Communicating misogyny: An interdisciplinary research agenda for social psychology

The aim of this paper is to discuss how social psychology might go about studying social hostility in public life that goes beyond mere disagreement on political matters. The paper addresses the case of online misogyny against women active in public life. In the context of a profound coarsening of political debate in Britain and elsewhere, women who are active in public life come regularly up against a barrage of abuse and intimidation online. The paper argues that manifestations of misogyny cross ideological lines and takes an array of forms. Misogyny is a specific class of prejudice that harms the dignity of women by calling into question women's (human) rights to participation in public life, freedom of expression, and personal safety. In order to fully understand the intricacies of online misogyny, social psychologists need to draw upon more directly on communications and media theories of mediated communication and connective action.     

Perceived collective continuity: seeing groups as entities that move through time

This paper presents two studies, conducted in two different countries, investigating perceptions of ingroups as enduring, temporally persistent entities, and introduces a new instrument measuring ‘perceived collective continuity’ (PCC). In Study 1 we show that perceptions of ingroup continuity are based on two main dimensions: perceived cultural continuity (perceived continuity of norms and traditions) and perceived historical continuity (perceived interconnection between different historical ages and events). This study also allows the construction of an internally consistent PCC scale including two subscales tapping on these two dimensions. Study 2 replicates findings from the first study; it also reveals that PCC is positively correlated to a set of social identity-related measures (e.g., group identification and collective self-esteem), and that its effects on these measures are mediated by perceived group entitativity. Overall, these two studies confirm that PCC is an important theoretical construct, and that the PCC scale may become an important instrument in future research on group processes and social identity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new American dilemma? The effect of ethnic identification and public service on the national inclusion of ethnic minorities

Three experiments integrate research from political science and social psychology to examine the consequences of two competing visions of American national identity. American identity has been defined not only in terms of shared ethnocultural heritage originating in Europe (the ethnocultural prototype) but also in terms of shared commitment to civic service (the civic responsibility prototype). Three experiments tested the consequence of highlighting each of these national prototypes on perceivers' inclusion of ethnic minorities as legitimately American. Experiments 1–3 showed that highlighting ethnic minorities' allegiance to their ethnic subgroup (versus downplaying it) challenges the ethnocultural prototype and makes ethnic minorities appear less American. Process data showed that this effect was mediated by increased threats to American distinctiveness. By contrast, emphasizing ethnic minorities' national service (versus local community service) highlights ethnic minorities' fit with the civic responsibility prototype and makes ethnic minorities appear more American (Experiments 2–3). Process data showed that this effect was mediated by enhanced American distinctiveness. Collectively, these experiments highlight how inclusion of ethnic minorities in the nation can wax and wane depending on which definition of national character is salient in the social context. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Value Incomparability and Indeterminacy

Two competing accounts of value incomparability have been put forward in the recent literature. According to the standard account, developed most famously by Joseph Raz, ‘incomparability’ means determinate failure of the three classic value relations (better than, worse than, and equally good): two value-bearers are incomparable with respect to a value V if and only if (i) it is false that x is better than y with respect to V, (ii) it is false that x is worse than y with respect to V and (iii) it is false that x and y are equally good with respect to V. Most philosophers have followed Raz in adopting this account of incomparability. Recently, however, John Broome has advocated an alternative view, on which value incomparability is explained in terms of vagueness or indeterminacy. In this paper I aim to further Broome’s view in two ways. Firstly, I want to supply independent reasons for thinking that the phenomenon of value incomparability is indeed a matter of the indeterminacy inherent in our comparative predicates. Secondly, I attempt to defend Broome’s account by warding off several objections that worry him, due mainly to Erik Carlson and Ruth Chang.     

Core beliefs,automatic thoughts and response expectancies in predicting public speaking anxiety

The present study examined the relationships between broad core cognitions, situation-specific automatic thoughts, and response expectancies in regard to their relative contributions to public speaking anxiety. Ninety-nine socially anxious participants (mean age = 20.25) completed measures of irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts specific to public speaking. Participants were then announced the task – giving a speech in front of a virtual reality audience – and response expectancies were measured. Subjective anxiety was measured just before the speech. As predicted, response expectancies and negative automatic thoughts specific to public speaking were each found to mediate the relationship between irrational beliefs and public speaking anxiety. Multiple mediation analysis indicated that the core irrational beliefs generated specific beliefs (i.e., response expectancies that primed automatic thoughts) that acted on speech-related anxiety.     

Husserl’s Phenomenology of Animality and the Paradoxes of Normality

In this article, I will discuss the Husserlian phenomenology of animality, by focusing on several texts of the 1920s in which the animal is determined as an abnormal variation of the human being. My aim is to address the question of the abnormality of the animal by reintegrating it in its original context, which is Husserl’s theory of normality. I will sketch the general framework of this theory, its articulations and strata, in order to eventually raise some paradoxical issues, specifically in relation to how the question of animality is interpreted through the couple normality/abnormality.     

The relationship between suppression and subsequent intrusions: the mediating role of peritraumatic dissociation and anxiety

Background and objectives: Although previous studies showed that thought and emotion suppression represent risk factors for intrusions development, the mechanisms that explain these relations were less explored. This study aims to examine the relationships between thought and emotion suppression and the symptoms of intrusion following the exposure to a trauma-related event. Moreover, we explored if these relationships would be mediated by peritraumatic state dissociation and state anxiety.

Design and methods: The trauma film paradigm was used and the participants were students (N?=?148) experimentally exposed to an aversive film to model a traumatic experience. Thought and emotion suppression were measured before the trauma exposure. After exposure, the participants completed scales for measuring state dissociation and state anxiety. Intrusive images and thoughts of the film were recorded in the subsequent week using an intrusion diary.

Results: Thought suppression predicted intrusive thoughts frequency, and this effect was mediated by the peritraumatic anxiety. State anxiety predicted both intrusive images and thoughts, while state dissociation only predicted intrusive images.

Conclusions: Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts are different phenomena and they are predicted by different variables. The practical implications of these results for posttraumatic stress disorder treatment and secondary traumatization are discussed.