The Role of Social Toxicity in Responses to a Slowly-Evolving Environmental Disaster: The Case of Amphibole Asbestos Exposure in Libby,Montana, USA

Experiencing a disaster has significant negative effects on psychological adjustment. Case study accounts point to two consistent trends in slowly-evolving environmental disasters: (a) patterns of negative social dynamics, and (b) relatively worse psychological outcomes than in natural disasters. Researchers have begun to explicitly postulate that the social consequences of slowly-evolving environmental disasters (e.g., community conflict) have their own effects on victims’ psychological outcomes. This study tested a model of the relationship between those social consequences and psychological adjustment of victims of a slowly-evolving environmental disaster, specifically those whose health has been compromised by the amphibole asbestos disaster in Libby, MT. Results indicate that experiencing greater community conflict about the disaster was associated with greater family conflict about the disaster which, in turn, was associated with greater social constraints on talking with others about their disease, both directly and indirectly through experiencing stigmatization. Experiencing greater social constraints was associated with worse psychological adjustment, both directly and indirectly through failed social support. Findings have implications for understanding pathways by which social responses create negative effects on mental health in slowly-evolving environmental disasters. These pathways suggest points for prevention and response (e.g., social support, stigmatization of victims) for communities experiencing slowly-evolving environmental disasters.     

September 11 and the Role of the Theologian

As is the case with all “disasters” the nation is experiencing the various psychological stages to the September 11, 2001 disaster: threat, warning, impact, inventory, heroism, honeymoon, disillusionment, and reconstruction. In order for healing to occur from and within the religious community, theologians, pastors, and religiously–minded people must enter into these different stages of disaster and suffer–with the community. Instead of explaining September 11 from an abstract, removed stance, we ought to reveal our concerns and uncertainties about God in this situation and wonder with the rest of the community of grievers, “How has this happened?” From this place, true healing and reconstruction of the community will be possible.     

A community psychology of object meanings: Identity negotiation during disaster recovery

What do material goods intended for personal consumption mean to community? We use the extreme example of natural disaster recovery in a community to explore this question. Our work describes how members make sense of material objects that transition from private to public possessions (damaged goods) and public to private possessions (donated goods). By blending consumer and community psychology perspectives with our narratives, we employ a three-dimensional framework for analyzing object meanings: (1) material objects as agents of communitas (a shared sense of “we”), (2) material objects as agents of individualism (a focus on “me”), and (3) material objects as agents of opposition (the “we” that speaks for “me” and “us” versus “them”). This theoretical frame allows us to show how different conceptions of identity lead to conflicting meanings of objects within community, and to explain how and why object meanings shift as objects move across time and space from private to public and from scarcity to abundance. We also provide implications for coping with disasters that consider collective and individual identities as well as oppositional stances in between.     

Rule consequentialism and disasters

Rule consequentialism (RC) is the view that it is right for A to do F in C if and only if A’s doing F in C is in accordance with the set of rules which, if accepted by all, would have consequences which are better than any alternative set of rules (i.e., the ideal code). I defend RC from two related objections. The first objection claims that RC requires obedience to the ideal code even if doing so has disastrous results. Though some rule consequentialists embrace a disaster-clause which permits agents to disregard some of the rules in the ideal code as a necessary means of avoiding disasters, they have not adequately explained how this clause works. I offer such an explanation and show how it fits naturally with the rest of RC. The second disaster objection asserts that even if RC can legitimately invoke a disaster-clause, it lacks principled grounds from distinguishing disasters from non-disasters. In response, I explore Hooker’s suggestion that “disaster” is vague. I contend that every plausible ethical theory must invoke something similar to a disaster clause. So if “disaster” is vague, then every plausible ethical theory faces a difficulty with it. As a result, this vagueness is not a reason to prefer other theories to RC. However, I argue, contra Hooker, that the sense of “disaster” relevant to RC is not vague, and RC does indeed have principled grounds to distinguish disasters from non-disasters.     

Addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy: A thematic synthesis

Background

The importance of addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy is well-documented. However, there appears to be limited research on what this actually involves in practice and how best to prepare therapists to work with individuals experiencing adverse social determinants.

Aims

The aim of this review was to draw implications for practice and training from reviewing research on addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy.

