Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries

This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it had a significant association with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, and with environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of considering negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing.publishedVersio

Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action : correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsThis study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it had a significant association with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, and with environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of considering negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing.Peer reviewe

Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: Correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries

This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it had a significant association with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, and with environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of considering negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing

Between rejection and coping: the consolidation of turkish identity in Germany

Bayad A. Between rejection and coping: the consolidation of turkish identity in Germany. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2021.Starting from a social assimilationist perspective, up to a mutual accommodation of cultures (e.g., integration), the concept and the theory of acculturation passed through several refinements during the last century (Gordon, 1964; Sam & Berry, 2006). A substantial body of literature suggested that integration orientation of individuals (e.g., biculturalism) together with a multiculturalist society is the best practice for minorities regarding health-related, psychological, and socio-cultural adjustment in a globalised world (Berry, 2006; Benet-Martínez & Harritos, 2005; Kaya, 2019; Kymlicka, 1995; Gaertner et al., 2000; González & Brown, 2006; Nespitt-Larking, 2014). However, Turkish postmigrants’ acculturation orientation constitute an exception for the premise of acculturation theory (Sam & Berry, 2006), although, in the early 2000’s, significant empirical evidence challenged the assumption about their ‘peculiarity’ (Diehl & Schnell, 2006; Kaya & Kentel, 2004). Eventually, a ‘decline of dual identity’ occurred during the last decade, since many studies repeatedly failed to meet the optimistic expectation of biculturalism among Turkish postmigrants (Baysu, Phalet & Brown, 2011; Felischmann, Phalet & Swyngedouw, 2013; Leszczensky, 2013; Sauer, 2018; Simon, Reichert & Grabow, 2013). This dissertation aimed to understand the underlying social-psychological mechanisms of the decline of dual identity among Turkish postmigrants. Relying on the assumptions of rejection-(dis)identification models (Branscombe et al., 1999a; Jasinskaja-Lahti et al., 2009), we argue that the subjective aspect of rejection rather than objective experience of it, is under jeopardy among Turkish postmigrants that can be associated with extraterritorial outreach attempts of Turkey (Adamson, 2019; Glasius, 2018; Hatay & Tziarras, 2019b). To this end, we realised a three-year mixed methodological research (1) to contextualise rejection concept via a qualitative study (n = 26), (2) to associate demonstrated rejection components with the change in the ethnonational identification of Turkish postmigrants via a repeated cross-sectional survey (n = 1093) and (3) to re-conceptualise the well-known perceived discrimination variable in the light of previous findings via an experimental vignette study (n = 217). viii In the first study, we employed the stigma-induced identity threat model (Major & O'Brien, 2005) and found that Turkish postmigrants are physically or vicariously exposed to maltreatment and appraise the danger through personal and social resources and finally attribute the harmful incidents to particular agents or sources in order to overcome the adverse effects rejection. This study shows that the fear and concerns of rejection is more widespread than the actual encounter to social exclusion practices (Kloek, Peter and Wagner, 2015). Besides, Turkish postmigrants internalise the stigma of living in a parallel society (Hiscott, 2005) and attribute the rejection to their in-group apart from blaming Germans for rejection (Major, Quinton & McCoy, 2002). In the second study, we associated these components of rejection to the change of the ethnonational identification of Turkish postmigrants between 2008 and 2014 correspond to the shift in diaspora governance of Turkey (Adar, 2019; Arkilic, 2021; Hatay & Tziarras, 2019b). As expected, we found that ethnonational identification of Turkish postmigrants is more sensitive to the subjective components of rejection (e.g., appraisal of threat & causal attribution) rather than the objective rejection experiences. Finally, in the third study, we reconceptualised the discrimination (i.e., Justifiable, Perceived, Structural and Apprehensive) based on a combination of the appraisal of threat and causal attribution, and examined their main as well as interaction effects on the dual identification, political participation and resilience to violent extremism. We found that while a generalised threat (e.g., towards non-Germans) promote national identification, a specific threat (e.g., towards Turks) undermine the same and increase the ethnic identification. Besides, both appraisal of threat and causal attribution have the main effect on political participation, while their interaction only affects resilience to violent extremism. Our careful investigation clarifies that instead of a decline of dual identity, a consolidation of ethnic identity occurs among Turkish postmigrants (Klein, Spear & Reicher, 2007). Accordingly, their insecure position both within the in-group in the face of extraterritorial outreach policies of Turkey (Adamson, 2019; Glasius, 2018) and the inter groups system in Germany in the face of increased new social exclusion waves (Kaya, 2019; ix Ramm, 2010), drive them toward their ethnic identity and detaches them from the national identity. However, our contextualised approach shows that framing the rejection via the loci of appraisal of threat and causal attribution might reverse the current trend of consolidation of Turkish identity in Germany. After the interpretation of diverse findings revealed from different methodologies, we draw a conclusion and discussed the possible policy as well as the scientific recommendations in the last section of the dissertation

