Countering Hate Victimisation and Contributing to Social Justice: Can Organised Psychology rise to the Challenge?
Location
Littlefoot A Room 124A
Start Date
22-4-2023 1:00 PM
End Date
22-4-2023 2:15 PM
Publication Date
2023
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Law | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Hate victimization is devastating to surviving victims, and the effects of these incidents are often not considered carefully enough. Research findings report that victims experience immense trauma emotionally, mentally, physically, economically, and in terms of their relationships with others. The impact of hate victimization extends beyond victims to the larger group to which they belong. Also reported is exposure to revictimization by the criminal justice and healthcare systems and a severe lack of psychosocial support to victims of hate.
Nations across the world are observing escalating patterns of hate victimization specifically targeting people based on identity factors like their race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Organizations and those concerned with providing services to these victims may find themselves limited in their response capacity by constraints in their expertise and limited access to resources.
Is psychology as a discipline, science, and profession contributing meaningfully when considering the significant impact and nature of hate victimization and the menacing intensification of hate?
Organized psychology describes the collection of international, national, scientific, and professional organizations that represent psychology. Typically, researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students make up the national member base. National organizations may, in turn, belong to an international structure such as the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) which currently has 82 country members. As psychology’s global voice and representative of over a million psychologists worldwide, IUPsyS has ambitions that include becoming an outward leader in providing examples of how psychology can contribute to global challenges by fostering cooperation between global, regional, and national psychology organizations; building relationships with global policymakers, science bodies, and partner organizations; and being a global, transversal facilitator for national organizations.
Organized psychology, nationally and internationally, can serve our global society by leading contributions to improving the prevention and interruption of hate incidents, as well as by disrupting the pervasive rhetoric of bigotry and intolerance that drives hate-based incidents and crimes. This requires systems analysis and considering more carefully how direct and structural violence forms an interlocking system and context of violence. This implies the need for a transnational, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach between psychology and other disciplines as well as within psychological disciplines.
Not only is there the need for policy and legislative changes to effectively address hate victimization, but most importantly the significance of attending to the impact of hate, including hopelessness, distrust, and dignity loss. Psychology must have as its primary focus, not only the well-being of humans, but also the communities, and societies to which they belong. As a profession, discipline, science, and practice psychology cannot be detached or neutral from social justice or political systems.
Description Format
html
Recommended Citation
Van Wyk, Hanlie, "Countering Hate Victimisation and Contributing to Social Justice: Can Organised Psychology rise to the Challenge?" (2023). International Conference on Hate Studies. 65.
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/icohs/2023/seventh/65
Full Text of Presentation
wf_no
Media Format
flash_audio
Session Title
The Experience of Hate Crime Survivors and the Ethics of Using Formers in Countering Extremism
Type
Panel
Countering Hate Victimisation and Contributing to Social Justice: Can Organised Psychology rise to the Challenge?
Littlefoot A Room 124A
Hate victimization is devastating to surviving victims, and the effects of these incidents are often not considered carefully enough. Research findings report that victims experience immense trauma emotionally, mentally, physically, economically, and in terms of their relationships with others. The impact of hate victimization extends beyond victims to the larger group to which they belong. Also reported is exposure to revictimization by the criminal justice and healthcare systems and a severe lack of psychosocial support to victims of hate.
Nations across the world are observing escalating patterns of hate victimization specifically targeting people based on identity factors like their race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Organizations and those concerned with providing services to these victims may find themselves limited in their response capacity by constraints in their expertise and limited access to resources.
Is psychology as a discipline, science, and profession contributing meaningfully when considering the significant impact and nature of hate victimization and the menacing intensification of hate?
Organized psychology describes the collection of international, national, scientific, and professional organizations that represent psychology. Typically, researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students make up the national member base. National organizations may, in turn, belong to an international structure such as the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) which currently has 82 country members. As psychology’s global voice and representative of over a million psychologists worldwide, IUPsyS has ambitions that include becoming an outward leader in providing examples of how psychology can contribute to global challenges by fostering cooperation between global, regional, and national psychology organizations; building relationships with global policymakers, science bodies, and partner organizations; and being a global, transversal facilitator for national organizations.
Organized psychology, nationally and internationally, can serve our global society by leading contributions to improving the prevention and interruption of hate incidents, as well as by disrupting the pervasive rhetoric of bigotry and intolerance that drives hate-based incidents and crimes. This requires systems analysis and considering more carefully how direct and structural violence forms an interlocking system and context of violence. This implies the need for a transnational, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach between psychology and other disciplines as well as within psychological disciplines.
Not only is there the need for policy and legislative changes to effectively address hate victimization, but most importantly the significance of attending to the impact of hate, including hopelessness, distrust, and dignity loss. Psychology must have as its primary focus, not only the well-being of humans, but also the communities, and societies to which they belong. As a profession, discipline, science, and practice psychology cannot be detached or neutral from social justice or political systems.