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The present article considers the viability of a confederation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with Jordan as a realistic solution to the ongoing conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. It presents the background and the course of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with a description of the present situation in order to understand the possible solutions to the conflict. I also explore several ideas of how to peacefully resolve the conflict that is entertained at present. A special focus is on the proposal of Alon Ben-Meir (2022) about building a confederation delineated in the Spring issue of this journal. Thus, in the second part, the concept of confederation is described and three barriers to its implementation are elaborated. The first discusses the approach of presenting a rational plan, whereas in reality, participants in conflict develop a sociopsychological repertoire that serves often as a barrier to the solution. The second comment elaborates on the complex nature of reconciliation that cannot be required as a necessary precondition for the solution of the conflict. The third comment pertains to the asymmetry of the parties in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that is a serious barrier to the implementation of the phases of the proposed confederation. Finally, I describe briefly the different proposals that are on the table at present and evaluate their feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although anti‐immigrant attitudes continue to be expressed around the world, identifying these attitudes as prejudice, truth or free speech remains contested. This contestation occurs, in part, because of the absence of consensually agreed‐upon understandings of what prejudice is. In this context, the current study sought to answer the question, "what do people understand to be prejudice?" Participants read an intergroup attitude expressed by a member of their own group (an "in‐group" member) or another group (an "out‐group" member). This was followed by an interpretation of the attitude as either "prejudiced" or "free speech." This interpretation was also made by in‐group or an out‐group member. Subsequent prejudice judgements were influenced only by the group membership of the person expressing the initial attitude: the in‐group member's attitude was judged to be less prejudiced than the identical attitude expressed by an out‐group member. Participants' judgements of free speech, however, were more complex: in‐group attitudes were seen more as free speech than out‐group attitudes, except when an in‐group member interpreted those attitudes as prejudice. These data are consistent with the Social Identity Approach to intergroup relations, and have implications for the processes by which intergroup attitudes become legitimised as free speech instead of prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Israeli‐Palestinian conflict has deleterious effects on children. Our research observed mothers' conversations with their 5‐7‐year‐old children about the conflict during shared book reading (SBR) of a fiction book, indirectly depicting the conflict. Using a mixed‐methods study, we compared the SBR of secular and religious Israeli Jewish mothers. We videotaped the SBR interactions and interviewed the mothers about the nature of their SBR conversations with their child and their perceptions of political socialization of children. The main findings showed that despite their tendency to perceive the conflict differently, secular and religious mothers shared the book similarly. Most of them preferred to talk about the conflict as little as possible with their child but appreciated the opportunity that the book provided them to discuss it in an age appropriate manner. Our discussion focuses on the potential of SBR to assist parents in explaining the conflict to young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern democratic societies, one of the main roles of education is to promote critical thinking and open‐mindedness. However, this objective can sometimes be seen as clashing in many societies with another one of education's primary objectives—to inculcate in the younger generation a set of common values and beliefs that reinforces collective identity. The current article examines the tension between these two educational goals—fostering open‐mindedness and critical‐thinking skills, on the one hand, and promoting closed‐minded national identity, on the other hand, in the context of intractable conflicts. In particular, we offer an analysis of the unique challenges of nurturing open‐minded and critical thinking among students in the presence of processes and content common in education systems of conflict‐ridden societies. These challenges are discussed in relation to the role that open‐mindedness and critical thinking could play in promoting peace‐building processes were they not hindered by nationalistic educational approaches designed to ensure unwavering support of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the ethno‐political socialization of young children in the context of intractable conflict, drawing on the case of Israeli society. The analysis is based on the integrative developmental‐contextual theory (IDCT), which proposes that in the context of intractable conflict, from a very early age onward, in‐group members acquire a socio‐psychological repertoire that consists of narratives, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions related to the conflict and to the rival group. IDCT highlights three central components that dictate the nature of this socio‐psychological repertoire: children's normative developmental trajectory, the context in which the development takes place, and the ethno‐political socialization that is performed by societal agents. We discuss the interaction between these components in socializing children's socio‐psychological repertoire, and ways to change the course of socialization in the context of intractable conflict towards peace‐oriented socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing attitudes is one of the most challenging and important endeavors social psychologists have undertaken in order to promote better quality