Muslim Life in the Corona Crisis

Demir Z, Bayad A. Muslim Life in the Corona Crisis. IKG Science Blog, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld University. 11.08.2020

Whom to defend, whom to blame? Framing rejection shapes dual identification and political participation of postmigrants in Germany

Bayad A, Ayanian A, Zick A. Whom to defend, whom to blame? Framing rejection shapes dual identification and political participation of postmigrants in Germany. OSF Preprints. 2023.The perception of rejection is a crucial factor for minorities’ feelings of belonging toward their ethnonational identities that can be more critical for their political participation than the legal frameworks of naturalisation (i.e., becoming a citizen). In social psychology, however, researchers mainly examine perceived discrimination by quantifying its subjective level, as if it is a unidimensional phenomenon. However, the source and cause of rejection matter for intergroup relations. In pilot study, we elaborated rejection with two sub-factors, namely the appraisal of threat and causal attribution via experimental vignettes in a pre-registered survey experiment (N = 217). We showed that the locus of causal attribution changes dual identification via latent measures among a Turkish postmigrant sample. Furthermore, both appraisals of threat and causal attribution had a main effect on political participation. These initial findings show that apart from the quantity, the quality of rejection is essential for the sense of belonging and political participation of migrant minorities. In the second pre-registered correlational study, we aim to replicate our initial findings in a broader sample consisting of Russian and Turkish postmigrants via an online survey with ameliorated measurements

TransMIGZ Working Paper Series No. 01

Sandal-Önal E, Bayad A, Duzen E. Transnational conflicts, belongings, and social interactions. TransMIGZ Working Paper Series. Bielefeld; 2022.The present paper is an edited collection of manuscripts produced out of an online panel organized by the conveners on 1 December 2021 under the same title: Transnational conflicts, belongings, and social interactions. It was a part of the conference series promoting the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) at Bielefeld University. Our call to bring together scientific knowledge from allied disciplines sharing the view that transnational bonds influence identity expressions, intergroup relations and the sense of belonging displayed by Turkish postmigrants has been echoed in the thoughts of our esteemed contributors. Their expertise helped us to better explicate the in-between position of Turkish postmigrants and their understanding of social cohesion in Germany and beyond. The preface written by Andreas Zick invites us to think of the new global trend of 'ethnocentric transnationalism' that demands the populations living abroad to become ‘diasporas of the nation-states' instead of feeling at home in their unique transnational space above and beyond a single nation-state. Deriving from the history of conflict and violence research, he postulates that increased networking capacities of humans and organizations also pose a threat to the spread of nationalist and exclusionary ideologies which are on the rise and conveyed across many extreme groups. Bahar Baser and Ahmet Erdi Ozturk provides a brief history of recent diaspora currents originating from Turkey as a result of the democratic backsliding of the government in Turkey which is exclusively run by Justice and Development Party (acronymized AKP in Turkish) since 2002. Based on their ongoing study on 'the new wave' of migration after the Gezi protests, they show that official records fall short to capture the reality of the new wave since both legal and illegal ways of fleeing have been heavily exercised by dissidents of the government for a better life in Europe, eventually taking the form of a full-scale brain drain. Aydın Bayad, Elif Sandal-Önal, and N. Ekrem Düzen aims to capture the reflection of the diaspora governance policy of Turkey across media outlets, seemingly taken as a straightforward strategy by the Turkish government to influence postmigrants' everyday political stand. They show that, independent from the language of the media that formerly used to keep a division between migrants and non-migrants, the pursuit of political alliance takes priority in categorizing media sources as the location, language, and stakeholders of the nation-state have grown to be multi-branded due to transnationality. They propose three orientations among media sources that fuel political divergence between home and host states and depict transnational space in line with their political agenda rather than informed by postmigrants’ solicitations. Finally, Besim Can Zırh presents a detailed analysis of voting behaviors of postmigrants as an outcome of the diaspora governance policies of Turkey. He showed that Turkey's political and institutional activity to reach postmigrants in Europe is not a fruitless attempt; on the contrary, have a significant effect evident by an ever increasing turnout rate. All contributions bringing this issue forth have been pointing out that there is a tension between official policies of the nation-states and transnationality of corporeal people whose experiences, demands, priority of belongings and expressions of identity are forming and formed by the transnational space. It seems that scholars had better focus on their agency, rather than on the nation-states, in order to understand the current and future conflicts as well as possible resolutions

