Glossary of Psychology Terms

Comprehensive List of Psychology Terms and Concepts Addressed
All definitions are taken from The Psychology of Peace by Rachel M. MacNair
Concepts and Terms to be Addressed in Main Page Responses:

Psychological Causes of Violence
1. Distancing: mentally separating one's self from the reality of what is happening—isolation from the horror, a mental barrier. (addressed in Segregation and Internment)
2. Doubling: the creation of two identities to deal with extreme situations; one that deals with the horrific event (such as murdering people) and then one that is the normal, socially acceptable side (the good, church-going family man). (addressed in Major IRA Bombings and Conflict Resolution Today)
3. Compartmentalizing: the act of putting parts of one's life into different compartments, sealing them off from each other. (addressed in Internment)
4. Operant conditioning: a behavior modification technique; a procedure of stimulus-response training giving a person the skills to act under stressful conditions. (addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches)
5. Retaliation: the belief that suffering violence demands a response in kind can be seen as revenge, or as a matter of justice.(addressed in Hunger Strikes)
6. Destructive obedience to authority: behavior caused by outside demands of authority rather than inside emotions; a situation itself that asserts power by using authority to define reality and its meaning causing participants to shift to a different experiential state. (addressed in RUC Actions)
7. Institutions (role playing) (Addressed in Important Agreements and RUC Actions)
8. Groupthink: the thought process used by group members when trying to minimize conflict and reach a consensus, usually resulting in the diffusion of responsibility and a decision that is much more irrational than the individuals would have made on their own. (addressed in Segregation)
9. Authoritarian personality: A power seeking personality, one who advocates obedience and strict adherence to rules.(addressed in Hunger Strikes)
10. Narcissistic AND/OR antisocial personality: extreme self-centeredness and being excessively conceited; destructive behavior. (Addressed in Conclusion)*
11. Appeal of war: the idea that war helps meet certain psychological functions such as the need to belong to a group and giving meaning and purpose to another otherwise boring life. **(addressed in Major IRA Bombings)

12. Sensory vs. mythic perception of reality (addressed in RUC Actions and Conflict Resolution Today) Sensory perception-when a person's surroundings are taken in and analyzed by the senses. Good and evil has shades of gray. Mythic Perception-usually during war a person's perception of the world separates them into an us and them view.
13. Cognitive dissonance and effort justification (addressed in Civil Rights Groups)
14. Indirect Discrimination :structured discrimination executed by an institution or government, i.e. gerrymandering. . (addressed in Segregation)

Psychological Effects of Violence
1. Posttraumatic stress: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a type of anxiety disorder. It can occur after you've seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death. (Addressed in effects-on-individuals-today, UVF and UDA Actions )
2. Children: Are people under the age of 18. (Addressed in effects-on-individuals-today )
3. Psychological numbing:is a self-defense mechanism that blocks a persons mind from a traumatic event.(Addressed in effects-on-individuals-today )
4. Perpetration-induced traumatic stress: Is a form of PTSD and are the people who have psychological consequences of killing or admitted that they did the crime. (Addressed in effects-on-individuals-today, UVF and UDA Actions )
5. Effects of violence on nonparticipants: a psychological defense mechanism of denial. (Addressed in Major IRA Bombings, Civil Rights Groups )
6. Effects turning into causes: it’s the psychological effects of violence that can turn around and be causes for more violence. (Addressed in Civil Rights Groups)
7. Destructive authority: Estrangement from others, blocked emotions and psychological numbing that take away resources available to cause noncompliance. Authority expects violent behavior and demands compliance. (Addressed in UVF and UVA Actions)
8. Hoped for achievements of violence: This is the goal that people hope to achieve with the use of violence. (Addressed in UVF and UDA Actions, Labor Strikes Lies addressed in Conflict Resolution Today)

Psychological Causes of Non-violence
1. Resisting destructive obedience: it is a non violent campaign to encourage non cooperation with authority. (Addressed in Orange Order Marches)
2. Leaving violent institutions: it is how the effects of the violent institution follow them when they leave. Ex. Parties who carried out executions upon retirement or moving on to another job find they now oppose the death penalty. (Addressed in Conflict Resolution Today
3. Personality traits: People characteristics including thoughts, emotions and principles. (Addressed in Civil Rights Groups)
4. Appeal of non-violent campaigns: it is a method used to get the point across without using violence. (Addressed in Orange Order Marches, Civil Rights Groups)
5. Moral development: Behaviors developed to not pass judgment on the circumstances around us. (Addressed in UVF and UVA Actions)
6. Operant conditioning/role playing: training people in violent and nonviolent behaviors and role playing is acting it out.(Addressed in Important Agreements)
7. Beliefs and emotions: courage, forgiveness, tolerance for ambiguity, commitment, spirituality (addressed in Good Friday Agreement)
8. Peace education and research: is a form of teaching and learning on universal events. (Addressed in Conflict Resolution Today

