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Van de Vliert E, Conway LG, Van Lange PAM. Enriching Psychology by Zooming Out to General Mindsets and Practices in Natural Habitats. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023; 18:1198-1216. [PMID: 36634361 DOI: 10.1177/17456916221141657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Psychology has been "zooming in" on individuals, dyads, and groups with a narrow lens to the exclusion of "zooming out," which involves placing the targeted phenomena within more distal layers of influential context. Here, we plea for a paradigm shift. Specifically, we showcase largely hidden scientific benefits of zooming out by discussing worldwide evidence on inhabitants' habitual adaptations to colder-than-temperate and hotter-than-temperate habitats. These exhibits reveal two different types of theories. Clement-climate perspectives emphasize that generic common properties of stresses from cold and hot temperatures elicit similar effects on personality traits and psychosocial functioning. Cold-versus-heat perspectives emphasize that specific unique properties of stresses from cold and hot habitats elicit different effects on phenomena, such as speech practices and intergroup discrimination. Both zooming-out perspectives are then integrated into a complementary framework that helps identify explanatory mechanisms and demonstrates the broader added value of embedding zooming-in approaches within zooming-out approaches. Indeed, zooming out enriches psychology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Paul A M Van Lange
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Martin S, Oltra A, Del Monte J. Psychiatric and non-psychiatric population vulnerabilities in time of a crisis: the unsuspected aggression factor. BMC Psychiatry 2023; 23:386. [PMID: 37264352 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-04843-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES In March 2020, France faced a health crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak that, like previous infectious disease crises, involved high psychological and emotional stress, a series of factors that influenced the ongoing mental health crisis. METHODS We recruited 384 respondents to complete an online questionnaire during the second month of isolation: 176 psychotherapy recipients (68 were currently attending psychiatric care) and 208 healthy controls. We measured demographic characteristics, impulsivity, aggression, hopelessness, suicidal risk, and the global level of anxiety and depression in order to estimate potential discrepancies in clinical measures across these populations. RESULTS Our results indicate that the group currently undergoing psychiatric care was prone to loneliness and social isolation. Regarding clinical and nonclinical population, there were differences in suicidal risk, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness but mainly in aggression. Regression analysis also demonstrated that aggression surprisingly influenced anxiety levels. Patients undergoing therapy compared with patients who were not displayed differences only in suicidal risk, anxiety, and hopelessness, with those undergoing therapy having higher scores. The outpatient group undergoing therapy had a significantly lower level of impulsivity. Moreover, the regression to predict anxiety and depression levels from correlated factors highlighted the potentially heightened role of aggression in predicting anxiety in the clinical group. CONCLUSION New research into stress reactions should assess other clinical signals, such as aggression, and examine preventive mental health interventions in times of crisis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvia Martin
- Center for Research and Bioethics, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, BMC, entrance A11, 75224, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Psycho.Tcce, Clinical psychology Private practice, Montpellier, France.
| | - Anna Oltra
- Clinical psychology Private practice, Toulouse, France
| | - Jonathan Del Monte
- Psychosocial Laboratory, Aix-Marseille University, Aix Marseille, France
- Clinical Psychology Department, Nîmes University, Nîmes, France
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Guo Q, Li S, Shen J, Lu J. Thermal demands and its interactions with environmental factors account for national-level variation in aggression. Front Psychol 2022; 13:911159. [PMID: 36186386 PMCID: PMC9524539 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Literature shows that psychological phenomena, including values (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism), personality, and behaviors (e.g., prosocial and aggressive behavior), are geographically clustered. The effects of temperature on interpersonal and intergroup aggression have been studied by many social psychologists. To date the interactions between temperature and other geographical factors have not been addressed. This study is aiming to examine the effects of thermal demands and the moderating effects of natural geographical factors on aggressive behavior at national level. Data for 156 societies was obtained from publicly available databases. Consistent with the life-history theory, results of this study showed that aggressive behavior has a positive relationship with heat demands, and a negative relationship with cold demands. Aggressive behavior is also positively correlated with sunlight and altitude, and negatively correlated with coastline vicinity. Forest, coastline vicinity, and rainfall moderated the effect of thermal demands on aggressive behavior. In societies with more forests, with more rainfall, and closer to coastline, the negative effects of cold demands on aggressive behavior are stronger.
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Van de Vliert E, Conway LG. Does Perceived Governance Quality Improve Toward the North and South Poles for Eco-Cultural Reasons? JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1177/00220221211051025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Good government is vital to human society. But what proximal and distal factors influence this collective goodness perception? Here, we investigate how and why multi-component evaluations by many institutional observers of public governance vary along the north-south rather than east-west axis of the Earth. Across 190 countries, we show that governance quality improves from the equator toward the North and South Poles in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. By contrast, governance quality hardly varies from east to west. National wealth, surfacing as the main driver of good government, is spatially distributed along latitude and longitude in the same striking way. In broader detail, governance quality is psychologically accounted for by cultural, economic, and pathogenic explanations, all nested within a climate-based explanation. Taken in total, the results suggest a chain of increasingly distal explanations of the equator-to-pole improvements in perceived governance quality.
