bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Media Violence, Effects of
Authors: Appel Markus , Jodlbauer Susanne
Published: November 2011

Research on the impact of violence in the mass media dates back to the Payne Fund Studies in the 1930s which focused on the effects of motion pictures on children. Public and scientific interest in this topic has increased with the widespread accessibility of TV in the 1950s and 1960s and the rise of computer games in the 1980s and 1990s. A number of content analyses conducted throughout the years indicate that the depiction of physical violence is widespread in mass media, e.g., in feature films, comics, animation series, TV news, popular music, and computer games. Compared to statistics about real‐life incidents, violence is by far overrepresented in various media products.
Meta‐Analysis
Authors: Fisher David M. , Stuhlmacher Alice F.
Published: November 2011

Meta‐analysis is the process of integrating findings from primary research studies in order to estimate true values in a population. While multiple primary studies on a topic may produce conflicting findings, combining these estimates through meta‐analyses can help resolve conflicts in the literature and direct future research. Importantly, a meta‐analysis is more than a statistical method for integrating research data across studies; it involves a research process with several distinct steps requiring subjective judgments (Arthur, Bennett, & Huffcutt, 2001) that must be delineated.
Militarism and Who Benefits
Authors: Pilisuk Marc , Pellegrini Gianina
Published: November 2011

When psychologists hunt for the basic cause of military conflicts, we tend to stress psychological constructs. This emphasis detracts from a contextual explanation that likely goes further to explain modern war than any other. This latter viewpoint gained visibility in the 1961 farewell address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who foresaw grave implications of the conjunction of the military establishment and the arms industry, which he labeled the military–industrial complex. Eisenhower warned against the military–industrial complex acquiring too much influence, whether it was sought or unsought. He saw the potential for a disastrous rise of misplaced power and the likelihood that it would persist. Nikita Khrushchev in the former Soviet Union labeled a comparable collaboration the “metal eaters,” an alliance of industrial bureaucrats and military leaders in the USSR (Barash & Webel, 2008). But the concept is typically considered American.
Militaristic Attitude
Authors: Cohrs J. Christopher , Nelson Linden L.
Published: November 2011

Current figures for military expenditure documented by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that across the planet in 2008, states spent US$1,464 billion towards military expenses (with the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia being the “top five”). The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research reports 39 high‐intensity violent conflicts worldwide in 2008, plus 95 crises with sporadic violence. The militaries of many Western democracies are deployed in many different places in the world, and there have been several aggressive military interventions in recent years. While, against this background, there is a lot of public criticism of militarization and the use of military force to pursue political goals, many people believe in the necessity of a strong military and in the usefulness and legitimacy of the use of military force.
Minimal Group Paradigm
Authors: Otten Sabine
Published: November 2011

“Can discrimination be traced to such origin as social conflict or a history of hostility? Not necessarily. Apparently the mere fact of division into groups is enough to trigger discriminatory behavior.” These sentences, with which Tajfel (1970) opened his first report on what is now known as the minimal group experiments, provide in a nutshell both the main research question that led to the development of the Minimal Group Paradigm (MGP), and the main conclusion from its results. When this publication — and later the better‐known piece by Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, and Flament (1971) — came out, the authors probably weren't expecting how much impact their research on the minimum conditions for eliciting ingroup favoritism and relative outgroup derogation would have on both theory and research in the field. In fact, MGP as designed by Tajfel and his co‐workers quickly became, and still is, a widely used and extremely useful approach, allowing researchers to investigate basic processes in people's behavior as group members in a highly controlled setting. Moreover, the findings on so‐called minimal groups inspired the development of one of the most relevant theories on intergroup behavior: social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
Moral Development
Authors: Ferguson Neil
Published: November 2011

Human morality has been the focus of philosophical debate and anguish since Socrates asked “what is a virtuous man, and what is a virtuous school and society which educates a virtuous man?” Many philosophers have puzzled over this proposition and psychologists have attempted to study and analyze the moral person.
Mortality Salience in Peace and Conflict
Authors: Fritsche Immo , Jonas Eva
Published: November 2011

Intergroup conflicts which involve severe violent measures such as warfare or terrorist threat might increase people's awareness of the fragility of their life and may cause a state of existential threat. Tragically, appraisals of existential threat might significantly contribute to both conservation and escalation of such conflicts. Since the late 1980s, social psychologists have been systematically investigating the effects of the awareness of one's own mortality on social thinking and behavior, revealing a broad range of subtle processes. In this article we will first describe the basic phenomenon of mortality salience effects and then illustrate how these effects may contribute to processes of peace and conflict.
Multidimensional Scaling Methods in Peace Psychology
Authors: Pinkley Robin L.
Published: November 2011

