Social traditionalism and economic conservatism: two conservative political ideologies in the United States

The authors surveyed by telephone a random sample of voters in the 1996 presidential election from the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area of Muncie, IN ("Middletown"; R. Lynd & H. Lynd, 1929) to test a model describing the nature of 2 conservative political ideologies--social traditionalism and economic conservatism. The model, based on functions of attitudes theory, predicted (a) that the 2 political ideologies would appeal to 2 rather distinct constituency groups--the former, to conservative Protestants; the latter, to people of higher incomes--and (b) that social traditionalists would be more dogmatic and economic conservatives would be more open-minded in their respective views. The findings were consistent with those predictions.     

Social dominance orientation,anti‐egalitarianism and the political psychology of gender: an extension and cross‐cultural replication

This study explored differences in levels of anti‐egalitarianism and social dominance orientation among groups with different social status, and examined the degree to which these differences in anti‐egalitarianism varied across a number of situational and contextual factors. Consistent with both the cultural deterministic (CD) and social dominance (SD) paradigms, when defining social status as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or ‘race’, differences in anti‐egalitarianism between members of high‐ and low‐status groups were found to be contingent upon a range of contextual and situational factors, such as the degree to which the two groups varied in social status. However, consistent with the SD perspective and the invariance hypothesis, the data also showed that males were more anti‐egalitarian than females, and that this male/female difference in social and group dominance orientation tended to be largely invariant across cultural, situational, and contextual boundaries. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

HIV and AIDS in Africa: social,political, and economic realities

Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of the HIV epidemic, which is fueled by the many ethical, social, and political complexities that make up Africa. In turn, the pandemic has also caused many ethical, social, and political complexities that Africa now grapples with. Being infected with HIV is highly complex and challenging. Regrettably, gender inequality is still pervasive in Africa. The response by African leaders to the pandemic has been, on the whole, shamefully lethargic. For Africa to win its war against HIV/AIDS, a paradigm shift is required from the perspective of its socio-political context. What is called for is positive political will that will address all aspects of the social determinants of AIDS. What is also required is that Ubuntu is embraced meaningfully.     

Bridging the personal and the political: practices for a liberation psychology

In the Irish context, legacies of colonialism, the Northern Ireland conflict situation, and the strength of community and women's liberation movements all provide rich resources for understanding the processes involved in both oppression and liberation. This paper draws on the theoretical and research literature and on Irish experiences to develop an understanding of some of the processes and practices that aid in liberation. The research is grounded in diverse writings on oppression and liberation, which include writings on colonialism (E. Duran &B. Duran, 1995; F. Fanon, 1967; V. Kenny, 1985, L. Maracle, 1996), feminist psychology (J. B. Miller, 1986; S. Wilkinson, 1996), liberation psychology (H. A. Bulhan, 1985; L. Comas-Díaz, M. B. Lykes, & R. D. Alarcon, 1998; I. Martín-Baró, 1994; Starhawk, 1987), and psychological aspects of racism (b. hooks, 1993; A. Mama, 1995; R. J. Watts, D. M. Griffith, & J. Abdul-Adil, 1999), homophobia (A. R. D'Augelli & C. J. Patterson, 1995), poverty (K. O'Neill, 1992), and other dimensions of oppression.     

Matching forces: constant errors and differential thresholds

A contralateral limb-matching procedure was used to study the perception of forces generated by the elbow flexor muscles. Subjects were required to generate forces ranging from 15 to 85% of their maximum voluntary contraction (MVC range: 169-482 N), and after achieving the target force to produce a force of the same perceived intensity with their contralateral arm. Under these conditions, subjects consistently overestimated the amplitude of the two lowest forces, and the most accurate matching of forces occurred in the middle of the response range (around 50% MVC). This pattern of constant errors could be explained in terms of an artifact of the starting position, which has been shown to influence the accuracy of judgements of stimulus magnitude. The Weber fraction for force calculated from the matching data was 0.07, which is within the range reported previously for weight. These thresholds are, however, considerably lower than those described for friction and the moment of inertia, the perception of which also involves the proprioceptive system.     

Social psychology and the wrong revolution

Many social psychologists take increasing comfort in cognitive explanations of human action. This paper first attempts to demonstrate that cognitively based formulations not only delimit the possibilities for social understanding, but create a range of intractable conceptual problems. If real world events are reduced to cognitive representations of the world, then social events cease to exist for the discipline as legitimate foci of concern. Further, once the reality of cognition is granted, there is no conceptual means of viably explaining either the origins or acquisition of cognitive categories (schemas, representations, etc.), or the relationship between cognition and action. The paper then goes on to argue that the cognitive revolution in psychology blinds the discipline to the far more pervasive revolution occurring elsewhere in the intellectual world, that of social epistemology. When cognition is replaced by language as the major means for representing the world, then the individual is replaced by the social relationship as the central focus of concern. Theory and research within the framework of social epistemology are reviewed and their implications discussed.     

