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COVID-19 has drastically changed human behaviors and posed a threat to globalism by spurring a resurgence of nationalism. Promoting prosocial behavior within and across borders is of paramount importance for global cooperation to combat pandemics. To examine both self-report and actual prosocial behavior, we conducted the first empirical test of global consciousness theory in a multinational study of 35 cultures ( N = 18,171 community adults stratified by age, gender, and region of residence). Global consciousness encompassed cosmopolitan orientation, identification with all humanity, and multicultural acquisition, whereas national consciousness reflected ethnic protection. Both global consciousness and national consciousness positively predicted perceived risk of coronavirus and concern about coronavirus, after controlling for interdependent self-construal. While global consciousness positively predicted prosocial behavior in response to COVID-19, national consciousness positively predicted defensive behavior. These findings shed light on overcoming national parochialism and provide a theoretical framework for the study of global unity and cooperation.

After police killings such as the one of George Floyd, trust in the police in the USA has plummeted. This is problematic because lower trust can lead to a range of disadvantageous outcomes for countries such as lower compliance with the law and difficulties for the police in recruiting qualified people from diverse backgrounds. However, it is unclear whether police killings are associated with lower trust beyond the USA. Across two studies (N = 48,889) including data from 46 countries, we predicted and found that police killings are negatively associated with trust in the police while controlling for a range of other variables. Additionally, we found that conspiracy beliefs are negatively associated with trust in the police whereas right-wing authoritarianism, system justification, socioeconomic status, and human development are positively associated with trust in the police. Together, our findings provide even more reasons why police killings should be reduced.

In the context of historical and ongoing tensions between different ethnic groups, inter-ethnic marriages are increasingly prevalent in Indonesia today. This article explores the social materiality of memory objects (money and related household items) in the negotiation of shared lifeworlds within two inter-ethnic marriages between Javanese and Chinese Indonesians. The research is based on detailed fieldwork conducted face-to-face in East Java over a 10 week period, and supported with further online interactions with participating couples. We demonstrate how a focus on money and related material practices can offer new understandings of how couples respond agentively to inter-cultural tensions in their marriages and strive towards harmony. In doing so we demonstrate how values of cooperation and prudence are articulated through things and related practices, and in the process are harnessed to support couples efforts to build mutually supportive lives together. In the process we document how objects, including money, an onion peeling machine and food emerge in these relationships as both practical things and objects of care, cooperation and affection. This research demonstrates that whilst still of crucial importance, a focus on inter-cultural tensions and the conflicts these can cause can be complimented with a focus on couple's agentive efforts to manage and contain such tensions as they build culturally hybrid lives together.

Individual selves and the collectives to which people belong can be mentally represented as following intertemporal trajectories—progress, decline, or stasis. These studies examined the relation between intertemporal trajectories for the self and nation in American and British samples collected at the beginning and end of major COVID-19 restrictions. Implicit temporal trajectories can be inferred from asymmetries in the cognitive availability of positive and negative events across different mentally represented temporal periods (e.g., memory for the past and the imagined future). At the beginning of COVID-19 restrictions, both personal and collective temporal thought demonstrated implicit temporal trajectories of decline, in which future thought was less positive than memory. The usually reliable positivity biases in personal temporal thought may be reversable by major public events. This implicit trajectory of decline attenuated in personal temporal thought after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. However, collective temporal thought demonstrated a pervasive negativity bias across temporal domains at both data collection points, with the collective future more strongly negative than collective memory. Explicit beliefs concerning collective progress, decline, and hope for the national future corresponded to asymmetries in the cognitive availability of positive and negative events within collective temporal thought.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to unprecedented and extraordinary conditions. It represents a profound threat to health and political and economic stability globally. It is the pressing issue of the current historical moment and is likely to have far-reaching social and political implications over the next decade. Political psychology can inform our preparedness for the next phase of the pandemic as well as our planning for a post COVID-19 world. We hope that this special issue will play its part in helping us to think how we manage and live with COVID-19 over the coming decade. In this editorial, we review the key themes arising from the contributions to our special issue and, alongside existing knowledge highlight the relevance of political psychology to finding solutions during this time of crisis. The contributions to this special issue and the pandemic raise many classic topics of central interest to political psychology: leadership, solidarity and division, nationalism, equality, racism, and international and intergroup relations. In our editorial, we offer an analysis that highlights three key themes. First, the importance of sociopolitical factors in shaping behavior during this pandemic. Second, the relevance of political leadership and rhetoric to collective efforts to tackle SARS-COV-2. And third, how sociopolitical cohesion and division has become increasingly relevant during this time of threat and crisis.