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Van de Vliert E, Van Lange PAM. Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019; 14:860-884. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691619858067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Are there systematic trends around the world in levels of creativity, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, individualism, trust, and suicidality? This article suggests a new field, latitudinal psychology, that delineates differences in such culturally shared features along northern and southern rather than eastern and western locations. In addition to geographical, ecological, and other explanations, we offer three metric foundations of latitudinal variations: replicability (latitudinal gradient repeatability across hemispheres), reversibility (north-south gradient reversal near the equator), and gradient strength (degree of replicability and reversibility). We show that aggressiveness decreases whereas creativity, life satisfaction, and individualism increase as one moves closer to either the North or South Pole. We also discuss the replicability, reversibility, and gradient strength of (a) temperatures and rainfall as remote predictors and (b) pathogen prevalence, national wealth, population density, and income inequality as more proximate predictors of latitudinal gradients in human functioning. Preliminary analyses suggest that cultural and psychological diversity often need to be partially understood in terms of latitudinal variations in integrated exposure to climate-induced demands and wealth-based resources. We conclude with broader implications, emphasizing the importance of north-south replications in samples that are not from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Paul A. M. Van Lange
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU Amsterdam
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Van de Vliert E, Van Lange PA. Latitudinal gradients as scientific tools for psychologists. Curr Opin Psychol 2019; 32:43-46. [PMID: 31376742 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.06.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Revised: 06/14/2019] [Accepted: 06/18/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
It is an unmistakable fact of life that animals and plants function differently at lower and higher latitudes with distinct temperatures and rainfall. No less unmistakable are the opposite directions of these latitudinal gradients above and below the equator. Therefore, it would be surprising if there were no opposite north-south gradients in human functioning in the northern and southern hemispheres. And indeed, recent publications and projects have started to validate, integrate, and explain such north-south gradients in cognitive ability, creativity, ingroup-outgroup dynamics, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, and individualism versus collectivism. Our brief review of these contemporary trends cumulates into a latitudinal-tools matrix for further integration and sophistication of the latitude-related ecology of habitual mindsets and practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evert Van de Vliert
- Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
| | - Paul Am Van Lange
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Stevens HR, Beggs PJ, Graham PL, Chang HC. Hot and bothered? Associations between temperature and crime in Australia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY 2019; 63:747-762. [PMID: 30830288 DOI: 10.1007/s00484-019-01689-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Revised: 01/25/2019] [Accepted: 02/06/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Temperature and crime is one of the most extreme relationships between the atmospheric environment and human behaviour, yet our knowledge about it is primarily based on Northern Hemisphere research. This study used both temporal and spatial models to investigate the relationship between temperature and crime in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, using an 11-year data set. Results suggested that assault and theft counts were significantly higher in summer than winter (17.8 and 3.7%, respectively), while fraud counts were not significantly different. Using linear and quadratic terms for maximum daily temperature, a linear regression model indicated that daily assault counts significantly increased with rising temperature and the rate of increase slowed as temperatures exceeded 30 °C. Theft counts significantly increased with rising temperature then declined as temperatures exceeded 30°C. Again, there was no evidence of a relationship between temperature and frequency of fraud count. Spatial modelling revealed that 96% of local government areas (LGAs) in NSW had a higher summer assault rate than winter. The findings of this study provide an empirical foundation for understanding crime-temperature relationships in Australia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather R Stevens
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia.
| | - Paul J Beggs
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
| | - Petra L Graham
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
| | - Hsing-Chung Chang
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia
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van Lange PAM, Rinderu MI, Bushman BJ. CLASH: Climate (change) and cultural evolution of intergroup conflict. GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS 2018; 21:457-471. [PMID: 30369830 PMCID: PMC6187659 DOI: 10.1177/1368430217735579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2017] [Accepted: 09/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Aggression and violence levels generally increase as one moves closer to the equator, but why? We developed a new theoretical model, CLimate, Aggression, and Self-control in Humans (CLASH; van Lange, Rinderu, & Bushman, 2017b, 2017c), to understand differences within and between countries in aggression and violence in terms of differences in climate. Colder temperatures, and especially larger degrees of seasonal variation in climate, call for individuals and groups to adopt a slower life history strategy, revealed in a greater focus on the future (vs. present) and a stronger focus on self-control—variables that are known to inhibit aggression and violence. Other variables (e.g., wealth, income inequality, parasite stress) are also linked to both climate differences and to aggression and violence differences. When people think of the consequences of climate change, they rarely think of the impact on aggression and violence levels, but they should. CLASH has broad implications for the effects of climate change on intergroup conflict.
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Van de Vliert E, Conway LG. Northerners and Southerners Differ in Conflict Culture. NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/ncmr.12138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Evert Van de Vliert
- Department of Social and Organizational Psychology University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands
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Climate, aggression, and violence (CLASH): a cultural-evolutionary approach. Curr Opin Psychol 2018; 19:113-118. [DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2017] [Accepted: 04/12/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
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