Retroactive causation and the temporal construction of news: contingency and necessity, content and form

This article affords particular attention to the relationship between memory, the narrativization of news and its linear construction, conceived as journalism’s ‘memory- work’. In elaborating upon this ‘work’, it is proposed that the Hegelian notion of retroactive causation (as used by Slavoj Žižek) can examine how analyses of news journalists ‘retroactively’ employ the past in the temporal construction of news. In fact, such retroactive (re)ordering directs attention to the ways in which journalists contingently select ‘a past’ to confer meaning on the present. With regard to current literature, it is noted that a retroactive analysis can highlight two important dialectics within the practice of news journalism: 1) the relation between contingency and necessity; and, 2) the relation between content and form. Indeed, it is argued that this theoretical account offers a novel approach to examining the significance of memory in news journalism as well as the inconsistencies which underscore journalism’s memory-work. It is in accordance with such inconsistency that broader reflections on time, temporality and our relations to the past can be made

When do past events require explanation? Insights from social psychology

Some past events incite more wonder about their causes than do others. For example, negative events require explanation more than positive events. We review social psychologists’ theoretical and empirical insights on what kinds of past events “beg explanation.” We draw on attribution theory that became popular among psychologists from the 1960s onward, on research on counterfactual reasoning, and on conversational and discursive critiques of attribution theory. We argue that factors predicting what is or is not perceived as requiring explanation are culturally and historically grounded, and that accordingly, what begs explanation varies between contexts and can change over time. Yet, drawing on the distinction between content and process, we argue that there are recognizable patterns across time and space. Specifically, we propose the relationship between events and background expectations as a rather stable predictor of what begs explanation—and as a level of analysis that can unite seemingly disparate approaches

Teaching & learning guide for asymmetric explanations of group differences: Experimental evidence of foucault's disciplinary power

This Guide accompanies the following article "Hegarty P, Bruckmüller S (2013). Asymmetric Explanations of Group Differences: Experimental Evidence of Foucault's Disciplinary Power. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7(3):176-186. Available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.12017/abstrac

Teaching & learning guide for asymmetric explanations of group differences: Experimental evidence of foucault's disciplinary power

This Guide accompanies the following article "Hegarty P, Bruckmüller S (2013). Asymmetric Explanations of Group Differences: Experimental Evidence of Foucault's Disciplinary Power. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7(3):176-186. Available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.12017/abstrac

Framing gender differences: Linguistic normativity affects perceptions of power and gender stereotypes

When unknown groups and equal status groups are compared by contrasting one group (“the effect to be explained”) against another (“the linguistic norm”), the group positioned as the norm is sometimes perceived as more powerful, more agentic, and as less communal. Such perceptions may contribute to status-linked stereotypes, as group differences are spontaneously described by positioning higher-status groups as the linguistic norm. Here, 103 participants considered gender differences in status to be larger and more legitimate and applied gender stereotypes more readily upon reading about gender differences in leadership that were framed around a male rather than a female linguistic norm. These effects did not generalize to 113 participants who read about gender differences in leisure time preferences framed around either norm. Jointly, these results suggest that the effects of linguistic framing on perceived group status and power and on group stereotypes generalize to domains where there are real differences in status, and contexts in which higher-status groups are the default standard for comparison

Beyond the glass ceiling: The glass cliff and its lessons for organizational policy

Journal ArticleCopyright © 2014 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social IssuesThis is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Bruckmüller, S., Ryan, M. K., Rink, F. and Haslam, S. A. (2014), Beyond the Glass Ceiling: The Glass Cliff and Its Lessons for Organizational Policy. Social Issues and Policy Review, 8: 202–232. doi: 10.1111/sipr.12006, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sipr.12006/abstract .It has been almost 30 years since the metaphor of the "glass ceiling" was coined to describe the often subtle, but very real, barriers that women face as they try to climb the organizational hierarchy. Here we review evidence for a relatively new form of gender discrimination-captured by the metaphor of the glass cliff-that women face when they obtain positions of leadership. Such positions often prove to be more risky and precarious than those of their male counterparts. We summarize evidence demonstrating the existence of glass cliffs in business and politics as well as experimental work that identifies a number of factors contributing to the phenomenon. We then discuss implications for policy and practice, highlighting the importance of understanding women's and men's experiences in the workplace rather than treating gender diversity as merely "a numbers game." © 2014 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues