Contributions Of Social Psychology Research Articles

La co-gestión de Políticas Públicas Sociales entre Estado y sociedad civil: El aporte de la Psicología Social Comunitaria a la construcción del diálogo entre actores diversos

Alicia Rodríguez Universidad de la República, Uruguay Peer Reviewed This paper presents the contribution of Social Community Psychology (SCP) to the development of understanding and participation in the context of social public policies (SPP) that are co-managed between the State and civil society. We provide an analysis of the complexity of the socio-political setting, and the importance of considering psychosocial and subjective processes when aiming to strengthen the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) and the population targeted by the policy.

What We Should Expect From Theories in Social Psychology

The construction and development of theory is one of the central routes to scientific progress. But what exactly constitutes a good theory? What is it that people might expect from an ideal theory? This article advances a new model, which delineates truth, abstraction, progress, and applicability as standards (TAPAS) for a good theory. After providing the rationale for TAPAS, this article evaluates several social-psychological theories in terms of TAPAS, especially classic theories, and illustrates its utility with some more recent theoretical contributions of social psychology. This article concludes by outlining recommendations for effective theory construction and development, such as the utility of meta-analytic approaches for pursuing truth, the utility of theory-oriented courses and journals for pursuing abstraction, and the utility of adversarial collaboration for pursuing progress, and reaching out to major personal or societal issues for pursuing applicability.

Social Psychology and Social Change Redirect The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change by Timothy D. Wilson Little, Brown, New York, 2011. 287 pp. $25.99, C$28.99. ISBN 9780316051880.

Weighing contributions of social psychology to understanding and remedying social problems, Wilson argues that the key to transforming people's lives lies in their learning to recast the stories they tell themselves.

The Social Psychology of Identity and Inter-group Conflict: From Theory to Practice

This paper reviews the seminal theories of social psychology which have guided scholarship on inter-group conflicts and describes how these theories have been used by conflict resolution practitioners to design Track Two diplomacy initiatives among citizens in conflict zones. The authors hope that such a review will provide scholars of conflict resolution and international politics with a better understanding of how complex social theories are adapted for use in the applied world, and how gaps between theory and practice can be identified and addressed. The paper begins with an overview of three of the main theoretical contributions of social psychology to the problem of inter-group conflict: social identity theory, stereotyping and prejudice, and contact theory. We then review how these theories have been applied by conflict resolution specialists in international and ethnic conflicts as they have sought to moderate intergroup hostilities in conflict zones. The paper concludes with an analysis of the gaps between theory and practice, namely: theory of change gap, transfer strategies gap, and unit of analysis gap. Finally, based on the reviewed social psychology research, the article makes policy recommendations about how these gaps between theory and practice can be narrowed.

Sofrimento psíquico do trabalhador da saúde da família na organização do trabalho

Desde a regulamentação do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) as transformações na saúde pública têm se refletido na organização do trabalho. A Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF), uma das medidas para tornar realidade essas mudanças, constituiu-se como objeto desta pesquisa, cujo objetivo foi identificar a relação entre o sofrimento psíquico do trabalhador e a organização do trabalho na ESF. A fundamentação teórica foi o Materialismo Histórico, com contribuições da Psicologia Social, da Psicodinâmica do Trabalho e da Saúde Coletiva, possibilitando o entendimento do sofrimento psíquico na organização do trabalho orientada pela lógica capitalista. A observação participante e entrevistas foram utilizadas no levantamento dos dados, numa abordagem qualitativa. A análise foi realizada com a divisão do estudo em temas e subtemas, procedendo-se à análise de conteúdo. Os três temas foram: “Implicações de ordem pessoal”, “O cotidiano do trabalho de atenção” e “A infraestrutura institucional”, não se mostrando as relações entre dificuldades estruturais e funcionais na organização do trabalho e o sofrimento psíquico.

