Narrative Intervention in Interethnic Conflict

This article is rooted in a narrative approach to interethnic conflict which treats them principally as competing stories. On this basis, we examine experimental strategies for narrative intervention in interethnic conflict and potential tools for their reconciliation. Narrative intervention is understood here as a set of actions to identify and disseminate narratives that can reduce negative emotions and attitudes and promote reconciliation between members of conflicting groups. In terms of new solutions, we suggest a method of “Progressive Narrative Transformation” whose key element is the establishment of common points of contact between conflicting narratives and their gradual transformation such that they may converge into a new narrative accepted and shared by both sides. We present different kinds of narratives to evaluate attitudes and emotions among Azerbaijanis, including people displaced from their homes by conflict. Analyzing responses to a “common suffering” narrative, we registered that individuals and groups are able to keep sympathetic attitudes, even implicitly, toward their opponents. Results might enable scholars in conflict resolution and reconciliation to learn how to develop strategies that take advantage of these attributes of the human mind.     

The interactive effect of neuroticism and extraversion on the daily variability of affective states

The interaction between neuroticism and extraversion is thought to predict affective variability. In this study, neuroticism and extraversion were assessed with questionnaires, and affects were measured by experience sampling, with five daily assessments over 2 weeks. Affective variability was studied within a three-dimensional affective space whose three axes were oriented along the main affective dimensions: positive affect, negative affect, and activation. Quantile regression mixed-effects models allowed predicting zones in which affective states were most likely to occur according to personality. Beyond the well-known effect of personality on affect level, high neuroticism and/or high extraversion were accompanied by heightened affective variability. Results were interpreted as potentially reflecting positive feedback loops oriented toward negative affect for neuroticism, and toward positive affect and activation for extraversion.     

Reexamination of the Five‐Factor Model and College Students' Treatment‐Seeking Attitudes

This study was an attempt to replicate and extend the previous research by Puma ( 1996 ) and Kakhnovets ( 2011 ) on the relationships between the 5‐factor model of personality (FFM) and college students' attitudes toward seeking counseling. With a sample of 458 undergraduate students, the authors found that participant sex, prior treatment experiences, and 3 of the FFM factors (openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) predicted college students' attitudes toward counseling, but there was no evidence of moderator effects.     

Modeling of emotion elicitation conditions for a cognitive-emotive architecture

To cater to the need of embodying emotional behavior in an autonomous agent, there is a need for modeling computationally apt definitions of emotions. A number of emotion theories have been developed that provide an understanding of human psychology and their emotional behaviors, but it is difficult to directly decipher a theory into a computational model of emotion. Nevertheless, these theories together can serve as the theoretical foundation for designing a model for emotion-eliciting conditions. In this study, the salient features of OCC, Scherer, and Roseman theories of emotions are identified, which complement each other. The features are unified and standardized to bring consistency in deriving the computationally apt definition of five emotions viz. Happiness/Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Surprise. The objective of this hybridization is to set a ground framework for appraising the emotion-triggering cues (e.g., an event) for a simple, flexible and tolerant computational model of emotions. The underlying emotion-eliciting processes are designed using Fuzzy Logic. Fuzzy rules are framed to model the conditions behind emotion elicitation. Furthermore, the ISEAR data set and the real test-case scenarios are used to validate the accuracy of emotion prediction and rule fulfillment respectively.     

The semantic pointer theory of emotion: Integrating physiology,appraisal, and construction

Emotion theory needs to explain the relationship of language and emotions, and the embodiment of emotions, by specifying the computational mechanisms underlying emotion generation in the brain. We used Chris Eliasmith’s Semantic Pointer Architecture to develop POEM, a computational model that explains numerous important phenomena concerning emotions, including how some stimuli generate immediate emotional reactions, how some emotional reactions depend on cognitive evaluations, how bodily states influence the generation of emotions, how some emotions depend on interactions between physiological inputs and cognitive appraisals, and how some emotional reactions concern syntactically complex representations. We contrast our theory with current alternatives, and discuss some possible applications to individual and social emotions.     

Can affective atmospheres justify megaprojects? A case study of the ‘Asia New Bay Area’ in Kaohsiung,Taiwan

This article examines how affective atmospheres are constituted and used to sustain regeneration megaprojects. I argue that certain affective atmospheres engendered in particular urban contexts are essential to facilitating transformation in contemporary urban areas. Through the convergence of affective encounters, spatial imaginations and common goals in performative ways, affective atmospheres are forged and circulated to legitimise political decisions and urban policies. Moving beyond the conventional approach to examining waterfront regeneration, this paper attempts to capture the inherent relationship between affective dynamics and spatial practices that characterises megaprojects and dominates public opinion.The key claim of this article is that regeneration projects are emotionally mediated and sustained on the foundations of affective atmospheres in which myriad affects underlying everyday life are assembled to enhance municipal power and direct pubic concerns. The presented case study shows that the Asia New Bay Area (ANBA) project activated an affective atmosphere in a context-specific way, in which affective sensations situated in place experiences are assembled to challenge the physical and political landscape. It demonstrates that unfolding the city's affective, emotional and atmospheric resonances is critical to grasping how the megaproject can be justified and, furthermore, the orientation and rationale of spatial practices. Finally it outlines pragmatic suggestions for policy reform that address regeneration megaprojects in socially meaningful ways.     

刻板解释偏差测量

刻板解释偏差(Stereotypic Explanatory Bias,SEB)是测量内隐态度的一种指标,它反映了个体对某社会群体的刻板印象在信息加工过程中发生的作用。比较SEB与其他内隐态度测量方法后,发现SEB具有结合情境、自然反映内隐态度、预测性良好等特点。     

Searching for Common Ground between Supporters and Opponents of Affirmative Action

Supporters and opponents of affirmative action are often characterized as debating about a single, consensually understood type of affirmative action. However, supporters and opponents instead may have different types of policies in mind when thinking about affirmative action and may actually agree on specific manifestations of affirmative action policies more than is commonly believed. A survey conducted using a student sample and a sample from the broader Chicago-area community showed that affirmative action policies can be characterized into merit-violating versus merit-upholding manifestations. Supporters of affirmative action in general were more likely to think of affirmative action in its merit-upholding manifestations, whereas opponents were more likely to think of the merit-violating manifestations. However, both supporters and opponents showed more support for merit-upholding rather than merit-violating manifestations of affirmative action. The same pattern of results was upheld even when splitting the samples into those who endorsed negative racial attitudes versus those who did not, suggesting that even those who may be considered racist will endorse affirmative action policies that uphold merit values. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of clarifying the political discourse about what affirmative action is and what it is designed to do.     

Employer Treatment of Employees During a Community Crisis: The Role of Procedural and Distributive Justice

This study applies organizational justice principles to human resource decisions made during a crisis situation. Three-hundred and sixty-six working individuals of ice storm affected households responded to a telephone survey that included measures of interactional, procedural and distributive justice, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Confirmatory Factor Analysis suggested collapsing the interactional and procedural justice measures into one measure of procedural treatment. Overall, there was considerable support for the relevance of procedural justice and its interaction with distributive justice in predicting the work attitudes of employee following a disaster. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceptions of procedural justice most strongly predicted job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Consistent with existing theory, an interaction between distributive and procedural was found to predict job satisfaction. The predicted interaction was not detected for organizational commitment.We would like to acknowledge the capable research assistance of Paula Warnholtz and the financial assistance from the Senate Research Committee at Bishop’s University.