Emergent social identity and observing social support predict social support provided by survivors in a disaster: Solidarity in the 2010 Chile earthquake

Survivors of disasters commonly provide each other with social support, but the social‐psychological processes behind such solidarity behaviours have not been fully explicated. We describe a survey of 1240 adults affected by the 2010 Chile earthquake to examine the importance of two factors: observing others providing social support and social identification with other survivors. As expected, emotional social support was associated with social identification, which in turn was predicted by disaster exposure through common fate. Observing others' supportive behaviour predicted both providing emotional social support and providing coordinated instrumental social support. Expected support was a key mediator of these relationships and also predicted collective efficacy. There was also an interaction: social identification moderated the relationship between observing and providing social support. These findings serve to develop the social identity account of mass emergency behaviour and add value to disaster research by showing the relevance of concepts from collective action.     

Shame and Guilt—Do They Really Differ in Their Focus of Evaluation? Wanting to Change the Self and Behavior in Response to Ingroup Immorality

Shame and guilt are often theorized to differ on a self versus behavior focus. However, we propose that this is not true when taking a group perspective. In our field study, 196 communal participants were confronted with historical ingroup immorality. Results showed that participants who were old enough to have understood what happened in that time-period felt more guilt and shame than did those who were too young. Partly due to their ingroup anger, shame motivated an intention to change the ingroup self and behavior. In contrast, partly due to personal anger, guilt motivated an intention to change personal self and behavior. This suggests that the distinction between shame and guilt are not as clear-cut as previous research have assumed.     

Culture and the distinctiveness motive: constructing identity in individualistic and collectivistic contexts

The motive to attain a distinctive identity is sometimes thought to be stronger in, or even specific to, those socialized into individualistic cultures. Using data from 4,751 participants in 21 cultural groups (18 nations and 3 regions), we tested this prediction against our alternative view that culture would moderate the ways in which people achieve feelings of distinctiveness, rather than influence the strength of their motivation to do so. We measured the distinctiveness motive using an indirect technique to avoid cultural response biases. Analyses showed that the distinctiveness motive was not weaker-and, if anything, was stronger-in more collectivistic nations. However, individualism-collectivism was found to moderate the ways in which feelings of distinctiveness were constructed: Distinctiveness was associated more closely with difference and separateness in more individualistic cultures and was associated more closely with social position in more collectivistic cultures. Multilevel analysis confirmed that it is the prevailing beliefs and values in an individual's context, rather than the individual's own beliefs and values, that account for these differences.     

Defend or repair? Explaining responses to in-group moral failure by disentangling feelings of shame, rejection, and inferiority

Research on shame about in-group moral failure has yielded paradoxical results. In some studies, shame predicts self-defensive motivations to withdraw. In other studies, shame predicts pro-social motivations, such as restitution. We think that this paradox can be explained by disentangling the numerous appraisals and feelings subsumed under the label "shame." In 2 studies, we asked community samples of Norwegians about their in-group's discrimination against the Tater minority. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the measures of the appraisals and feelings used in Study 1 (N = 206) and Study 2 (N = 173). In both studies, an appraisal of the in-group as suffering a moral defect best predicted felt shame, whereas an appraisal of concern for condemnation of the in-group best predicted felt rejection. In both studies, felt rejection best predicted self-defensive motivation, whereas felt shame best predicted pro-social motivation. Implications for conceptualizing and studying shame are discussed.     

Why There Cannot be Any Such Thing as “Time Travel”

Extending work of Wittgenstein, Lakoff and Johnson I suggest that it is the (spatial) metaphors we rely on in order to conceptualise time that provide an illusory space for time‐travel‐talk. For example, in the “Moving Time” spatialisation of time, “objects” move past the agent from the future to the past. The objects all move in the same direction – this is mapped to time always moving in the same direction. But then it is easy to imagine suspending this rule, and asking why the objects should not start moving in the opposite direction. This is one way of generating the idea of time‐travel “back” into the past. Time‐travel‐talk essentially involves the unaware projection of fragments of our time‐talk – taken from powerful conceptual metaphors – onto the nature of reality itself. Understanding this dissolves away the charm and attractions of such talk.     

