The Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood

This book examines the social psychological processes involved in experiences of collective victimization and oppression, as well as the consequences of these experiences for individuals and for relations within and between groups. In twenty chapters, authors explore questions such as: How are experiences of collective victimization passed down and understood? How do people cope with and make sense of these experiences? Who is included and excluded from the category of "victims," and what are the psychological consequences of such denial versus acknowledgment of collective victimization? And finally, what are the ethics of researching collective victimization, especially when these experiences are recent or politically contested?

List of contents

• Chapter 1. Introduction to "The Social Psychology of Collective Victimhood": Examining Context, Power, and Diversity in Experiences of Collective Victimization


• Johanna Ray Vollhardt


• Section 1: How are Narratives of Collective Victimization Passed Down? Transmission of Collective Victimhood in Families and Communities


• Chapter 2. Transgenerational Transmission of Collective Victimhood through a Developmental Intergroup Framework: The Lasting Power of Group Narratives of Suffering


• Laura Taylor, Marina Stambuk, Dinka Corkalo Biruski, and Dean O'Driscoll


• Chapter 3. Collective Memory and the Legacy of the Troubles: Territoriality, Identity and Victimhood in Northern Ireland


• Neil Ferguson and Donna Halliday


• Section 2: How do People Appraise, Feel About, and Respond to Collective Victimization? Affect and Coping Mechanisms Involved in Collective Victimhood


• Chapter 4. The Context, Content, and Claims of Humiliation in Response to Collective Victimhood


• Yashpal Jogdand, Sammyh Khan, and Stephen Reicher


• Chapter 5. A Temporal Account of Collective Victimization as Existential Threat: Reconsidering Adaptive and Maladaptive Responses


• Gilad Hirschberger and Tsachi Ein-Dor


• Chapter 6. Collective Victimhood as a Form of Adaptation: A World Systems Perspective


• Michal Bilewicz and James Liu


• Chapter 7. The Unifying Potential of an Appraisal Approach to the Experience of Group Victimization


• Colin Wayne Leach


• Section 3: How do People Make Sense of Collective Victimization? Collective Victim Beliefs, Lay Theories, and Lessons of Collective Victimhood


• Chapter 8. Studied and Understudied Victim Beliefs: What Have We Learned So Far and What's Ahead?


• Zsolt Péter Szabó


• Chapter 9. Community Members' Theorisation of Their Collective Victimization: Deliberating the Dynamics to Islamophobia


• Nick Hopkins and Anna Dobai


• Chapter 10. In the Aftermath of Historical Trauma: Perceived Moral Obligations of Current Group Members


• Yechiel Klar, Noa Schori-Eyal, and Lior Yom Tov


• Section 4: How Does Social Inequality Influence Collective Victimhood? The Role of Structural Violence, Intersectionality, and Group-based Power


• Chapter 11. Collective Victimhood Resulting from Structural Violence


• Silvia Mari, Denise Bentrovato, Federica Durante, and Johan Wassermann


• Chapter 12. Examining Collective Victim Beliefs using Intersectionality


• Rashmi Nair, Mukadder Okuyan, and Nicola Curtin


• Chapter 13. Resentment and Redemption: On the Mobilisation of Dominant Group Victimhood


• Stephen Reicher and Yasemin Ulusahin


• Section 5: Who is Considered a Victim? Inclusion and Exclusion Dynamics of Collective Victimhood Based on Power and Perceived Legitimacy


• Chapter 14. Experiencing Acknowledgment versus Denial of the Ingroup's Collective Victimization


• Michelle Sinayobye Twali, Boaz Hameiri, Johanna Ray Vollhardt, and Arie Nadler


• Chapter 15. A Critical Race Reading of Collective Victimhood: The Precarious Case of Black Americans


• Michael J. Perez and Phia S. Salter


• Chapter 16. "We All Suffered!" - The Role of Power in Rhetorical Strategies of Inclusive Victimhood and its Consequences for Intergroup Relations


• Andrew McNeill and Johanna Ray Vollhardt


• Section 6: What is the Role of Personality Traits and Psychological Needs in Collective Victimhood?


• Chapter 17. The Tendency to Feel Victimized in Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships


• Rahav Gabay, Boaz Hameiri, Tami Lipshitz, and Arie Nadler


• Chapter 18. Striking at the Core: A Unified Framework of How Collective Victimhood Affects Basic Psychological Needs for Relatedness, Competence, and Autonomy


• Frank Jake Kachanoff, Michael J. A. Wohl, and Donald M. Taylor


• Chapter 19. When Two Groups Hurt Each Other: Understanding and Reducing the Negative Consequences of Collective Victimhood in Dual Conflicts


• Nurit Shnabel, Rotem Kahalon, Johannes Ullrich, and Anna Lisa Aydin


• Section 7: Ethical Challenges in Researching Collective Victimization


• Chapter 20. The Ethics of Researching and Writing about Collective Victimhood in Post-Conflict Societies


• Sigrun Marie Moss

About the author

Johanna Ray Vollhardt is Associate Professor of Psychology at Clark University, where she directs the Social Psychology Ph.D. program. At Clark, she is also affiliated with the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Peace Studies program, and the Center for Gender, Area, and Race Studies.
She has served on the governing council and as Vice President of the International Society of Political Psychology. She is a co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology.

Summary

Throughout the world, many continue to experience collective violence and its long-lasting consequences. This book examines the social psychological processes involved in experiences of collective victimization and oppression, as well as the consequences of these experiences for individuals and for relations within and between groups. In twenty chapters, authors explore questions such as: How are experiences of collective victimization passed down and understood? How do people cope with and make sense of these experiences? Who is included and excluded from the category of "victims," and what are the psychological consequences of such denial versus acknowledgment of collective victimization? And finally, what are the ethics of researching collective victimization, especially when these experiences are recent or politically contested?

The authors examine these questions and others across a range of different contexts of collective violence in different parts of the world, including ethnic and religious conflicts, the aftermath of genocides, post-Apartheid, consequences of settler colonialism, racism, the caste system, and national histories of victimization.

Additional text

"This book edited by Johanna Vollhardt opens a large window to the comprehension of collective victimhood as a societal phenomenon from different aspects. This is a very interesting collection of papers badly needed for scholars, practitioners, and even lay people who desire to widen their knowledge with the socio-psychological perspective."

Product details

• Authors: Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Johanna Ray (Associate Professor of Psy Vollhardt, Johanna Ray (EDT) Vollhardt
• Assisted by: Johanna Ray Vollhardt (Editor), Johanna Ray (Associate Professor of Psychology Vollhardt (Editor), Vollhardt Johanna Ray (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2020
• EAN: 9780190875190
• ISBN: 978-0-19-087519-0
• No. of pages: 472
• Dimensions: 163 mm x 245 mm x 35 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology, PSYCHOLOGY / Psychopathology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Services, Abnormal psychology, Social welfare & social services, Social, group or collective psychology, Social welfare and social services