Collective memory can make and break political culture around the world. Representations and reinterpretations of the past intersect with actions that shape the future. A nation's political culture emerges from complex layers of institutional and individual responses to historical events. Society changes and is changed by these layers of memory over time. Understanding them gives us insight into where we are today. Encompassing examples from colonization and decolonization, revolving around the critical junctures of the world wars, this book illustrates how collective memory is produced and organized, through commemoration, through monuments, and through individuals sharing stories. Using concrete examples from around the world, James H. Liu shows how different disciplines can come together through shared concepts like narratives and generational memories to provide mutually enriching perspectives on how political culture is made, and how it changes.

In this article, we test if conservatism predicts psychological well-being longitudinally. We based the study on previous findings showing that conservatives score higher on different measures of well-being, such as life satisfaction and happiness. Most explanations in the literature have assumed that conservatism antecedes well-being without considering the alternative—that well-being may predict conservatism. In Study 1, using multilevel cross-lagged panel models with a two-wave longitudinal sample consisting of data from 19 countries ( N = 8,740), we found that conservatism did not predict well-being over time. We found similar results in Study 2 ( N = 2,554), using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models with a four-wave longitudinal sample from Chile. We discuss the main implications of these results for the literature examining the association between conservatism and well-being.

Living historical memory (LHM; informally communicated by living generations) and historical charters (the core and foundation of a country’s collective memory) are theorized as two complementary parts of collective memory working together to maintain a nation’s political culture. Historical charters are the enduring core of social representations of history, which are abstract, stable, and embed core national values. They are flanked by peripheral elements of LHM that change and adapt the nation to face current issues. A cross-cultural study of LHM shows that it facilitates critical consciousness—that is, less justification of the current social system, lower orientation to social dominance, as well as slightly higher national identity, especially in developing countries. LHM adapts people for change more than maintaining stability. In the case of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the dominant event in American LHM, it reflects a negative emotional climate and perception of relative decline, as well indicating that the American historical charter may be oriented toward “defender of the free world” more than “enlightened civilization.”

Since its inception as a modern and evolving discipline, psychology has been concerned with issues of human security. This think piece offers an initial conceptualisation of human security as a broad security concept that encompasses a range of interrelated dimensions that have been responded to by different sub-disciplinary domains within psychology. We advance an argument for a human security psychology as a connecting focal point for general psychology that enables us to bring knowledge from across our eclectic discipline into further dialogue. This is a necessary step in understanding better the state of current thinking on the psychology of security and as a basis for informing further theory, research and practice efforts to address issues of human (in)security. This initial effort is informed by Assemblage Theory, which offers a dynamic and contextually rich perspective on people as agentive beings entangled within evolving natural and social formations that can foster or undermine their experiences of [in]security. The article is completed with a brief agenda for advancing human security psychology.