of life for individuals and collectives. However, when addressing pressing issues, such as intergroup conflict, racism, and inequality, changing attitudes is particularly difficult as individuals are often frozen in their attitudes. Based on the important work of conflict‐resolution scholars and practitioners, we report several well‐known and new socio‐psychological interventions that have been developed to unfreeze attitudes, especially in the context of intergroup conflict. These include providing contradictory information, paradoxical thinking, enlightening individual shortcomings, teaching skills, and the informative process model. We conclude by assessing the lessons learned from the research and practice of psychological interventions, focusing on their application in the field, and the value of increased cooperation between researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated political socialization in Israeli‐Jewish kindergartens. Specifically, it examined the scope of conflict supporting and peace supporting themes that Jewish‐Israeli kindergarten teachers transmit to children during ceremonies of national events. Sixty‐eight observations in 17 state‐secular and state‐religious kindergartens were conducted during five ceremonies: Passover, Holocaust Day, Memorial Day for Israeli Fallen Soldiers, Independence Day, and Jerusalem Day. The findings reveal that teachers transmit messages that comply with the conflict supporting themes to the children. The most dominant themes were collective self‐perceived victimization, justness of one's own goals, positive collective self‐image, ingroup security, and patriotism. These themes were more dominant in state‐religious than in state‐secular kindergartens. Thus, we found that the kindergarten teachers serve as agents of political socialization who transmit the hegemonic national narratives to the younger generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social problems such as intergroup conflicts, prejudice, and discrimination have a significant effect on the world's population. Often, to facilitate constructive solutions to these problems, fundamental attitude change is needed. However, changing the beliefs and attitudes to which people strongly adhere has proven to be difficult, as these individuals resist change. In this article, we offer a new and unconventional approach, termed paradoxical thinking, to promote the change of attitudes relevant to social realities. Paradoxical thinking refers to a process of exposing individuals to amplified, exaggerated, or even absurd messages that are still congruent with their held societal beliefs. In our research program, we focused on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and found that paradoxical thinking interventions led to attitude moderation among those who were the most adamant in their held attitudes and beliefs, even in the challenging context of a harsh and prolonged intergroup conflict. We then discuss how paradoxical thinking can be utilized to facilitate attitude change in this context and provide two brief examples as preliminary evidence that this approach might work in other important societal contexts, (i.e., attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers, and gender‐based discrimination), and conclude with policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this research was to examine whether a denial of a prolonged occupation by the occupying society constitutes a meaningful sociopsychological barrier to resolving the conflict peacefully. We hypothesized that this perception will be associated with objections both to conflict resolution processes and to specific compromises intended to end the occupation. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the association between denial of the occupation and compromises will be partially mediated by denial of its costs, low levels of moral emotions, and closure to new information about the conflict. Taking the prolonged Israeli occupation as our case study, we used three nationwide representative polls of Jewish Israelis to test our hypotheses. The studies supported our hypotheses, pointing to the distinct role that the perception of prolonged occupation by the occupying society plays in peacefully ending this situation, and the psychological mechanisms underlying occupation denial as a barrier to conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-censorship, defined as an 'act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles' often serves as a barrier to resolving intractable conflicts. Specifically, in order to protect the group, and in absence of objective constraints such as institutionalized censorship, individuals practice self-censorship and support its practice by other society members. This prevents free flow and transparency of information, within a society, regarding the conflict and the adversary. In an attempt to investigate the factors that contribute to the functioning of self-censorship as a sociopsychological barrier to conflict resolution, a longitudinal study was conducted among a large sample of Jews in Israel. The survey was administered in three waves: a few months before, during, and a few months after Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. The findings showed that armed confrontation can increase support for self-censorship. In addition, the findings revealed that personal characteristics (e.g., authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, siege mentality) predicted support for self-censorship, which, in turn, mediated the effect of personal characteristics on support for negotiations and for providing humanitarian aid. The theoretical as well as the applied implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-censorship of information, defined as an act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles, serves as an obstacle to the proper functioning of a democratic society, because it prevents free access to information, freedom of expression, and the flow of information. It is of key importance in societies, as it blocks information that may shed new light on various societal issues. Nevertheless, it is recognized that in certain cases self-censorship is necessary. The present article provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for