Once upon a time…: Using fairy tales as a form of vicarious contact to prevent stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren

We conducted a vicarious contact intervention with the aim of promoting bystanders' intentions to react to stigma-based bullying among schoolchildren. Participants were Italian primary schoolchildren (N = 117 first to third graders); the outgroup was represented by foreign children. Vicarious contact was operationalized with story reading, creating fairy tales on stigma-based bullying where minority characters were bullied by majority characters. Once a week for 3 weeks, participants were read fairy tales in small groups by an experimenter and engaged in reinforcing activities. Results revealed that the intervention increased intergroup empathy (but not intergroup perspective-taking) and anti-bullying peer norms and fostered contact intentions. The intervention also had indirect effects via intergroup empathy on helping and contact intentions and on bystanders' reactions to stigma based-bullying. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, also in terms of the relevance of the present results for school policy. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

Distinguishing Between the Facilitating and the Self-Serving Charismatic Group Leader

Winnicott informed us about the components of the facilitating environment. Kohut warned us to differentiate between the charismatic leader, who looks for enfeebled followers to further his own grandiose ambitions, and the idealizable leader whose actions are based on a sense of values. Findings from attachment theory and neurobiology indicate how specific developmental issues make for a perfect fit between the self-serving charismatic leader and those who have been deprived of attuned interactive regulation and secure attachment in early childhood. This article attempts to integrate the above ideas for application to group dynamics in therapeutic, supervisory, training, and institutional groups.     

Walking in sacred spaces in the therapeutic bond: therapists' experiences of compassion satisfaction coupled with the potential for vicarious traumatization

The therapeutic bond is at the heart of effective therapy, yet few studies have examined therapists' experience of this bond. Using a qualitative study design, this exploratory study examines the experiences of couple and family therapists in relation to their perceptions of the satisfactions and risks involved in the therapeutic bond. The research was conducted using grounded theory methodology and eight in-depth interviews were conducted with therapists working in five counseling agencies in Sydney, Australia. Therapists described the importance of the 3 component parts of the therapeutic bond: the empathic connection between therapist and client; the role investment of the client; and the mutual affirmation experienced by both therapist and client in the therapeutic process. Walking in sacred spaces with the client was seen as both enriching and challenging for the therapist. The therapeutic bond gave therapists intense satisfaction and posed risks for them, especially when working with traumatic client experiences. However, the findings suggest that the experience of compassion satisfaction and the development of vicarious resilience counter-balanced the intense difficulty of bearing witness to clients' traumatic experiences and the potential for vicarious traumatization. The implications for sustaining couple and family therapists in their work are discussed.     

The Needle in the Haystack

Summary

Despite the significant damages in sexual abuse cases, the plaintiff's ability to collect the money awarded in settlement or judgment is often precluded by the limited financial resources of the defendant(s). In this chapter, practicing attorney Julian Hubbard introduces the basics of individual and corporate insurance coverage and reviews the development of very limited coverage in sexual abuse cases in statutory and case law. While direct coverage for sexual abuse injuries is as rare as a “needle in a haystack,” indirect coverage can be found in some cases, especially those in which the acts of negligent individuals other than the perpetrator facilitated the abuse and thus the plaintiff's injuries. After an overview of relevant insurance issues and law, Mr. Hubbard delineates a practical model for research and legal strategies to ensure reaching any available insurance coverage, and explores the benefits and drawbacks of drawing on administrative resources to help pay for survivors' medical and mental health care.     

Sex Differences in Risk Taking: Repeated Sessions on a Computer-Simulated Task

Two experiments were conducted to investigate sex differences in risktaking behavior on a computer-generated and controlled task. Male and female subjects faced a video display of simulated mine fields with varying numbers and patterns of dots representing mines in the fields. In Experiment 1, they estimated the probability that a tank might successfully cross 100 mine fields when starting from an unknown point below each field. This was followed by the risk-taking task in which they decided whether to send a tank across each of the fields. The participants were tested on the risk-taking task once in Experiment 1 and over four separate sessions in Experiment 2. Scores, based on decision outcomes, and decision latencies were recorded. No significant sex differences were found in the participants' ability to estimate probabilities or in their total scores for decisions made on the risk-taking task. In low probability-of-success situations, women initially took greater risks than men but took longer to make their decisions; in all subsequent sessions, this pattern was reversed, with men taking greater risks and a longer time to make decisions. The findings support the growing body of evidence that men are more inclined to take risks than women in a variety of situations, indicate the importance of obtaining data over repeated sessions when investigating sex differences in risk taking, and demonstrate that computer-simulated tasks can provide a valid means for laboratory studies of sex differences in risk taking.     

