Psychology and the Current Situation

Tony StavelyDepartment of Psychology

Keene State College

http://wcb.keene.edu/~tstavely/tstavely@keene.edu

•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