The IDC

efforts in three new directions: (a) determining whether security priming
removes or overcomes the barriers to compassion that have been identified
by other researchers; (b) studying the effects of security priming on
compassionate love within three different relational contexts – romantic
relationships, small groups, and intergroup interactions; and (c) designing
and evaluating longer-term, more powerful security priming interventions
that can be used in the real world. In particular, we propose nine laboratory
experiments examining the contribution of security priming, chronic
attachment insecurities, and compassion barriers to the sensitive provision
of compassionate care in couple relationships, prosocial behavior in small
group settings, and generous behavior toward members of outgroups.
To evaluate the replicability and cross-cultural generalizability of our
findings, each study will include half American participants and half Israeli
participants, as in our previous Fetzer studies. The results will provide a
deeper psychological understanding of compassionate love in specific
relational contexts and suggest new ways in which security priming can be
used to foster compassionate love in the real world.
STUDYING THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF
PRISONERS OF WAR
Trajectories and Underlying Mechanisms of the Long-Term Mental
Health Consequences of War Captivity: An Attachment Perspective.
Prof. Mario Mikulincer (Psychology), Funded by the US-Israel
Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
Being a prisoner of war (POW) is usually extremely traumatic, often
causing serious damage to mental and physical health. We propose to learn
more about the long-term effects of such experiences and gain insights into
how their damaging effects might be ameliorated. We have an opportunity
to follow Israeli ex-POWs of the Yom Kippur War and examine the longterm
trajectories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as the
psychological mechanisms that contribute to resilience and successful
recovery and those that underlie chronic or delayed PTSD. In previous
studies we collected data on these ex-POWs’
THE FINDINGS WILL HAVE IMPORTANT THEORETICAL AND
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND
TREATING THE EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS OF EX-POWS.
PTSD symptoms 18 and 30 years after the war and compared them with
outcomes for a matched control group of Israeli veterans. In the proposed
follow-up study, we would re-contact members of these two groups 35
years after the war and examine the functioning of their “attachment
systems,” one of the basic psycho-biological systems involved in emotion
regulation, mental health, and personal and social adjustment. Specifically,
ex-POWs and matched controls would complete self-report scales and
experimental tasks and would participate in narrative interviews that
assess psychopathology and attachment-related emotions, beliefs, and
experiences. We would determine the extent to which attachment-related
mental representations act as regulatory, soothing, and healing agents in the
Being A PrisOner Of wAr (POw) is usuAlly
extremely trAumAtic, Often cAusing seriOus
DAmAge tO mentAl AnD PhysicAl heAlth. the
us-isrAel BinAtiOnAl science fOunDAtiOn is
funDing this stuDy tO leArn mOre ABOut the
lOng-term effects Of such exPeriences
minds and lives of ex-POWS with different long-term PTSD trajectories:
resilience, chronic PTSD, delayed PTSD, and recovery from PTSD. The
findings will have important theoretical and practical implications for
understanding and treating the emotional problems of ex-POWs.
hOt Off the Press AcADemic news
A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY HUMAN
LONG-TERM MEMORY
Memory to Action in the Parietal Lobes: A Neuropsychological
Study Dr. Daniel Levy (Psychology), Funded by the Israel Science
Foundation
One of the most interesting current riddles in
cognitive neuroscience relates to the role of posterior
lateral parietal cortex in human long-term memory.
Electrophysiological and hemodynamic studies
of memory have consistently noted robust parietal
activation during memory retrieval. On the other
hand, contemporary neuropsychological studies have
found that parietal lesions do not impair performance on a wide range
of long-term memory tasks, including item recognition, source memory
retrieval, and directed retrieval of autobiographical memory. The proposed
study addresses these seemingly contradictory findings in light of Dr.
Levy’s Memory-to-Action hypothesis: that posterior parietal cortex does
not play a role in retrieval itself, but rather in post-retrieval processes that
support subsequent action – specifically, holding memoranda in a working
One Of the mOst interesting current
riDDles in cOgnitive neurOscience relAtes
tO the rOle Of POsteriOr lAterAl PArietAl
cOrtex in humAn lOng-term memOry.
memory episodic buffer. This study will explore the relationship between
mnemonic and attentional processes in which posterior parietal cortex is
implicated, with an eye towards differential roles of superior and inferior
lateral parietal subregions. Dr. Levy plans to conduct neuropsychological
studies of patients with parietal lobe lesions, assessing their performance
on challenging recognition memory tasks and multi-modal pair associate
cued recall, in order to test the limits of memory function preserved in
face of parietal damage (which will be quantitatively characterized using
clinical imaging and advanced analyses).
NEW PROGRAMS IN POLITICAL
PSYCHOLOGY
LAUDER SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT, DIPLOMACY
& STRATEGY
A new program in Political Psychology was established
at IDC by Prof. Alex Mintz (director of the program)
and Dr. Eran Halperin (associate director). As of
February 1, 2010, Dr. Mintz will serve as editor of the
journal, Political Psychology, which will be housed
at the Lauder School, and will edit the University
of Chicago Press book series on Leadership and
Decision Making in the International Arena (with Rose
McDermott). Halperin will run a workshop in Political
Psychology with leading scholars as guest lecturers.
The program will host the 2013 annual meeting of
the International Society of Political Psychology
at the IDC. Faculty members from the New School
of Psychology, the Arison Business School and the
Lauder School of Government, as well as a few graduate
students, are involved in this research program.
IDC Winter 2010 > 35