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a data‐reduction technique that explores
how
and
why
variables are related and, thus, the spatial representation or “hidden structure” that underlies and defines behavioral data (Kruskal & Wish, 1978). As sense‐makers, people compare the objects around them to determine the extent to which they are similar or different. The objective of MDS is to create a geometric map of similarity–dissimilarity judgments to illustrate the underlying structure of complex psychological phenomena, such that the smaller the distance between stimuli, the greater the similarity. In doing this, MDS illuminates the “hidden structure” or underling dimensions that distinguish one category of stimuli from another. For example, Chinese citizens are certain to have beliefs about how their country and others are related to one another, although they may not fully recognize the criteria they are using to make such judgments. MDS techniques provide a mechanism for uncovering and labeling the perceived attributes or “dimensions” that account for correlations between these judgments.
National Political Cultures
Authors: Liu James H. , Paez Dario
Published: November 2011

The global system of sovereign states solidified in the nineteenth century as European peoples engaged in political projects that solidified the boundaries between them and regularized warfare and governance, not as the hereditary prerogative of princes, but the lawful activity of peoples forming “nationalities.” European experiences were both emulated voluntarily and exported violently through a process of aggressively military colonization, resulting in the global system of states that govern the political boundaries of the world today. These states may or may not be nationalities (that is, where a majority of the people share common ethnic and linguistic origins), but they are frequently imagined as such (Smith, 1995). States claim the sole prerogative to exercise the legitimate use of violence within their boundaries, and are often the only recognized political entities that other states recognize as having the power to govern. Hence, the multilingual and multicultural empires that governed large parts of the world until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (e.g., the Spanish Empire, the Austro‐Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Empire) have disappeared, creating many new states but leaving other peoples who aspire to sovereignty but do not have that status.
Negotiation, Principled
Authors: Shapiro Daniel L.
Published: November 2011

Principled negotiation, also known as interest‐based negotiation, is a non‐adversarial method of dealing with differences between individuals or groups (“parties”). The aim of this method is to reach an agreement that serves each party's interests. The core ideas were developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project and introduced in the classic book
Getting to YES
(1991), coauthored by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. Principled negotiation has proven useful in innumerable large‐scale conflicts and negotiations, including the original Camp David negotiations between Egypt and Israel, the South Africa constitutional negotiations, and the 1998 Peru–Ecuador boundary dispute.
Negotiations and Trust
Authors: Olekalns Mara , Smith Philip L.
Published: November 2011

Trust is commonly defined as a confident, positive expectation about the actions of another person. When we trust someone, we assume that she will meet those expectations by considering our welfare and honoring her obligations towards us. This assumption enables us to coordinate activities in interdependent relationships, that is, relationships in which an individual's outcomes are influenced by another party's actions. However, while trusting others is essential for maintaining our relationships, trusting also increases our vulnerability. While we assume that others will meet our positive expectations and behave in a trustworthy way, there is no guarantee that this will be so (Lewicki, Tomlinson, & Gillespie, 2006).
Nonviolence, Psychology of
Authors: Mayton Daniel M. , Burrows Crystal A.
Published: November 2011

While examples of nonviolent action can be traced back at least to the ancient Greeks (Sharp, 1973), much of our current understanding of the psychology of nonviolence begins with the life and writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Gandhi's view on nonviolence had three major facets:
ahimsa
,
satyagraha
, and
tapasya
.
Ahimsa
is an ancient Hindu word literally meaning the absence of injury and generally translated to mean nonviolence. In practice
ahimsa
is more than noninjury, as it encompasses a loving relationship of doing good to an evildoer (Bondurant, 1965).
Satyagraha
is a concept developed by Gandhi to reflect the process of pursuing truth within any situation. Seeking wisdom and understanding of all sides of a conflict situation is an important and continuous process for a nonviolent person from Gandhi's perspective.
Tapasya
, Gandhi's third component of nonviolence, prescribes the use of self‐suffering as needed to break the cycle of violence. When a self‐suffering response is chosen over a violent one, the nonviolent person will penetrate the heart of the perpetrator, thereby encouraging empathy and ameliorating any urge for retaliation or revenge by the perpetrator.
Nonviolent Dispositions
Authors: Mayton Daniel M. , Browne Christina N.
Published: November 2011