Methodology

A qualitative systematic review of the research on addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy was conducted, extracting papers from eight databases: Cochrane Library, ASSIA, CINAHL Plus, PsycInfo, Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science. Out of 127 papers found, five met the eligibility criteria and were quality-assessed and analysed thematically.

Findings

The thematic synthesis generated three main themes: “the therapeutic relationship,” “adapting to client context” and “community as a resource,” with eight subthemes.

Conclusion

This thematic synthesis highlights the importance of the therapeutic relationship and adapting mental health support to client frame of reference and context to address social determinants of mental health in therapy. It emphasises community as a helpful resource for informing training and therapeutic interventions, as well as a significant resource for people experiencing adverse social determinants.     

我国灾害心理与行为研究

我国是灾害多发的国家, 重大灾害事件不仅导致人民巨大的生命伤亡和经济财产的损失, 而且也给亲历灾害的幸存者带来了严重的个体、家庭和集体的心理创伤。本文重点回顾了5·12汶川大地震以来, 我国研究者在灾后心理创伤领域内的研究进展, 包括灾后心理创伤的流行病学调查, 灾后心理创伤的行为特征、认知功能变化、免疫功能变化以及灾后社会群体心理与行为表现与特征。同时, 分析了我国未来灾后心理与行为研究可能的发展方向。     

Emergent social identities in a flood: Implications for community psychosocial resilience

Although the mobilization of pre‐existing networks is crucial in psychosocial resilience in disasters, shared identities can also emerge in the absence of such previous bonds, due to survivors sharing a sense of common fate. Common fate seems to operate in sudden‐impact disasters (e.g., bombings), but to our knowledge, no research has explored social identity processes in “rising‐tide” incidents. We interviewed an opportunity sample of 17 residents of York, United Kingdom, who were involved in the 2015–2016 floods. Using thematic and discourse analysis, we investigated residents' experiences of the floods and the strategic function that invocations of community identities perform. We show how shared community identities emerged (e.g., because of shared problems, shared goals, perceptions of vulnerability, and collapse of previous group boundaries) and show how they acted as a basis of social support (both given and expected). The findings serve to further develop the social identity model of collective psychosocial resilience in rising‐tide disasters. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Do you feel happy when other members look happy? Moderating effect of community-level social capital on interconnection of happiness

One's happiness is expected to be affected by the happiness of surrounding others. This socio-psychological nature of happiness, however, has not been fully examined in the literature of social psychology. The current study examined if this “psychological interconnection of happiness” occurs when (i) individuals have strong personal social capital and/or (ii) individuals belong to a community where other members have strong social capital. We analysed a large social survey dataset sampled from 408 communities in Japan (N = 7295). The psychological interconnection of happiness was measured by calculating the correlation between individual happiness and perceived community happiness. The multilevel analyses revealed that the psychological interconnection of happiness was moderated by community-level social capital above and beyond individual-level social capital, while individual-level social capital did not have a significant moderation effect.     

THE PROBLEM OF “GOD” IN PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION: LONERGAN'S “COMMON SENSE” (RELIGION) VERSUS “THEORY” (THEOLOGY)

The emphasis on God in American psychology of religion generates the problem of explaining divine‐versus‐natural causality in “spiritual experiences.” Especially “theistic psychology” champions divine involvement. However, its argument exposes a methodological error: to pit popular religious opinions against technical scientific conclusions. Countering such homogenizing “postmodern agnosticism,” Bernard Lonergan explained these two as different modes of thinking: “common sense” and “theory”—which resolves the problem: When theoretical science is matched with theoretical theology, “the God‐hypothesis” explains the existence of things whereas science explains their natures; and, barring miracles, God is irrelevant to natural science. A review of the field shows that the problem is pervasive; attention to “miracles”—popularly so‐named versus technically—focuses the claims of divine‐versus‐natural causality; and specifications of the meaning of spiritual, spirituality, science, worldview, and meaning itself (suffering that same ambiguity: personal import versus cognitive content) offer further clarity. The problem is not naturalism versus theism, but commonsensical versus theoretical thinking. This solution demands “hard” social science.     