Glucocorticoid response to changes in enclosure size and human proximity in the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager)

This study investigated glucocorticoid (GC) responses to season and changes in enclosure size and human proximity in the Persian onager (Equus hemionus onager). Enzyme immunoassays were validated to measure GC metabolites in urine and feces (fGCM). Fecal samples were collected from 10 female onagers while in a large pasture, after transport to smaller yards (in greater proximity to people), and 2 months thereafter. Urine samples were collected for 1 year while females were in smaller yards to examine seasonal GC activity. Approximately, 2-fold increases (P < 0.05) were observed in fGCM levels after transport from pasture to yards with increased human exposure, followed by a rapid decline (within -17 days) to baseline (pasture) values. However, responses varied among onagers during the 30 days after translocation, with one female failing to acclimate. Mean fGCM concentrations in smaller yards 2 months after transport were comparable to those in pasture. Seasonal GC concentrations were lowest (P < 0.05) during winter, indicating modest seasonal variability. Results demonstrate an acute increase in GC secretion in Persian onagers that moved from large to small enclosures coincident with increased human activities. Most animals acclimated within 3 weeks, suggesting that this rare equid has retained mechanisms to acclimate to marked alterations in an ex situ environment.     

Society,spirit & ritual Morphic resonance and the collective unconscious part II

Rupert Sheldrake i s a theoretical biologist whose book, A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation, continues to evoke a storm of controversy. Following i s the second i n a series of articles wherein Sheldrake presents his ideas for amplifying Jung's concept of the collective unconscious and archetypal psychology. He concluded his first article with these words:

The approach I am putting forward is very similar to Jung's idea of the collective unconscious. The main difference i s that Jung's idea was applied primarily to human experience and human collective memory. What I am suggesting i s that a very similar principle operates throughout the entire universe, not just in human beings. If the kind of radical paradigm shift I am talking about goes on within biology - if the hypothesis of morphic resonance i s even approximately correct - then Jung's idea of the collective unconscious would become a mainstream idea. Morphogenic fields and the concept of the collective unconscious would completely change the context of modern psychology.     

We all live in Germany but … Ingroup projection,group‐based emotions and prejudice against immigrants

Immigration, cultural diversity and integration are among the most central challenges for modern societies. Integration is often impeded by negative emotions and prejudices held by the majority members towards immigrants in a common society. Based on the ingroup projection model (Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999), we examined the impact of perceived relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Additionally, we examined whether this impact is causal and explored the issue of causality in more detail contrasting a linear causal model with bi‐directional or reciprocal causality. Hypotheses were tested in a study with a two‐wave panel of majority members (N=1085) in Germany. We examined the proposed relations between relative ingroup prototypicality, intergroup emotions and prejudice and determined the causal direction of these relationships. Results support the predictive power of relative ingroup prototypicality on intergroup emotions and prejudice. Moreover, most causal relations between our measures are reciprocally causal. We discuss the implications of these findings for the general conception of prejudice and intergroup emotions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of stimulus and response variability on S-R correspondence effects

Six experiments investigated how variability on irrelevant stimulus dimensions and variability on response dimensions contribute to spatial and nonspatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence effects. Experiments 1-3 showed that, when stimuli varied in location and number, S-R correspondence effects for location or numerosity occurred when responses varied on these dimensions but not when responses were invariant on these dimensions. These results are consistent with the response-discrimination account, according to which S-R correspondence effects should only arise for a dimension that is used for discriminating between responses in working memory. Experiments 4-6 showed that, when responses varied in location and number, both invariant and variable stimulus number produced correspondence effects in S-R numerosity. In summary, the present results indicate that the usefulness of a particular dimension for response discrimination can be sufficient for producing S-R correspondence effects, whereas variability of a stimulus dimension is not sufficient for producing such effects.