The Psychologist

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The Psychologist

Vol 14 No 7

July 2001

President’s column

Fostering European links HE VIIth European Congress of Psychology is due to take place on 1–6 July in the Barbican Centre, London. The programme looks terrific, with an impressive array of keynote speakers and an enormously diverse programme of symposia. The European Federation of Professional Psychologists Associations (EFPPA) comprises the psychological associations of 30 European countries, with some 130,000 individual members (see the interview with the EFPPA President, Tuomo Tikkanen, on p.354). In the Society’s centenary year EFPPA celebrates its own 20th birthday, and it is excellent that our organisations can share these joint birthday celebrations. We expect to see many hundreds of delegates at the Barbican this month. As the different nations of Europe become increasingly integrated at an economic and – perhaps – a political level, it is timely for us to think about the implications for psychology. I do not pretend to understand the potential and actual complexities of the European context for the diversity of professional practice of psychology. It is complicated enough trying to understand how differences (e.g. in the law and in education) between England and Scotland impact upon psychology and its practitioners when they move between systems – how much more difficult when differences in language and in the psychological curriculum are added in too. However, at an academic level I feel more secure in commenting upon the opportunities that are created by the European context for psychology. I have been an active member (and recent President) of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology since its birth some 15 or so years ago. This September the ESCOP Congress will be held in Edinburgh (5–8 September), jointly with our own Cognitive Section conference, again as part of our centenary celebrations. ESCOP has become a vibrant society in recent years, and the organisation’s growth has paralleled the rapid development of cognitive psychology in some European countries. ESCOP has had a particularly successful line in summer schools for graduate students; these activities have not only contributed to the development of a new generation of cognitive psychologists at a European level, but also fostered

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collaborations between those attending the summer schools that have persisted for many years since. Collaborations between psychologists based in different European countries help to develop and reinforce lines of psychology that are particularly strong and distinctive within Europe. This is important, since there is a danger that the intellectual

agenda for science is dominated by English-speaking nations – particularly the USA. Within a discipline where cultural and social dimensions are central to the subject, it is particularly important that research areas and groups are cultivated worldwide. There have been some important lines of research in quite recent years which were nurtured largely within Europe – I think particularly of cognitive neuropsychology, where the use of single cases of brain injury to test and develop models of normal cognitive function was driven strongly in its early years by work in the UK and Italy (a point made by Michael Eysenck in his article on p.352). If we are to ensure that the agenda for psychology remains enriched by different social, cultural and linguistic perspectives and traditions then the European perspective is vital. It is therefore extremely encouraging to see the growth of European health psychology, which will also be celebrated in this our Society centenary year. Health Psychology 2001 will take place in St Andrews, Scotland on 5–8 September. The conference is the joint venture of the European Health Psychology

Society (EHPS) and the Society’s own Division of Health Psychology (DHP). For both EHPS and the DHP, this will be their 15th annual conference. UK psychology is benefiting in other ways from the developments in Europe. The expansion of UK psychology departments and the healthy state of the academic discipline within many of our European neighbouring countries has allowed for a good deal of recruitment from the European mainland to the UK. (The career structure within Germany in particular seems beneficial for the UK psychological economy!) Hopefully these recruits to the UK will facilitate collaborative networks within Europe – and help psychologists compete effectively for European research-funding opportunities. Although I have emphasised academic activities in this column, I strongly believe that psychological research and practice need to develop together. Towards this end, BPS delegates to the EFPPA General Assembly later this month will be putting the motion that the name of EFPPA (the European Federation of Professional Psychologists Associations) be changed to EFPA – the European Federation of Psychologists Associations. We hope that European psychology, like British psychology, will work to integrate psychological science and professional practice, and that this name change (if accepted) will help EF(P)PA play a key role in these developments.

Vicki Bruce Contact address: Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA. E-mail: [email protected].

