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Assuming a cultural psychology approach, this study examines the life stories of 30 Israeli and Palestinian adolescent participants in a coexistence program. Prior to participation, youth identity was characterized by polarization in which an ingroup ideology is internalized with little understanding of the outgroup's ideological perspective. Three identity-related outcomes emerged following participation. Identity transcendence, in which a reduction in salience of ingroup ideology was accompanied by increased recognition of outgroup ideological legitimacy, characterized the most common immediate outcome. Identity accentuation characterized the long-term impact for most youth, whose ideological identifications ultimately conformed to an ingroup identity narrative. Identity conflict occurred among youth who struggled to integrate the experience of coexistence into the life story. Findings suggest (a) the challenges of identity intervention in the context of intractable conflict, and (b) a context-specific theory of identity in which polarized identities contribute to the reproduction and intractability of the conflict across generations. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Due to significant historical change in the late 20th and early 21st century related to both health and cultural attitudes toward homosexuality, gay men of distinct birth cohorts may diverge considerably in their health and identity development. We argue that research on gay men's health has not adequately considered the significance of membership in distinct generation-cohorts, and we present a life course paradigm to address this problem. Focusing on the U.S. as an exemplar that can be adapted to other cultural contexts, we identify five generations of gay men alive today and review unique issues related to health and identity development for each. Implications for research, practice, and advocacy on gay men's health and development are discussed.

Informed by social identity theory and a rhetorical approach to the study of social category construction in social interaction, this study analyzed the nature and function of participant utterances in two conditions of intergroup dialogue about history between Israelis and Palestinians. Across conditions that sought to either emphasize recategorization into a common in-group identity or subcategorization into mutually differentiated identities, Palestinian and Arab Israeli utterances primarily reflected the theme of victimization, while Jewish Israeli utterances primarily reflected themes of justification and victimization. The way in which these utterances produced social competition for victim and perpetrator roles and reproduced master historical narratives of Palestinian victimization versus Jewish Israeli "righteous" victimization is illustrated. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of narrative and rhetoric about social categories in settings of intractable political conflict, and implications for dialogue-based intervention about history are addressed.

Intergroup dialog affords an opportunity to study the deployment of historical narratives in conversation. In this field study, Israeli and Palestinian adolescents were randomly assigned to one of two conditions of intergroup dialog commonly in practice in intergroup encounter programs. In the coexistence condition, facilitators encouraged participants to focus on similarities and to construct a common ingroup identity. In the confrontational condition, facilitators encouraged participants to see themselves as group representatives and to become aware of power differences among groups. Our analysis examined variability in narrative content based on dialog condition and topical focus on either history or the imagined future. Using an interpretive analytical framework, we found that recognition of the outgroup narrative emerged among Jewish Israeli participants within the coexistence condition when the topic of an imagined future was discussed. Participants nevertheless struggled to reconcile divergent collective narratives in conversations about the past and a concrete future-namely, the conditions of a future peace agreement-regardless of the facilitation model employed. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of historical narrative in intergroup conflict and reconciliation, as well as distinct approaches to intergroup dialog.

Since early legal, medical and scientific discussions of homosexuality, the discipline of psychology has assumed an instrumental role in both maintaining and challenging cultural and political perspectives on same-sex desire, identity and behaviour. This article presents a critical historical review of psychological research on same-sex desire in the United States, with a focus on the way in which studies reflect three master narratives on the nature and meaning of same-sex attraction: (1) a sickness script that dominated the majority of research from the late 1800s to the 1970s; (2) a species script that became popular with the removal of homosexuality as a diagnosable mental illness in 1973 and initiated several new lines of research; and (3) a subject script inspired by scholarly and cultural shifts beginning in the 1990s that challenged the taxonomy of sexual identity. We conclude with a discussion of the transformative potential of a narrative approach that integrates analysis of historical forces and individual psychological development. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The article discusses the relationship between psychological and public policy discourses on homosexuality in the U.S. According to the authors, psychological knowledge largely supported discrimination against same-sex-attracted people until the late 1970s. It is suggested that since that time, psychological science has been increasingly important to legal fights against discrimination. Particular focus is given to the role of psychological knowledge in the U.S. Supreme Court cases Bowers v. Hardwick, Lawrence v. Texas, and Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Details related to a 1975 policy statement by the American Psychological Association (APA) distinguishing homosexuality from mental illness are presented. Other topics include normality, same-sex marriage, and U.S. state laws concerning sodomy.

An obituary for former psychologist and professor Bertram Joseph Cohler of the University of Chicago is presented.