Showing papers on "Social psychology (sociology) published in 2021"

CHAPTER 5 – The Social Psychology of Humor

Abstract: According to recent theory, many of the interpersonal functions of humor derive from its inherently ambiguous nature due to the multiple concurrent meanings that it conveys. Because of this ambiguity, humor is a useful vehicle for communicating certain messages and dealing with situations that would be more difficult to handle using a more serious, unambiguous mode of communication. Importantly, a message communicated in a humorous manner can be retracted more easily than if it were expressed in the serious mode, allowing both the speaker and the listener to save face if the message is not well received. These insights concerning the ambiguity and face-saving potential of humor have been applied by theorists and researchers to account for a wide variety of social uses of humor, including self-disclosure and social probing, decommitment and conflict de-escalation, enforcing social norms and exerting social control, establishing and maintaining status, enhancing group cohesion and identity, discourse management, and social play. The multiple interpersonal functions of humor suggest that it may be viewed as a type of social skill or interpersonal competence. Employed in an adept manner, humor can be a very useful tool for achieving one's interpersonal goals.

Algunos principios de la teoría del contexto

Abstract: This paper formulares some general principles of a theory of context. Despite some attempts, especially in functional linguistics, linguistic anthropology and social psychology, such a theory of context is still on the agenda. The central claim of my theory of context is that it is not a social situation that determines language use, and not even only the relevant properties of such a social situation, but rather the mental model of these relevant properties, that is, a context model, stored in episodic memory. Such context models are special cases of more general experience models that define our consciousness and control all actions and discourses of our everyday lives. Since context models constantly adapt themselves to a changing social situation as well as the ongoing discourse, they are dynamic and not static. They combine social knowledge about social events and situations with personal experiences, memories and opinions, and hence are subjective and individual. They explain how each participant has her or his own interpretation of the situation. Such context models feature global categories such as global domain and action, as well as local categories such as setting, local actions, as well as cognitive properties of participants, such as their aims and especially their knowledge. The contextual knowledge device Controls many of the aspects of discourse processing, especially what Information may or must be left implicit.

The Social Neuroscience of Prejudice.

Abstract: The social neuroscience approach to prejudice investigates the psychology of intergroup bias by integrating models and methods of neuroscience with the social psychology of prejudice, stereotyping,...

The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention

Abstract: The past 20 years have seen dramatic rises in suicide rates in the United States and other countries around the world. These trends have been identified as a public health crisis in urgent need of new solutions and have spurred significant research efforts to improve our understanding of suicide and strategies to prevent it. Unfortunately, despite making significant contributions to the founding of suicidology - through Emile Durkheim's classic Suicide (1897/1951) - sociology's role has been less prominent in contemporary efforts to address these tragic trends, though as we will show, sociological theories offer great promise for advancing our understanding of suicide and improving the efficacy of suicide prevention. Here, we review sociological theory and empirical research on suicide. We begin where all sociologists must: with Durkheim. However, we offer a more comprehensive understanding of Durkheim's insights into suicide than the prior reviews provided by those in other disciplines. In so doing, we reveal the nuance and richness of Durkheim's insights that have been largely lost in modern suicidology, despite being foundational to all sociological theories of suicide - even those that have moved beyond his model. We proceed to discuss broadly acknowledged limitations to Durkheim's theory of suicide and review how more recent theoretical efforts have not only addressed those concerns, but have done so by bringing a larger swatch of sociology's theoretical and empirical toolkit to bare on suicide. Specifically, we review how recent sociological theories of suicide have incorporated insights from social network theories, cultural sociology, sociology of emotions, and sociological social psychology to better theorize how the external social world matters to individual psychological pain and suffering. We conclude by making explicit bridges between sociological and psychological theories of suicide; by noting important limitations in knowledge about suicide - particularly regarding the roles of organizations, inequality, and intersectionality in suicide - that sociology is well situated to help address.

Toward a Century of Language Attitudes Research: Looking Back and Moving Forward:

Abstract: The study of language attitudes is concerned with the social meanings people assign to language and its users. With roots in social psychology nearly a century ago, language attitudes research span...

So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory:

Abstract: Practicality was a valued attribute of academic psychological theory during its initial decades, but usefulness has since faded in importance to the field. Theories are now evaluated mainly on their ability to account for decontextualized laboratory data and not their ability to help solve societal problems. With laudable exceptions in the clinical, intergroup, and health domains, most psychological theories have little relevance to people's everyday lives, poor accessibility to policymakers, or even applicability to the work of other academics who are better positioned to translate the theories to the practical realm. We refer to the lack of relevance, accessibility, and applicability of psychological theory to the rest of society as the practicality crisis. The practicality crisis harms the field in its ability to attract the next generation of scholars and maintain viability at the national level. We describe practical theory and illustrate its use in the field of self-regulation. Psychological theory is historically and scientifically well positioned to become useful should scholars in the field decide to value practicality. We offer a set of incentives to encourage the return of social psychology to the Lewinian vision of a useful science that speaks to pressing social issues.

