Peace Psychology

Instructor: Dr. Ishrat Yousaf

Week-1
Objectives
 Course Expectation and requirement

 Introduction to key concepts of Peace and conflict

 Peace psychology is a subfield of psychology and peace
research that deals with the psychological aspects of
peace, conflict, violence, and war.

 Peace psychology can be characterized by four

interconnected pillars:
 (1) research,
 (2) education,
 (3) practice, and
 (4) advocacy.
Definition
 Peace psychology seeks to develop theories and practices
aimed at the prevention and mitigation of direct and
structural violence.

 Framed positively, peace psychology promotes the

nonviolent management of conflict and the pursuit of
social justice, what we refer to as peacemaking and peace
building, respectively.
Goals of Peace Psychology
To increase and apply psychological knowledge in the pursuit of
peace . . . [including] both
 the absence of destructive conflict and
 the creation of positive social conditions which minimize
destructiveness and promote human well-being” (Society for
the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, 2006, para. 3)

The lack of knowledge about the psychology of peace reinforces a

faulty assumption that:
 peace is precarious, unusual, short-lived, or fragile and that the
true state of human affairs arises from deep-rooted urges for
aggression, which sooner or later give rise to violence and war.
Human beings have abilities to manufacture both peace and violence:
 As Deutsch (1999) put it, “Humans have the potential for a wide range of
thought, feeling, and behavior: the potential for love as well as hate, for
constructive as well as destructive behavior, for “we” as well as “us versus
them.” There is no reason to assume that one potential or another is
inherently pre-potent without regard to particular personal and social
circumstances as well as life history. (p. 19).

 Finally, ignorance about the rich domain of peace psychology prevents

practitioners from applying its valuable insights to promote peace in
families, workplaces, communities, and between nations.
 Such ignorance denies citizens and policymakers insights that could
inform their approach to critical issues such as the best ways of preventing
terrorism, the costs and impact of torture, and possibly means of improving
extended conflicts.
Historical Roots of Peace Psychology
 William James, in a speech at Stanford University in 1906, coined the
phrase “the moral equivalent of war”
 James argued that war provides human beings with opportunities to express their
spiritual inclinations toward self-sacrifice and personal honor; consequently, to end
war, societies must find alternative “moral equivalents” for the expression of these
profoundly important human values.
 Cold War Peace Psychology
Peace psychology emerged as a distinct area of research and practice during Cold War,
when the preeminent concern was the prevention of nuclear war.

 Post–Cold War Peace Psychology

Peace psychologists have shifted away from a narrow focus on the prevention of
nuclear war and have moved toward a more geo historically, nuanced, conceptually
differentiated and systemically integrated perspective on violence and peace.
Cont……
 Three themes emerged in post-cold war peace psychology:
 Greater sensitivity to geo historical context
 A more differentiated perspective on the meanings and types of
violence and peace,
 A system view of the nature of violence and peace
Scope
 Scholarship
 Academics
 Education
 Research
 Practice
 Independent Practice
 Government
 Foundations
 Activism
 Corporate
 Individual and Social Responsibility
Some Contributions of PEACE
PSYCHOLOGIST
 Behavioral scientists played a key role in the 1951 Supreme Court
decision to integrate graduate schools in the United States when
scientists offered testimony that segregation was “psychologically
damaging.”

 Psychologists also have drawn from Bandura's social cognitive

theory as an intellectual scaffolding to produce serial social dramas
that have promoted social justice through demonstrable changes in
literacy, gender equality, HIV prevention, and family planning.

 Ignacio Martín-Baró, a social psychologist, inspired the liberation

psychology movement that swept across Latin America in the 1980s
and continues to spawn community based and culturally grounded
emancipatory agendas all over the world.
 Hamdi Malik and colleagues at the University of Indonesia used a
grassroots and unofficial diplomacy approach to bring Christian and
Muslim communities together in a social movement called Baku Bae
(reconciliation), replacing violence with the cooperative pursuit of
common goals.

 Brandon Hamber and colleagues in South Africa established Khulumani

(Speak Out), a support and self-help group for victims of political
violence in South Africa, a group that turned to activism and was
instrumental in having the “secrecy clauses” removed from the first draft
of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act. If the initial draft had
been accepted, all TRC hearings would have been behind closed doors, an
arrangement that was unacceptable to most victims.
 These and many other contributions that continue to accumulate attest to
the value and promise of peace psychology.
Home Work
 Reading “Peace Psychology for a Peaceful World”