Ethnic and National Attachment in the Rainbow Nation: The Case of the Republic of South Africa

Previous work concerning the interface between racial and national identification within multiracial states has suggested that dominant racial groups tend to express a firmer grip on ownership of and identification with the nation than is the case for racial minorities. This can occur despite inclusionary political rhetoric to the contrary and within nations regarded as civic rather than ethnic states. In this article, we explored the degree to which there were asymmetries in the interface between racial and national identities within the nation of South Africa, a state whose current political dispensation was founded on the principles of racial pluralism. We examined a large sample of South African citizens from the four officially recognized racial categories: Africans, Whites, Coloreds, and Indian/Asians. The results showed mixed support for the idea of South Africa as a “Rainbow Nation.”

Assimilation and Diversity: An Integrative Model of Subgroup Relations

A model of sociostructural relations among subgroups within a superordinate category is presented. Contextualized by discussion of political and social psychological models of intergroup contact, we extend principles of social identity theory to address structural differentiation within groups. Subgroup identity threat plays a pivotal role in the nature of subgroup relations, as do the social realities of specific subgroup relations (i.e., inclusiveness, nested vs. crosscutting categories, leadership, instrumental goal relations, power and status differentials, subgroup similarity). Our analysis suggests that subgroup identity threat is the greatest obstacle to social harmony; social arrangements that threaten social identity produce defensive reactions that result in conflict. Social harmony is best achieved by maintaining, not weakening, subgroup identities, and locating them within the context of a binding superordinate identity.

Expatriates' Ethnicity and their Effectiveness: "Similarity Attraction" or "Inverse Resonance"?

Studies of expatriate effectiveness have tended to restrict themselves to Westerners sojourning in non-Western countries or to non-Westerners studying in the West, thereby overlooking non-Western expatriates working in Third World countries. Reconstituting diverse principles from social comparison and identity theories, attribution research, the similarity-attraction literature, psychotherapy, psychody namics, and experimental social psychology, we predict that the relationship between (a) perceived ethnic similarity to host and (b) acceptance by that host may often differ considerably in Western versus non-Western contexts. While acceptance by Western hosts may be affected by "similarity attraction reactions in some developing nations may be influenced instead by "inverse resonance", wherein collectivist hosts are comparatively unreceptive to expatriates who are ethnically similar rather than dissimilar. We discuss the potential relevance of such inverse resonance to the predeparture training of expatriates and to their inter- cultural effectiveness in the field.

Identities and Racial Attitudes of South African and American Adolescents: A Cross-Cultural Examination

Issues of group identity and prejudice have played a large role in the history of South Africa. In this study the authors examined differences among Xhosa-speaking black, so-called coloured, English-speaking white, and Afrikaans-speaking white adolescents within a context of social change. Data was collected from 818 high school students using a questionnaire that assessed aspects of these groups' perceptions of themselves (their identities), attitudes toward other racial groups (their prejudices), and beliefs about changes in the socio-political environment. Several statistically significant differences between the groups were found. Comparative analyses on identity and attitude variables performed with 263 white American adolescents were also statistically significant for all groups.

Catastrophic Evolution, Culture and Diversity Management Policy

Two parallel debates, on cultural diversity and on diversity in animals and plants, are underway with insufficient meaningful contact, but a shared focus on declining diversity. Underlying the sharp decline in diversity in many human and non-human domains is cultural change, bringing about sudden contact between life forms with no previous experience of contact with one another. A common consequence of sudden contact is catastrophic evolution, involving a rapid and often fatal decline in the numbers of a particular life form; this is more likely for life forms low in both preadaptiveness and postcontact adaptation speed. Greater efforts are needed, particularly on the part of cultural researchers, to develop an integrative ‘bio-cultural’ policy to manage diversity, recognizing that cultural changes impact on diversity in all life forms, and that cultural diversity and diversity in animals and plants are inter-connected.

Intergroup Similarity and Subgroup Relations: Some Implications for Assimilation

Two studies examined the effects of perceptions of similarity on relations between subgroups (humanities and math-science students) that share an active superordinate category (University of Queensland student). Participants (N = 82) performed a non-interactive task during which perceptions of intersubgroup similarity (high or low) and level of categorization (at the superordinate level or at the superordinate and subgroup levels simultaneously) were manipulated ina2X2 between-groups design. Consistent with social identity theory, participants who had been categorized exclusively at the superordinate level discriminated more against a similar subgroup than a dissimilar one. However, when the subgroup and superordinate categories were activated simultaneously, a trend emerged that was consistent with the similarity-attraction hypothesis. A similar interaction emerged in Study 2 (N = 265), in which perceptions of similarity were measured rather than manipulated. The results were interpreted in terms of the motivation to retain ingroup distinctiveness.