How do children build knowledge in early childhood education? Susan Isaacs, Young Children Are Researchers and what happens next

Abstract: This article considers the relevance of Susan Isaacs’ practice and research for twenty-first century early childhood education, reflected in two studies conducted discretely nearly a century apart ...

The Identity Crisis in Language Motivation Research

Abstract: The 40th anniversary of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology occurs around the corner of another anniversary, the language motivation field reaching 60 years. At this occasion, we pause to...

Recent developments in the social identity approach to the psychology of climate change.

Abstract: We review recent literature on the social psychology of climate change, focusing on the application of social identity theory and self-categorization theory. These two theories, together forming the social identity approach, point to ways in which collective identities influence responses to climate change. Recent research demonstrates that collective identities influence attitudes, beliefs and behavior relevant to climate change, and they do this through processes such as group norms and social influence, collective efficacy, and collective emotions. The SIA suggests that, in general, people are motivated to protect the identity and status of their ingroups. Indeed, recent studies find that groups who are of higher status, and thus have more to gain from protecting the status quo, tend to be less concerned about addressing climate change than lower status groups, who are more likely to be harmed by climate change. However, individuals from both high and low status groups will be more likely to work towards pro-environmental social change when they perceive current social systems that perpetuate climate change as illegitimate and when they can imagine cognitive alternatives to the status quo, where humans have a more sustainable relationship with nature.

Why Empathy Is Not a Reliable Source of Information in Moral Decision Making

Abstract: Although empathy drives prosocial behaviors, it is not always a reliable source of information in moral decision making. In this essay, I integrate evolutionary theory, behavioral economics, psycho...

Mobility Optimism in an Age of Rising Inequality

Abstract: Four decades of rising incomes at the top, combined with income stagnation and declining intergenerational social mobility for the majority of American households, have combined to produce what has...

Modeling the emergence of affective polarization in the social media society.

Abstract: Rising political polarization in recent decades has hampered and gridlocked policymaking, as well as weakened trust in democratic institutions. These developments have been linked to the idea that new media technology fosters extreme views and political conflict by facilitating self-segregation into “echo chambers” where opinions are isolated and reinforced. This opinion-centered picture has recently been challenged by an emerging political science literature on “affective polarization”, which suggests that current polarization is better understood as driven by partisanship emerging as a strong social identity. Through this lens, politics has become a question of competing social groups rather than differences in policy position. Contrary to the opinion-centered view, this identity-centered perspective has not been subject to dynamical formal modeling, which generally permits hypotheses about micro-level explanations for macro-level phenomena to be systematically tested and explored. We here propose a formal model that links new information technology to affective polarization via social psychological mechanisms of social identity. Our results suggest that new information technology catalyzes affective polarization by lowering search and interaction costs, which shifts the balance between centrifugal and centripetal forces of social identity. We find that the macro-dynamics of social identity is characterized by two stable regimes on the societal level: one fluid regime, in which identities are weak and social connections heterogeneous, and one solid regime in which identities are strong and groups homogeneous. We also find evidence of hysteresis, meaning that a transition into a fragmented state is not readily reversed by again increasing those costs. This suggests that, due to systemic feedback effects, if polarization passes certain tipping points, we may experience run-away political polarization that is highly difficult to reverse.

Social attitudes and behavior in the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence and prospects from research on group processes and intergroup relations

Abstract: The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life is yet to be fully understood. However, social psychology theory and research offer insights into its effect on social attitudes and behaviors, and here we...

Social information use and social information waste.

Abstract: Social information is immensely valuable. Yet we waste it. The information we get from observing other humans and from communicating with them is a cheap and reliable informational resource. It is considered the backbone of human cultural evolution. Theories and models focused on the evolution of social learning show the great adaptive benefits of evolving cognitive tools to process it. In spite of this, human adults in the experimental literature use social information quite inefficiently: they do not take it sufficiently into account. A comprehensive review of the literature on five experimental tasks documented 45 studies showing social information waste, and four studies showing social information being over-used. These studies cover 'egocentric discounting' phenomena as studied by social psychology, but also include experimental social learning studies. Social information waste means that human adults fail to give social information its optimal weight. Both proximal explanations and accounts derived from evolutionary theory leave crucial aspects of the phenomenon unaccounted for: egocentric discounting is a pervasive effect that no single unifying explanation fully captures. Cultural evolutionary theory's insistence on the power and benefits of social influence is to be balanced against this phenomenon. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.

