Irrational Beliefs and Socio-Political Extremism

This paper discusses the role of irrational beliefs and socio-political extremism. A central feature of extremist ideology involves utopian beliefs regarding the perfectability of individuals or society. The relationship between these ideas and the absolute beliefs described in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy is considered.     

The Grounding of Identities

Philosophia - A popular stance amongst philosophers is one according to which, in Lewis’ words, “identity is utterly simple and unproblematic”. Building from Lewis’ famous...     

Sleeping Dogs: Psychoanalysis and the Socio-Political

Psychoanalysis deals with what unconsciously mediates our relationship to reality. Our “ordinary clinical terms” (Holmes, this issue) include the press of drives and its fantasy derivatives, the history of early attachment and object relations, lifetime and intergenerational legacies; these are the elements that we assume shape psychic reality. As a discipline we are less likely to interrogate the profound and ongoing ways in which we are spellbound by ideology and are less likely to address racism, homophobia, misogyny, and privilege as central. What I hope to address in this discussion is why considering the socio-political is actually quite complicated for psychoanalysis.     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Contending Place Identities

Although a considerable amount of research exists regarding the transfer of political orientations within the family, little systematic attention has been devoted to studying the transmission of place (territorial) identities in contexts where such identities constitute a basic cleavage of political competition. This article examines the transfer of place identities in Catalonia, Spain, where contending identities, along with left‐right ideology, give shape to a distinctive regional political life. Using data from region‐wide household surveys, we analyze the reproduction of place identities as observed in parent‐child pairs and triads and find that it exceeds the reproduction of other political orientations, including left‐right self‐location and party preference. The direct transmission model fares well against the rival hypothesis of indirect transmission via parental social characteristics and the competing impact of the local context. Parent‐child congruence varies according to the homogeneity of parental place identities, the same‐sex and cross‐sex combinations of parents and their children, and the ethnic composition of neighborhoods.     

The Internalisation of Group Identities in Childhood

This paper provides an account of key findings from a decade-long programme of research on children’s internalisation of social group identities. Our starting point is to note a pervasive failure of previous work to differentiate between categorisation of the self in group terms and subjective identification with a social group. Thus, previous research had sought to cast light on identification with groups but, owing to methodological weaknesses, typically examined only categorisation of the self in group terms. Following a review of relevant literature, we report the findings of our own research which has adapted methods drawn from cognitive social psychology. We conclude that even by the age of 5 years children are capable of subjectively identifying with collectivities. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Negotiating Discourses: The Dialectical Identities of Survivor-Therapists

The psychiatric survivor movement is a political movement dedicated to fighting for human rights in the mental health system. People who identify as psychiatric survivors have experienced human rights abuses in the mental health system. A small number of psychiatric survivors have chosen to reenter the system as mental health professionals, and the current project focuses on the experiences of people with this dual-identity. The primary goal is to facilitate further dialogues between psychologists and the survivor movement by exploring the implications of identifying with both discourses. I interviewed five survivor-therapists, and asked how their identities as psychiatric survivors influence their approaches to therapy, and the nature of the relationship between these two identities.     

Human and Global Identities: Different Prototypical Meanings of All-Inclusive Identities

The impact of identities encompassing all human beings (e.g., human and/or global identities) on intergroup relations is complex, with studies showing mostly positive (e.g., less dehumanization), but also negative (e.g., deflected responsibility for harm behavior), effects. However, different labels and measures have been used to examine the effects of these all-inclusive superordinate identities, without a systematic empirical examination of the extent to which they overlap or differ in their sociopsychological prototypical content. This study examined whether different labels activate the same contents in laypeople's conceptualization. Two hundred and forty-eight participants openly described one of six labels: “All humans everywhere”; “People all over the world”; “People from different countries around the world”; “Global citizens”; “Citizens of the world”; and “Members of world community.” Results from quantitative content analyses showed that the different labels activated different thematic attributes, representing differences in their core prototypical meaning. We propose that a general distinction should be made between labels that define membership based on human attributes (e.g., biological attributes) and those that evoke attributes characteristic of membership in a global political community (e.g., attitudinal attributes), as their effect on intergroup relations may vary accordingly.     

