Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 5 of 5
-
ItemCreativity in writers : investigating the role of personality and emotional intelligence(University of Melbourne, 2007)
-
ItemGrassroots perspectives on peace in Sri Lanka(University of Melbourne, 2007)
-
Item
-
ItemThe assessment and treatment of concerns and anxiety in patients undergoing pre-surgical monitoring for epilepsy( 2006)The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of an information package on reducing pre-surgical anxiety and concerns in patients with intractable epilepsy. Adverse psychological and social effects of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) are instrumental in anxiety and distress in these patients. This is brought into the hospital setting and exacerbated by the monitoring process and concomitant possibility of surgery where many patients prematurely curtailed the process at cost to themselves and the hospital.
-
ItemOur flaws are ‘only human’: the role of the human nature concept in group-protection( 2009)Negative characterisations of social groups threaten group members’ social identities evoking various group-protective responses. Drawing on research about the functions of lay conceptions of humanness in social perception, the current research investigated a novel group-protective strategy: believing that an in group’s negative traits (flaws) are fundamental aspects of ‘human nature’ (HN). A similar protective strategy has been documented when acknowledging flaws in the individual self; this was extended to the acknowledgement of in group flaws in the current studies. In Study 1 (N = 77),participants’ in group-descriptiveness ratings of flaws were most strongly predicted by their HN ratings of flaws, suggesting that people may selectively acknowledge HN flaws as in group-descriptive. Study 2 (N = 51) demonstrated that flaws were rated higher on HN when attributed to an in group than to an out group. However, this effect was not found for positive traits, suggesting that it may reflect a motivation to protect a threatened in group-identity. Study 3 (N = 79) replicated this asymmetrical ‘humanising of in group flaws’ effect, and found that it was independent of desirability. In addition in group-identification was measured in Study 3 and found not to moderate the humanising of in group flaws. Finally, in Study 3 participants also rated traits on an alternative sense of humanness, known as ‘human uniqueness’ (HU). The asymmetrical humanising of in group flaws effect was not found for the HU dimension, indicating that HN may be better suited to the protective function of mitigating flaws. These studies indicate that HN beliefs are systematically related to in group flaw-acknowledgement and suggest that in order to mitigate their in group’s flaws and thus protect the value of their social identities, people may be motivated to (a) selectively acknowledge HN flaws as in group-descriptive; and (b) ‘humanise’ flaws attributed to their in group Further more, the current research supports the claim that HN is an important dimension of social perception (e.g., Haslam et al., 2008); extends the relevance of this dimension to perceptions of in groups; and suggests that the HN concept should be understood as dynamic and flexible, rather than fixed.