28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

terms of (a) political label given the actor (terrorist vs. freedom-fighter) and (b) consequence of
political violence on himself (dies vs. escapes) and context of the perceiver in terms of (a)
perceiver's religion (Islam vs. Christianity) and political stance of perceiver's society in the US-led
war against terrorism (pro-US Philippines vs. anti-US Malaysia). Data from the Philippines and
Malaysia.
1020.3 Recuperation of historical and painful memory, M. Gaborit 1 , A. Blanco 2 , 1 Universidad
Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas”, El Salvador; 2 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid,
Spain
The paper discusses how people view the armed conflict in El Salvador 10 years after signing the
Peace Accords and the role of memory in the social reconstruction. An assessment of the
collective memory will be attempted to determine the role of memory in mental and political
health. Participants are women who participated actively with the insurgent groups, those who did
not participate but suffered the effects of war (displacement, forced migration), young adults who
spent childhood and adolescence in refugee camps outside El Salvador, returning shortly prior to
the peace accords, and urban dwellers who lived in the mayor cities during those years.
1020.4 Continuous advocacy work; the need of a long time perspective as a reaction to the
medias’ trauma fascination, P. Elsass, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
The medias’ fascination of trauma undermine our professional knowledge, that experiences of
trauma are not a result of an acute, dramatic situation, but rather a result of being in a constant
emergency situation often for many years. One of our purposes is to introduce a time perspective
which surpasses the need for immediate intervention and to convince our donors that there is a
demand for long term projects. The importance of a long time perspecitive, is revealed of studies
of psychotherapy of posttraumatic memories from holocaust survivors from the Second World
War and from reconciliation work in African and Latin American populations.
1021 INVITED SYMPOSIUM
Anxiety and processing of threat
Convener and Chair: K. Mogg, UK
Co-convener: B. Bradley, UK
1021.1 Selective attention to threat in anxiety: Underlying mechanisms, B. Bradley, K. Mogg,
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Cognitive theories of anxiety propose that attentional biases for threat-related information play an
important role in causing and maintaining anxiety. Empirical research into basic mechanisms
underlying attentional biases in non-clinical anxiety and in different anxiety disorders has yielded
consistent findings in relation to certain aspects of attentional biases, but mixed results in relation
to others. These issues will be discussed, such as the relative roles of vigilance versus avoidance
responses, initial orienting versus maintained attention, and the pattern of attentional bias found
for different types of aversive stimuli.
1021.2 Tunnel memory for emotional scenes, B. Mackintosh, A. Mathews, Open University,
Cambridge, UK
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