Nonviolence seems like a very simple construct but it is actually fairly nuanced and quite complex (Mayton, 2009). At its most basic level, nonviolence may be construed as refraining from a violent or aggressive act. From a peace psychologist's point of view, however, this definition is far from complete, as this definition claims that an individual's failure to act in a certain situation is enough to qualify him/her as nonviolent, even if that failure to act is a result of that individual's apathy or cowardice. However, there is no consensus among peace psychologists on what the exact definition of nonviolence should be. Sharp (1979) defined nonviolence as “non‐injury in thought, word, and deed to all forms of life” (p. 134). Bondurant (1965) believes it to be “the exercise of power or influence to reflect change without injury to the opponent” (cited in Mayton, 2009, p. 7). Mayton provides an integrated definition of nonviolence as “an action that uses power and influence to reach one's goal without direct injury or violence to the person or persons working to thwart one's goal achievement” (p. 8). One element that these three definitions have in common is that they conceptualize nonviolence as a behavior or action rather than a state of being. One individual who firmly believed in and practiced nonviolent action was Mohandas Gandhi, whose writings and views of nonviolence focused on the underlying philosophy possessed by nonviolent activists.
Obedience
Authors: Woolf Linda M. , Hulsizer Michael R.
Published: November 2011

Following the Holocaust, scholars from a range of disciplines began to question how one of the most civilized countries in the Western world, noted for exemplary educational, scientific, and cultural pursuits, could have carried out the systematic mass murder of millions. One of the answers provided at Nuremberg and later by Eichmann during his trial in Israel was that those responsible were just following orders. Similar justifications have been provided in response to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, crimes committed at Abu Ghraib, and other destructive actions that have occurred during wartime. However, destructive obedience extends beyond the military to other contexts such as terrorist organizations (e.g., international terrorist organizations and domestic hate groups), corporations, and cults. The litany of “I was just doing what I was told” spans across cultural contexts with the ramifications ranging from the benign to the horrific.
Obedience to Authority
Authors: Burger Jerry M.
Published: November 2011

Between August 1961 and May 1962, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram (1963, 1965, 1974) conducted a series of investigations on the psychology of obedience. Under the guise of a learning experiment, participants were placed in a situation in which they were instructed to deliver what they thought were increasingly painful and dangerous electric shocks to another individual. The point of the studies was to see how long participants would follow the experimenter's instructions before they refused to administer any more shocks. Milgram found that the average person continued to shock the innocent victim far longer than anyone had anticipated. The findings have implications for the worst of human behavior, including massacres, atrocities, and genocide.
Pacifism, Psychology of
Authors: Mayton Daniel M. , McCoy Jonelle C.
Published: November 2011

The term pacifism is relatively new. It was not in the 1904 edition of
The Complete Oxford Dictionary
. The word popped into common usage not long after, though, to connote antiwar‐ism and is attributed to the French, who originated the terms
pacifisme
and
pacifiste
from the French
pacifique
, which generally means to “make peace” or “calm.” The 2005
Merriam‐Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
defines pacifism as “opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes;
specifically
: refusal to bear arms on moral or religious grounds.” This simplistic definition belies the very complex and nuanced incarnations of pacifism.
Patriotism and Nationalism
Authors: Kimmel Paul R.
Published: November 2011

George Washington cautioned Americans about patriotism in his Farewell Address: “A fire not to be quenched, it [patriotism] demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.” There has been a resurgence of patriotism and nationalism in the United States since 9/11 and the ensuing war on terrorism, which increased a sense of fear and vulnerability in Americans. As Unger (2006) noted: “The events of September 11 were closely followed by enhanced perceptions of oneness with other Americans and a decline in perception of similarity to other people.…This pattern of enhanced ingroup identification and disparagement of outgroups is characteristic of nationalism and some forms of patriotism” (p. 83). Christie (2006) wrote “a nationalistic climate was further inflamed by the rhetoric of the US president” (p. 33), mentioning that Bush did not distinguish patriotism from nationalism. This climate resulted in aggression against those identified as threatening us and negative feelings and actions toward those not with us.
Peace and Conflict Studies versus Peace Science
Authors: Clemens Julie L.
Published: November 2011

Grasping the full extent of peace scholarship, given its wide‐ranging areas of research and pedagogy, can be quite challenging. Indeed, peace scholarship consists of several academic cultures, which, though related, remain distinct and distant from each other. These separate cultures that have emerged within higher education present obstacles to contemporary peace scholars, who typically have little knowledge about the genealogies of the individual academic peace communities outside their own bailiwick. As Dunn (2005) observes, many participants have “no direct experience of, or memory of, the circumstance in which [the field] developed” and “those who may know of events and context may not be aware of, or misunderstand, the interplay of events, and the consequent effect upon the research agenda and research dynamic” (p. 9). In this article, I explain how peace scholarship came to have disparate communities through a brief historical account of critical events in its growth and development. To that end, the article describes and compares the present‐day characteristics of two distinct academic cultures of peace scholarship: “peace and conflict studies” and “peace science.”
Peace Education: Lessons Learned in Israel/Palestine, Research on
Authors: Salomon Gavriel
Published: November 2011