self-censorship and examines it from various angles with empirical examples. It describes its nature and psychological foundations, the motivations that underlie it, the conditions that facilitate its practice, its societal and individual consequences, and, finally, its measurement challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined how Israelis and Palestinians present their narratives related to their conflict in school textbooks used by the state educational system and the ultraorthodox community in Israel and by all Palestinian schools in Palestinian National Territories. The focus was on how each side portrays the Other and their own group. The content analysis was based on a developed conceptual framework and standardized and manualized rating criteria with quantitative and qualitative aspects. The results showed in general that (1) dehumanizing and demonizing characterizations of the Other are rare in both Israeli and Palestinian books; (2) both Israeli and Palestinian books present unilateral national narratives that portray the Other as enemy, chronicle negative actions by the Other directed at the self-community, and portray the self-community in positive terms with actions aimed at self-protection and goals of peace; (3), there is lack of information about the religions, culture, economic and daily activities of the Other, or even of the existence of the Other on maps; (4) the negative bias in portrayal of the Other, the positive bias in portrayal of the self, and the absence of images and information about the Other are all statistically significantly more pronounced in Israeli Ultra-Orthodox and Palestinian books than in Israeli state books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societies involved in intractable conflicts form a conflict-supporting master narrative that provides justification and explanation of the conflict as a whole as well as narratives about its specific events and relevant persons. Both types of narratives fulfill important functions in satisfying the basic sociopsychological needs of the individuals and the collectives involved, as well as in maintaining a positive image of the society in the international community. In order to fill these needs, the narratives tend to be selective, biased, and simplistic. Moreover, because these narratives are so functional, societies go to extraordinary lengths to maintain their dominance among their own people and internationally. The present article analyzes the specific case of the Israeli-Jewish narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with regard to the methods that are used in the narrative's construction and the ways through which formal authorities strive to preserve its dominance in Israel and in the international community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceived collective victimhood plays a significant role in conflictual intergroup relations. We suggest a conceptualization of three different layers of collective victimhood: historical victimhood, general conflict victimhood, and conflict event victimhood. Three studies explore the interrelationship between the layers and their effects in the context of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. In Study 1, general conflict victimhood mediates the relationship between historical victimhood and willingness for compromise. In Study 2, conducted in two waves, changes in general conflict victimhood predict support for military actions against the out-group. The relationship between general conflict victimhood and support for military actions was mediated by conflict event victimhood. In Study 3, three new scales were developed, and their relations with different outcomes examined. Findings were nearly identical to the models tested in Studies 1-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article describes the socio-psychological barriers that play a major role in Israeli Jewish society in the attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict peacefully. After presenting the general conceptual framework of the socio-psychological barriers, our analysis of Israeli Jewish society focuses on two main aspects: conflict-supporting beliefs that provide well-based arguments that feed the continuation of the conflict, and emotions of fear and hatred that fuel it. Despite major changes in Israeli Jewish society through the years, many of these beliefs and emotions have remained dominant and continue to obstruct possible peaceful resolution of the conflict. They inhibit penetration of new information that could aid in facilitating the development of the peace process. The article presents the obstructing beliefs and emotions in detail, relying mostly on national surveys conducted between 2000 and 2009. Finally, it discusses the implications of the presented data and proposes ways to overcome these socio-psychological barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the effect of severe terror attacks on Israeli-Jewish public opinion regarding peace in a context of progress toward peace (1994–1997) compared to a context of conflict escalation (2001–2002). We hypothesized that ideological orientations supporting peace (doves) or opposing it (hawks), as well as the social context in which terror occurs, would moderate its effects. We used the database of Peace Index polls, administered monthly to representative samples of Israeli Jews. Polls pose three recurring questions regarding peace. We selected eight polls conducted within a week or less following a severe terror attack, and matched each to a “control” poll, taken at the nearest available time and not preceded by terror. Findings showed that during the 1990s, hawks' opinions regarding peace became less favorable following terror, whereas doves exhibited minimal opinion change. During 2001–2002, however, doves' opinions regarding peace became less favorable following terror, whereas hawks' support for peace increased while their belief in peace did not change. This suggests that the effect of terror on opinions regarding peace varies according to ideological orientations and the transitional context in which terror occurs, implying that contextual factors from multiple levels may interact to affect individuals' opinions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established