WEBLINKS European Congress of Psychology: www.bps.org.uk/ecop/home.htm Health Psychology 2001: psy.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/health2001.html

European Society for Cognitive Psychology: www.psyc.abdn.ac.uk/escop2001/index.htm

The Psychologist

Vol 14 No 7

News

ESSAYCOMPETITION THE Foreign Policy Centre’s 2001 Webb Essay Competition invites young people to submit a 2000word essay titled ‘Is science good for us’. It is open to students and people 26 and under with an interest in politics or international affairs.The winning essay will be published in the New Statesman and the author will receive a £1000 prize. Deadline is 26 September 2001. ❏ Address for entr ies:Webb Essay CompetitionThe , Foreign oPlicy Centre, Elizabeth House,Mezzanine Floo,r 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ. For more information see www.fpc.og.r uk.

PSYCHOLOGY HIST ORY AT SHEFFIELD IN a non-commercial venture Peter Warr of the Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, has published Psychology in Sheffield: The Early Years, an account of developments from 1906 to 1970 against a background of national and international events.The book reviews teaching, research and staff–student relations. Some examples of early examination papers are also given. ❏ The book is available only by mail order at £13.90 including post and packing. For further details and an order of rm see www.she.fac.uk/psycholog.y

MENTALHEALTH IN PRIMARYSCHOOLS THE Mental Health Foundation has called for more to be done to identify and support primary school children at risk of developing mental health problems. Among their suggestions is for a mental health co-ordinator to be identified at each school and for Ofsted inspections to assess schools on their ability to work effectively with children with emotional and behavioural problems.

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‘E-car e’ for NHS patients NLINE counselling delivered by qualified psychologists is to be offered to NHS patients for the first time. The new e-care initiative is being piloted at two large general practices in Milton Keynes. Sue Wright and Nadine Field, the Chartered Psychologists who launched the online service (www.psychologyonline.co.uk), have recruited 126 experienced psychologists who will consult private or NHS clients for 16 core areas of difficulty, including anxiety, eating disorders and sexual dysfunction. GPs will screen patients before referring them for the

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55-minute online consultations. ‘PsychologyOnline was specifically formed as the first fully professional site, with only Chartered Psychologists and accredited UKCP psychotherapists practising online,’explained Nadine Field. ‘In addition to adhering to the BPS Code of Conduct, every affiliate has a current practising certificate and full indemnity insurance. We have spent the majority of our web development funds on the provision of secure and fully encrypted session rooms. All of the affiliates have signed confidentiality agreements, and clients can access the BPS website to verify the existence and qualifications of all our

psychologists, with the right to redress through the Society as well as with our company.’ Mark Griffiths, author of the recent article in The Psychologist on online therapy (May 2001), said: ‘Legitimate medical practitioners should be encouraged in trying to reach populations that might never seek health treatment in the first place. In my own area of research – gambling addiction – people who seek online help are more likely to seek offline help at a later stage, using online therapy as a form of ‘pre-therapy’. I feel that PsychologyOnline is a positive development given it is trying to address the potential disadvantages.’

Free internet tutorial NEW version of a web tutorial is due to be launched this month at offering free training in internet skills. The tutorial ‘Internet Psychologist’ (www.sosig.ac.uk/

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vts/psychologist/) takes you on a guided tour of the internet for psychology, pointing out key online journals, books, databases, educational materials and websites. There are tips and hints on searching the web and

The future of BPS Books EGOTIATIONS are nearing completion between the Society and Blackwell to set up a joint book publishing partnership. Last year Council reviewed all the Society’s publications and agreed that the book publishing operation would in future be better served by entering a partnership arrangement with a commercial academic publisher. Since then the Society’s Director of Publications and Communications,Pam Maras, has led a small group of honorary officers in the

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detailed process of negotiation with various publishers to come up with the best deal. Pam Maras said: ‘Blackwell emerged as the best possible partner for the Society because of their past track record and their future commitment.The Society will retain a significant input into the strategic and policy making publishing decisions. I hope that the final aspects of the negotiation will be completed very soon and I am able to make a detailed announcement in a future edition.’