The variant of peace and coexistence education in Israel between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs and between the former and Palestinians is typical of such programs in regions of intractable conflict and prolonged intense interethnic tension: Northern Ireland (“Education for Mutual Understanding”), Bosnia‐Herzegovina (“Education for Peace”), Kosovo, Congo (International Peace Education Development), and such. Some see this brand of peace education as the prototype of the field entailing all that makes peace education what it is, much in line with the 1998 United Nation's
Resolution on the Culture of Peace
: “… an integral approach to preventing violence and violent conflicts, and an alternative to the culture of war and violence based on education for peace” (p. 1). Central to this brand of peace education, and the attribute that makes it seen as the prototype, is the desire to change minds and hearts between real adversaries who pose a perceived collective threat to each other. Programs of this kind are not designed primarily to resolve a conflict, leaving it to political and social forces, but to mainly change attitudes toward, perceptions of, attributions to, stereotypes of, and the prevailing dehumanization and delegitimization of the collective adversary.
Peace Journalism
Authors: Kempf Wilhelm
Published: November 2011

Since Galtung (1998) and Kempf (1996) outlined their first ideas of an alternative to mainstream war reporting, their models of peace journalism (PJ) have stimulated a broad debate among peace researchers and journalists, as well as practical thought about how to achieve this type of journalism, and a large body of basic theoretical and empirical research.
Peace Psychology: Contributions from Africa
Authors: Heuchert J. W. P.
Published: November 2011

As the cradle of humankind, Africa probably has the longest history of negotiating human relationships — including resolving conflicts and building peace. Over the centuries many stable communities were established all over Africa by successful conflict resolution. This is not to say that there were never any wars in Africa, but ancient African communities most often evolved through cooperation and mutual respect. In most modern African countries colonial intervention ended the relative stability and peaceful coexistence prevalent on the continent. Boundaries were redrawn to suit the needs of the colonizers and with little regard of the historic reasons for the boundaries. Groups were split up, or artificially combined, rekindling old animosities and creating fresh grievances. Long‐standing traditions that ensured peace and justice were carelessly abandoned in favor of new, poorly explained systems thrust upon societies that were very different from the colonial society where the laws and practices evolved. Remnants of indigenous aspects of peacebuilding have sustained many communities in Africa and some of those will be offered here as contributions from Africa to the field of peace psychology.
Peace Psychology: Contributions from Asia
Authors: Montiel Cristina Jayme
Published: November 2011

This essay describes peace psychology in East, South, and Southeast Asia. The first section discusses direct conflict in the region and Asian ways of resolving conflict. The next section analyzes structural violence in Asia and its associated psychological dimensions. The essay closes with a preview of the future of peace psychology in Asia.
Peace Zones
Authors: Iyer Pushpa
Published: November 2011

Peace Zones (PZs) — alternatively known as Zones of Peace (ZoPs) — are zones that are meant to provide safety from the chaos of conflict. In the context of violent conflict, PZs can be geographical, personal, temporal, or goal specific. Territorially defined zones are generally safe havens for communities wanting to escape from fear and violence. Individuals or groups who are threatened, endangered, or have some special status can be declared as ZoPs when warring parties agree to specifically not target them during conflict. Temporal ZoPs are ones that are declared for specific periods of time, for clearly defined purposes, and during which time warring parties agree to halt violence. Goal‐specific PZs are ones that are created for certain purposes; when these purposes are served, the PZs are usually dissolved or take on newer goals. PZs may be created in the period before violence breaks out or in the midst of war. They may also emerge in the period after a negotiated settlement to war and/or a ceasefire agreement is in place, that is, in times of relative calm.
Peaceful Personality
Authors: Nelson Linden L.
Published: November 2011

Although psychologists have often recognized and measured individual differences in social dispositions ranging from aggressiveness to helpfulness, there have been relatively few efforts to define and measure a more general tendency for peacefulness. One approach with a rather specific focus involves conflict resolution styles. For example, Sternberg and colleagues (Sternberg & Dobson, 1987) developed methods for measuring conflict resolution styles. In their studies the participants either evaluated the desirability of various conflict resolution tactics in specific situations or indicated how they would deal with examples of conflict. Although most of the examples involved interpersonal conflict, some involved conflict between groups and nations. They conducted factor analyses in several studies that suggested the various styles could be usefully classified as active/mitigating, passive/mitigating, active/intensifying, or passive/intensifying. For example, the passive/mitigating style includes actions such as giving in and waiting, and the active/mitigating style includes behaviors like bargaining and mutual discussion. The conflict mitigating styles could be seen as peaceful dispositions.
Peacekeeping, Psychology of
Authors: Langholtz Harvey J.
Published: November 2011