Rotter's I. E.-Scale and Socio-Political Action-Taking: The balance of 20 years of research

Besides Rotter's hypothesis that internals are more likely to participate in sociopolitical action than externals, in this paper the hypothesis is formulated that externals are more likely to participate in socio-political action than internals. Both hypotheses can be justified from a value-expectancy theoretical point of view. These hypotheses are called the efficacy hypothesis and the power-formation hypothesis respectively. The assumption is made that the power-formation hypothesis holds true for people who are convinced that they are powerless, on objective and for ideological grounds, and that the efficacy hypothesis holds true for people who do not have that conviction. Conditions under which a relationship between I. E. and socio-political action-taking can be expected were derived from both hypotheses. Thirty-one studies on I. E. and action-taking were reviewed. Five studies confirmed the efficacy hypothesis, four studies confirmed the power-formation hypothesis. Nineteen studies revealed no relationship between I. E. scores and action-taking. The explanations that various authors give for the absence of a relationship were examined. It was investigated whether explanations that held true for studies other than the ones for which they were formulated would fit into the theoretical framework developed in this article. This appeared to be the case. The implications for further research are discussed.     

The Complexity of Ethnic Identities: A Postmodern Reevaluation

Building on recent work outlining various theoretical approaches to ethnic identification and diasporas, in this article I attempt to evaluate the utility of these approaches in understanding the complexity of ethnicity at the advent of the new millennium. Theoretical approaches discussed include assimilation theory, primordialism, circumstantialism, constructionism, various reinterpretations of the "new ethnicity" or "symbolic ethnicity" and types of diaspora ethnicities. I adopt the relativistic view that some utility may be found in virtually all these approaches, not the least in understanding ethnic conflict. Yet, it is crucial to be cognizant of the fast-emerging emphasis in the social sciences on postmodernist impressions of how diasporas, transnationalism, and globalization have been affecting-and will increasingly influence-the trend toward complex multiethnicity.     

The Influence of Multiple Group Identities on Moral Foundations

Moral foundations theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universal and societal aspects of morality. The focus thus far has been on understanding the influence of group categories on moral foundations by controlling for relevant factors and then examining the unique contribution of a single factor. Although this type of analysis was critical to demonstrate the efficacy of the Moral Foundations Theory and Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), the current study examines moral responses from the intersection of culture, ethnic identity and gender group membership in the United States and India. Significant results suggest that moral foundations are better understood through a multiple group identity perspective and that the MFQ is equipped to capture differences in moral foundations within subgroups.     

The Varieties Defined by P-compatible Identities of Modular Ortholattices

In the present paper we give syntactical and semantical characterization of the class of algebras defined by P-compatible identities of modular ortholattices. We also describe the lattice of some subvarieties of the variety MOL _Ex defined by so called externally compatible identities of modular ortholattices.     

Meaningfulness and Identities

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - Three distinct but related questions can be asked about the meaningfulness of one’s life. The first is ‘What is the meaning of life?,’ which...     

Sifting Through Tradition: The Creation of Jewish Feminist Identities

In recent decades, feminists have been questioning patriarchal religions. As a result, many find themselves ambivalent about their religious and spiritual identities. This paper presents a model of identity formation that addresses the processes by which potentially conflicted identities are integrated. This model is based on research about how women who identify themselves as both Jewish and feminist create unconflicted Jewish feminist identities. Through a process ofsifting through their available options, they have chosen to identify with only those aspects of Judaism and feminism that satisfy their feminist, religious, and perhaps most importantly, their spiritual, needs. Because these needs vary, what it means to be a Jewish feminist is not static. Three types of Jewish feminist identity—inclusionist, transformationist, and reinterpretationist—are identified.     

The Many Faces of Self: Ego and Ethnic Identities

This study addressed how adolescents come to develop a sense of ethnic identity. The author examined ethnic identity development as a process that occurs simultaneously with the development of ego identity and attitudes toward groups other than one's own. A multiethnic sample of 297 adolescents and young adults (aged 13 to 26 years) completed the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Scale Revision 2 (EOMEIS2; L. Bennion & G. Adams, 1986), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; J. Phinney, 1992), and the Other Group Orientation Scale (J. Phinney, 1992). An Age x Ethnic Group x Gender experimental design was used to determine whether these factors contributed differently to ethnic identity and ego identity. Analyses showed significant differences in the level of ethnic identity development among the ethnic groups. More pronounced age differences were found at the lower levels of ego identity development than at the more advanced levels.     

National Identities in Transition

Studies in East European Thought -