Superordinate Identification, Subgroup Identification, and Justice Concerns: Is Separatism the Problem; Is Assimilation the Answer?

The diversity of American society raises concerns about whether authorities can maintain social cohesion amid competing interests and values The group-value model of justice suggests that authorities function more effectively when they are perceived as fair (e g, benevolent, neutral, and respectful) However, such relational evaluations may be effective only if authorities represent a group with which people identify In a diverse society, subgroup memberships may assume special importance People who identify predominantly with a subgroup may focus on instrumental issues when evaluating a superordinate-group authority, and conflicts with that authority may escalate if those people do not receive favorable outcomes Results indicate that subgroup identification creates problems for authorities only when people have strong subgroup identification and weak superordinate-group identification As long as people identify strongly with the superordinate group, even if they also identify strongly with their subgroup, relational issues will dominate reactions to authorities

Inducing similarities and differences in imagined contact: A mutual intergroup differentiation approach

To enhance the prejudice-reducing effects of imagined contact we investigated a novel form of imagined contact (“balanced similarity”) which emphasized both similarities and differences between the ingroup(er) and the outgroup(er). Experiment 1 compared balanced similarity with conditions inducing only differences or only similarities. “Balanced similarity” led to more positive outgroup attitudes; its differences with the “high similarity” condition were mediated by reduced distinctiveness threat, whereas its differences with the “low” similarity condition were mediated by higher perceived intergroup similarity. Experiment 2 compared the “balanced similarity” imagined contact scenario with the “standard” (positive) imagined contact scenario (Crisp, Stathi, Turner, & Husnu, 2008), and found that both conditions promoted equally favourable attitudes that were significantly more positive than in the control condition. However, only the “balanced similarity” imagined contact condition differed from the control condition on intergroup anxiety and contact self-efficacy. The “balanced similarity” condition also had an indirect effect (via self-efficacy) on positive action tendencies towards the outgroup. We discuss the utility of “balanced similarity” imagined contact, especially where contact is limited and conflict is present.

Cultivating pluralism in health psychology

Historically health, illness and healing operated through a single medium, or idiom, within relatively culturally encapsulated societies. Our increasingly porous societies now present us with a plethora of cultural explanations for our states of 'being'. Health 'seekers' can now turn to a variety of health 'providers'. The complexities of this situation are illustrated by reviewing research from Africa on cognitive tolerance. In many western societies the clinician is also faced with the challenge of having to work with a plurality of complex ideas about health and illness, which he or she may be unfamiliar with. The Problem Portrait Technique (PPT) is presented as a means of assisting practitioners (and researchers) to assess the interplay of culture and health. It is argued that health psychology should cultivate pluralism both by acknowledging the influence of culture on health and by embracing the diversity of methodological and conceptual perspectives within itself.

Women's Discourse on Beauty and Class in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Group-based inequalities have been explored through traditional laboratory methods using student participants, but more attention is needed at the level of people's everyday lives in cultural context. The present study looks at how people create and uphold social order through discursive practices. This dimension of social reproduction is explored in Venezuela, where the Bolivarian Revolution makes `social class' a politically salient signifier. I use the notions of interpretative repertoires (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) and carriers (Moghaddam, 2002) to analyze how women negotiate `class' and moral positions in talk about an everyday, resource-dependent practice (beauty). The analyses show how certain repertoires reproduce class positions while making equivocal the moral significance of class. I discuss how the instability of class as a carrier of moral goodness becomes a terrain on which concerns for establishing moral equality take precedence over concerns for achieving economic equality.

The Staircase to Terrorism: A Psychological Exploration

To foster a more in-depth understanding of the psychological processes leading to terrorism, the author conceptualizes the terrorist act as the final step on a narrowing staircase. Although the vast majority of people, even when feeling deprived and unfairly treated, remain on the ground floor, some individuals climb up and are eventually recruited into terrorist organizations. These individuals believe they have no effective voice in society, are encouraged by leaders to displace aggression onto out-groups, and become socialized to see terrorist organizations as legitimate and out-group members as evil. The current policy of focusing on individuals already at the top of the staircase brings only short-term gains. The best long-term policy against terrorism is prevention, which is made possible by nourishing contextualized democracy on the ground floor.