The psychology of peacekeeping is a complex and multi‐level topic that can be viewed from several different perspectives and taken to mean different things. One perspective is that of the psychology of peacekeeper on the ground — the soldier serving on a peacekeeping mission. Other perspectives include the psychological issues faced by international civilian police serving on peacekeeping missions, civilian humanitarian relief workers, ex‐combatants, and the indigenous population living in the area of conflict. Separate from this are the psychological aspects of conflict resolution and diplomacy. And perhaps most important — and most broadly — are widely accepted assumptions about the psychology of relations between nations and peoples. Each of these topics certainly deserves a book‐length examination, but they will all be briefly addressed here (Langholtz, 1997).
Political Personality Profiling
Authors: Post Jerrold M.
Published: November 2011

The scholarly terrain concerned with the question of when leader personality affects political behavior is defined by two boundaries: on the one hand is the naïve view of political outcomes as merely the projection of leaders' personalities, and on the other the equally simplistic view that individual personalities have no effect on political decisions.
Political Psychology and Peace
Authors: Gornick Laura Janelle , Conway Lucian Gideon
Published: November 2011

If world peace were quite as easy as developing a Crayola bomb, in all likelihood we would have succeeded by now. But peace is not so easily obtained. Why? Part of the reason pertains to human psychology, the way people think and feel about themselves and each other. And the interface of this psychology with politics — aptly described by Roosevelt as “the science of human relationships” — is the subject of this article.
Positive Psychology and Peace Psychology
Authors: Floody Dale R.
Published: November 2011

The first quotation above reflects the sentiments of a variety of individuals who argue that personal serenity and inner peace are important prerequisites of peace among groups (from street gangs to nations). For example, Kool (2008) argues that personal nonviolence must precede community nonviolence. While peace psychologists have focused primarily on intergroup relations, war, genocide, social injustice, and conflict resolution, positive psychology potentially has much more to offer at the level of personal serenity and inner peace.
Post‐Violence Reconstruction
Authors: Wessells Michael
Published: November 2011

Following armed conflict and political violence, reconstruction for peace is a high priority. Although physical reconstruction is typically emphasized, it is equally important to address the needs for social and communal reconstruction for peace. Otherwise, there is a risk is that a ceasefire will be signed yet remaining social divisions, hatreds, and hostilities will spark additional violence. If particular groups are denied political voice or influence, the resulting issues of alienation and discrimination may fuel additional fighting and social divisions.
Psychologists for Social Responsibility
Authors: Anderson Anne
Published: November 2011

Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR, pronounced Sy‐ess‐arr) is an independent, nonprofit, tax‐exempt organization that applies psychological knowledge to promote peace, social justice, human rights, and sustainability. Its mission on its website reads: “Building Cultures of Peace with Social Justice” (
www.psysr.org
). Members include psychologists, related professionals, students, and other advocates for peaceful social change in the United States and around the world.
Psychospiritual Harmony
Authors: Permanadeli Risa
Published: November 2011

Psychospiritual harmony was originally considered a movement in psychotherapy that referred to the nonduality of mind–body as a way to answer the quest for true self. Springing from the need to find psychological foundations outside the boundaries of Western conceptions of a split mind–body and a separated self–society, this movement borrowed from Asian wisdoms and formulated ideas of spirituality and harmony that constituted the base for individual psychological balance and social peace. Ontologically, psychospiritual harmony can be understood as a representation dialectically positioned to Western notions that emphasize the dichotomy between the mind as something absolute in its perfection and the body as something material and even sinful. More than three centuries after Descartes defined Spirit as the root of human progress, a countervailing movement began to promote a nondual humanity, reconciling the mind–body split and individual–social union.
Qualitative Methods and Coding
Authors: Kronberger Nicole
Published: November 2011

Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. This statement illustrates the “the law of instrument” (Kaplan, 1964), the tendency common to many social scientists, once they know a method, to formulate research questions in ways that require exactly these techniques. The same type of solution is proposed to every problem encountered, and research questions that do not lend themselves to the well‐known method remain simply unasked. Awareness of this danger to scientific inquiry has motivated the development of many research methods assembled under the umbrella term “qualitative research.” A core concern expressed in many writings is that the methods used should be adapted to the phenomenon of interest, not the other way round. As a consequence, over time, researchers have developed an overwhelming number of qualitative methods (each with a specific nomenclature) to address specific contexts and contents. These methods rarely provide step‐by‐step guides but rather must be considered sources of inspiration. All this makes it difficult for the newcomer to gain an overview of the field of qualitative methods. To further complicate the situation, the field is characterized by several controversies. These debates include both internal and external controversies, with the internal debates relating to competing “schools” of qualitative research, and the external debates consisting of a battle of words between proponents of qualitative and quantitative methods. The (often polemic) discussions have centered on epistemological questions, research goals, and methods used. Textbooks such as Bauer and Gaskell (2000), Denzin and Lincoln (2000), Flick, von Kardorff, and Steinke (2004), and Robson (2002), to name a few, give an overview of both the controversies and the broad range of methods of qualitative data collection and analysis.
Quantitative Methods and Coding
Authors: Weingart Laurie R. , Olekalns Mara
Published: November 2011

