Gender differences in intimate‐conflict initiation and escalation tendencies

According to gender motivation theory, men are driven by a desire to enhance their status; whereas, women are motivated by a desire to reduce risk, and the behavioral expressions of those motivations are context‐dependent. In order to test this theory in the context of intimate relationships, this study compared men's and women's escalatory tendencies in the initial development of intimate conflict. These tendencies were conceptualized in terms of four attributes: two attributes that represent response intention (decision and style) and two others that represent motivations for that intention (putting one's partner in his or her place and avoiding conflict). These attributes were measured in the context of five hypothetical situations. Each of those scenarios involved potential escalation of intimate conflict, following an intimate partner's aggressive verbal demand. The study involved a convenience sample of 403 male and female participants. The findings show that, in the initial steps of intimate‐conflict development, women tend toward escalation more than men. The findings also show that the escalatory tendency, as conceptualized and measured using the examined scenarios, corresponds to actual behavior exhibited in the resolution of common issues in the couples' lives. These findings reinforce gender motivation theory.

     

Why Does Fear Override Hope in Societies Engulfed by Intractable Conflict,as It Does in the Israeli Society?

The question of why fear overrides hope in societies embarked on the road of peacemaking after years of intractable conflict is answered on the basis of accumulated knowledge in the psychology and sociology of emotions. This knowledge suggests that fear is an automatic emotion, grounded in the perceived present and often based on the memorized past (also processed unconsciously), that leads to freezing of beliefs, conservatism, and sometimes preemptive aggression. Hope, in contrast, involves mostly cognitive activity, which requires the search for new ideas and thus is based on creativity and flexibility. Because hope is based on thinking, it can be seriously impeded by the spontaneous and unconscious interference of fear. Both fear and hope can become collective emotional orientations that organize society's views and direct its forms of action. It is assumed that societies involved in intractable conflict are dominated by a collective emotional orientation of fear, which is functional in their coping with the stressful and demanding situation. But such an orientation serves as a psychological obstacle to a peace process once it starts. The Israeli Jewish case of collective fear orientation is offered as an example. The presentation includes the roots of this orientation, the ways in which it is reflected and disseminated, and its expressions among the Israeli Jewish public; it ends optimistically with the suggestion that societies can determine to overcome their fear and establish a collective orientation of hope for peace.     

Emotional dynamics of soccer fans at winning and losing games

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the emotional reactions of fans of winning and losing teams at two professional soccer games. The participants were 187 male and 146 female Japanese soccer fans who provided biographical information and responded to a slightly modified state version of the Tension and Effort Stress Inventory (TESI; Svebak, Ursin, Endresen, Hjelmen, & Apter, 1991) pre-, mid- and post-game. Data from winning and losing fans were analysed using 3 × 2 independent groups ANOVAs for each of the pleasant emotions, unpleasant emotions, and tension stress/effort stress ratings with Bonferroni adjustment to control Type 1 error rates. When winning and losing fans’ responses were compared, most differences were found post-game, where losing fans scored significantly higher than winning fans on boredom, anger, sullenness, humiliation and resentment, and lower on relaxation. Also, levels of pleasant and unpleasant emotions changed significantly for losing fans, but (except for boredom) not for winning fans.     

Socio-cognitive conflict, emotions and complexity of thought in real-life morality

A new taxonomy of real-life dilemmas was tested in two studies. In Study 1, 35 respondents assessed six types of real-life dilemmas in terms of socio-cognitive conflict. Support was found for a classification of dilemmas into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. In Study 2, 191 young women responded to measures of social perspective-taking and emotional empathy and reported a real-life moral dilemma as well as their feelings while making decisions about it. The dilemmas were classified into personal and impersonal and into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. Dependent variables were the integrative complexity of the arguments and the reported feelings (sympathy, upset, and remorse). Dispositional empathy and perspective taking predicted level of socio-cognitive conflict and feelings of sympathy but not integrative complexity. Personal dilemmas aroused more feelings of upset than did impersonal ones. Low socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas evoked less complex thinking and less intensive feelings of upset and sympathy than did moderate and high socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas.     

