of both measures is scarce. We hypothesized that limitations of different control resources would lead to functionally equivalent effects. In Study 1, cognitive capacity moderated the predictive validity of both explicit and implicit attitude measures in a choice task. Self-regulatory resources led to similar patterns for eating (Study 2) and drinking behaviour (Study 3). In addition to the predictive validity of implicit and explicit attitude measures, in Study 3 we more closely investigated the relative contributions of explicitly measured attitudes and general restraint standards as two distinct, but complementing constructs that are dependent on control resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals high in social dominance orientation (SDO; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) endorse group hierarchies and social inequality. Surprisingly little research has addressed contextual factors associated with reduced intergroup biases among such individuals. The present investigation considers a Person × Situation approach to this question in two British prisons, exploring the contextual factors outlined in the Contact Hypothesis (Allport, 1954). White inmates scoring higher in SDO exhibited significantly less in‐group bias when reporting increased contact with Black inmates (Studies 1 & 2), when perceiving that favourable contact conditions are institutionally supported (Study 1), or when experiencing more pleasant personal interactions with Black inmates (Study 2). These SDO × Contact Condition moderation effects were mediated in Study 2: among high‐SDO individuals, increased empathy towards Black inmates mediated the relation between contact variables and lower in‐group bias. Implications for considering individual differences and empathy in contact settings are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies (N = 117, 112) were conducted with school students in Northern Ireland to investigate the neglected relationship between social identity content and intergroup relations. Study 1 tested and found support for two hypotheses. The first was that the association between in-group identification and negative behavioural intentions would be moderated by antagonistic identity content. The second was that the antagonistic identity content mediates the relationship between the experience of intergroup antagonism and negative behavioural intentions. Study 2 replicated these findings at a time of reduced intergroup violence, and supplemented them with a qualitative-quantitative analysis of participants' written responses. In addition, findings demonstrate the importance of appreciating the content and meaning of social identities when theorizing about intergroup relations and developing conflict management interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social rank theory suggests that mood variation is linked to the security a person feels in his/her social domain and the extent to which they are sensitive to involuntary subordination (e.g. feeling defeated and feeling inferior). Previous studies looking at rank-related and competitive behaviour have often focused on striving for dominance, whereas social rank theory has focused on striving to avoid inferiority. This study set out to develop a measure of ‘Striving to Avoid Inferiority’ (SAIS) and assess its relationship to other rank and mood-related variables. We hypothesized two factors: one we called insecure striving, relating to fear of rejection/criticism for ‘not keeping up’, and the second we called secure non-striving, relating to feeling socially acceptable and valued regardless of whether one succeeds or not. This scale was given to 207 undergraduates. The SAIS had good psychometric properties, with the two factors of insecure striving and secure non-striving strongly supported by exploratory factor analysis. Both factors were significantly (though contrastingly) related to various fears of rejection, need for validation, hypercompetitive attitudes, feeling inferior to others, submissive behaviour and indicators of stress, anxiety and depression. Striving to avoid inferiority was a significant predictor of psychopathologies, especially where individuals perceived themselves to have low social rank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding intergroup prejudice is a dominant research focus for social psychology. Prejudice is usually conceptualized as a continuum of positive/negative affect, but this has limitations. It neither reflects people's ability to maintain simultaneous positive and negative stereotypes of others nor explains extreme prejudice (bigotry). Some researchers have proposed multidimensional models of prejudice in which different negative emotions are evoked depending on the situation. Extending this to bigotry raises the question of which emotions are most relevant. Therefore, this study looked at ‘anti-group’ texts — writings which promote extreme intergroup hostility — and analysed the frequency of emotive language. Findings suggest that bigotry may be distinguished by high levels of disgust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested a model which considered individual-level (intergroup anxiety) and group-level (perceived realistic and symbolic threats to the in-group) threats as simultaneous mediators in the relationship between the quantity and quality of cross-community contact and intergroup attitudes (Study 1, N = 166) and trust (Study 2, N = 163) in Northern Ireland. The studies tested the hypothesis that the strength of group-identification moderates the importance of individual- vs. group-level threats as predictors of attitudes and trust and as mediators of contact effects. Both anxiety and symbolic threat, but not realistic threat, emerged as predictors of the criterion variables and mediated contact effects. Our results provide support for the moderating role of identification and suggest that while symbolic threat predicts attitudes and trust for high, but not low identifiers, anxiety is a somewhat more important predictor for low than for high identifiers. We