Direct examination of negotiation processes provides information about what negotiators actually do rather than about what they planned to do, or what they thought they did. The resulting data can be used to capture general strategies employed by negotiators (through frequency analysis), how they employed those strategies (through sequential analysis), and when they did so (through phase analyses). Besides gaining a better understanding of the negotiation process itself, this information can be used to predict whether negotiators reach agreement as well as the quality of their agreements, and to determine how negotiators can be better trained to negotiate effectively.
Reconciliation, Collective Memory and
Authors: Muluk Hamdi
Published: November 2011

Conflicting parties often share versions of their story with the next generation or a third party. To talk about conflict is to talk about past conflictual episodes, but stories about the past tend to be more dramatic and colorful than actual past events.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Stereotyping and Prejudice
Authors: Balvin Nikola
Published: November 2011

One of the aims of peace psychology is to use psychological knowledge to bring about positive change for people experiencing socially driven disadvantages. Refugees and asylum seekers are one such group. Not only do they experience a myriad of difficulties in the countries they flee, but they are also frequently subject to discrimination in the countries where they seek a new life. This article first introduces who refugees and asylum seekers are and then reviews some of the negative stereotyping and prejudice they encounter when resettling in a new country. It concludes with examples of how psychology can contribute to improving such conditions.
Relative Deprivation Theory
Authors: Smith Heather J. , Pettigrew Thomas F.
Published: November 2011

Relative deprivation theory and research proposes that people use comparisons with other people, groups, or themselves at different points in time to evaluate their current circumstances. If these comparisons lead people to believe that they do not have what they deserve, they will be angry and resentful.
Relative
deprivation (RD) describes these subjective evaluations.
Restorative Conferencing, Method of
Authors: Nwoye Augustine
Published: November 2011

Restorative conferencing has recently emerged as an invigorated alternative to the old method of dealing with offenders, particularly young offenders. It seeks to repair the harm done to individuals or relationships within a community by allowing everyone involved to meet and gain a better understanding of what happened, why it came about, the impact of the incident, and the preferred outcomes. In the current essay, the focus is on young offenders and the method draws heavily from experiences in the African context.
Ripeness Theory
Authors: Pruitt Dean G.
Published: November 2011

Ripeness theory (Zartman, 2000, 2006) concerns the conditions that lead parties in overt conflict to enter negotiation. The theory specifies two necessary — though not sufficient — perceptual conditions: The parties see themselves as being in a “mutually hurting stalemate,” where neither can defeat the other and both are experiencing unacceptable costs. A “recent or impending catastrophe” can add impetus to such a stalemate, providing sharply increased costs or a deadline for escaping the conflict. The parties perceive a “way out,” that is, they foresee that a “negotiated solution is possible for the searching and that the other party shares that sense and the willingness to search too” (Zartman, 2000, p. 228). Ripeness theory can be helpful to third parties who are trying to decide when and how to intervene in an ongoing conflict. It can also provide a useful template for scholars who are examining how negotiation began in historical cases.
Role Playing as a Training and Assessment Tool
Authors: Levi‐Minzi Micol E. , Browning Samuel L. , Van Hasselt Vincent B.
Published: November 2011

Role playing refers to the rehearsal or practice of interpersonal interactions by simulating or enacting real‐life situations. The most traditional definition stems from behavioral psychology that views role playing as a vehicle for assessment and modification of individuals' behavior in specific contexts. While behaviorally oriented therapists, teachers, and trainers have historically favored in vivo methods, ethical, economic, and pragmatic limitations often preclude use of such strategies. Thus, analogue techniques, such as role play tests, have been utilized as viable alternatives.
Security
Authors: Bar‐Tal Daniel , Magal Tamir
Published: November 2011

One of the key concepts of the social sciences and particularly of political science is security. In political science, the concept typically denotes a situation which provides national and international conditions favorable to the protection of a nation, a state, and its citizens, against existing and potential threats. Specifically, the situation of security assures a survival of a state, its territorial integrity, repulsion of a military attack, defense of citizens' lives, protection of state and citizens' property, protection of societal stability, and even protection of societal values (Buzan, 1991; Nye & Lynn‐Jones, 1988). The political science approach focuses mainly on the analysis of the numerous conditions which either hamper or increase the security of states and regions.
Security Dilemma in Structural International Relations Theory
Authors: Glaser Charles L.
Published: November 2011