Objective: To evaluate endometrial progesterone receptor (PGR) expression in menopausal women who used vaginal 4-μg and 10-μg estradiol (E2) inserts or placebo. Methods: REJOICE was a randomized, placebo-controlled trial investigating vaginal E2 inserts in women with moderate to severe dyspareunia due to menopause. In this post hoc analysis, 25 eligible women with endometrial biopsies were randomly selected from each treatment group (4-μg and 10-μg E2 vaginal inserts and placebo). Endometrial biopsy sections were immunostained using an anti-PR (A and B) monoclonal antibody. Cell staining was quantified using an artificial intelligence feature-recognition algorithm. Mean PGR expression levels were analyzed between baseline and week 12. Results: PGR expression results were available for 22 women in the 4-μg E2 group, and 25 women each for the 10-μg E2 and placebo groups. Similar PGR expression levels were observed at baseline (0.301-0.470 pmol/mg) and after 12 weeks of treatment (0.312-0.432 pmol/mg) for all treatment groups, with no significant differences between baseline and week 12. Conclusions: No meaningful differences in endometrial PGR expression were observed with the vaginal E2 (4- and 10-μg) inserts at week 12 from baseline, supporting the hypothesis that local exposure to E2 from a low-dose, vaginal insert placed near the vaginal introitus will not be sufficient to upregulate endometrial PGR expression. Coupled with the lack of histologic changes and systemic absorption, our data suggest that these softgel vaginal E2 inserts would not be expected to stimulate endometrial hyperplasia leading to a potential endometrial safety issue in postmenopausal women with moderate to severe dyspareunia, a symptom of vulvar and vaginal atrophy. Further study on the endometrial safety of softgel vaginal E2 inserts is under way.

Living historical memory (LHM) was assessed amongst representative samples of adults from 40 societies (N = 22,708), who completed online surveys asking them to name three historical events in living memory that have had the greatest impact on their country. Multilevel analyses revealed that the number of LHM nominations was positively but variably related to national identity, with stronger links in developing countries. LHM was consistently and more strongly associated with lower social dominance orientation, and lower system justification. LHM appears to support national identity, especially in developing countries where there is greater need for national progress. While LHM fosters bottom-up aspirations for group-equality universally, it instills critical systemic evaluations in developing countries especially. It appears that LHM in developing countries has progressive functions, contextualizing current disadvantages as being linked to history, but nonetheless drawing from living memories to band people together in positive collective remembrance of the advent of nationhood.

Recently, researchers have endeavored to extend cultural perspectives of collective remembering by examining communicative or living historical memory (collective memories that emerge from informal communication between ordinary people). The current study examined the content and subjective evaluation of living historical memory from open-ended nominations of historical events provided by samples from 39 societies. Results showed that Western societies were dominated by living memories of terrorism, reflecting a distinctly negative climate. By contrast, many developing societies displayed a more positive climate in living memory that was rooted in events related to their nation’s foundation. The current study opens up avenues for conceptualizing the role of collective remembering in shaping emotional climates that influence (or may be part of) national political culture.

The present study focuses on a new type of social representation: the historical system of meaning embodied by the philosophy and lifeways of Confucianism. Eighteen young and educated Chinese were interviewed face-to-face. Thematic analyses of their transcripts showed that Confucianism representations contained two subthemes, figures (Confucius and Mencius) and thoughts (e.g., propriety and benevolence, etc.). These representations were transmitted by formal education from school and informal education from family, and the influence of Confucianism was often implicit, as evidenced by two subthemes: self-cultivation and social norms. The analyses also showed that almost everything mentioned about Confucianism was more than 2,000 years old and more recent developments were ignored. These results provide insight into how a historically central system of meaning is represented today, when it has lost its institutional bases. It is argued that the social representation of Confucianism is fragmented rather than hegemonic and lacks the systematic coherence that characterises a historical charter. Contributions to social representations theory and implications for how Confucianism could function in the modern world are discussed.

Psychology has a pervasive but shallow engagement with Confucian philosophy, mainly referencing its popular form as a part of Chinese tradition. This special issue takes a more systematic view of Confucianism as comprehensive philosophy. Drawing from New Confucianism, it is argued that the signal contribution of Confucianism to psychology as human (rather than natural) science is an ontology of the moral mind (heaven and humanity in union). This holistic ontology makes the cultivation of benevolence (仁) a lifelong mission for Confucianists. Practices of self-cultivation are exemplified by a case study of Zeng Guofan, a Qing Dynasty official and scholar, who combined academics, calligraphy, meditation, diary writing and self-reflection to refine his character, nurture and educate his family, and be of service to society. Second, Confucianism’s traditional lack of interest in epistemology is addressed through the complementary (dialectical) principle of ‘one principle, many manifestations’, where methods of Western science can be incorporated into the investigation of practices such as brush calligraphy that are shown to have beneficial effects on mental and physical health. Confucianism can also be treated as an object of scientific inquiry: We find that even among highly educated Chinese people, understanding of Confucianism today is mostly fragmented and abstract. Confucian Psychology can be summarised as a psychology of aspirations for bettering the condition of humanity through character development and greater awareness of the situation to realise the endowment of moral mind. Finally, there are deep connections between Confucian and Indian psychology—both involve height psychology, a psychology of aspirations and for spiritual transformation.

