Less Biased Under Threat? Self‐Verificatory Reactions to Social Identity Threat Among Groups With Negative Self‐Stereotypes1

According to social identity theory, when group status is threatened, highly committed group members respond with greater in‐group favoritism. However, some of the groups build their identities on negative self‐stereotypes. For such groups, status‐threatening information should lead their members to confirmation of the group's negative self‐image. Study 1 examined the effects of group‐directed threat in a group with a long tradition of negative self‐perception. The manipulation led participants to higher ratings of the out‐group, and reduced adherence to in‐group‐defending ideologies. Study 2 provided further support to our predictions: Participants holding negative self‐stereotypes reacted to group‐image threats with more positive feelings about out‐groups. Findings are discussed within the theoretical framework of social identity theory and self‐verification theory.     

Four‐model approach to adolescent–parent attachment relationships and adolescents' loneliness,school belonging,and teacher appraisal

This study tested monotropy, hierarchy, independence, and integration conceptual models of adolescent–mother and adolescent–father attachment to explain adolescents' perceived social interrelationships with extrafamilial attachment figures (peers, teachers). Participants included 356 Israeli adolescents (12–15 years). More adolescents were significantly classified as securely attached to mothers than to fathers, but high concordances emerged. Results supported two of the attachment models, hierarchy and integration, as explaining variation in adolescents' perceived extrafamilial interrelationships. As per the hierarchy attachment model, adolescent–mother attachment outweighed adolescent–father attachment to some extent in predicting adolescents' perceived social interrelationship measures. As per the integration attachment model, significant differences emerged on most social interrelationship measures between the 4 distinct subgroups: secure attachment to both parents, neither, only father, only mother. The Discussion section focuses on the unique importance of attachment to each parent for typically developing junior high students.     

Therapist in Distress: Team-Supervision of Social Workers and Family Therapists Who Work and Live Under Political Uncertainty

This article describes and analyzes a 2-year supervision process with social workers and family therapists who live and work under conditions of uncertainty on the West Bank. The systemic orientation used in this specific approach to supervision emphasizes the double role of the therapist: one as part of the therapeutic system, and the second as a member of the same community that is living in political uncertainty. The analysis revealed that a long-term supervision process, in which the supervisor encouraged a containing context, was meaningful to the group. As a result of this secure atmosphere, the group was ready to talk about painful issues like loss as the result of war and terrorist attacks, loss as a result of immigration, and loss of ideals. Furthermore, the members of the group were ready to confront the possibility of relocation and their role in such a situation. The techniques used in the process, such as narrative and metaphors, were implemented by the members in their daily professional interventions. The flexibility between working on regular professional issues and issues related to stress and uncertainty seemed useful to the supervision, as well as the political dialogue that was created between the supervisor and the group.     

Coping strategies of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel: Association with PTSD and dissociation

Finklestein, M., Laufer, A. & Solomon, Z. (2012). Coping strategies of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel: Association with PTSD and dissociation. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 490–498. The aim of this study was to examine the relations between coping strategies, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and dissociation among Jewish Ethiopian refugees in Israel (following exposure to pre‐, peri‐ and post‐migration stressful events). Method: A random sample (N = 478) of three waves of refugees took part in the research (N = 165; N = 169; N = 144). Religiosity, coping strategies, stressful and traumatic events, pre‐ and peri‐ migration, post‐migration difficulties, posttraumatic symptoms, and dissociation were assessed. Results: A significant relationship was found between PTSD symptoms and avoidance coping over and above immigration wave and traumatic events. Dissociation was positively associated with passivity and antisocial coping and negatively associated with social joining and level of religiosity, over and above immigration wave and traumatic events. The findings are discussed in the light of the coping strategies employed by Ethiopian refugees.