Peace Psychology Applied : Peace Psychology Applied Some Examples From Psychologists for Social Responsibility, USA
Anne Anderson, Coordinator
Principles From Psychology to Guide Policy Development for Peace and Social Justice. : Principles From Psychology to Guide Policy Development for Peace and Social Justice. Biological Determinism Can Promote Violence and Social Injustices. War is not inevitable. Humans invented war and also have invented peace. Structural inequities in societies play a larger role in promoting violence than biological determinism.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Reducing the wealth gap promotes human well-being. “Poverty is detrimental to psychological well-being” (APA, 2000)
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Violence can be prevented by supporting conflict management and constructive uses of conflict. Conflict occurs when goals seem incompatible, but does not necessarily lead to violence. Conflict could be the occasion for creative problem-solving to benefit all parties to the conflict.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Delegitimizing the use of violence at all levels of society can reduce episodes of violence. Psychologists can call for an end to corporal punishment of children, capital punishment, and war as an institution to advance politics. We can humanize enemies through peace education.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Nonviolent action is a powerful means of promoting social justice. Many successful examples in the field need much research to understand more about the psychological underpinnings of Gandhian approaches.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology In the face of enmity, step up the level of communication. Promote policies that encourage a vigorous exploration of common ground and differences when intolerance and enemy-image making are taking place.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Liberation psychology is well-suited for social transformation. The field of psychology is not value-free, nor culture-free. Western-based psychology considers the individual mostly, while liberation psychology places the struggle for social justice at the center of promoting human well-being.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Promoting equality between men and women is good for everyone. Social power differences between women and men occur in every society in the world. Research shows that equality in education and access to other social resources improves the whole family’s well-being.
Principles From Psychology : Principles From Psychology Prevention is desirable over intervention. Aside from all the other destruction, too much psychological damage occurs in the wake of violent conflict to take care of with psychological or mental health services. Prevention is the treatment of choice.
The Critical Step of Moving from Theory to Application : The Critical Step of Moving from Theory to Application Application can include:
Taking to the streets in non-violent action
Lobbying for legislation
Promoting psychologically sound policies that support culturally appropriate peacebuilding.
Teaching about peace issues
Writing and researching about peace issues
Living in accord with principles of peaceful coexistence with other beings on this planet.
Taking to the Streets: New York City, May 1, 2005 : Taking to the Streets: New York City, May 1, 2005
Why this Nonviolent Action? : Why this Nonviolent Action? Heightens awareness—helps address denial of special dangers of nuclear weapons.
Demonstrates solidarity to international community when US is engaged in developing new nuclear weapons.
PsySR has new resources to offer fellow activists. Best way to engage and teach is to join with those you want to influence.
Using our Expertise : Using our Expertise Preventing Armageddon
Commentary by Morton Deutsch, April 23, 2005
Preventing Armageddon was written in 1984 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the Cold War is over, the ideas contained in it are still relevant to many conflicts--whether between spouses, different ethnic or religious groups, or nations. When a conflict takes a pernicious course and weapons are readily available to the parties involved in the conflict, it is likely that the weapons will be employed--whether they be handguns (as in a pernicious interpersonal conflict) or weapons of mass destruction (as in a pernicious intergroup or international conflict).
What can be done to prevent such destructive, violent conflicts? There are basic, interrelated approaches. First, try to prevent conflicts from taking a pernicious course. This will involve fostering widespread education in constructive conflict resolution processes. It will also require the development of institutions which can identify early signs of the development of a pernicious conflict and provide skilled third-party intervention to turn the conflict toward a more constructive resolution. Second, it will take strong efforts at all levels of government to prevent the development, acquisition, and spread of weapons and to destroy existing weapons of mass destruction. And, finally, since it is unlikely that all existing weapons can or will be destroyed, all levels of government (including international organizations) should make it clear that the violent, first use of destructive weapons by any person, group, or nation will have drastic, harmful consequences for the user.
Promoting Policies, Educating for Peace : Promoting Policies, Educating for Peace Social and Emotional Learning
Conflict Resolution Education
Violence Prevention
“If creating peace implies developing peaceful people, education is the cornerstone for peacebuilding.” (p 91) Nelson, L.L., Van Slyck, M.R., & Cardella, L.A. (1999a). Peace and conflict curricula for adolescents. In L. Forcey & I. Harris (Eds.), Peacebuilding for adolescents: Strategies for educators and community leaders (pp. 91-117). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) : Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) “Students learn to recognize and manage emotions, set positive goals, improve problem solving and decision making, and acquire social and communication skills such as perspective taking and negotiation.”
Conflict Resolution Education : Conflict Resolution Education “These programs emphasize the same cognitive, social, and emotional skills as SEL. Additionally, they focus more on cooperative learning, peer mediation, integrative negotiation, and teaching about interpersonal and inter-group conflict, diversity issues, and social justice.”
Violence Prevention : Violence Prevention “These programs also teach the skills covered in SEL. They focus more directly on anger control and prevention of serious interpersonal violence, substance abuse, and risky sexual behavior. They are sometimes designed for at-risk populations.”
Preventing New Cycles of Violence : Preventing New Cycles of Violence Time: 1993
Situation: Outbreak of violent conflict in the Balkans
Dilemma: What can psychology offer to ameliorate the suffering and help prevent future conflicts from erupting?
1) War Trauma and Recovery Brochure : 1) War Trauma and Recovery Brochure Short, easy to read, normalized regular human reactions to overwhelming events.
Culturally appropriate, in the local languages.
Distributed by grass-roots groups and used as discussion guides to talk about experiences of trauma.
An Excerpt from Brochure : An Excerpt from Brochure “This brochure is intended to assist you and your family as you seek to recover from tragic and life threatening events. It is for all of you who have been exposed to, or witnessed violence; for those of you who have lost your homes and belongings; and also for those of you who are helping family and friends cope with terrible experiences they have had.”
2) Consultation with ICTY : 2) Consultation with ICTY Distribution of the brochure led to an invitation to join a consultation team with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The consultation focused on how to work with witnesses to help bring an effective justice process to the region, with the aim of breaking the cycle of violence.
Goals of Consultation with ICTY : Goals of Consultation with ICTY Aid in successfully prosecuting rape as a war crime.
Educate ICTY on methods to reduce retraumatization of witnesses and survivors of gender-specific war crimes.
Advocate for policies that would support witnesses in reestablishing their lives
Engage all sides to the conflict in the consultation on behalf of women as a way of regaining avenues of communication among peacebuilders throughout the region.
Using our Expertise : Using our Expertise Emphasized importance of same-side, same gender interviewers/translators in native languages.
Recommended family/friend accompanying all witnesses for psychological support.
Delivered studies showing “chilling effect” of requiring non-anonymous or non-confidential testimony in rape cases.
Insisted on counselor confidentiality for witnesses for both prosecution and defense.
Finally, some thoughts : Finally, some thoughts In applying peace psychology, showing up is key.
Think and plan for the long term.
Since people are always involved, there is always a psychological component.
Carry your peacebuilding lenses around with you and use them all the time.
Peace is over-determined. That means everything you do counts.
Our Future : Our Future
Reaching Across the Globe : Reaching Across the Globe