Psychological Effects of Non-violence
1. Impact on targets: attackers: How the effects of the victim impacts the attacker. How the victim responds to the attack. (Addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches.)
2. Observers: Where nonviolence gets its strength in the reaction of the onlookers. (addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches)
3. Positive impact on participants: direct effects: it’s a response to show that you are doing the right thing or on the right track. (addressed by Labor Stikes and Derry Civil Rights Marches)
4. Humor: seeing the funny or ironic side of events is a way of seeing the truth they contain (addressed in Orange Order Marches)
5. Burnout: is being in a situation to long. (addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches)
6. Hoped-for achievements: not having a clear view: not having a clear view- not having a plan that keeps you from unclear thinking. (Addressed in Direct Rule)
7. Hoped-for achievements: getting out of hand: plans do not always go according to plan, they sometimes deviate from the original plan. (Addressed in Orange Order Marches)
8. Hoped-for achievements: giving the violence-prone an excuse : nonviolence often sparks a reaction of violent repression. (addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches)
9. Hoped-for achievements: interfering with other approaches : violent approaches can interfere with nonviolent approaches. Assertive nonviolent approaches only interfere with violent ones by making the violent ones seem less appealing as problem-solving options, by providing sound alternatives. (Addressed in Hunger Stikes
10. Hoped-for achievements: setting examples ; Setting the example of what nonviolence can do generally has good consequences and the rate of violent crime often goes down.(addressed in Labor Strikes)
11. Hoped-for achievements: martyrdom :When people have sympathy for someone who was killed, then the group that killed the person to solve a problem has often created a greater problem. (addressed in Hunger Strikes)
12. Hoped-for achievements: posttraumatic stress : Nonviolent praticioners can still suffer from PTSD if violence is aimed at them or their friends; any violence they suffer can have the same kind of effect as trauma has. (Adressed in effects on individuals today)

Conflict Resolution
1. Three major types of conflict and application to an issue controversy (p.110-114) Zero Sum a win/loss conflict, Mixed Motive which is both can win, both can lose, or one can win and the other can lose, and Pure Cooperative, which is both win or both lose.
(addressed in history-of-the-conflict Good Friday Agreement)
2. Causes of group conflict : group conflict is long-standing conflict between two groups based usually on ethnicity, nationality, or religion. (Fundamental Attribution Error addressed in Conflict Resolution Today)
3. Working with diversity: interdependency :groups must cooperate in order to achieve whtat they both need. (Addressed by Good Friday Agreement)
4. Working with diversity: contact : contact with members of the out-group should help reduce the problem. (Addressed in Conflict Resolution Today and Good Friday Agreement)
5. Dealing with the past : History is in the past and generally what happened to the group as a whole, while memory is in the present and very personal(addressed in Good Friday Agreement)
6. Public policy: diplomacy: changes in public policy resulting from the negotiations between governments. (Addressed in Good Friday Agreement)
7. Public policy: restorative justice: a category of victim and offender encounter programs that can be regarded as a post-crime reconciliation program. (Addressed in Conflict Resolution Today)

Non-violent struggle and social movements
1. Kinds of power Threat power: things happen to avoid undesired consequences; people behave a certain way out of fear. Economic power: Material things happen because people have mutually decided on them; people behave in a way they believe is in their self-interest. Integrative power: Things happen because people see this as legitimate; people behave because they are persuaded it is right. (Addressed in Direct Rule)
2. Sources of power Monolithic Theory: People depend on decisions of government or other hierarchical systems. Power is self-perpetuating, durable, and not easily or quickly changed. It arises from those at the pinnacles of society. Pluralistic-Dependency Theory: The government depends on the decisions and cooperation of the people. Power is fragile and requires constant replenishment of its sources from a multitude of people and institutions. It arises from those many parts of society. (Addressed in history-of-the-conflict
3. Actions: training :training is needed for demonstrations where a violent response is possible or when civil disobedience is expected. Training needs to have these psychological effects: fostering creativity, stress reduction, boosting confidence, conditioning responses, and building group cohesion.
4. Actions: symbolic actions :symbolic actions can reorient the perception of the situation by onlookers, by the aggrieved groups and by the powerful themselves. (addressed in Hunger Strikes)
5. Actions: civil disobedience : Those who engage in violence should be prepared to go to jail and take the legal punishment;most effective when the media covers the action for the wider community.(addressed in Hunger Strikes)
6. Getting the word out : "pen is mightier than the sword"; power of information, of education, of the press can help persuade people or focus the attention.(Addressed in Derry Civil Rights Marches) (adressed in Orange Order Marches)
7. Negative and positive goals : negative goals avoid the bad while positive goals achieve the good. (addressed in Good Friday Agreement)

Public policy issues of violence
1. Terrorism : limited to nongovernmental but well-defined organizations whose fear-causing violence motivated by political or religious policy goals, not simple greed. (p. 166-167) (addressed in Major-IRA-Bombings)

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