site evaluation, with quizzes and exercises. This is just one of the free services offered by the publicly funded SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway). The SOSIG psychology gateway www.sosig.ac.uk/psychology/ is a search tool that points to psychological resources freely available over the web. A current awareness service called the SOSIG Grapevine enables you to sign up for regular e-mails about psychology conferences, courses and websites, or to publicise information to the psychology community. SOSIG has worked with the Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre for Psychology at the University of York to create these resources. Annie Trapp, Manager of the Centre, commented: ‘The ability to locate, evaluate and use information on the internet is becoming an essential skill. These resources will help psychologists to get more from the web as a source of information.’

July 2001

Time for bed OLICE in Leicester have turned to psychologists in an attempt to curb late night violence in the city centre. They have asked pubs and clubs to play themes from classic children’s television shows such as The Magic Roundabout at closing time, in the hope that the music will soothe tempers. ‘I have absolutely no idea whether this will work or not,’said Inspector Tilley. ‘I got the idea from an American professor of psychology I met on a course. His argument was that if such music was played as people left the club, instead of a thumping beat, those people are reminded of their childhood and will not want to seek a confrontation.’ Adrian North, part of the music psychology research

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group at the University of Leicester, agreed that the effects of music on mood and behaviour could well be taken out of the lab to good effect. However, he disagreed with the choice of music. ‘I contacted the police and told them I thought The Magic Roundabout was too fast, it wouldn’t calm you down. Lovelorn ballads aren’t a good idea either – they could remind people of relationship problems and lead to more fights than it stops. I advised the police to choose slower tempo, soothing music. When we play people this kind of music in the lab, people become more helpful. I spent a Friday night out with the police: it’s early days, but there’s no reason why the scheme couldn’t have a significant effect.’

DEADLINE We welcome news items from members for possible publication; deadline for the September issue is 3 August

Student boom continues A

PPLICATIONS for psychology courses starting this autumn are up 5.7 per cent. Psychology is now the fourth most popular degree subject, with 62,988 places sought. Two newspapers have also recently published psychology rankings in their good university guides. In the Times rankings (www.thetimes.co.uk/uniguide) Oxford, Cambridge and York made up

H.J. EYSENCK MEMORIAL FUND The H.J. Eysenck Memorial Fund has been set up to support research into personality and individual differences. The third annual award of £1000 will be made in 2002. The award is intended to supplement ongoing funded research and is open to any researcher in any part of the world who is working in this field.Applications should include: ● a summary of the research, its significance and results to date if appropriate; ● an itemised account of the purpose for which the award is required; ● an up-to-date CV with photograph; ● the names and addresses of two referees familiar with the research;and ● an indication of how the applicant came to hear of the award. Four copies of the application, in English, should be submitted to The Trustees,The H.J. Eysenck Memorial Fund, PO Box 27824, London SE24 0WE. Deadline for applications is 31 January 2002.

July 2001

the top three of a table based on teaching quality, research, and average A-level grades of 1999 entrants. The Guardian’s version (www.education.guardian.co.uk /universityguide/) is based on teaching assessment, spend per student, staff/student ratio, job prospects, A-level requirements, success in gaining high degree classes for those who arrived with lower grades, and research rating. In this table Royal Holloway, University of London comes out top, followed by Cambridge, Oxford, London School of Economics and Nottingham. Professor Michael Eysenck, Head of Department at Royal Holloway, said: ‘We are particularly pleased that we comfortably outperformed most other departments in terms of the academic progress made by our students during their degree course. The challenge now is to maintain our position in the years ahead.’