The Psychology of Effective Activism

Abstract: This Element reviews the social psychology of effective collective action, highlighting the importance of considering activists' goals, timeframes, and psychological perspectives in seeking to conceptualise this construct A novel framework 'ABIASCA' maps effectiveness in relation to activists' goals for mobilisation and change (Awareness raising; Building sympathy; turning sympathy into Intentions; turning intentions into Actions; Sustaining groups over time; Coalition-building; and Avoiding opponents' counter-mobilisation) We also review the DIME model of Disidentification, Innovation, Moralization and Energization, which examines the effects of failure in creating trajectories of activists' disidentification from collective action; innovation (including to radicalisation or deradicalisation); and increased moral conviction and energy The social psychological drivers of effective collective action for four audiences are examined in detail, in four sections: for the self and supporters, bystanders, opponents, and for third parties We conclude by highlighting an agenda for future research, and drawing out key messages for scholars

Existential escape of the bored: A review of meaning-regulation processes under boredom

Abstract: Boredom is a common, unpleasant emotion that conveys meaninglessness in life and compels people to escape from this adverse existential experience. Within the paradigm of social psychology framewor...

Cognitive Enhancement: Unanswered Questions About Human Psychology and Social Behavior.

Abstract: Stimulant drugs, transcranial magnetic stimulation, brain-computer interfaces, and even genetic modifications are all discussed as forms of potential cognitive enhancement. Cognitive enhancement can be conceived as a benefit-seeking strategy used by healthy individuals to enhance cognitive abilities such as learning, memory, attention, or vigilance. This phenomenon is hotly debated in the public, professional, and scientific literature. Many of the statements favoring cognitive enhancement (e.g., related to greater productivity and autonomy) or opposing it (e.g., related to health-risks and social expectations) rely on claims about human welfare and human flourishing. But with real-world evidence from the social and psychological sciences often missing to support (or invalidate) these claims, the debate about cognitive enhancement is stalled. In this paper, we describe a set of crucial debated questions about psychological and social aspects of cognitive enhancement (e.g., intrinsic motivation, well-being) and explain why they are of fundamental importance to address in the cognitive enhancement debate and in future research. We propose studies targeting social and psychological outcomes associated with cognitive enhancers (e.g., stigmatization, burnout, mental well-being, work motivation). We also voice a call for scientific evidence, inclusive of but not limited to biological health outcomes, to thoroughly assess the impact of enhancement. This evidence is needed to engage in empirically informed policymaking, as well as to promote the mental and physical health of users and non-users of enhancement.

Pluralistic Ignorance Research in Psychology: A Scoping Review of Topic and Method Variation and Directions for Future Research:

Abstract: Pluralistic ignorance occurs when group members mistakenly believe others’ cognitions and/or behaviors are systematically different from their own. More than 20 years have passed since the last rev...

Effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in East Asia

Abstract: Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia's effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic based on time-series data with cross-correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life-saving behavioural changes in different societies.

The young protester: the impact of belongingness needs on political engagement

Abstract: As institutional forms of political engagement continue to decline, participation in protests steadily become more common. These trends are particularly strong among younger citizens. Previous rese...

Critical psychologies and climate change.

Abstract: This article is a review of recent contributions in critical psychology and its close cousins, critical social psychology, critical community psychology and liberation psychology, to understand human response to climate change It contrasts critical psychology with mainstream psychology in general terms, before introducing a critical psychological perspective on climate change Central to this perspective is a critique of the framing of individual behaviour change as the problem and solution to climate change in mainstream psychology and a related emphasis on identifying ‘barriers’ to proenvironmental behaviour This framework is argued to be reductive, obscuring or downplaying the influence of a range of factors in shaping predominant responses to climate change to date, including social context, discourse, power and affect Currently, critical psychologies set out to study the relative contribution of these factors to (in)action on climate change A related concern is how the psychological and emotional impacts of climate change impact unevenly on communities and individuals, depending on place-based, economic, geographic and cultural differences, and give rise to experiences of injustice, inequality and disempowerment Critical psychology does not assume these to be overriding or inevitable psychological and social responses, however Critical psychologies also undertake research and inform interventions that highlight the role of collective understanding, activism, empowerment and resistance as the necessary foundations of a genuine shift towards sustainable societies

Guilt as a signal informing us of a threat to our morality

Abstract: Some studies have shown the possibility that people feel guilt not only due to interpersonal problems but also when experiencing threats to their own internal morality (e.g. Eskine et al. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(5), 947-950, 2013), whereas other studies have shown that guilt-induced behaviours can restore individuals’ sense of moral person (e.g. Gneezy et al. Management Science, 58(1), 179–187, 2012; Zhong et al. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 859–862, 2010). These findings suggest that guilt can strongly reflect how much individuals deviate from what they perceive to be adequate moral person. Therefore, we proposed that guilt works as an alert system that signals people about threats to their morality. We used the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480, 1998) to investigate if an individual’s moral self decreased in the situation where that individual felt guilt. Results showed that implicit moral self in the guilt condition was lower than that in the control condition when controlling for individual variation in moral self. Our findings provide a new perspective on the function of guilt and generate new hypotheses about the relationship between guilt and behaviours.