妇产科医患话语权力的情境化博弈——基于医疗纪录片《生门》的案例分析

通过对医疗纪录片《生门》的案例分析,并借助福柯的话语权力关系理论,对妇产科中的医患话语权力关系进行研究发现：当医患结构性冲突被还原为微观情境下动态的话语权力博弈,医患权力关系可以借由不同的资源和话语在具体情境中发生转移和流动;话语权力在充当冲突的隐性动力的同时,又提供了博弈行为中的工具和手段;资源和话语力量此消彼长的博弈会在医疗情境中形成一种动态平衡,对平衡状态的有效调适为减少医患冲突提供了可能途径。

     

Representation of Game Algebras

We prove that every abstractly defined game algebra can be represented as an algebra of consistent pairs of monotone outcome relations over a game board. As a corollary we obtain Goranko's result that van Benthem's conjectured axiomatization for equivalent game terms is indeed complete.     

同伴特点如何影响人们的合作与冲突行为?

人类的生存繁衍依赖于人们之间的相互合作,合作与冲突行为的研究近年来成为心理学的研究热点。本研究通过实验程序操纵Chicken Game中博弈同伴的特点,考察个体在社会困境中面对不同特点同伴时的合作行为。结果发现：(1)同伴道义论组和功利论组总和解率没有显著差异,同伴竞争组和合作组的总和解率也没有显著差异。(2)在与道义论以及合作型的同伴互动时,个体的行为没有明显受到上次博弈反馈的影响。(3)当同伴为功利论时,相比于上次博弈个体选择和解而同伴选择进攻,双方都选择和解时个体在当前博弈中更倾向于和解;(4)在同伴竞争组中,相比于上次博弈个体选择进攻而同伴选择和解,双方都选择和解时被试在当前博弈中会更倾向于和解。实验结果表明个体在博弈任务中会受到同伴特点的影响,并且同伴在博弈中的行为特点的影响更为显著。本研究从同伴特点来考察个体的合作行为,揭示了影响个体博弈行为的一种因素。     

青少年的自主期望、对父母权威的态度与亲子冲突和亲合

通过对704名城乡高一和高三年青少年的问卷调查,探讨了高中阶段青少年－父母关系、青少年的行为自主期望和对父母权威的态度的特点,以及青少年—父母关系与青少年的行为自主期望和对父母权威的态度之间的关系。结果显示,我国城乡青少年对父母权威的认同程度较高,而期望获得行为自主的年龄较晚;青少年的行为自主期望、对父母权威的态度与青少年—父母冲突与亲合在某些方面存在城乡、性别和年级差异;青少年对父母权威的认同程度越高,对与父母发生分歧的接受性越高,其与父母的关系越亲密;那些期望在较晚年龄获得行为自主的青少年,与父亲的冲突较多,但与母亲较亲密     

The positive effect of negative emotions in protracted conflict: The case of anger

Extant research has demonstrated the destructive role that anger plays in the context of intergroup conflict. Among other findings, it has been established that anger elevates public support for aggressive and violent actions towards the outgroup. This finding has been explained by the unique cognitive appraisals, emotional goal, and response tendencies associated with anger, typified by appraised relative strength and high control, motivation to correct perceived wrongdoings, and willingness to engage in risky behavior. In the current work we examine an innovative assumption, according to which the apparent destructive implications of anger are a result of situational range restriction—namely, that anger as a group emotion has been examined almost solely at the escalation stage of conflict. Instead, we propose that the same unique characteristics of anger can bring about constructive political attitudes and support for non-violent policies in the context of systematic efforts to de-escalate a protracted conflict.To test this hypothesis we conducted two studies in which we examined the relationship between anger and the willingness to engage in positive risk-taking and support non-violent policies in the context of political negotiations between adversaries. Results indicate a significant positive relationship, supporting the hypothesis that anger is not an exclusively militant emotion, and its effects are situationally dependent.     

Cognitive Biases and Emotional Wisdom in the Evolution of Conflict Between the Sexes

Two recent theories within evolutionary psychology have produced novel insights into conflict between the sexes. According to error management theory (EMT), asymmetries over evolutionary time in the cost-benefit consequences of specific social inferences have produced predictable cognitive biases. Women, for example, appear to underinfer commitment in response to signals of resource display. Men often overinfer a woman's sexual desire when she merely smiles at or casually touches them. These inferential biases, according to EMT, represent functional adaptations rather than markers of irrationality in information processing. According to strategic interference theory , certain "negative emotions" function to motivate action to reduce conflict produced by impediments to preferred social strategies. Emotions such as jealousy and anger, rather than reducing rationality, may embody inherited ancestral wisdom functional in dealing with interference inflicted by other individuals. These evolution-based theories have produced novel empirical discoveries and challenge traditional theories anchored in the premise that cognitive biases and negative emotions necessarily lead to irrationality.