In psychology, where a natural science epistemology holds sway, relationships between the researcher and the researched are usually hierarchical and transactional, bound in procedural and legal ethics. This limited view of ethics fails to account for issues of power and privilege, as well as inequalities in economic and sociocultural structures. We argue for a more complete philosophy of science (and practice) consisting of complementary first principles—relational ethics and epistemology. Valuing relational ethics as a first principle means that how knowledge is produced and acted on is complementary in importance with what knowledge is produced. Collaborative relationships grounded in sincerity, reciprocity, and shared purpose become the basis for how psychological knowledge is produced, disseminated, and acted upon. We present two case studies to show how taking action in an ethical manner through relationships formed in the process of doing psychology deepens our conception and practice of psychology as human science.

Cosmopolitan Orientation’s (COS) relationship with personal religiosity, organizational religiosity, and national identity was examined in nationally representative samples from 19 societies (13 mainly Christian, 2 Muslim, and 4 societies with historically Buddhist influences, N = 8740). Multi-group structural equation models found that personal religiosity was a positive and significant predictor of global prosociality (willingness to help others in a global community) overall (b = .18), and in 13 of 19 societies. This relationship was stronger in countries higher on the Human Development Index. National identity was overall a weak and positive predictor of global prosociality (b = .06) and respect for cultural diversity (b = .07), but results were culturally variable. There were negative relationships between national identity and COS indicators in Germany, the UK and USA (countries with active anti-immigration discourses popularized by populist right-wing politicians). Separate analyses for different religious groups found that among Christians, personal religiosity was positively associated with global prosociality, respect for cultural differences, and cultural openness (in that order). Among Buddhists, both personal and organizational religiosity were associated with global prosociality and cultural openness. For the smaller sample of Muslims, the only significant association was the positive link between personal religiosity and global prosociality. Findings support the idea that, contrary to much-established literature, there are country-level moderators, but no overall negative relationship between cosmopolitanism and religiosity or national identity at the individual-level across cultures.

Objectives To determine patient demographics, associated primary diagnoses, mortality risk, and inpatient mortality of admitted drowning patients in the U.S. Methods Retrospective cross-sectional study using 2016 National Inpatient Sample Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality dataset. External cause codes were used to identify drowning records, excluding self-inflicted/suicides. ICD-10 diagnosis and procedure codes, patient demographics, and admission-related data were collected. Results Of the 4,355 admissions in 2016, 68.3% were male (95% CI 65.3-71.3%) and 70.3% were white (95% CI 66.9-73.6%) with mean length of stay of 5.5 days (95% CI 4.9-6.2) and mean total charge of $81,624 (95% CI $70926-$92321). 8.2% of admissions resulted in inpatient death. Those that died were significantly younger than those that did not die (χ2=5.9, p=0.02). There was a statistically significant association between primary payer and inpatient mortality (χ2=10.5, p=0.02). Conclusion Younger, male, and white patients accounted for the majority of drowning admissions and deaths. A significantly larger proportion of Medicaid patients died compared to inpatient mortality of those with other insurance. Recognizing those most impacted by drowning could help better tailor prevention efforts.

