Whaling,Bullfighting, and the Conditional Value of Tradition

Res Publica - The paper develops an account of the value of tradition that completes that of Samuel Scheffler and employs it to discuss whaling and bullfighting. The discussion, however, is...     

Critical consciousness among rural adolescents: the roles of school connection and positive relationships with teachers

Social Psychology of Education - Critical consciousness (CC) has been linked to academic and civic engagement for students from marginalized backgrounds, but little work has examined CC for...     

Successfully Contesting the Policy Sphere: Examining Through the Press a Case of Local Protests Changing New Ecological Laws

It is crucial to gain better insights into how psychosocial processes can limit the power of the political/legislative sphere for promoting social change through new laws. One form of accomplishing this is by illuminating the arguments and the content and value of social representations at play in cases in which the public sphere succeeds in contesting new laws. In this article, we explore a case of successful resistance to new ecological laws in a Portuguese Natura site. The laws, restricting recreational fishing, were made less stringent after meeting with local opposition. Content analysis of 122 articles published from 2006 to 2014 in regional and national newspapers reveals that protestors (fishermen, local authorities) received higher visibility and support and had more direct voice than the political sphere in both presses. Dialogical analysis of direct quotations of protestors shows how they seek legitimacy by establishing common ground with valued representations, vividly invoking people‐place bonds and tradition, and also how they attempt to undermine the law's legitimacy by linking local and national concerns, avoiding (potentially devalued) “Nimby” (“not in my backyard”) arguments. The discussion highlights what can be learned from using the press to investigate policy struggles that successfully organized their argumentation to contest new laws.     

Cognitive behavioural group therapy for social phobia: evidence of transportability to community clinics

Cognitive Behavioural Group Therapy (CBGT) for social phobia has been shown to be efficacious within research units and effective within a variety of real world clinical settings. However, most effectiveness studies of CBGT for social phobia have (a) used protocols without demonstrated efficacy, (b) not included direct comparison groups, and/or (c) contained features of efficacy trials. This study addressed these limitations by using a benchmarking strategy to compare outcomes from the same CBGT protocol used in both a research unit and a community clinic. Research (N = 71) and community (N = 94) patients completed the same 12-session protocol, which resulted in significant reductions in social anxiety and life interference at post-treatment. Compared to research unit patients, community patients had more severe symptoms and life interference at pre-treatment, and were more likely to be male, use medication, have comorbid disorders, and have lower educational attainment. Importantly, degree of improvement on social anxiety symptoms and life interference did not differ across the treatment settings for either completer or intention-to-treat analyses. There was some evidence that being younger, single, and having a depression diagnosis were associated with dropout. Pre-treatment symptoms and number of diagnoses predicted post-treatment symptoms. Consistent with previous uncontrolled trials, it is concluded that CBGT is effective within community mental health clinics.     

Legal Innovation for Social Change: Exploring Change and Resistance to Different Types of Sustainability Laws

In this article I argue that a desirable future direction for political psychology would be to pay more attention to social‐psychological processes involved in the response to innovative laws, in particular those devised with sustainability and environmental protection aims. This involves taking into account the following premises: (1) innovation and change are not unitary phenomena; instead there are different types of innovation; (2) legal and policy innovation is a specific type and is highly central in an era when global challenges are increasingly dealt with by global treaties which are then translated into national laws with a call to transform local practices; (3) offering attention to the reception of such innovation involves developing specific conceptual tools; (4) devising a typology of legal innovation is one step in this direction; (5) furthering our comprehension of how people, groups, and institutions receive—i.e., accept, contest—legal innovation for sustainability is important for helping to push forward sustainability goals, which are legislated but far from attained. The present article outlines theoretical tools for addressing psychosocial processes involved in the reception of legal innovation, drawing mostly on the approach of social representations and the literature of environmental psychology, and offers three criteria for a typology of laws. Finally I present some examples of responses to subtypes of legal innovation from the sustainability domain, taken as an illustrative case, and discuss differences and commonalities in the processes of acceptance and resistance that each mobilizes.     

Examination of Peer Rejection and Depressive Symptoms as Mediators of the Link between Rule-Breaking Behavior and Poor Academic Performance

The current study further evaluated the association between rule-breaking behavior and academic performance by examining peer rejection and depressive symptoms as potential mediators of this association. Study hypotheses were examined using a sample of 147 school-age children (54.4% male) ranging from five to 13 years of age (M = 8.22, SD = 1.99). A meditational path model was estimated, and findings suggested that peer rejection mediated the association between rule-breaking behavior and academic performance two months later when also considering the stability of academic performance. That is, high levels of rule-breaking behavior were associated with high levels of peer rejection, which in turn was associated with poor academic performance. Depressive symptoms were not indicated as a mediator of this association. Findings and their implications are discussed.     

The adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for European Portuguese

This study presents the adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW; Bradley & Lang, 1999a) for European Portuguese (EP). The EP adaptation of the ANEW was based on the affective ratings made by 958 college students who were EP native speakers. Subjects assessed about 60 words by considering the affective dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance, using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) in either a paper-and-pencil or a Web survey procedure. Results of the adaptation of the ANEW for EP are presented. Furthermore, the differences between EP, American (Bradley & Lang, 1999a), and Spanish (Redondo, Fraga, Padrón, & Comesa?a, Behavior Research Methods, 39, 600–605, 2007) standardizations were explored. Results showed that the ANEW words were understood in a similar way by EP, American, and Spanish subjects, although some sex and cross-cultural differences were observed. The EP adaptation of the ANEW is shown to be a valid and useful tool that will allow researchers to control and/or manipulate the affective properties of stimuli, as well as to develop cross-linguistic studies. The normative values of EP adaptation of the ANEW can be downloaded at .     

Killing Versus Witnessing Trauma: Implications for the Development of PTSD in Combat Medics

Killing in combat uniquely predicts elevated PTSD symptomatology among military veterans. This study investigated the effects of combat killing in a sample of 345 U.S. Army combat medics who had recently returned from operational deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan. Combat medics provide frontline medical care before, during, and after battles but also fight alongside other soldiers when under attack. Attempting to kill in combat was a significant predictor of PTSD symptomatology even after accounting for passively witnessing trauma in fellow soldiers. Medics may be well prepared to cope with the passive experiencing and witnessing of war-zone trauma, but may benefit from training to cope with the negative consequences of taking actions to kill.     

Marriage encounter casualties: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relationship between participation in Marriage Encounter, the largest marriage enrichment program in the world, and subsequent marital or family distress. Analyzing 13 case reports from seven marital therapists, the authors suggest that Marriage Encounter weekends can cause marital or family deterioration for some couples through increased marital conflict, avoidance of constructive problem solving, or marital enmeshment at the expense of children. It appears that the most harmful aspect of the Marriage Encounter experience is its induction of intense couple-centered communication, leading to emotional overload in some couples. The authors offer several recommendations intended to lower the risks associated with participation in Marriage Encounter.