today that emotions are an important part of most societal dynamics. The current article focuses on the role of different collective emotional elements in creating, preserving, and resolving conflicts. The main premise is that collective emotions play a pivotal role in shaping individual and societal responses to conflicting events and in contributing to the evolvement of a social context that maintains the emotional climate and collective emotional orientation that have developed. The first part of the article provides a conceptual framework to discuss the relations between conflict, context, and collective emotions. The second part uses the conceptual framework to discuss the societal implications of the articles presented in this issue. Taken together, the parts create a platform for future research on the role of collective emotions in conflict resolution and the construction of cultures of peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the question why fear dominates hope in the life of individuals and collectives on the basis of the accumulated knowledge in the psychology, neurology and sociology of emotions. This knowledge suggests that fear, as primary emotion, is grounded in the experienced present and based on the memorized past, processed both consciously and unconsciously, causes freezing and conservatism, and sometimes leads to pre-emptive aggression. Hope, in contrast, as a secondary emotion, involves cognitive activity, which requires anticipation and the search for new ideas and thus is based on complex processes of creativity and flexibility. Therefore, hope is often preceded and inhibited by spontaneous, automatically activated and faster fear. Fear and hope can each become a collective emotional orientation, and as such organize society's views and direct its actions. Societies involved in intractable conflict are dominated by a collective fear orientation. This orientation is functional for society's coping with the stressful and demanding situation—but it may serve as a psychological obstacle to any peace process, once it starts. The case of the collective fear orientation in the Jewish Israeli society is presented as an example. The article ends with a presentation of a particular approach, suggesting that individuals and collectives can overcome their fear with much determination, and establish an orientation of hope which allows change in situations dominated by fear. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social psychology emerged in the early part of the last century as a distinct discipline that focused on the study of social behaviour of individuals and collectives. Over time, however, social psychology has relatively ignored the ‘social’ part of the equation and has become mainly concerned with individual behaviour. The major part of social psychological research was carried out in the artificial context of the experimental laboratory. Studying social behaviour in real life contexts is essential, not only to return social psychology to its roots, but also to ensure that our contributions are both theoretically rich and socially valuable. Observation of real life situations is essential if we want to advance our understanding of how individuals and collectives behave. To illustrate the importance of a contextually rich social psychology and the usefulness of natural observations, the recent violent confrontation between the Israelis and the Palestinians is described and analysed, focusing on social behaviours of Israeli Jews. In conclusion, it is argued that social psychology should strive towards equilibrium between natural and experimental approaches, between personal and contextual emphases and between micro and macro perspectives. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coexistence is a state of mind shared by society members who recognize the rights of another group to exist peacefully as a legitimate, equal partner with whom disagreements have to be resolved in nonviolent ways. Achieving coexistence is a great challenge because of the negative relations between the two groups. These negative relations, the result of ethnocentric beliefs or intractable conflict, are widely shared and their abolition requires deep societal change. Education for coexistence plays an important function in this change. The article suggests that when negative relations are based on ethnocentrism, education for coexistence plays a major role in changing the nature of the relations. But when negative relations derive from intergroup conflict, education for coexistence has less influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of why fear overrides hope in societies embarked on the road of peacemaking after years of intractable conflict is answered on the basis of accumulated knowledge in the psychology and sociology of emotions. This knowledge suggests that fear is an automatic emotion, grounded in the perceived present and often based on the memorized past (also processed unconsciously), that leads to freezing of beliefs, conservatism, and sometimes preemptive aggression. Hope, in contrast, involves mostly cognitive activity, which requires the search for new ideas and thus is based on creativity and flexibility. Because hope is based on thinking, it can be seriously impeded by the spontaneous and unconscious interference of fear. Both fear and hope can become collective emotional orientations that organize society's views and direct its forms of action. It is assumed that societies involved in intractable conflict are dominated by a collective emotional orientation of fear, which is functional in their coping with the stressful and demanding situation. But such an orientation serves as a psychological obstacle to a peace process once it starts. The Israeli Jewish case of collective fear orientation is offered as an example. The presentation includes the roots of this orientation, the ways in which it is reflected and disseminated, and its expressions among the Israeli Jewish public; it ends optimistically with the suggestion that societies can determine to overcome their fear and establish a collective orientation of hope for peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A foreword to "Political Psychology" is presented.