What is Love? Discourse about Emotions in Social Sciences

What is Love? Discourse about Emotions in Social Sciences The study of emotions has been one of the most important areas of research in the Social Sciences. Social Psychology has also contributed to the development of this area. In this article we analyse the contribution of social Psychology to the study of emotion, understood as a social construct, and its strong relationship with language. Specifically, we open a discussion on the basis of the general characteristics of the Social Psychology of emotions and the contributions from different disciplines in this area of research, to give meaning to the relationship they have with the language of emotions. In this regard, we have reviewed basic references for the study of the construction of an emotion, and thematically classified them into three broad categories: 1) Contributions from different backgrounds and perspectives; 2) Construction and de-construction studies of emotion, and 3) Postconstructionist studies of emotion. In the first category, we consider the main contributions from the Social Sciences, which can be summarized in two areas: philosophical-construction of an emotion; mainstream-psychology of emotion. In the second category we have began with the relationship between emotion and language and the social construction of emotion, i.e., its discursive status. We end with postconstructionist theories, i.e., Butler's concept of performance and technoscience. To give more meaning to this line of research, the use of a concrete example of emotion seemed appropriate. Thus, we chose "love".

A Mixed Methods Approach to Measuring Depth of Group Information Processing in the Context of Deliberative Public Involvement

This article presents a mixed methods procedure for evaluating information processing and the role of social influences in deliberative public involvement groups. Specifically, it describes an interpretive, qualitative coding scheme for analyzing group discussions to quantitatively assess how group differences in information processing and social influences affect decision judgments. To substantiate the need for this new approach, the contributions of social psychology for better understanding persuasive influences in groups and individual information processing are described in relation to participatory public involvement contexts. The approach is then described using examples from a deliberative public involvement process. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges associated with the proposed technique and suggestions for research to advance the technique and assess its contribution to mixed methods research.

Stereotypes in social psychology: The “West-East“ differentiation as a reflection of western traditions of thought

Notwithstanding the fact that stereotypes and ethnocentrism constitute central topics of social psychology a cultural psychological question has almost been completely neglected in the discipline’s reflections on its own scientific endeavors: How has Western psychology’s construction of the “Indian“ and the “Eastern psyche“ been influenced by stereotypes that are embedded in culture-specific traditions of European scholarly and non-scholarly thinking? The problems tackled in this article are related to current social and cross-cultural psychological perspectives on the Indian context. In addition, they are related to social and cross-cultural psychological contributions to the well-established differentiation between the “West“ and the “East,“ which many psychologists have become used to and which are the foundation of current psychological theories about so-called “West-East differences.“

G(r)o(w)ing International

A year ago, my co-editors and I welcomed readers to the newly established journal, Social Psychology. Drawing on the 38-year experience of the preceding German-language version of the journal, the Zeitschrift fur Sozialpsychologie, our aim was to continue publishing innovative, first-rate psychological science that would now be accessible to a wider, international audience. We invited authors to submit papers from all areas of social psychology, and we promised to aim for a fast turn-around time of generally no more than 8 weeks. Now that our first year has been successfully completed, it is time to evaluate our goals and take stock of how the journal has developed. At the time of my writing this editorial (October 2008), the Social Psychology team has handled 92 regular submissions – in addition to the several dozen contributions to special issues handled by guest editors. We have observed a clear increase in the submission rate: During the 1-year period from October 2007 to September 2008, the journal received more than twice as many submissions as in the final years of the Zeitschrift fur Sozialpsychologie. If the submission rate continues to develop at a steady pace, we expect to receive more than 100 manuscripts in the year 2009. We are proud to note that – despite this increase in the amount of work – we have been able to keep our promise of a quick turnaround time. On average, authors did receive a first decision within 8 weeks. We are indebted to all colleagues who served as reviewers and helped us to maintain our high standard by providing very valuable and timely comments. That we have truly made the transition to an international journal can be gleaned from the countries of origin of first authors, as summarized in Table 1. Although a substantial proportion of submissions still come from German-speaking countries, the highest number of first authors now come from the United States, and colleagues from many other countries have also sent us their contributions. In accordance with our initial goals as well in the tradition of the Zeitschrift fur Sozialpsychologie, the topics of published articles covered a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. In a theoretical essay, Wicklund and Rise (2008) discussed the concept of symbolic contributions to society, outlining a theory that draws on Lewinian thought and work on symbolic self-completion. Other articles in last year’s two regular issues reported empirical work on research areas including the self-concept (van Horen, Pohlmann, Koeppen, & Hannover, 2008), the perception of groups (van den Bos & Stapel, 2008) and individuals (Siebler, 2008), linguistic influences on social judgment (Gabriel, 2008), social influence and persuasion (Bohner, Dykema-Engblade, Tindale, & Meisenhelder, 2008), as well as the interplay of situational and individual difference variables – relationship contingency; belief in a just world; shyness – as predictors of self-related affect (Sanchez, Good, Kwang, & Saltzman, 2008), coping with threat (Ijzerman & van Prooijen, 2008), and media preferences (Hertel, Schroer, Batinic, & Naumann, 2008). Moreover, the 2008 volume contained two special issues. The journal was launched with a special issue on “Social Psychology and Peace,” co-edited by Christopher Cohrs and Klaus Boehnke (2008). This issue featured review articles on the contribution of social psychology to peace research (Vollhardt & Bilali, 2008) and on the role of mortality salience in the peace process (Niesta, Fritsche, & Jonas, 2008). It also contained several empirical reports, including work on the justification of war and terrorism (Halverscheid & Witte, 2008) and on the effectiveness of human rights education (Stellmacher & Sommer, 2008), to highlight just two contributions. We are confident that this issue stimulated social psychologists’ interest in this important area. With the other special issue we commemorated a historic date: the 50th anniversary of attribution research, which started with Fritz Heider’s seminal work The Psychology of Interper-

