Wealth is associated with lower anxiety in a sample of Lebanese students

A sample of 160 Lebanese students in the American University at Beirut (a relatively wealthy sample) had a significantly lower mean score on the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale than a sample of 639 Lebanese students in the Lebanese University (a less wealthy sample). Sex differences in anxiety scores were not significant in the first sample, but were in the second.     

“We Deal With Symptoms Rather Than Causes”: Antipoverty Policy Making in Occupied Palestinian Territories

Since the Palestinian National Authority assumed governance, antipoverty reforms implemented to combat social problems and traumatic stressors have had limited success. Few empirical studies have investigated policy-making obstacles in this context. Using a social protection framework, this study examined the policy-making environment in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with Palestinian ministry officials and archival records. Findings revealed a restrictive, obstacle-ridden environment that severely constrains development of high-quality policies for meeting needs of Palestinian citizens. Some limitations were similar to those in other emerging nations; others were unique to the case of Palestine. Policy and research implications are discussed.     

Optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure therapy

Prevailing models of exposure therapy for phobias and anxiety disorders construe level of fear throughout exposure trials as an index of corrective learning. However, the evidence, reviewed herein, indicates that neither the degree by which fear reduces nor the ending fear level predict therapeutic outcome. Developments in the theory and science of fear extinction, and learning and memory, indicate that 'performance during training' is not commensurate with learning at the process level. Inhibitory learning is recognized as being central to extinction and access to secondary inhibitory associations is subject to influences such as context and time, rather than fear during extinction training. Strategies for enhancing inhibitory learning, and its retrieval over time and context, are reviewed along with their clinical implications for exposure therapy and directions for future research.     

What they think of us: Meta-beliefs and solidarity-based collective action among the advantaged

Collective action researchers have recently started investigating solidarity-based collective action by advantaged groups. This literature, however, has overlooked intergroup meta-beliefs (MBs, i.e., beliefs about the outgroup's beliefs), which we argue are crucial, since solidarity inherently involves protesting for the outgroup. In the context of racial inequality in the U.S., we focused on three MBs White Americans could hold: responsibility, inactivity, and allyship. In two studies (N_total = 648), we found that inactive and responsible MBs predicted higher collective action tendencies among low White identifiers via guilt and obligation to act. Conversely, we found that both predicted lower collective action tendencies among high White identifiers, via perceived unfairness. Finally, we found that ally MB was positively associated with collective action tendencies, regardless of identification. We highlight the importance of the meta-perspective in understanding solidarity-based collective action, and discuss conceptual and practical implications of these findings.