Importance of Religion after Adversity

After major adversity, some people rely on their religious faith and networks for comfort, support, and material goods and services. Consistent with this behavior are findings that adversity has a positive causal effect on the importance of religion in people's lives. Using a large high-frequency US dataset, we estimate the causal effects of natural disasters on stated religious importance and attendance at religious services. Effects are identified by comparing changes in outcomes over time within counties affected by a natural disaster with changes over time in other counties from the same state. We find that most estimates are near-zero in magnitude; for the full sample, for subgroups defined by religious affiliation, demographics, and income, and for different disaster types. However, significant negative effects are found immediately postdisaster, suggesting a short-term crowding-out effect in which recovery activities limit time for worship. This explanation is supported by a finding that people are less “well rested” in the first weeks postdisaster.     

Authoritarian personalities in the natural and social sciences

This research is an extension of a previous finding, that authoritarian personalities are predisposed to the social sciences and nonauthoritarians to the natural sciences. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Within the social sciences, more authoritarian personalities enter economics and geography than psychology, social work, or sociology; and (2) between the first and last years in college, in “authoritarian departments” there is an increase, while in “nonauthoritarian departments” there is a decrease in the students' authoritarianism.     

社会支持与人格对大学生压力的影响

将横断与纵向研究相结合,对660名大学生进行了问卷调查。结果发现,社会支持对同期压力的主效应非常显著,对后期压力的主效应则不显著。社会支持的变化类型对后期压力也具有显著的主效应。“开朗—果断”与“拘谨—温和”两类人格对同期压力的主效应非常显著,前者同期的各类压力均显著低于后者的同类压力;前期人格类型对两年后压力的主效应依然显著。社会支持与人格的独立主效应和交互作用均显著;社会支持的变化与人格的独立主效应和交互作用均显著     

Walking the talk: Value importance,value enactment,and well-being

Prior research on intrinsic versus extrinsic values has focused on the comparative importance subjects assign to the two types of values, showing that relative intrinsic versus extrinsic value orientation (RIEVO) predicts higher or increased well-being. In two studies, we show that rated action taken regarding the two types of values is just as essential to study. Support was found for four hypotheses: (1) there was a significant behavior/importance gap, such that participants “walked” (acted on values) less than they “talked” (endorsed those values); (2) this was especially true for intrinsic values, an interaction suggesting that the intrinsic ideals of personal growth, community, and connection often receive only lip service; (3) the “walk” (behavior ratings) measure of RIEVO subsumed the “talk” (importance ratings) RIEVO measure’s effects on well-being outcomes, suggesting that researchers interested in predicting well-being from values should perhaps focus on rated value enactment, not value importance; and (4) participants with higher meaning in life, lower search for meaning, more self-concordance at work, and greater chronological age evidenced more consistency between their talking and their walking.     

Intolerance for approach of ambiguity in social anxiety disorder

Previous research has utilised the approach–avoidance task (AAT) to measure approach and avoidance action tendencies in socially anxious individuals. “Neutral” social stimuli may be perceived as ambiguous and hence threatening to socially anxious individuals, however it is unclear whether this results in difficulty approaching ambiguous (“neutral”) versus unambiguous threat (e.g. disgust) faces (i.e. intolerance of ambiguity). Thirty participants with social anxiety disorder (SADs) and 29 non-anxious controls completed an implicit AAT in which they were instructed to approach or avoid neutral and disgust faces (i.e. pull or push a joystick) based on colour of the picture border. Results indicated that SADs demonstrated greater difficulty approaching neutral relative to disgust faces. Moreover, intolerance for approach of ambiguity predicted social anxiety severity while controlling for the effects of trait anxiety and depression. Our results provide further support for the role of intolerance of ambiguity in SAD.     

Artificial Intelligence and Medical Humanities

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare has led to debates about the role of human clinicians in the increasingly technological contexts of medicine. Some researchers have argued that AI will augment the capacities of physicians and increase their availability to provide empathy and other uniquely human forms of care to their patients. The human vulnerabilities experienced in the healthcare context raise the stakes of new technologies such as AI, and the human dimensions of AI in healthcare have particular significance for research in the humanities. This article explains four key areas of concern relating to AI and the role that medical/health humanities research can play in addressing them: definition and regulation of “medical” versus “health” data and apps; social determinants of health; narrative medicine; and technological mediation of care. Issues include data privacy and trust, flawed datasets and algorithmic bias, racial discrimination, and the rhetoric of humanism and disability. Through a discussion of potential humanities contributions to these emerging intersections with AI, this article will suggest future scholarly directions for the field.