This study examines the effect of a major event (terrorist attacks) on the stereotypic perceptions, attitudes and affects of 119 Israeli adolescents (56 males and 63 females of 5th and 8th grades) toward three target groups: (a) Palestinians, who still have conflictive relations with the Israelis (Palestinian extremists carried out the attacks), (b) Jordanians, who have peaceful relations with the Israelis and (c) Arabs, in general, who are considered a subcategory including Arabs of all nations. The questionnaires were administered to the same adolescents three times: during a relatively peaceful spell in Israeli–Palestinian relations; one day following two terrorist attacks, and three months thereafter. In the last administration adolescents' need for closure was also measured. Adolescents' perceptions, attitudes and affect toward the three target group were differentiated—relating to Palestinians most negatively and to Jordanians most positively. Also, following the terrorist attacks, stereotypic perceptions and attitudes changed in a negative direction, in relation to all the three groups; again with expressed differentiation among the three groups. In the third measurement, some measures remained negative, but some changed to be more positive. Only few effects of age were detected and several significant correlation with need for closure were found. These results indicate that stereotypes and attitudes toward outgroups are context-dependent, influenced by events; thus they serve as ‘a seismograph’ to the quality of intergroup relations at any given time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intractable intergroup conflicts require the formation of a conflictive ethos that enables a society to adapt to the conflict situation, survive the stressful period, and struggle successfully with the adversary. The formal termination of such a conflict begins with the elimination of the perceived incompatibility between the opposing parties through negotiation by their representatives—that is, a conflict resolution process. But this is only part of the long-term reconciliation process, which requires the formation of peaceful relations based on mutual trust and acceptance, cooperation, and consideration of mutual needs. The psychological aspect of reconciliation requires a change in the conflictive ethos, especially with respect to societal beliefs about group goals, about the adversary group, about the in group, about intergroup relations, and about the nature of peace. In essence, psychological reconciliation requires the formation of an ethos of peace, but this is extremely difficult in cases of intractable conflict. Political psychologists can and should work to improve the state of knowledge about reconciliation, which until now has received much less attention than conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Informative Process Model (IPM) proposes an intervention to facilitate change in conflict‐supporting narratives in protracted conflicts. These narratives develop to help societies cope with conflict; but over time, they turn into barriers for its resolution. The IPM suggests raising awareness of the psychological processes responsible for the development of these narratives and their possibility for change, which may unfreeze conflict attitudes. Previous studies in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict found that the IPM (versus control) increased participants' support for negotiations. In three preregistered studies (combined N = 2,509), we illuminate the importance of feeling that one's conflict‐related attitudes are accepted–that is, acknowledged without judgement–in explaining the effectiveness of the modeland expand the IPM's validity and generalizability: By showing the effectiveness of the IPM compared to an intervention similarly based on exposure to conflict‐related information (Study 1); by showing its effectiveness in unfreezing attitudes when communicating different thematic conflict‐supporting narratives–victimhood and security (Study 2); and by showing its effectiveness when using messages referring to ongoing, not only resolved conflicts, and text‐based, not only visually stimulating, message styles (Study 3). These results contribute to theory and practice on psychological interventions addressing the barrier of conflict‐supporting narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three age groups of children and adolescents (9-10, 13-14, and 17-18 years old) were asked to indicate sources of information which serve as their epistemic authority in nine knowledge areas and to attribute reasons for their choices. In general, the results showed that children and adolescents differentiate among sources and select their epistemic authorities according to knowledge areas. It was found that while the perception of parents as epistemic authorities decreases with age, the perception of self increases considerably and becomes an important epistemic authority, in spite of the decrease in the perception of parents as epistemic authorities, they continue to be a significant source of knowledge. In addition, the perception of friends as epistemic authority increases relatively in social knowledge areas. With regard to causal explanation, it was found that children and adolescents use various reasons to explain their selection of epistemic authority. They differentiated among, their reasons on the basis of the selected source. Knowledge-denotating source expertise was used as the most important reason. The selection of oneself was mainly attributed to familiarity, and helpfulness was used to explain the selection of mother, friend and father as epistemic authorities. Friend was also selected because of similarity. Age differences with regard to use of reasons reflected changes in source selection. This line of research sheds