Restoring Americans’ nonequivalent frames of terror: An application of Relational Frame Theory.

Abstract

The present paper describes two studies that attempted to form equivalence classes between terrorist and American images using a matching-to-sample preparation. Experiment 1 first exposed American participants to training conditions in which they were reinforced for matching terrorist to American stimuli and American to terrorist stimuli. Participants were then tested for derived relations between these same American and terrorist stimuli. Additional training was also conducted whereby American and terrorist images were matched with stimuli depicting the words Peace, Unity, and Resolve. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment and also included additional training and testing conditions to examine any relative effects on participants' ability to form equivalence classes. Results of the two studies suggest that most participants failed to form equivalence classes between the two types of images, yet the degree to which they did increased following the training that paired the terrorist and American images to the words Peace, Unity, and Resolve. Implications of these data from a Relational Frame Theory perspective are presented. Key words: terrorism, Middle Eastern, prejudice, stereotypes, matching-to-sample, Relational Frame Theory. ********** September 11, 2001 changed the lives of many Americans and the perception of security in America. The events at the United States World Trade Center Towers have been devastating to all of America, not only those directly affected. The psychological ramifications and the feeling of a loss of national security that followed the terrorist attacks affected Americans in numerous ways (Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 2003). There has been an increase in persons across the country that are now seeking psychological services of clinicians due to a significant increase in numbers of individuals seeking help for posttraumatic stress (Meisenhelder, 2002; Thobaben, 2002). Other psychological research reports that many Americans have increased their need for human contact (Alper, 2002) and that individuals have sought at religion as a means of coping with such stress and devastation (Meisenhelder, 2002). Evidence also that there has been a 4.9% nation-wide rise in antidepressant prescriptions compared to the 6 months prior to the attacks (Kettl & Bixler, 2002). Case reports are now surfacing of persons who have been tempted to commit suicide following the terrorist attacks (Duggal, Berezkin, & John, 2002). For example, approximately one year following the terrorist attacks, three medical students of Middle Eastern descent were detained for 17 hours after a woman claimed to have heard them discussing the attacks and the additional mourning that the United States would soon face. They were found to be innocent and later released. (New York Times, September 14th, 2002). A natural consequence of the government's warnings to be aware of possible terrorist treats is that individuals with Middle Eastern heritage have often been perceived suspiciously as those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks were themselves of Middle Eastern heritage. This line of thinking has lead to an overgeneralization of this race as potential terrorists due to their outward appearance and/or religious practices. An additional result of such beliefs and actions is the false accusations and arrest of many law abiding citizens. An unfortunate result of such overgeneralization is that many members of American society pigeon-hole an entire race through prejudice, bias, and stereotypes, even though it is only a small number of individual who correctly fit such perceived attitudes. In the field of social psychology many large-scale and overarching theories have been developed regarding the possession of such hypothetical constructs as racial prejudice, stereotypes, and biases towards members of social, racial, or religious groups with which one is not accustomed to or unfamiliar with (Brown, 1988). …