Revealing the manifestations of neoliberalism in academia: Academic collective action in Turkey

Coskan C, Acar YG, Bayad A. Revealing the manifestations of neoliberalism in academia: Academic collective action in Turkey. Journal of Social and Political Psychology . 2021;9(2):401-418.Academic Collective Action (ACA) stands as a small-scale collective action for social change toward liberation, independence and equity in academia. Academic collectives in Turkey, as an example of ACA, prefigure building academia outside the university by emphasizing the extent to which neoliberal academia has already prepared the groundwork for more recent waves of oppression. In this research, we aim to reveal the manifestations of neoliberalism in ACA as captured with prominent social/political psychological concepts of collective action. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 dismissed academics to understand the social and political psychological processes in academic collectives. The narrations of ACA were accompanied by manifestations of neoliberalism as experienced by dismissed academics. We found that, as follows from the existing conceptual tools of collective action, neoliberalism serves as an embedded contextual factor in the process of ACA. This becomes mostly visible for grievances but also for collective identifications, politicization, motivations, finding/allocating resources and sustaining academic collectives. We provide a preliminary basis to understand the role of neoliberalism in organization, mobilization and empowerment dynamics of collective action

How are Kurds problematized and addressed by psychology theses in Turkey? A Thematic Analysis

Eser Ü, Bayad A, Alparslan K, Şen E. How are Kurds problematized and addressed by psychology theses in Turkey? A Thematic Analysis. OSF Preprints. 2023.The Kurdish issue and the representation of the Kurds have generally remained a relatively neglected topic among Turkish psychologists. We have recently demonstrated that a common lack of interest is closely related to the political atmosphere of the country. Despite this general neglect, there are a few researchers who have been interested in the Kurdish question recently. In this article, we investigate the language and discourse of these studies – one way or another – related to the Kurds in order to reveal the knowledge-power production relations in Turkish psychology. To this aim, we subjected psychology theses on Kurds, written between 2000 and 2019 to thematic analysis and examined how psychology deals with and defines the Kurds. As a result of the preliminary analyses, we have found that the distribution of theses is quantitatively concentrated in the social change period called the ‘Peace Process’ in Turkey (i.e., 2009-2015) with a diversity of topics, methods, and content. Thus, we selected a total of 32 theses; three of which correspond to the period before the Peace Process, fifteen correspond to the period of the Peace Process and fourteen correspond to the period after the Peace Process for the thematic analysis. The results show that the Kurds are mainly discussed within the meta-themes of “Kurdish Issue” and “Defining Kurdishness”, respectively. The Kurdish Issue consists of State Oppression/Tyranny, Turkish-Kurdish Relations, the Kurdish question/problem, and Conflict & Violence themes, respectively. On the other hand, Defining Kurdishness consists of the Kurds, the Ignored, the Ethnocultural Minority and the Subordinate Group themes, respectively. In this paper, we delve into a more elaborate picture of the results with examples from emerging themes and the transformation of these themes during the changing political atmosphere. We also address the relationship between authority/state and knowledge/academia in light of the hegemonic discourse of Turkishness in the Turkish Republic