light on the interpersonal nature of knowledge acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is a simultaneous investigation of the contents of political beliefs and their characteristics among Israeli students. In addition, it examines their perceived use of information sources. The results indicate that political beliefs regarding the Israeli-Arab conflicts are organized systematically around the dove/hawk dimension. Also, a positive relationship was found between centrality of beliefs and confidence in them; between well-defined political identification and centrality and confidence; and between agreement with the beliefs and confidence. Finally, the results show that the perceived use of information sources is related to political identification. The performed investigation demonstrates the importance of combining the study of the contents of beliefs with that of their characteristics, since the latter have important implications for understanding individuals' cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delegitimization is the process of categorizing groups into extremely negative social categories and excluding them from acceptability. This paper analyzes the causes and consequences of delegitimization, and suggests two models that describe the role of conflict in delegitimization and of ethnocentrism in delegitimization. During conflict, when the ingroup perceives the negating goal(s) of an outgroup as far-reaching and evil, feelings of threat become intensified and delegitimization may be used to explain the conflict. Then, to prevent danger, the ingroup may harm the threatening group and justify the harm by delegitimization, which in turn increases perceived threat and intensifies harmful behavior toward the other group. Even mild conflicts can escalate, become violent, and lead to delegitimization as an explanation, and later, as justification. Ethnocentrism is related to this process because groups that are perceived as very different and devalued arouse feelings of fear and contempt. Their delegitimization leads to harm, and later, to intensified delegitimization to justify the harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the effects of an individualized program with goals that are specific to self-direction and coevaluation on students' perceptions of locus of control and satisfaction. In the first phase of the study, pupils' perceptions of locus of control is being evaluated using the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. In the second phase, pupils were questioned separately with regard to their perceptions of control in a specific class. The subjects were composed of 54 eighth-grade and 26 sixth-grade pupils from a lower middle-class, parochial urban school. Results of the study showed that the perception of locus of control can be affected by the environment.

Describes the helping behavior of preschool children during their free play activity. Difference between helping acts performed within a play framework and real helping acts; Definition of social contact; Methods of analysis.

In order to investigate the development of motives for donation behavior, 111 boys of the fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-grade ages were put into situations in which they had an opportunity to donate money for crippled children. These 4 structured situations corresponded to the sequence of stages of helping-behavior development suggested by Bar-Tal, Raviv, and Sharabany and allowed for inference of each child's motives for the donating act. Children who did not use the opportunity to donate in a situation corresponding to a higher stage were given other opportunities in situations corresponding to lower stages. In addition, following the donating act, the children were asked to explain their motives for this behavior. The results of this study showed that (a) the older the children, the greater the percentage of them donating in the more advanced experimental situations; and (b) the more advanced the experimental situation of donation, the more advanced the level of motivation expressed for the donating behavior. These results support the supposition that the motives for helping behavior develop with age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the consistency of various methods of measuring helping behavior in school children. Children's behavioral intentions to help others; Sociometric measures of altruistic behavior; Intelligence levels of children.

236 pupils attributed their success or failure on a test given in their classroom to 8 different causes. The classification of the 8 causes to the 2 dimensions of locus of control and stability was validated by factor analysis. The results of the study indicated that the pupils tended to attribute success mainly to external causes and failure mainly to internal causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three experiments investigated the effects of time-pressure and evaluation apprehension on the mere-exposure phenomenon (Zajonc, 1968). Subjects viewed slides of abstract paintings at different frequencies of exposure and subsequently Indicated their liking for the stimuli. Evaluation apprehension during the assessment phase consistently undermined mere-exposure effects. Furthermore, when evaluation apprehension was high, time-pressure magnified those effects. These findings were discussed in terms of the notions that (1) prior exposure may increase the sense of processing fluency associated with a stimulus (Jacoby & Kelley, 1990), (2) fluency may be interpreted as plausibility of a judgmental cue evoked by the stimulus, (3) motivational factors like time-pressure and evaluation apprehension may moderate the impact of plausibility information on judgment, hence, may moderate 'mere-exposure' effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]