discuss these results against the background of current intergroup relations in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that a person's personality can help explain prejudice has a long history in social psychology. The classic counter-argument has been that prejudice is much more a function of people's group memberships and the nature of intergroup relations rather than individual differences. Bringing these two lines of research together, it has been suggested that personality factors may not only affect intergroup discrimination directly, but also indirectly by predisposing some individuals to identify more strongly with some relevant in-group membership. Two experiments were conducted to investigate this possibility. The participants completed various personality measures (e.g. authoritarianism, personal need for structure and ethnocentrism as well as social dominance orientation (SDO) in Experiment 2). They were then assigned to minimal groups either randomly, by choice, or (supposedly) on the basis of attitudinal similarity. In Experiment 2, the minimal group paradigm was also adapted to examine the role of SDO. Overall, there was no evidence of significant relationships between traditional personality measures and either in-group identification or discrimination. In-group identification alone emerged as the strongest predictor of discrimination. There was evidence that those participants who scored higher in SDO were more likely to act in ways that supported the creation of a power hierarchy. The implications for broader understanding of prejudice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does a representative's position in the group influence behaviour in intergroup negotiation? Applying insights from the social identity approach (specifically self-categorization theory), the effects of group member prototypicality, accountability and group attractiveness on competitiveness in intergroup bargaining were examined. As representatives of their group, participants engaged in a computer-mediated negotiation with a simulated out-group opponent. In Experiment 1 (N = 114), representatives with a peripheral status in the group sent more competitive and fewer cooperative messages to the opponent than did prototypical representatives, but only under accountability. Experiment 2 (N = 110) replicated this finding, and showed that, under accountability, peripherals also made higher demands than did prototypicals, but only when group membership was perceived as attractive. Results are discussed in relation to impression management and strategic behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) has been used extensively to predict social and health behaviours. However, a critical test of the TPB is whether interventions that increased scores on the theory's predictors would engender behaviour change. The present research deployed a novel technique in order to provide this test. Statistical simulations were conducted on data for 30 behaviours (N = 211) that estimated the impact of interventions that generated maximum positive changes in attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) on subsequent intentions and behaviour. Findings indicated that interventions that maximized TPB variables had a substantial impact on behavioural intentions. Although TPB maximization increased the proportion of the sample that performed respective behaviours by 28% compared with baseline, the behaviour of a substantial minority of the sample (26%) did not change. The research also identified several interactions among TPB variables in predicting simulated intention and behaviour scores and investigated the mediating role of intentions in predicting behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talk between care staff and people with learning disabilities may reveal a conflict between official policy and actual social practice. We explore a case in which care staff are in the process of soliciting residents' views on ‘relationships’. Ostensibly, this is an empowering part of a group meeting, meant to help the residents understand their relationships with the people around them, and to value those which are positive. However, the talk mutates from solicitation to instruction and, in doing so, provides a vivid case of people with learning disabilities being attributed social rights more limited than is consistent with institutional service policy. We unpack the play of category membership in this episode to illustrate how conflicting agendas can lead to the construction, even in ostensibly empowering encounters, of identities actively disavowed at the level of official discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between identification and in-group favouritism was analysed across two studies, in which the relevance of three intervening factors was demonstrated: (a) the moderating role of social identity threat, (b) the mediating role of trust-related emotions experienced towards in-group and out-group members, and (c) the importance of the distinction between in-group and out-group evaluations. When the in-group was not threatened, the link between identification and in-group bias was unreliable. The effect of in-group identification on in-group bias was stronger when either the value or the distinctiveness of the in-group were threatened. A value threat strengthened the influence of identification on in-group evaluation and, via out-group distrust, on out-group derogation. Under a distinctiveness threat, identification affected out-group evaluation and intergroup differentiation. These results demonstrate that the relation between identification and in-group favouritism is reliable only in a clear intergroup context. Moreover, they show that the role and the strength of in-group and out-group trust are altered by the type of social identity threat introduced. Finally, they clarify that in-group love and out-group hate phenomena are not zero-sum, and that their presence may be simultaneous when the value of the in-group is threatened by out-group members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially