On the Knowledge of Politics and the Politics of Knowledge: How a Social Representations Approach Helps Us Rethink the Subject of Political Psychology

Fifty years ago, Serge Moscovici first outlined a theory of social representations. In this article, we attempt to discuss and to contextualize research that has been inspired by this original impetus from the particular angle of its relevance to political psychology. We argue that four defining components of social representations need to be taken into account, and that these elements need to be articulated with insights from the social identity tradition about the centrality of self and group constructions in order to develop original insights into political psychological phenomena. First, social representations are shared knowledge, and the way interpretations of the world are collectively elaborated is critical to the way people are able to act within the world. Second, social representations are meta‐knowledge, which implies that what people assume relevant others know, think, or value is part of their own interpretative grid, and that collective behavior can often be influenced more powerfully at the level of meta‐representations than of intimate beliefs. Third, social representations are enacted communication, which means that social influence is exerted by the factors that constrain social practices as much as by the discourse that interprets these practices. Fourth, social representations are world‐making assumptions: collective understandings do not only reflect existing realities but often bring social reality into being. Put together, these four components provide a distinctive theoretical perspective on power, resistance and conflict. The added conceptual value of this perspective is illustrated by showing how it allows revisiting ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. We conclude with implications for research practices and discuss how the proposed model of social representations invites us to define new priorities and challenges for the methods used to study political psychological phenomena.     

Bien-être,satisfaction au travail et conflit travail–famille : une perspective centrée sur l’influence du leadership

This research investigates the relationship between well-being, work satisfaction, work–family conflict and leadership, based on hierarchical status. Regression analysis confirmed that leadership can predict a significant part of work satisfaction and well-being variation. The most significant results suggest that transformational leadership is related with higher satisfaction and laissez-faire leadership with lower satisfaction. Results showed no significant contribution of leadership on work–family conflict score variation. These results provide evidence that management styles should be considered to increase well-being and employees satisfaction.     

负性情绪在冲突适应中的作用机制：分离与整合视角

负性情绪如何影响冲突适应一直以来受到领域内研究者们的广泛关注。根据负性情绪产生的源头(冲突外部操纵vs.冲突内部固有), 对于该问题的论述可以分别从认知与情绪的分离与整合视角展开。分离视角下, 操纵于冲突之外的负性情绪(外部负性情绪)独立于冲突加工过程, 通过情绪加工系统或个体自身的动机/唤醒水平影响冲突适应。近些年来的研究发现冲突加工自动产生负性情绪(固有负性情绪), 寓示着认知冲突与负性情绪间的内在关联, 固有负性情绪因此可被视作诱发冲突适应的另一个有效来源。整合视角下, 操纵于冲突内部的(固有)负性情绪高度整合于冲突加工过程, 其功能与冲突信息类似, 通过内在地促进目标导向行为直接诱发冲突适应。对这一主题的论述加深了我们对负性情绪如何作用于冲突适应过程的理解, 也为探索认知与情绪系统的整合过程及作用机制提供了一个全新的视角, 在此基础上, 我们也提出一些未来可行的研究方向。     

Converting a Freudian analysis into a Jungian one: obsession,addiction, and an answer from Job

In his analyses of obsessional patients, Sigmund Freud suggested that they suffered from intrusive cognitions and compulsive activities. Early psychoanalysts delineated the phenomenology of obsessionality, but did not differentiate what is currently termed obsessive‐compulsive disorder from obsessional personality. However, it was widely recognized that the success of psychoanalysis with obsessional patients was limited due to rigid characterological defences and transference resistances. The present paper examines the case of a middle‐aged obsessional academic who had been treated for nearly twenty years in a ‘classical' Freudian psychoanalysis prior to entering Jungian analysis. It examines how persistent focus on Oedipal conflicts undesirably reinforced the transference resistance in this obsessional man, and suggests that focusing instead on diminishing the harshness of the super‐ego via the therapeutic alliance, and fostering faith in the salutary aspects of unconscious processing has led to salutary results in this case. The biblical book of Job is adopted as ancient instruction in how to address the scrupulosity and addictive mental structuring of obsessionality in analysis.     

Practice makes perfect: Repeatedly dealing with response conflict facilitates its identification and speed of resolution

People repeatedly encounter response conflicts (i.e., self-control dilemmas between long-term and short-term goals). A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate how resolution of response conflict develops over time. Participants pursued a long-term goal. The design entailed pre- and post-measurements, as well as daily/weekly measures using a mobile application over a range of 10–110 days. Of the 180 people participating in the pre-measurement, 90 also completed the post-measurement. Over time, people became faster at successfully resolving response conflicts. The same response conflicts became bigger over time. Repeatedly being confronted with response conflicts facilitates resolution of these conflicts, by improving the identification of these conflicts, resulting in faster resolution.     

Religion and Armed Conflict: Evidence from the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey

This article examines the effectiveness of religion as a solution to ethno-nationalist conflicts, drawing on the case of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan [PKK]) in Turkey. We utilize an original data set that contains data on Turkey's state-sponsored mosques between 1980 and 2016 to test for the purported peacemaking potential of religion. Results from this data set, coupled with an alternative measure of the state's involvement in religion, show that increased Islamization has no discernible impact on lowering support for the ethno-nationalist Kurdish political parties or insurgency.     

Exploring diversity effects: nationality composition and nationality context in workgroups

The types of conflict that emerge in nationally diverse teams may depend on the number and types of nationalities present in the team. We investigate the possibility that when teams have individuals from multiple different nationalities (i.e., Dutch, Swiss and Indonesian), rather than just two different nationalities (Dutch and Indonesian), performance and task conflict will be higher while process and relationship conflicts will be comparatively lower. A scenario-based study was conducted in two countries in which we examined how nationality composition (size of national diversity or number of nationalities) and context (nature of national diversity or types of nationalities) affected perceived conflict and expected performance. We hypothesized and found that task conflict and performance are higher in nationally diverse workgroups that included multiple dissimilar nationalities compared to workgroups with just two nationalities. Results also showed that relationship and process conflicts are lower in groups that are diverse in size and nature of national diversity. We observed that social distances among nationalities varied in such a way that a distant nationality became more distanced and a close nationality became even closer in a nationally diverse group. Social distance, in that way, moderated the effect of national diversity. We discuss implications for diversity and conflict management.