Holocaust victims and perpetrators

The author presents here the results of 12 years of work with a group of psychotherapists in Germany on the subject of the after-effects of the Nazi period on people in psychotherapeutic treatment today. She identifies several typical complexes concerned with issues of identity, loyalty, relationship, authority and aggression. Case examples and references to texts from the Nazi period illustrate the phenomena. The author's concern is that psychotherapists be aware of their own collective (family, ethnic, national) past so that they can fully engage in their work without having to repress painful collective complexes. In training analysis this aspect of the work is especially important so that the following generations of analysts can experience the importance of this level of the collective unconscious.     

Gender Comparisons in the Private,Collective, and Allocentric Selves

Abstract

Researchers (e.g., M. B. Brewer & W. Gardner, 1996; H. C. Triandis, D. K. S. Chan, D. P. S. Bhawuk, S. Iwao, & J. P. B. Sinha, 1995) have suggested expansion of the standard model of individualism-collectivism to include people's close personal relationships in addition to their identification with in-groups. There has been considerable discussion of the hypothesis that women are more collective, interdependent, relational, and allocentric than men (e.g., S. E. Cross & L. Madson, 1997; Y. Kashima et al., 1995). In the present study, the authors used the Twenty Statements Test (M. H. Kuhn & T. McPartland, 1954) to examine gender differences in the self-concept by assessing the accessibility of private, collective, and allocentric self-cognitions. The U.S. women described themselves with more allocentric and more collective self-cognitions than did the U.S. men. Discussion focuses on the implications of those data for interpretation of other gender differences as well as for traditional models of individualism-collectivism.     

Individual Versus Collective Responses to Membership in a Low-Status Group: The Effects of Stability and Individual Ability

Abstract

To test predictions of social identity theory (SIT; M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams, 1988; H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1979) and the 5-stage model (FSM; D. M. Taylor & D. J. McKirnan, 1984) concerning reactions to membership in a low-status group, the authors led 112 pupils to believe that another (anonymous) class outperformed their class. In an overall permeable and legitimate intergroup context, the authors manipulated the stability of the low group status and the individual ability of the group members. Contrary to SIT and FSM, the pupils generally favored collective normative action. Individual mobility was preferred only by group members, especially boys, with high individual ability who thought that the low status of their group was stable. The results support FSM assumptions (a) that individual ability is a powerful determinant of intergroup behavior but (b) that one should consider its impact in combination with perceived stability.     

The effects of collective anger and fear on policy support in response to terrorist attacks

ABSTRACT

Both correlational and experimental studies examined how perceived emotional responses of the majority of Americans to 9/11 affect individuals’ support for government counter-terrorism policies (i.e., military intervention, anti-immigration, restricting civil liberties). Study 1 found associations between perceived collective emotions (i.e., anger, fear) and individuals’ own corresponding emotions and those between perceived collective anger and counter-terrorism policy support. Individuals’ own anger mediated the associations of collective anger with policy support. Using experimental manipulations, Study 2 showed that collective anger had a significant effect on individuals’ own anger and one significant and two marginal effects on counter-terrorism policy support. Individuals’ own anger mediated one of the marginal effects of collective anger on policy support. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of terrorist threat.     

L’attitude défaitiste des responsables d’équipe : un frein à l’innovation?

The goal of this study is to investigate the role of defeatist attitude in regard to process innovation by considering the mediating role of group potency and the moderating effect of collective autonomy. Data was gathered from 101 work teams (381 members and 101 immediate supervisors) in a public safety organization located in Canada. Results show that group potency may have a mediating role in the relationship between defeatist attitude and process innovation. Moreover, results indicate that the relationship between group potency and process innovation is moderated by collective autonomy, such that this relationship is stronger when the level of collective autonomy is high.     