The Psychologist

Vol 14 No 7

News analysis

Massaging the m essage P ETER B ULL examines political discourse used in the recent election campaigns. S the art of using language to persuade or influence others, rhetoric is central to political discourse and election campaigning. Devices such as three-part lists (‘education, education, education’) and contrasts (‘in Europe, not run by Europe’) have been shown to be highly effective in inviting applause to political speeches (Atkinson, 1984). Another salient feature of rhetoric is metaphor, understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of something else. Metaphor is not just a matter of language use; metaphors can actually reflect the way in which we perceive, think and act. In political discourse a good metaphor can skilfully project a policy or damage a political opponent. Indeed, the ultimate success for politicians is to persuade sufficient members of the electorate to think in terms of their own metaphors. Political rhetoric can also be understood in terms of self-categorisation theory (Turner et al., 1987). From this perspective democratically elected politicians will use rhetoric to maximise people’s identification with their own party or ‘ingroup’, while

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making identification with other ‘outgroups’ as restricted as possible (Reicher & Hopkins, 1996). Persuasive metaphors are a powerful way of achieving this end. Another characteristic feature of political discourse is equivocation – the strategic use of imprecise language. According to Bavelas et al. (1990), people tend to equivocate when placed in an ‘avoidance–avoidance’conflict, where all possible replies to a question are negative, but the person must still produce a response. Thus, equivocation may not necessarily be due to the intrinsic slipperiness of politicians, it may also occur as a response to ‘no-win’questions that reflect hard political choices (such as the more services/less tax dilemma). Given that politics is a highly face-threatening activity, a prime cause of political equivocation is the need to present the best possible ‘face’ (Bull et al., 1996). Thus politicians will actively seek to denigrate their opponents; interviewers and other members of the media ask face-threatening questions; sharp-witted and well-informed members of the public have on occasions

embarrassed the most eminent of politicians. In short, politicians will seek not only to minimise face damage but also to present themselves and the party they represent in the best possible light (and inflict face damage on their political opponents). These different theories can be used to provide some interesting insights into the language of politics. Tony Blair – as Labour leader in the 1997 General Election – represented a party with policies the complete opposite of those in the catastrophic electoral defeat of 1983 (the year of Blair’s first election to Parliament). Such dramatic about-turns in policy inevitably create major problems in presentation: the changes not only reflect badly on what went before, but also may be depicted as cynical and unprincipled, simply currying support with the voters. Questions about these changes could be seen to place Blair in potential avoidance–avoidance conflicts, which he was able to handle through the allembracing metaphor of ‘modernisation’ (Bull, 2000). Not only did this enable him to equivocate adroitly in response to

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News analysis

awkward ‘no-win’ questions about policy change, it also enabled him to present a positive face for New Labour. Furthermore, the changes could be presented as principled, a process of applying the core values of the Labour Party to the modern world. Change could also be acknowledged without condemning or criticising the old Labour Party, hence minimising the risk of alienating traditional Labour support. Blair’s strategic use of this imprecise ‘rhetoric of modernisation’could be understood as a highly skilled form of political communication. By May 2001 all this had changed. The policy volte-face between 1983 and 1997 was no longer an issue, and Labour went to the election as the party of government with an apparently unassailable lead in the opinion polls. However, Blair could still be seen to be in an avoidance–avoidance conflict, albeit a different one. There was the problem of complacency: if Labour voters had thought the election was such a foregone conclusion and stayed at home in sufficient numbers, this could have seriously damaged Labour’s performance. There was the problem of disappointment from people who expected more of New Labour on public services and public transport. To counteract these tendencies, Blair needed to run a sufficiently positive campaign to mobilise his supporters and persuade voters to give Labour a second term. On the other hand, there was the danger of making mistakes. Any serious face-damaging pratfalls might have significantly undermined Labour’s standing in the opinion polls. The petrol crisis last autumn showed how rapidly even a commanding lead in the polls can evaporate. In this campaign Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy repeatedly criticised Labour for the timidity of its electoral stance, which might be seen as reflecting these underlying contradictions. Labour’s equivocal language on tax and public spending illustrates well how the avoidance–avoidance conflict might result in equivocal policy. On the one hand, they did not wish to alienate support through being seen as a party of high taxation; on the other hand, they did not wish to disappoint their natural supporters who expect improved public services. In 1997 Labour promised not to increase income tax, and at this election they renewed this pledge. Despite this unequivocal commitment, Labour’s overall tax policy could still be seen as highly equivocal, given the lack of any comparable

