Participation, Power, and the Role of Community Psychology in Environmental Disputes: A Tale of Two Nuclear Cities

This paper examines public participation and the role of community psychology in an emerging environmental dispute relevant to global climate change (GCC)-whether nuclear power represents a "green" solution. From a dialectical position, we explore the nuclear debate as it is linked to GCC, and more specifically, how participation in related federally-mandated processes may be shaped by power. We present qualitative data from public meetings in two nuclear communities and analyze these data through a lens of social power and environmental justice, including an examination of nukespeak and telepolitical appeals to highlight the complexity of the issues, how the appearance of successful participation may be deceptive, and how consensus may be manipulated. We argue that CP should consider GCC to be one of the most significant social problems of our time and make every effort to be involved in the search for truly "green" solutions.     

The Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes--Stuttering (POSHA-S): summary framework and empirical comparisons

Purpose

The Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) was developed to make available worldwide a standard measure of public attitudes toward stuttering that is practical, reliable, valid, and translatable. Mean data from past field studies as comparisons for interpretation of POSHA-S results are reported.

Method

Means for POSHA-S items (converted to −100 to +100 scales), components comprising clusters of items, subscores comprising clusters of components, and Overall Stuttering Scores comprising two subscores for stuttering were generated from 64 samples, totaling 2876 respondents who completed experimental versions of the POSHA-S.

Discussion

Lowest, highest, and median sample values, which vary with the addition of new sample data to the growing POSHA-S database archive, provide points of comparison for any potential sample rather than predetermined values.

Conclusions

The final POSHA-S, together with an ongoing and growing archive, can provide increasingly meaningful comparisons for stakeholders measuring public attitudes toward stuttering.Educational objectives: (1) Describe the subscores and components of the POSHA-S, (2) describe the Overall Stuttering Score of the POSHA-S, and (3) describe the format for interpretation of the POSHA-S.     

When good evidence goes bad: the weak evidence effect in judgment and decision-making

An indispensable principle of rational thought is that positive evidence should increase belief. In this paper, we demonstrate that people routinely violate this principle when predicting an outcome from a weak cause. In Experiment 1 participants given weak positive evidence judged outcomes of public policy initiatives to be less likely than participants given no evidence, even though the evidence was separately judged to be supportive. Experiment 2 ruled out a pragmatic explanation of the result, that the weak evidence implies the absence of stronger evidence. In Experiment 3, weak positive evidence made people less likely to gamble on the outcome of the 2010 United States mid-term Congressional election. Experiments 4 and 5 replicated these findings with everyday causal scenarios. We argue that this “weak evidence effect” arises because people focus disproportionately on the mentioned weak cause and fail to think about alternative causes.     

Testing an interactionist perspective on the relationship between personality traits and performance under public pressure

Objectives

The interactionist principle of trait activation [Tett & Gutermann (2000). Situation trait relevance, trait expression, and cross-situational consistency: testing a principle of trait activation. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 397-423.] explains human behavior through the stimulation of traits by trait-relevant situational cues (i.e., situation-trait relevance). In applied (real-world) high-pressure situations, audiences provide the situational demand of public evaluation. Therefore, traits that are related to public evaluation are appraised as situation-relevant. The purpose of the current study was to test if situation-relevant traits (i.e., narcissism, public self-consciousness) predict performance in applied high-pressure situations, while situation-irrelevant traits (i.e., private self-consciousness) do not contribute to the performance explanation.

Design/Method

Experienced handball players (N = 55) completed personality questionnaires and performed a throwing task in low and high-pressure conditions, whereby the high-pressure condition involved 1500-2000 spectators during halftime breaks of professional handball games.

Results

Findings supported the assumptions about situation-trait relevancies and indicated that narcissism and public self-consciousness were relevant to high-pressure performance (i.e., positively associated), whereas private self-consciousness was found to be irrelevant. No predictors were correlated to low-pressure performance.

Conclusions

Results emphasize that trait activation is a promising explanation for the relevance of personality characteristics to performance under pressure. A systematic consideration of situational demands of high-pressure situations will result in adequate appraisals of situation-trait relevance and help predict performance with trait scores.     

Vexing,Veiled, and Inequitable: Social Distancing and the “Rights” Divide in the Age of COVID-19

Abstract

Although unprecedented in scope and beyond all our life experiences, sweeping social distancing measures are not without historical precedent. Historically, racism, stigma, and discrimination resulted in grossly inequitable application of disease containment measures. But history also provides examples in which broad measures enjoyed remarkable public support. When it comes to COVID-19, blame and division continue to shape containment responses. But the COVID-19 pandemic also resonates with moments in which there was broad social support for containment precisely because lockdowns or stay at home orders are, on the surface, remarkably equitable. Yet even in a context in which a majority of Americans support social distancing, small but coordinated conservative groups are challenging social distancing as a matter of individual rights. In sharp contrast, vulnerable populations, who bear the heaviest burden of disease, have claimed a right to social distancing as a matter of protection.     