Towards social inclusion in mental health?

This article explores the uses of the terms social exclusion and social inclusion in a mental health context. We briefly describe the origins of the term social exclusion and analyse its connotations in relation to four key dimensions: the relative, multifactorial, dynamic and transactional. We discuss Levitas's three discourses concerning social exclusion (the redistributionist, moral underclass and social integrationist) and present a case in favour of a fourth perspective, societal oppression. Focusing on social inclusion as a remedy for the ills of social exclusion, we discuss implications for contemporary mental health policy, practice and research. We highlight the potential contribution of social psychology to social inclusion theory. We conclude that a better theoretical understanding of causal mechanisms is needed to enable the development of more socially inclusive mental health services.

Social psychology: handbook of basic principles

Part I: Biological System. Caporael, Evolutionary Theory for Social and Cultural Psychology. Blascovich, Seery, Visceral and Somatic Indexes of Social Psychological Constructs: History, Principles, Propositions, and Case Studies. Ochsner, Social Cognitive Neuroscience: Historical Development, Core Principles, and Future Promise. Part II: Cognitive System. Dunning, Prediction: The Inside View. Roese, Sherman, Expectancy. Kruglanski, Sleeth-Keppler, The Principles of Social Judgment. Andersen, Moscowitz, Blair, Nosek, Automatic Thought. Fiedler, Information Ecology and the Explanation of Social Cognition and Behavior. Forster, Liberman, Knowledge Activation. Hilton, Causal Explanation: From Social Perception to Knowledge-Based Causal Attribution. Petty, Brinol, Tormala, Wegener, The Role of Metacognition in Social Judgment. Wyer, Jr. Principles of Mental Representation. Biernat, Eidelman, Standards. Shafir, Decisions Constructed Locally: Some Fundamental Principles of the Psychology of Decision Making. Liberman, Trope, Stephan, Psychological Distance. Part III: Personal Motivational System. Schwarz, Clore, Feelings and Phenomenal Experiences. Strack, Deutsch, The Role of Impulse in Social Behavior. Oyserman, Social Identity and Self-Regulation. Higgins, Value. Pittman, Zeigler, Basic Human Needs. Fishbach, Ferguson, The Goal Construct in Social Psychology. Baumeister, Schmeichel, Vohs, Self-Regulation and the Executive Function: The Self as Controlling Agent. Van Lange, De Cremer, Van Dijk, Van Vugt, Self-Interest and Beyond: Basic Principles of Social Interaction. Part IV: Interpersonal System. Maio, Haddock, Attitude Change. Simpson, Foundations of Interpersonal Trust. DeDreu, Beersma, Steinel, Van Kleef, The Psychology of Negotiation: Principles and Basic Processes. Semin, Grounding Communication: Synchrony. Shaver, Mikulincer, Attachment Theory and Research: Core Concepts, Basic Principles, Conceptual Bridges. Fiske, Berdahl, Social Power. Part V: Group and Cultural System. Brewer, The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations: Social Categorization, Ingroup Bias, and Outgroup Prejudice. Hogg, Social Psychology of Leadership. Vallacher, Nowak, Dynamical Social Psychology: Finding Order in the Flow of Human Experience. Levine, Kerr, Inclusion and Exclusion: Implications for Group Processes. Chiu, Hong, Cultural Processes: Basic Principles. Part VI: Applications of Social Psychology. Tyler, Jost, Psychology and the Law: Reconciling Normative and Descriptive Accounts of Social Justice and System Legitimacy. Rothman, Salovey, The Reciprocal Relation between Principles and Practice: Social Psychology and Health Behavior. Strauman, Costanzo, Jones, McLean, Merrill, Contributions of Social Psychology to Clinical Psychology: Three Views of a Research Frontier. Johnson, Pham, Johar, Consumer Behavior and Marketing. Tetlock, Psychology and Politics: The Challenges of Integrating Levels of Analysis in Social Science. Thompson, Pozner, Organizational Behavior. Snyder, Omoto, Social Action.