The security dilemma plays a central role in theories that explain international competition as a result of the pressures created by the international system. The challenge faced by these theories — which are termed structural realism — is to explain how rational states that are interested only in security can nevertheless end up in competition and war. Prominent structural‐realist theories emphasize the roles played by international anarchy — the lack of an international authority that can enforce agreements and protect states against the use of force — and the importance of power (Waltz, 1979). In the end, however, a satisfactory explanation of competition and war requires appreciation of the security dilemma. Including the security dilemma in structural international relations theories has dramatic implications, enabling them to explain variation in the competition fueled by the international system and raising the possibility of extensive international cooperation and sustained peace.
Seville Statement on Violence
Authors: Adams David
Published: November 2011

Can war be abolished? Is it a custom or is it intrinsic to human nature? These questions are of great importance today, because there is no task more important on the historical agenda of our times than the abolition of this age‐old form of violence that has become so destructive that it threatens the very life of the planet. As Sigmund Freud wrote to Albert Einstein in their famous correspondence of 1932 on this subject: “These two factors — man's cultural disposition and well‐founded fear of the form that future wars will take — may serve to put an end to war … but by what ways or byways this will come about, we cannot guess.”
Sexual Harassment
Authors: Spears Barbara A.
Published: November 2011

Behaviors that included deliberately suggestive comments or jokes, staring or leering, unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering, kissing, or unnecessary familiarity were without a common name prior to 1976 (HREOC, 2009). As a consequence, these behaviors were not recognized as what we now know as sexual harassment (SH): unwanted sex‐related behavior towards someone, especially by someone with authority towards a subordinate. Around the same time, bullying was just beginning to be explored in Europe, but workplace bullying, sexual bullying, and the use of sexually explicit emails or short message service (SMS) messages to denigrate another, including “sexting,” would not be understood until much later.
Simulation: Learning through Role Playing and Design
Authors: Druckman Daniel , Ebner Noam
Published: November 2011

Role plays and simulations are familiar methods in the pedagogy of many areas of peace and conflict studies. In some fields, such as those of negotiation and mediation, they have long been considered a central element of classroom study (Ebner & Efron, 2005; Druckman & Ebner, 2008). In other areas, ranging from the policy sciences to peacebuilding, they enjoy an important place in the educator's toolbox (see Truger, 2001), although the way they are used depends on preferences of teachers or trainers.
Social Influence
Authors: Kent Valerie
Published: November 2011

The study of social influence has been central to social psychology since its earliest days and still flourishes. In everyday usage conformity and social influence are terms which can have negative connotations, but in social psychology they have more neutral, exact meanings. Conformity refers to a change in a person's behavior or beliefs due to perceived pressure from an individual or group, whether that pressure is real or imagined, imposed or sought. Although often used synonymously, social influence refers to the process or processes through which this happens.
Social Justice Education
Authors: Adams Maurianne
Published: November 2011

In Western philosophical traditions,justicegenerally refers to overarching, fundamental, abstract, universal principles that can (or should) adjudicate the distribution of goods and benefits, rights and duties, services, obligations, and opportunities. Whether based on principles of theology, philosophy, politics, or economics, justice requires that distribution and retribution accord with rational, neutral, objective judgments that assure fair, equitable, and impartial treatment for everyone.
Social Representations of History
Authors: Liu James H. , Hilton Denis J.
Published: November 2011

To illustrate, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, NATO allies of the United States with similar objective interests reacted in very different ways. Britain became America's principal military ally, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. France dispatched troops to Afghanistan, but with greater reluctance and side‐by‐side with a philosopher (Bernard‐Henri Lévy) to both question and provide for moral support for French efforts. In Germany, debate over whether to support American war efforts triggered the first vote of confidence in a ruling party's government in over 20 years.
Socialization
Authors: Sanson Ann V.
Published: November 2011

Socialization is the process of acquiring culture that begins shortly after birth. Socialization provides the foundations for learning to live safely and harmoniously in communities and cultures. Socialization is most intense from early childhood through adolescence. It is then that we acquire the language of the culture we are born into, the society's norms about appropriate behavior, values, and attitudes, and the roles expected of us in life. It is also when much of our personality takes shape. Therefore, although we continue to be socialized throughout our lives, this article focuses on childhood and adolescence.
Stereotype Threat and Intergroup Relations
Authors: Jackson Matthew Christian , Goff Phillip Atiba
Published: November 2011