shared representations of history have been important in creating, maintaining and changing a people's identity. Their management and negotiation are central to interethnic and international relations. We present a narrative framework to represent how collectively significant events become (selectively) incorporated in social representations that enable positioning of ethnic, national and supranational identities. This perspective creates diachronic (temporal) links between the functional (e.g. realistic conflict theory), social identity, and cognitive perspectives on intergroup relations. The charters embedded in these representations condition nations with similar interests to adopt different political stances in dealing with current events, and can influence the perceived stability and legitimacy of social orders. They are also instrumental in determining social identity strategies for reacting to negative social comparisons, and can influence the relationships between national and ethnic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-disclosure has long been a site of research in clinical and social psychology, where it suffers the fate of many interactional phenomena. It is operationalized (typically, into a set of bald statements of varying intimacy), and measured as a dependent variable (subject to the operation of factors like the age or gender of the discloser, the degree of acquaintance with the disclosed-to recipient, the expectation of reciprocity and so on), or manipulated as a causative independent variable (which affects such things as the perception of the discloser, the effectiveness of therapy, and so on). This treatment of self-disclosure, embedded in a research culture of a-contextual, experimenter-defined phenomena, risks missing the point that in ordinary life, self-disclosure is a social performance which must be brought off in interaction, and has its interactional context and its interactional consequences. When we examine examples of such brought-off disclosures, we start to see patterns in their design as voluntary revelations of personal data, and patterns in their social function, which are invisible to the standard factors and measures paradigm of experimental social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental attribution error (Heider,1958; Ross, 1977) has been extensively researched and explanations sought within a social cognitive framework. This work is reviewed, and it is noted that there is no unifying theory to account for the extensive catalogue of experimental work. Social cognitive explanations have proposed distinctions between perceptual, inferential and motivational functions within the person to account for the phenomenon. A phenomenological critique of this approach is then advanced. Drawing on the thought of Merleau-Ponty (1962) it is argued that our understanding of the phenomenon is enhanced by focusing not 'inside' people, but on interactions between them. In many ways, this brings us back to the project of Gestalt psychology, Heider's original framework for studying attribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social psychology. evaluative expressions have traditionally been understood in terms of their relationship to, and as the expression of, underlying 'attitudes'. In contrast, discursive approaches have started to study evaluative expressions as part of varied social practices, considering what such expressions are doing rather than their relationship to attitudinal objects or other putative mental entities. In this study the latter approach will be used to examine the construction of food and drink evaluations in conversation. The data are taken from a corpus of family mealtimes recorded over a period of months. The aim of this study is to highlight two distinctions that are typically obscured in traditional attitude work ('subjective' vs. 'objective' expressions, category vs. item evaluations). A set of extracts is examined to document the presence of these distinctions in talk that evaluates food and the way they are used and rhetorically developed to perform particular activities (accepting/ refusing food, complimenting the food provider, persuading someone to eat). The analysis suggests that researchers (a) should be aware of the potential significance of these distinctions; (b) should be cautious when treating evaluative terms as broadly equivalent and (c) should be cautious when blurring categories and instances. This analysis raises the broader question of how far evaluative practices may be specific to particular domains, and what this specificity might consist in. It is concluded that research in this area could benefit from starting to focus on the role of evaluations in practices and charting their association with specific topics and objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the theory of prosocial reactions or behavior induced by uniquely human emotions. Characteristics of human character of secondary emotions; Role empathy in prosocial behavior; Use of secondary emotions in social interactions.

A study was conducted to explore whether partici pants in Northern Ireland attend to, and process information about, diVerent group members as a function of a single dimension of category membership (reli gion) or as a function of additional and/or al ternative bases for group membership. Utilizing a bogus 'newspaper story' paradigm, we expl ored whether participants would diVerential ly recall target attributes as a function of two dimensions of category membership. Findings from this recall measure suggested that information concerning i ngroup and outgroup members was processed as an interactive function of both reli gion and gender i ntergroup dimensions. Reli gion was only used to gui de processing of more specific information if the story character was also an outgroup member on the gender dimension. These findings suggest a complex pattern of intergroup representation in the processing of group-rel evant information in the Northern Irish context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]