Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology最新文献

This paper explores community members' perspectives on the developmental value of classical music ensemble participation for children and young people based in the North-West of England. Drawing on 16 in-depth individual interviews and one focus group (N = 5), the study discusses how parents, school teachers, music tutors and charity board members (N = 21; age range from 25 to 60 years; 13 females, 8 males) interpret the benefits and challenges associated with learning and performing in an ensemble. Using reflexive thematic analysis supported by NVivo, five interconnected themes were generated, illustrating how community members make sense of ensemble participation as a catalyst for holistic development. Participants described young people's engagement in ensembles as fostering cognitive and academic skills while simultaneously nurturing emotional skills and passion for music. Community members also emphasised the relational and social value of ensemble practice, highlighting the formation of inclusive, ‘family-like communities’ characterised by belonging and reciprocity. Overall, the findings suggest that ensemble programmes provide a powerful context for life-skills development, calling for educational institutions and community organisations to ensure equitable access to high-quality, community-embedded music initiatives and to foreground the holistic potential of ensemble participation. Policymakers are encouraged to recognise the wider developmental and social significance of music education and to strengthen long-term, inclusive funding for ensemble-based provision.

Sport for development (SFD) is a field that leverages sport to advance social development goals. Participatory and sport-didactical approaches, such as football3, prioritise social outcomes over competitive success. However, evidence of their effectiveness remains limited. This study presents results from a field experiment in Bulgaria, comparing schoolchildren engaged in the participatory football3 method to peers playing traditional football. We assess both on-pitch and off-pitch outcomes relevant to SFD, including life skills, social awareness, and school adaptation. Findings show that football3 encourages values like respect over excellence but also increases on-pitch conflict. Off the pitch, we observe mixed results: modest improvements in school adaptation, declines in some life skills, and mostly no effects on social awareness. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's community and social impact statement.

Media representations of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people have become more frequent and have the potential to influence how readers feel and think about them. Across two experimental studies, we tested how news articles featuring positive, negative, and neutral representations of TGD people and issues influence the attitudes of cisgender people toward TGD people. Study 1 (N = 730; between-participants) revealed an indirect effect of the articles' valence on cognitive attitudes through the mediation of feelings: an article with positive valence increased positive feelings, which in turn increased positive cognitive attitudes toward TGD people. Study 2 (N = 387; mixed between- and within-participants) showed that an article with negative valence directly worsened cognitive and affective attitudes toward TGD people compared to baseline attitudes (measured 1 week before). Stronger positive feelings were linked to more positive cognitive, behavioural, and affective attitudes, while stronger negative feelings were linked to more negative affective attitudes. However, emotional responses varied according to participants' pre-existing attitudes. These results highlight the importance of valence in news media representations of TGD people by documenting how feelings elicited upon reading articles can influence attitudes toward them.

This paper reports on an exploratory design-led case study on how to achieve a stronger coupling of human wellbeing and material resource flow as a strategy to contribute to reducing textile consumption for the Circular Economy. The significance of wellbeing and sustainability for consumer experiences is discussed. The Wellbeing Framework for Consumer Experiences in the Circular Economy of the Textile Industry is introduced, this engages with both hedonic short-term pleasure-seeking—usually associated with fashion consumption and eudaimonic dimensions of wellbeing. The study methodology consists of a novel ‘living lab’ in the form of a speculative retail environment consisting of alternative circular consumer experiences, products and prototype services in the context of circular textile consumption. The study participants' experiences and the meanings of wellbeing to them in the context of sustainable consumption are presented and discussed. These findings flesh out, validate and refine the Wellbeing Framework elements and dimensions and demonstrate its operationalisation as a design strategy to facilitate meaningful sustainable consumer experiences. The paper concludes that designing consumer experiences to amplify human wellbeing is a viable circular strategy and that the Wellbeing Framework can contribute to this design process.