A social host in the machine? The case of group attention

I argue that akin to mind-body dualism, social-mental dualism is open to critique. That is, mental processes can be inherently social, with sociality ‘baked into’ the architecture of the cognitive mechanism. As a case in point, I introduce the reader to the cognitive mechanism of group attention. In particular, I focus on the differences between group attention and ideomotor imitation in terms of their (a) compliance to the social-mental dichotomy, and (b) contributions to building common knowledge—a prerequisite for human communication and collective action. Finally, I suggest possible implications of group attention scholarship for other social memory phenomena such as social contagion, socially shared memory-induced forgetting, and the saying-is-believing effect.     

A dynamic view of cultural influence: A review

Static models of culture's influence have given way to a dynamic view, which identifies not only differences across cultures in people's judgments and decisions, but also the situations and conditions in which these differences do or do not appear. Theory and evidence developed from a cognitive psychological perspective underlie this dynamic approach, including research emerging from the “dynamic constructivist” and “situated cognition” models. In the present review, we focus on findings that confirm the utility of this cognitively oriented approach, and briefly discuss the advantages and complementary nature of the “social collective” and neuroscience approaches to understanding culture.     

Support for employment equity policies: A self-enhancement approach

The effectiveness of employment equity (EE) policies has been hindered by negative reactions to these policies. We draw on the self-enhancement literature to expand self-interest accounts of reactions to EE policies to explain inconsistent findings showing that both nonbeneficiaries and beneficiaries react negatively to EE policies. Across four studies, we found that self-image threat influences reactions to gender-based EE policies. Studies 1 and 2 established that EE policies threaten the self-images of both men (nonbeneficiaries) and women (beneficiaries). Study 3 found that those least likely to experience self-image threat when faced with a gender-based EE policy are the most likely to show positive reactions to EE policies, while Study 4 showed that both men and women react more favorably to EE policies when self-images threats are mitigated through a self-affirmation task. Implications for our understanding of reactions to EE policies are discussed.     

Memory and identity among post-Soviet Evangelical Christians–Baptists in contemporary Ukraine

Evangelical Christians–Baptists (ECBs) are a prominent denomination in contemporary Ukraine. They survived persecution by Soviet state atheism and are meeting the challenges of postcommunist freedom. They provide good ground for a case study on how religious communities preserve their collective memories and identities when times and conditions change. In this paper, based on various sources produced by churches and religious organisations, I analyse the ways in which ECBs maintain and reflect upon their collective memories and reinvent their traditions. Particularly I focus on historical narratives and commemorations. I argue that the ECBs develop their collective memories in transnational, local and personal perspectives. They are eager to see the history of their community as an inalienable part of the national history of Ukraine, but also consider themselves as both rooted in Russian culture and heirs of a European Protestant tradition. The main values in the core of their memory discourse are holiness, spirituality, suffering for faith and survival of the community in a hostile society. Celebrations of faith heroes and martyrs are especially popular among those who belong to the former underground wing of this denomination. A more recent trend is the celebration of the history of local congregations. As ECBs perceive threats to their traditional way of life from the West and the national liberalism of today, they become more fundamentalist and persistent in its preservation and protection. Ultimately, in order to defend their cultural space from ‘immoral’ influences, they have become more politically active and have contributed to conservative and anti-liberal agendas on the national level in Ukraine.     

A WORLD OF CONTINGENCIES

Abstract Physicalism holds that the laws of physics are inviolable and ubiquitous and thereby account for all of reality. Laws leave no “wiggle room” or “gaps” for action by numinous agents. They cannot be invoked, however, without boundary stipulations that perforce are contingent and which “drive” the laws. Driving contingencies are not limited to instances of “blind chance,” but rather span a continuum of amalgamations with regularities, up to and including nearly determinate propensities. Most examples manifest directionality, and their very definition encompasses intentionality. Contingencies, via their interactions with laws, can reinforce and maintain one another, thereby giving rise to enduring, ordered configurations of constraints. All of ordered nature thus results from ongoing transactions between mutualistic contingencies that constrain possibilities and entropic chance events that degrade order but diversify opportunities. Laws do not of themselves determine reality; interactions among contingencies do. For believers, the robust abundance of indeterminacies provides ample latitude for divine intervention, free will, and prayer. The priority of contingency also affords some insight into the meaning of suffering and evil.