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commitment on indirect taxation. To denigrate this stance, Conservative leader William Hague successfully introduced the pejorative metaphor of ‘stealth taxes’into the wider political currency. The Conservative Party’s problems in this election were entirely different. The central problem for Hague could be seen as one of credibility. Not only was his party lagging seriously behind in the opinion polls throughout almost the whole parliament, so too his own personal approval ratings lagged seriously behind Blair’s. Hague’s problems might be seen as only compounded by the rightward lurch of the Conservative Party under his leadership, which made it harder for him to capture the centre ground, of crucial importance in UK politics. For example, his hard line on asylum seekers might (in terms of self-

‘It is not just a question of ha ving the right policies, y ou also need the right w ords’ categorisation theory) have consolidated support within the Conservative Party’s ingroup, but only at the expense of making that ingroup too exclusive. In this situation Hague’s approach was to take the offensive, to attack Labour’s record on taxation, law and order, public services, asylum seekers and the euro. Hague is in fact highly proficient at this kind of aggressive rhetoric. His language is replete with contrasts and lists, the kind of techniques analysed by Atkinson; it is as if he has read every book on public speaking and mastered every rhetorical technique. But the Conservative campaign still failed to make any impact on Labour’s commanding opinion poll lead. Thus, however well rhetoric is delivered, it still appears to be ultimately reliant on policy proposals with sufficiently broad appeal to win widespread electoral support. For the Liberal Democrats the prime problem was also one of credibility. In 1997 they captured 46 seats – their greatest electoral success since before the Second World War. But they remained a minority party. Minorities can, however, still affect mainstream opinion, particularly through what Moscovici (1976) in his theory of minority influence termed ‘behavioural style’. Consistency is an important feature of this, indicating strong conviction and commitment and showing that the minority believes in what it says. From this perspective it is not sufficient for the

Liberal Democrats simply to be different from the two major parties; they need to do so in a consistent and coherent fashion. In this context their unequivocal proposal to increase income tax to fund better public services stood in marked contrast to the two major political parties – whom Liberal Democrats criticised for failing to explain how better public services will be adequately financed. There is now a growing awareness of the importance of political language. It is not just a question of having the right policies, you also need the right words to communicate the policies. The role of ‘spin doctoring’ has become well known, this new political metaphor passing rapidly into popular usage. Furthermore, political pollsters now recognise that identifying which issues are of greatest importance to the voters is no longer enough. Thus, ‘message polling’seeks to evaluate the best choice of words with which to communicate policies. This may not be important for voters who make up their minds long before an election. But for the floating voters – now sometimes referred to as the ‘switchables’ – message polling suggests that choice of words is crucial. From this perspective, political rhetoric is not ‘just rhetoric’: it is integral to the political process, to be ignored at a politician’s peril. It will have played an important part in the outcome on 7 June. ■ Peter Bull is at the Department of Psychology, University of York. E-mail: [email protected].

References Atkinson,J.M.(1984). Our masters’voices. London and New York:Methuen. Bave l a s ,J .B . ,B l a c k ,A . ,C h ov i l ,N , . & Mullett, J.(1990). Equivocal communication. Newbury Park, CA :S a g e. Bull, P. E.(2000).Equivocation and the rhetoric of modernisation:An analysis of televised interviews with Tony Blair in the 1997 British General Election. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 19, 222–247. Bull, P. E.,Elliott,J.,Palmer, D., & Walker, L.(1996).Why politicians are three-faced: The face model of political interviews. British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 267–284. Moscovici,S.(1976) Social influence and social change. London:Academic Press. Reicher, S., & Hopkins, N.(1996).Self-category constructions in political rhetoric: an analysis of Thatcher’s and Kinnock’s speeches concerning the British miners’ strike (1984–5). European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 353–371. Turner, J. C. ,H o g g ,M .A . ,O a ke s , P. J.,Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell,M.S.(1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

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