Social psychology at the crossroads: Its encounter with cognitive and ecological psychology and the interactive perspective

This article discusses the implications for social psychology of recent developments in the neighbouring fields of cognitive and ecological psychology. The authors stress the importance of studying the cognitive processes directly instead of inferring them as hypothetical constructs from aggregate responses. This paradigmatic shift implies a change in the conduct of research from the traditional nomothetic perspective to a neo-idiographic one. A method of representational contextualization is offred to generate the affective and cognitive deep structure from surface, first order data. This structure identified as the internal environment, reflects simultaneously the construction of reality by a situated individual and the recoding rules operating in such a construction.     

Reflexive research and the grounding of analysis: Social psychology and the psy-complex

This paper is concerned with reflexivity in research, and the way research is grounded in the operations of the psy-complex in social psychology. A central argument is that qualitative research in general, and a focus on reflexivity in particular, requires theoretical grounding. Distinctions are drawn between ‘uncomplicated subjectivity’, ‘blank subjectivity’ and ‘complex subjectivity’; and the analytic device of the ‘discursive complex’ is described. It is argued that such theoretical grounding can usefully draw on developments in discourse analytic, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic social research. The opposition between objectivity and subjectivity is deconstructed, and psychoanalytic conceptual reference points for an understanding of the discursive construction of complex subjectivity in the context of institutions are explored with particular reference to the location of the researcher in the psy-complex. The paper discusses the reflexive engagement of the researcher with data, and the construction of the identity of the researcher with reference to professional bodies. An analysis of a document produced by the British Psychological Society is presented to illustrate conceptual issues addressed in the first sections. This illustrative analysis is designed to show how the material is structured by a series of six discursive complexes, and that the institutional structure facilitates, and inhibits, certain forms of action and reflection.     

Bringing critical social psychology to the study of political polarization

The study of political polarization, in both its ideological and its affective expressions, has garnered significantly more interest over the last years. But despite recent research on the conceptualization, measurement, causes, and consequences of this socio-political phenomenon, and some tentative interventions to mitigate it, relevant new avenues remain surprisingly underdeveloped. Indeed, scholarship in the field of political polarization, mainly in the case of affective polarization, frequently uses cognitivist approaches to make sense of the growing antipathy between different social and political groups. However, the bulk of this work seems to overlook valuable insights into the psychology of intergroup conflict, stereotyping, prejudice reduction, and discourse studies. The aim of this paper is to underline the main gaps in the political polarization literature, to subsequently argue how knowledge linked to the tradition of critical social psychology can help in filling them. Ultimately, the article aims to contribute to the psychosocial study of political polarization and to the design, if necessary, of interventions to counter its detrimental consequences.     

Re-reading Discourse and Social Psychology: transforming social psychology

This paper considers one theme in the contemporary legacy of Potter and Wetherell's (1987) Discourse and Social Psychology. It overviews the context that led to that book and considers a series of critical responses from both experimental and critical/qualitative social psychologists. It refutes criticisms and corrects confusions. Focusing on contemporary discursive psychology, it highlights (a) its rigorous use of records of actual behaviour; (b) its systematic focus on normative practices. In methodological terms, it (a) highlights limitations in the use of open-ended interviews; (b) considers the way naturalistic materials provide access to participants' own orientations and displays; (c) builds a distinctive logic of sampling and generalization. In theoretical terms, it (a) highlights the way discourse work can identify foundational psychological matters; (b) offers a novel approach to emotion and embodiment; (c) starts to build a matrix of dimensions which are central to the constructing and recognizing of different kinds of social actions. It now offers a fully formed alternative social psychology which coordinates theory and method and a growing body of empirical work.     

Social psychology of mental health: the social structure and personality perspective

Previous research has revealed a persistent association between social structure and mental health. However, most researchers have focused only on the psychological and psychosocial aspects of that relationship. The present paper indicates the need to include the social and structural bases of distress in our theoretical models. Starting from a general social and psychological model, our research considered the role of several social, environmental, and structural variables (social position, social stressors, and social integration), psychological factors (self-esteem), and psychosocial variables (perceived social support). The theoretical model was tested working with a group of Spanish participants (N = 401) that covered a range of social positions. The results obtained using structural equation modeling support our model, showing the relevant role played by psychosocial, psychological and social, and structural factors. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.     

Social psychology and social networks: Individuals and social systems

Social psychology and social network research are both centrally concerned with human sociality. Despite some historically significant interactions between the two, these areas of investigation have not been usefully deployed together in recent research endeavours. The present paper attempts to bring out some points of both theoretical and methodological contentions, to characterize the gap between them, to traverse briefly the trajectories of their historical development, and to provide some concrete instances of these differences. Intellectual resources available to Asian social psychology are reviewed, which may help bridge the gap between the two areas of research. We conclude by calling for a greater integration of social psychology and social network perspectives in future research.