Introduction Vulvar and vaginal atrophy (VVA) affects up to two thirds of postmenopausal women, with symptoms of vaginal dryness, dyspareunia, and vulvar/vaginal irritation. Despite the availability of various treatments, women express dissatisfaction with their options. An estradiol (E2; 4-µg and 10-µg) softgel vaginal insert was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat moderate to severe dyspareunia, a symptom of VVA, due to menopause. These inserts were designed to treat VVA effectively and safely while avoiding some of the drawbacks of other administration methods. Areas covered This article reviews the physical characteristics and pharmacokinetic data of the E2 softgel vaginal insert. Primary and secondary efficacy endpoints and safety data are reviewed from the pivotal REJOICE trial (NCT02253173), and substudies that explore response rates, changes in vaginal epithelium by visual assessment, efficacy in patient subgroups, effects on sexual function, and patient satisfaction compared with other treatments. Expert opinion The E2 insert shows that vaginal drug delivery is an optimal route of administration for locally treating VVA. This E2 softgel vaginal insert is a safe and effective treatment for symptoms of postmenopausal VVA. The E2 insert's pharmacokinetic characteristics are related to its unique formulation, rapid dissolution, and minimal systemic absorption. Abbreviations AE: adverse event; AUC: area under the concentration-time curve; BMI: body mass index; Cavg: average concentration; CI: confidence interval; Cmax: maximum concentration; Cmin: minimum concentration; E2: estradiol; FDA: Food and Drug Administration; FSFI: Female Sexual Function Index; GSM: genitourinary symptoms of menopause: MBS: most bothersome symptom; NAMS: North American Menopause Society; OR: odds ratio; PI: pulsatility index; PK: pharmacokinetic; REVIVE: Real Women's Views of treatment options for menopausal Vaginal changEs; RI: resistance index; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; TEAE: treatment-emergent adverse event; tmax: time to maximum concentration; VVA: vulvar and vaginal atrophy.

Masspersonal information seeking repertoires are a person-centered method of gaining insight into the relationship between Internet use, subjective well-being, and political participation. Through latent profile analysis, three person types were identified in two waves of stratified samples in 18 countries ( N = 8352). In accord with the “augmentation hypothesis,” high levels of interpersonal contact and traditional mass media usage covaried with high Internet use for the highly engaged type, that had highest political participation and life satisfaction, political knowledge, low depressive symptoms and also high anxiety. The other two types fit the “displacement hypothesis,” where Internet-based media displaces traditional media and face-to-face communication. Compared with the digitally immersed, the traditional repertoire was more knowledgeable and politically engaged, and had better well-being. Latent transition analysis showed these repertoires were stable over 6 months. Identifying different types of people with different information seeking styles clarifies mixed results on effects of online mass media use.

Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are an increasingly important therapeutic modality that are used by clinicians on a daily basis. Unfortunately, clinicians have a limited understanding regarding the underlying mechanism(s) of how SERMs function and their increasingly useful role in the treatment of estrogen-responsive target tissues such as the breast, bone, vagina, uterine endometrium, and brain. This review will provide a basic understanding of our current knowledge of SERM pharmacodynamics and will highlight the clinical applications of Food and Drug Administration-approved SERMs in the treatment of vasomotor symptoms, osteoporosis, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, infertility, and breast cancer and its prevention. SERMs under development and natural phytoestrogens will also be reviewed.

The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) organized the Workshop on Normal Ranges for Estradiol in Postmenopausal Women from September 23 to 24, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. The aim of the workshop was to review existing analytical methodologies for measuring estradiol in postmenopausal women and to assess existing data and study cohorts of postmenopausal women for their suitability to establish normal postmenopausal ranges. The anticipated outcome of the workshop was to develop recommendations for establishing normal ranges generated with a standardized and certified assay that could be adopted by clinical and research communities. The attendees determined that the term reference range was a better descriptor than normal range for estradiol measurements in postmenopausal women. Twenty-eight speakers presented during the workshop.

Social group membership and its social-relational corollaries, for example, social contact, trust, and support, are prophylactic for health. Research has tended to focus on how direct social interactions between members of small-scale groups (i.e., a local sports team or community group) are conducive to positive health outcomes. The current study provides evidence from a longitudinal cross-cultural sample (N = 6,748; 18 countries/societies) that the prophylactic effect of group membership is not isolated to small-scale groups, and that members of groups do not have to directly interact, or in fact know of each other to benefit from membership. Our longitudinal analyses suggest that national identification (strength of association with the country/society of which one is a citizen) predicts lower anxiety and improved health; national identification was in fact almost as positively predictive of health status as anxiety was negatively predictive. The findings indicate that identification with large-scale groups, like small-scale groups, is palliative, and are discussed in terms of globalization and banal nationalism.