Dangerous ideas: Five beliefs that propel groups toward conflict.

The toll in death, suffering, and displacement caused by conflicts engaging groups defined by ethnicity, nationality, religion, or other social identities has reached staggering proportions over the past decade. With expertise in research and intervention, psychologists have critical contributions to make to more fully understanding and more effectively confronting this distressing global phenomenon. The authors focus on the parallels between the core beliefs of individuals and the collective worldviews of groups that may operate to trigger or constrain violent struggles. On the basis of a review of relevant literatures, 5 belief domains--superiority, injustice, vulnerability, distrust, and helplessness--are identified as particularly important for further study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' Affect in the Homework Context: The Importance of Staying Positive.

This research investigated mothers' affect in the context of children's homework. Mothers (N=109) of children 8 to 12 years old were interviewed daily about their affect while interacting with children, their assistance with children's homework, and children's behavior while completing homework. At this time and 6 months later, children's motivational and emotional functioning was assessed. Although mothers' negative affect was lower than their positive affect, it was elevated on days their assistance with homework was high. This was accounted for by mothers' perceptions of children as helpless on days they provided heightened assistance. Mothers' positive affect in the homework context buffered children's motivational and emotional functioning against mothers' negative affect as well as children's helplessness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How older people account for their experiences with interactive technology

We present a qualitative study, undertaken over a period of nine months, of older people facing the challenges of learning to use interactive technology, specifically personal computers (PCs) and the internet. We examine the range of causal explanations (attributions) voiced by the group in accounting for their difficulties with it. A discourse analysis of these data reveals some factors (anxiety, age-related issues, being too busy to learn and the need for a purpose for the new tools) that support the work of other researchers, while other themes (issues around alienation, identity and agency) deepen understanding of this domain. The implications of the results for how we approach understanding the difficulties faced by older people in this context are discussed.     

Denying History: Comment.

Comments on an article by Eidelson and Eidelson (see record 2003-03645-004) which made an important contribution, at a critical juncture, to the discussion of international conflicts by identifying core dimensions that allow for the systematic examination of the problem. Their article also posed a danger that mirrors a disturbing trend in the public discourse about conflicts and injustice. In response to the recent escalation of international violence and years of mixed results of engagement in debates centered around grievances of injustice (such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict), many politicians, pundits, and scholars have advocated addressing conflicts by separating them from the underlying grievances and the ongoing injustice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social parameter of "learned" helplessness: Its recognition and implications.

Reexamines experiments on learned helplessness that have been interpreted previously as involving a solitary person experiencing uncontrollable and inescapable events. It is suggested that the belief that the outcomes are uncontrollable precludes the possibility that control of the outcomes can be transferred to the experimental Ss. An alternative interpretation is that the outcomes in learned helplessness experiments, rather than being uncontrollable, are controlled by the experimenter. Helplessness could be reduced by transferring this control to Ss, giving them control over their contingencies. This analysis has implications regarding both the accuracy of depressed people's perceptions and the desirability of making depressed people perceive an internal locus of control. It is further suggested that depressed people should have more control over their contingencies. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxious solitude and peer exclusion predict social helplessness, upset affect, and vagal regulation in response to behavioral rejection by a friend.

It was hypothesized that combined individual child vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal stress (peer exclusion) would predict the strongest responses to experimentally manipulated behavioral peer rejection. Results indicated that in a sample of 3rd graders (N = 160, 59% girls), anxious solitary excluded children displayed more behavioral manifestations of social helplessness before and after behavioral rejection, reported more feelings of rejection in anticipation of and reaction to behavioral rejection, and were observably more upset during behavioral rejection than were normative children. Moreover, affective responses to behavioral rejection mediated the relation between anxious solitary excluded status and behavioral manifestations of social helplessness. Furthermore, anxious solitary excluded children versus anxious solitary children demonstrated excessive suppression of vagal tone and more sustained acceleration in heart rate during the experiment. Results also indicated that affective, social–cognitive, and regulatory processes directly contributed to children’s responses to behavioral rejection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions: Steven F. Maier.

Steven F. Maier, winner of the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, is cited for his work in the fields of learned helplessness; cytokines, depressed mood, and cognitive interference; and the brain structures that produce and counteract learned helplessness. In addition to the citation, a biography and selected bibliography of Maier's works are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

再论"为死而生"

因为有死的无奈而反衬出生的无价；为绝后的一死而不虚度空前的一生。     

Judith Rodin: Early Career Awards for 1977.

Judith Rodin received an Early Career Award for major theoretical contributions to our understanding of the relationship between obesity and general sensitivity to external stimulation, and for seminal studies on altruism, on aging and the effects of control or helplessness, and on the consequences of overcrowding. Rodin's work, in collaboration with Stanley Schachter, places human obesity in a broader theoretical context involving information processing correlates and potential physiological mechanisms. Her eclectic contributions on altruism, overcrowding, and control brilliantly combine field and laboratory procedures, illustrating the implications of social psychological principles and phenomena for an understanding of human problems and suggesting directions for their remedy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)