Colonialism persists as a cultural, economic, political and psychological process. Colonial legacies embedded in Europe's landscapes of colonial memory continue to shape how individuals and groups are perceived and positioned in present-day intergroup relations. Schools and textbooks reproduce these legacies, making it essential to examine how they represent the colonised Other and construct power relations. This study investigates how images related to colonialism in Finnish school textbooks construct identity and power. Drawing on the social representations approach (SRA) and employing visual rhetorical analysis (VRA), 484 images from 52 textbooks were analysed to identify constructions of identity through subject positions and power through ego–alter pairings. The analysis identified four visual rhetorical strategies—oppressing, agentic, chaotising and eye-gazing—and addressed four subject positions of the colonised Other: subjugated, autonomous, wreckable and spectacular. The findings demonstrate how images construct and circulate collective memories and group identities, revealing how colonial hierarchies are maintained through imagery in the educational context. Empirically, the study provides new insights into how the colonised Other is visually represented in school textbooks. Theoretically and methodologically, it introduces the ego–alter framework to visual analysis, demonstrates the utility of VRA for uncovering the power of imagery, contributes to postcolonial social psychology and provides tools to foster critical visual literacy and challenge colonial legacies.

We report two studies investigating the relationship between political orientation, national identification and system support among members of discriminated groups within a nation. We used four cross-national datasets comprising several Western countries and more than 13,000 respondents who identified as members of discriminated groups in their respective nations. Study 2 was pre-registered and replicated the methods and analyses of Study 1. Results from both studies indicated that right-leaning individuals from discriminated groups were slightly more likely to be satisfied with the existing system but were equally likely to trust the system compared to their left-leaning counterparts. Furthermore, rightists showed higher levels of national identification. Across both studies, national identification was positively associated with both system satisfaction and trust and showed a significant indirect effect in the relationship between political orientation and system support. These findings suggest that increased system support among discriminated individuals may be partially associated with heightened national identification, which tends to co-occur with right-wing political orientation.

In a sample of 438 adolescents, we found that greater exposure to online hate speech was associated with higher levels of both support for and engagement in such behaviour. This relationship was mediated by perceived injunctive and descriptive norms. The mediating effect of perceived descriptive norms was amplified when participants appraised online hate speech as low in offensiveness. Findings provide insights for prevention programs.

Social touch has the power to alleviate physical pain and emotional distress. Here we ask whether touch is perceived as more effective than words in comforting interactions, and whether its effects are influenced by interaction dynamics, individual preferences for touch, propensity to trust, and trait empathy. Across two studies, participants (n = 199) were exposed to comics depicting comforting interactions between two friends, one experiencing emotional distress and the other providing comfort either verbally or through touch. Results suggest that the comforter's trustworthiness and the interaction positivity increase when the comforting modality matches the one that observers would likely use in their friendships. Tactile interactions and observers' high trait empathy enhance emotional empathy. Social touch therefore emerges as especially impactful in eliciting empathy, yet it may also carry the risk of enhancing personal distress for comforters. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's community and social impact statement.

Research on the gender gap in STEM has primarily focused on the behaviours of girls and women in response to their environments, with little focus on the attitudes of the boys and men. We introduce the Draw-A-Woman-Scientist Test (DAWST), a variant on the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST), in order to understand attitudes towards women scientists. Using a sample of 696 drawings from students in grades K–7, we analyse rubric scores for differences across grade and gender. Our findings indicate that boys are less likely than girls to depict women scientists with feminine features. In addition, girls more frequently illustrate contemporary, realistic scientists, while boys tend to portray scientists in more sensationalised ways. Few changes occur across grade level other than those associated with drawing skill level. Overall, the image of the traditional scientist (lab coat, goggles, chemistry) persists. We note implications for policy and practice, with a focus on how ‘girls-in-STEM’ initiatives may contribute to gender imbalances by siloing depictions of women scientists into gender-specific programming, rather than integrating those images into mainstream science education.