Development of positive intergroup emotions amongst youth in contexts affected or threatened by conflict.

Social-psychological research has established the importance of positive emotions for creating and maintaining positive intergroup relations in contexts affected or threatened by conflict (intergroup reconciliation). Building on existing body of evidence, we conceptualised intergroup reconciliation as a process aimed at regulating negative intergroup emotions such as hatred and creating more positive and relationship functional emotions such as trust. This review presents theoretical and empirical insights into the emotion regulation perspective on intergroup reconciliation. Regulation of negative intergroup emotions amongst youths affected by conflict is feasible through social-psychological interventions.

Assessing malleable social-psychological academic attitudes in early adolescence.

Although it is important to accurately assess and promote student achievement, it is also critical to accurately assess and promote student social and emotional well-being and positive attitudes about school. Recent research has shown the promise of school-based interventions to improve certain student academic attitudes but has also raised concerns about a lack of reliable measures of these attitudes for early adolescents. We compiled the Malleable Social-Psychological Academic Attitudes (MSPAA) survey to measure school trust, social belonging, evaluation anxiety, self-complexity, locus of control, and identification with school. We adapted MSPAA measures to make them more appropriate for early adolescents in the school context, assessed the measurement properties of the MSPAA survey, and examined how student responses differed based on various demographic factors. We found that this brief survey reliably measured these constructs among early adolescents (N = 2158). Additionally, differences by grade level, school context, gender, and racial group revealed insightful patterns of variation that have implications for social and psychological theory, as well as for practices in schools. We close by suggesting further study of this survey for use among education researchers and within schools.

Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education.

Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success. Interest is both a psychological state of attention and affect toward a particular object or topic, and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time. Integrating these two definitions, the four-phase model of interest development guides interventions that promote interest and capitalize on existing interests. Four interest-enhancing interventions seem useful: attention-getting settings, contexts evoking prior individual interest, problem-based learning, and enhancing utility value. Promoting interest can contribute to a more engaged, motivated, learning experience for students.

Intervenções psicossociais na comunidade: desafios e práticas / Psychosocial interventions in community: challenges and practices

Neste artigo, apresentamos os desafios teórico-práticos que os profissionais de diferentes áreas sociais têm encontrado em suas práticas de intervenção psicossocial em comunidades de diversos municípios de São Paulo. Entre os grandes desafios estão os limites dos programas sociais propostos pelo poder público, as dificuldades dos agentes externos em desenvolver um trabalho que leve ao fortalecimento da comunidade e a ausência de referenciais teórico-metodológicos que fundamentem as práticas desses agentes. A fim de ilustrar tais desafios, relatamos a experiência de um curso de Psicologia Comunitária e da Libertação no qual discutimos propostas de intervenção comunitária a partir de conceitos desenvolvidos por Martín-Baró (1998) e da contribuição de Maritza Montero (2004) com o Paradigma da Construção e Transformação Crítica. Com base nesses referenciais teóricos, analisamos a relação entre Estado, Programas e Organizações, assim como as contradições existentes entre uma prática social comunitária e as exigências dos planos e programas governamentais.

In this article we present the theoretical-practical challenges that professionals from different social fields face in their practices of social psychological intervention in communities in various cities of São Paulo. Among the largest challenges are the limitations of social programs offered by public authorities, the difficulties of external agents in developing actions that lead to the strengthening of the community, and the absence of theoretical-methodological references that support the practices of these agents. In order to illustrate these challenges, we narrate the experience of a course on Community Psychology and Psychology of Liberation in which we discussed propositions for community intervention from the perspective of concepts developed by Martín-Baró (1998) and the contributions of Maritza Montero (2004) with the Paradigm of Construction and Critical Transformation. Based on these theoretical references we analyze the relation between State, Programs and Organizations as well as the contradictions existing between a community social practice and the demands from the governmental programs and plans.