Social Psychology's Contribution to the Psychological Study of Peace

Abstract. This article examines the overlap between social psychology and the psychological study of peace. We suggest that, within mainstream social psychology, a substantial body of research exists that can be referred to as “social psychological peace research” (SPPR). We present a framework that defines the subject matter and introduces conceptual and methodological criteria, characterizing core research in this area as (1) value-explicit, (2) contextualized, (3) including multiple levels of analysis, and (4) practically oriented. A content analysis of leading social psychology journals identifies the amount and nature of current SPPR. We suggest future directions for an integrated body of research to realize the field's potential to further the understanding and prevention of societal conflict as well as the promotion of positive intergroup relations.

Social Psychology and Peace

Abstract. This paper begins by giving an overview of why and in which ways social psychological research can be relevant to peace. Galtung's (1969) distinction between negative peace (the absence of direct violence) and positive peace (the absence of structural violence, or the presence of social justice) is crossed with a focus on factors that are detrimental (obstacles) to peace versus factors that are conducive to peace (catalysts), yielding a two-by-two classification of social psychological contributions to peace. Research falling into these four classes is cited in brief, with a particular focus on four exemplary topics: support for military interventions as an obstacle to negative peace; antiwar activism as a catalyst of negative peace; ideologies legitimizing social inequality as an obstacle to positive peace; and commitment to human rights as a catalyst of positive peace. Based on this conceptual framework, the remaining six articles of the special issue “Social Psychology and Peace” are briefly introduced.

Direct Democratic Choice: The Swiss Experience

Direct Democratic Choice: The Swiss Experience. By Hanspeter Kriesi. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. 263p. $90.00.The determinants of the voters' decision in direct democratic votes have received growing attention over the last 15 years. The reasons for this are mainly twofold. First, there has been a sharp increase in the number of popular votes worldwide. In Europe, the successive waves of referenda on the European Union, up to the recent rejection of the EU constitution in France and in the Netherlands, have put the issue of direct democratic choices on the top of both the scientific and political agendas. Second, we have witnessed important theoretical developments in the study of opinion formation and political behavior (e.g., the contributions of social and political psychology with respect to the role of cognitive strategies, or the contributions of communication studies with respect to media and campaign effects).

Postcolonial Theory and the Ideology of Peace Studies

Peace, peace—but there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:15) The origins of ‘peace studies’ (including conflict resolution, conflict studies) as an academic discipline can be traced to the late 1940s, and th...