Stereotype threat is the anxiety one sometimes experiences when one fears that one's behavior may be interpreted in terms of a negative stereotype about one's group. This anxiety, in turn, often causes performance decrements. For example, a woman who performs poorly on a math or science test may fear that her performance will be attributed to her gender — that others will perceive that she did poorly
because
she is a woman. Research by Steele and colleagues demonstrates that this anxiety can lead to women underperforming on math and science tests (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). A large and growing body of research demonstrates that this research generalizes to a variety of negatively stereotyped groups and requires merely that an individual is highly identified with the domain (e.g., cares about being good at math and science), is performing at the edge of their abilities, and is aware of the negative stereotype (Steele et al., 2002). This innovative theory foregrounds intersubjective concerns (i.e., my perception of what you think about me and my group) as a cause of performance differences between groups. Consequently, stereotype threat introduced a new concept to the debate about racial gaps in achievement that had previously been dominated by arguments about genetic differences and structural deficiencies.)
Stereotypes
Authors: Bar‐Tal Daniel
Published: November 2011

Individuals categorize people into groups and then usually form stereotypes of those groups and their members. Stereotypes are defined as stored beliefs about the characteristics of a group of people (Fiske, 1998). These beliefs, as cognitive structures, pertain to mental representations of different characterizing aspects such as physical appearance, traits, abilities, attitudes, emotions, intentions, behaviors, etc.
Survey Research in Peace Psychology
Authors: Boehnke Klaus , Shani Maor
Published: November 2011

Survey research uses collections of data gathered through standardized questionnaires for scholarly inquiry. Speaking of survey research often implies that data were obtained through face‐to‐face, telephone, postal, or online interviews conducted with random probability samples, then typically analyzed using quantitative statistical methods. Strategies other than random probability sampling are, however, quite common as well. Surveys and their systematic analysis are one of the most important approaches in empirical social research, and have been extensively used in efforts to obtain insights into human conditions, beliefs and attitudes and into individual and social experiences. Surveys are particularly useful for theory testing, but they can also procure theory development.
Symbols, Symbolism, and Mass Action
Authors: Sen Ragini
Published: November 2011

Through the ages symbols have been used in India as elsewhere to express ideological and philosophical preoccupations in the form of myths, stories, religious tales, rituals, and legends. Symbols and ancient or modern myths are often interlinked in a mutually reinforcing bi‐directional relationship which invests them with emotive pulls. Such symbols have strong evocative power due to the iconic form and affective charge associated with them, which — through discourse — helps in unifying people in a common cause. The sharing of such symbols ensures that the distributed and individual motivational power emanated by social emotions easily converges towards mass action. There is little doubt that for political agitation such symbols become the prime source domain for funneling collective emotions in the service of political mobilization.
System Justification Theory
Authors: Jost John T. , Andrews Rick
Published: November 2011

System justification is a social psychology term of art that designates any motivational tendency to defend, bolster, or rationalize existing social, economic, and political arrangements. It is conceptualized as a response tendency possessed by many, or perhaps most, members of society to see aspects of the overarching social system as good, fair, and legitimate. Consequently, alternatives to the status quo are often derogated or avoided for ideologically defensive reasons. In other words, system justification is an inherently conservative inclination to preserve “the way things are,” sometimes even at the expense of objective social interests (Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004).
Terrorism, Psychology of
Authors: Borum Randy
Published: November 2011

Terrorism is widely regarded as one of the most significant contemporary threats to global security. There continues to be significant disagreement, however, about how to define it. By the late 1980s, more than 100 definitions of terrorism had appeared in the professional literature. Criteria have often diverged across nations but are even known to differ across agencies within a given government. We will not resolve this debate here, but for the purposes of this article, the term terrorism refers to “acts of violence (as opposed to threats or more general coercion) intentionally perpetrated on civilian noncombatants with the goal of furthering some ideological, religious, or political objective (Borum, 2004). The focus here is also on terrorist actors (particularly nonstate actors), rather than on the psychological effects or consequences of terrorism.
Terrorists, Psychology of
Authors: Love Karen , Moghaddam Fathali M.
Published: November 2011

Terrorists are individuals, groups, or state‐sponsored agents who carry out politically motivated violence, intending to bring about feelings of terror and helplessness in a population in order to influence decision‐making and to change behavior. There is no one face of the modern terrorist: an Al Qaeda foot‐soldier who blows up the World Trade Center; a British Pakistani teacher who bombs the London transit system; a Tamil Tiger who attacks targets throughout Sri Lanka. Indeed, while some terrorists come from well‐organized groups such as Al Qaeda and its affiliates, others act individually. While some groups have religious goals, others, such as the Tamil Tigers, have nationalist aims. Despite these differences, most terrorists have something in common: they all seek to redress unaddressed grievances violently.