The cognitive underpinnings of policy process studies: Introduction to a special issue of Cognitive Systems Research

This article introduces the special issue of Cognitive Systems Research on public policy processes. We begin with a discussion of the cognitive foundations of public policy that stem from the complexity of human cognition and emotion. Next, we provide an overview of the articles in the special issue, which occur at the edge of a public policy-cognitive systems boundary. We then turn to a discussion of promising new work in the study of public policy that explores—or may benefit from—the cognitive systems perspective.     

Reassessing the Ethics of Molecular HIV Surveillance in the Era of Cluster Detection and Response: Toward HIV Data Justice

Abstract

In the United States, clinical HIV data reported to surveillance systems operated by jurisdictional departments of public health are re-used for epidemiology and prevention. In 2018, all jurisdictions began using HIV genetic sequence data from clinical drug resistance tests to identify people living with HIV in “clusters” of others with genetically similar strains. This is called “molecular HIV surveillance” (MHS). In 2019, “cluster detection and response” (CDR) programs that re-use MHS data became the “fourth pillar” of the national HIV strategy. Public health re-uses of HIV data are done without consent and are a source of concern among stakeholders. This article presents three cases that illuminate bioethical challenges associated with re-uses of clinical HIV data for public health. We focus on evidence-base, risk-benefit ratio, determining directionality of HIV transmission, consent, and ethical re-use. The conclusion offers strategies for “HIV data justice.” The essay contributes to a “bioethics of the oppressed.”     

Why do new members stop attending health and fitness venues? The importance of developing frequent and stable attendance behaviour

ObjectivesAttendance at health and fitness venues often declines dramatically during the first year of membership. The present study sought to identify factors associated with continued attendance in new members.MethodsA secondary data analysis was conducted on the attendance data of 1726 new members of a health and fitness organisation over the first 12 months of their membership. Associations were assessed between members’ frequency and pattern of attendance during the first quarter of their membership, age, gender, and home location and their attendance levels in the fourth quarter after joining.ResultsThere was a significant reduction in the frequency of attendance over time from a mean of 7.48 times in the first month to a mean of 0.92 in the 12th month after joining. Older age, starting membership in the autumn or spring, frequency of attendance in the first quarter and stability of the context of attendance (i.e., same time and location) in month three were all significantly associated with increased attendance levels in the fourth quarter.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that new members’ early attendance behaviour, in terms of the frequency and the stability of attendance, may be important for supporting continued attendance at health and fitness venues. Interventions to increase longer-term attendance and, in turn, physical activity, should focus on promoting regular and consistent attendance, especially in terms of day, time and location, early on in individuals’ membership of health and fitness venues.     

Affect and public health – Choreographing atmospheres of movement and participation

Attempts at improving physical activity rates among the population are central to many government, public health, and third sector approaches to encouraging health behaviours. However, to date there has been little attempt by public health to embrace different theoretical-methodological approaches, relying instead upon largely quantitative techniques. This paper argues that through a development of a framework of affect amplification, public health approaches to physical activity should incorporate the choreographing of spaces of movement. Drawing on two case studies, both incorporating ethnographic methodologies, this paper complicates the idea that public health can rely on individual or population level approaches that overlook affective and spatial entanglements. This paper concludes by outlining offer a series of ideas to encourage physical activity participation.     

Queer affordances of care in suburban public libraries

Public libraries are more than the materiality of their built form and collections. Within ever-widening mandates to enhance social inclusion and citizen emotional and physical well-being through micro-political practices of care, this paper addresses the resourceful community resilience that insider activist and ally librarians may foster for LGBTQ + suburbanites. Turning its attention to Canadian suburban public libraries in three case study peripheral municipalities (Mississauga, Brampton, and Ajax) in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), this paper draws on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with librarians to identify affordances of care selectively available for sexual and gender minorities. Following its original usage in psychology of perception scholarship, affordances are understood as the perceived differential, functional, and relational possibilities of objects, places, and people for action. The range of affordances of care discussed in this paper include: LGBTQ + -positive space iconography; LGBTQ + Pride book displays, reading lists, and book marks; and LGBTQ + book clubs, writing workshops, and story times. These empirical examples are used to explore the performative progressive limitations of suburban public libraries.