Social relationships and groups: New insights on embodied and distributed cognition

The field of social psychology – defined by its focus on the social aspects of human cognition and behavior – has in recent years begun to make contact with emerging perspectives in the cognitive sciences generally, especially the themes of embodiment and distributed cognition. This chapter reviews contributions of social psychology in these areas, with a particular focus on the intersection of embodied and distributed cognition. Research regarding embodiment in psychology and cognitive science has generally focused on implications of embodiment for individual-level functioning – for example, on the role of sensori-motor systems in mental representations. But embodied cues also contribute to relational functioning – linking the perceiver to other people – and thereby influence a broad array of social/relational processes, such as liking, interpersonal coordination, and prosocial behavior. In the area of distributed cognition, research in social psychology on group interaction and problem-solving, and in cognitive science on collective search tasks, is now converging on powerful and insightful descriptions of the processes that allow a group to discover good potential solutions without closing off consideration of diverse alternatives. Research in this area has only begun to incorporate the insights of the embodiment principle, which offers interesting and novel hypotheses for potential exploration.

Comments on the future of Asian social psychology

The efforts of Asian social psychology and the Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP) over the past decade and longer have clearly drawn attention to Asian cultures and their potential influence on psychological processes, and have highlighted the need to incorporate Asian social psychology into a global understanding of social psychology. Despite these advancements, however, all four authors, in their own way, suggest that these efforts are only the tip of the iceberg, and describe how Asian social psychology can shift their contributions to a higher gear. In this brief commentary, I discuss three points raised in the papers by Atsumi, Hofstede, Leung, and Ward: identity, the gold standard of comparison, and the contribution of Asian social psychology to a global social psychology, all in relation to visions of the future.

El rescate de las comunidades en el marco de la Globalización

The prevalence and increase, specially in recent years, of diverse problems (social, economic environmental) particularly in Latin America have led various sectors to question globalization as a convenient model for the development of these countries. In this article we present and analyse, in general terms, some notions, characteristics and implications of globalization, from two antagonistic versions: The first of them refers to the notion of globalization from the point of view of its creators and adepts, while the second one is based on the version ellaborated by its oponents. In this regard, we present some similarities between the first version with the dominant paradigm in science and between the second one with emergent paradigms. Thus, in the first version globalization is understood as the unique, universal, undeniable and irreversible reality, whereas in the second one various constructions regarding globalization, which signify this phenomenon as culturally and historically constructed and hence dynamic, are formulated. This second version serves us as base for analysing the impact of globalization on economically deprived communities in our continent and simultaneously for illustrating the potentialities of these communities, empowered through the contributions of community social psychology, for resisting unfavourable effects of globalization upon them.

Emergence and contributions of a Latin American indigenous social psychology

Increasingly, understanding behaviour requires a multidimensional conceptual and methodological approach. A historical analysis of social psychology leads to the identification of separate and clear psychological, sociological, and cultural perspectives in the thinking and research of the field. In an overview of the highlights of each orientation, this paper identifies the way in which each subbranch of social psychology flourished and is closely tied to the psycho‐socio‐cultural ecosystem in which its theoreticians and researchers developed. Evident from this process is the inclination of psychological researchers to stress functional aspects of behaviour and utilize experimental methodologies; the sociological orientation stresses structural variables and is inclined toward observational and field descriptive studies; and cultural investigation tends to pull from both the psychological and sociological perspectives and places major interest on the ecosystem in which behaviour presents itself. Linked to individual researchers' interests and training, and congruent with the sociocultural parameters and ecosystem in which Latin American social psychologists have evolved, novel indigenous interpretations of each social psychology have emerged. Documentation of the research topics, preferred theoretical and methodological approaches, and idiosyncratic findings is presented for the emergence of social psychology in Latin America. Emphasis is placed on the process of creating and shaping an indigenous view of social psychological thought, in which phenomena derived from a combination of one of the three views, and the behavioural manifestations and ideas representative of autochthonous everyday life, are stressed. As a conclusion, true to its upbringing, and born out of a perennial antithesis between mainstream thought and mundane reality, both a series of replications and novel conceptualizations and findings have emerged that have a distinct psychological, sociological, and cultural flavour.

Individualization and the Challenged Subject

The modern process of individualization takes place both at an institutional and an individual level. The challenge for the subject is to learn to personally manage this task in the context of institutional individualization. In this article, the contribution of social psychology to the analysis of this subject challenge is investigated in terms of the requirements of individualization.