Factors Influencing Experienced Distress and Attitude Toward Trauma by Emergency Medicine Practitioners

Authors explored whether the dose-response relationship evident in PTSD also applied to cases of vicarious trauma and, if so, which variables serve to moderate such reactions. This study examined the surveyed responses of emergency care workers in a group geographically near the September 11, 2001 New York terrorist site, comparing the results to a group of emergency care workers geographically distant from the terrorist site. Study results lend support to the presence of a dose-response relationship within vicarious traumatization. Specific variables associated with higher distress levels for practitioners included the discipline of the practitioner, treating an injured victim, and personally knowing a victim of the New York terrorist attacks. Past training related to vicarious traumatization was not associated with lower distress levels for practitioners. In addition, practitioners' awareness and interest in psychological issues related to trauma appear to have been enhanced by geographic proximity to the New York terrorist attacks.     

Learning to fear a second-order stimulus following vicarious learning

Vicarious fear learning refers to the acquisition of fear via observation of the fearful responses of others. The present study aims to extend current knowledge by exploring whether second-order vicarious fear learning can be demonstrated in children. That is, whether vicariously learnt fear responses for one stimulus can be elicited in a second stimulus associated with that initial stimulus. Results demonstrated that children's (5–11 years) fear responses for marsupials and caterpillars increased when they were seen with fearful faces compared to no faces. Additionally, the results indicated a second-order effect in which fear-related learning occurred for other animals seen together with the fear-paired animal, even though the animals were never observed with fearful faces themselves. Overall, the findings indicate that for children in this age group vicariously learnt fear-related responses for one stimulus can subsequently be observed for a second stimulus without it being experienced in a fear-related vicarious learning event. These findings may help to explain why some individuals do not recall involvement of a traumatic learning episode in the development of their fear of a specific stimulus.     

Influencing Republicans’ and Democrats’ attitudes toward Obamacare: Effects of imagined vicarious cognitive dissonance on political attitudes

The field of experimental social psychology is appropriately interested in using novel theoretical approaches to implement change in the social world. In the current study, we extended cognitive dissonance theory by creating a new framework of social influence: imagined vicarious dissonance. We used the framework to influence attitudes on an important and controversial political attitude: U.S. citizens’ support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 36 Republicans and 84 Democrats were asked to imagine fellow Republicans and Democrats, respectively, making attitude discrepant statements under high and low choice conditions about support for the ACA. The data showed that vicarious dissonance, established by imagining a group member make a counterattitudinal speech under high-choice conditions (as compared to low-choice conditions), resulted in greater support for the Act by Republicans and marginally diminished support by Democrats. The results suggest a promising role for the application of vicarious dissonance theory to relevant societal issues and for further understanding the relationship of dissonance and people’s identification with their social groups.     

Forgiveness and the Holocaust

This paper considers whether we have any reason to forgive the perpetrators of the most terrible atrocities, such as the Holocaust. On the face of it, we do not have reason to forgive in such cases. But on examination, the principal arguments against forgiveness do not turn out to be persuasive. Two considerations in favour of forgiveness are canvassed: the presence of rational agency in the perpetrators, and the common human nature which they share with us. It is argued that the presence of rational agency does not generate a reason to forgive. However, our common human nature may be sufficient to provide such a reason, and evidence for its general reason-giving power can be seen in phenomena such as vicarious shame, and the moral significance which we attach to the notion of crimes against humanity. A reason for forgiveness based on common human nature will not be a strong one, but a weak reason still has some force.     

Gender differences in posttraumatic stress symptoms among former prisoners of wars’ adult offspring

Objectives: The lifetime risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptoms (PTSS) among primary and secondary female victims is known to be higher than for male. This study assessed gender differences in PTSS among former prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) adult offspring and the associations with their fathers’ and mothers’ PTSS and the parental bonding with them.

Design: A correlative study.

Methods: A sample of 79 Israeli father–mother-offspring ex-POW triads from the 1973 Yom Kippur War completed self-report measures. Fathers were assessed in 2008, mothers were assessed in 2011 and their adult offspring took part in 2014.

Results: Sons of ex-POWs reported higher levels of PTSS as compared to daughters of ex-POWs. However, fathers’ PTSS was positively related to daughters’ PTSS, but not significantly related to sons’ PTSS. Daughters’ PTSS were also associated with both parents’ lower care and higher overprotection, while sons’ PTSS were associated only with fathers’ lower care and higher overprotection.

Conclusions: Among adult offspring of ex-POWs, sons are at greater risk for psychological distress in the form of PTSS. Nevertheless, the intergenerational transmission of captivity-related PTSS from both fathers and spouses to their offspring is more prominent among daughters of ex-POWs.