     

Characteristics of Confucian Rituals (Li)—A Critique of Fan Ruiping’s Interpretation

In this paper I argue that Fan Ruiping’s explication of the Confucian notion of li 禮 (ritual propriety) is problematic in several ways. First, his division of human activities into “social” and “natural” is less than illuminating, as human “natural” activities (such as hunting) are already inescapably social. Second, I question the appropriateness for him to characterize li in terms of “closed activities,” as some rituals are evidently open-ended. Third, he seems to have overemphasized the constitutive function of li and understated its regulative function. Fourth, contrary to Fan’s claim, Confucian li accomplishes “external goals” in human life as well as “internal goals.” Finally, Fan’s requirement for being a Confucian with respect to the observance of li is unrealistically high and makes it difficult for people to qualify as Confucian.     

“Set your minds on things above”: shifting from trauma-based ruminations to ruminating on God

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between trauma-based “Christian rumination,” mindfulness, and focusing on God among an online sample of Christian adults (N?=?234) from the United States. Participants endorsed experiencing a range of traumatic events, including natural disasters, car accidents, the death of loved ones, assault, and abuse, as well as the tendency to continue to think about the event. Using structural equation modelling, results revealed that “Christian rumination,” consisting of trauma-related ruminations (e.g., “why” and “what if” questions about the traumatic event, questioning God’s availability in the midst of the traumatic event), was positively associated with attempts to focus on God as a form of religious coping, mediated by mindfulness skills (i.e., attention, present focus, awareness, acceptance). The authors conclude by discussing a manualized treatment approach in development, based on the empirically-confirmed theoretical model in the present study, along with study limitations.     

Like a Fish Out of Water: Reconsidering Disaster Recovery and the Role of Place and Social Capital in Community Disaster Resilience

In this paper we draw on the findings of a critical, multi-sited ethnographic study of two rural communities affected by a wildfire in British Columbia, Canada to examine the salience of place, identity, and social capital to the disaster recovery process and community disaster resilience. We argue that a reconfiguration of disaster recovery is required that more meaningfully considers the role of place in the disaster recovery process and opens up the space for a more reflective and intentional consideration of the disorientation and disruption associated with disasters and our organized response to that disorientation. We describe a social-psychological process, reorientation, in which affected individuals and communities navigate the psychological, social and emotional responses to the symbolic and material changes to social and geographic place that result from the fire's destruction. The reorientation process emphasizes the critical importance of place not only as an orienting framework in recovery but also as the ground upon which social capital and community disaster resilience are built. This approach to understanding and responding to the disorientation of disasters has implications for community psychologists and other service providers engaged in supporting disaster survivors. This includes the need to consider the complex dynamic of contextual and cultural factors that influence the disaster recovery process.     

Influence of social stigma on subjective well‐being of persons with albinism in Ghana

Previous studies have shown that social stigma adversely affects quality of life. However, little research has assessed the influence of social stigma on subjective well‐being (SWB) of persons with albinism (PWA) in Ghana, and the role that perceived social support plays in this relationship. This study investigated the SWB of PWA in Ghana. Participants (N = 105) completed a survey questionnaire on social stigma, social support, and SWB. Results from structural equation modelling showed a significant negative association between social stigma and SWB. Perceived social support partially mediated the negative effect that social stigma has on SWB, with significant other support emerging as a reliable predictor of SWB in this sample. Results suggest that the population with albinism in Ghana is experiencing high levels of social stigma, which is adversely affecting its SWB. Social stigma seems to be preventing PWA from being accorded the needed social support by family and friends. The results highlight the importance of designing stigma‐reduction educational interventions that target social stigma at family, community, and societal levels.     

In What Sense Christian?: The Humane Economic Ethic of Wilhelm Röpke

Christian social thinkers who strongly support the free‐market system often have drawn connections between the social values of their faith and the ideas of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. Hayek's comments on religion, however, seem to predict its demise for the sake of progress, whereas his colleague Wilhelm Röpke posits “transcendent” religion and established moral traditions as essential to a humane economy. This essay contends that what Röpke described as “enmassment” has similarities to the present “financialization” of society, which involves the rising influence of financial values in all institutions, exaggerated emphasis on quantitative performance measures, and reliance on technical processes in lieu of human relationships. Röpke's “Christian humanist” philosophy advances the kind of ethical entrepreneurialism needed to morally sustain a global society experiencing enmassment and financialization simultaneously.