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OP-1.-DEHUMANIZATION
AMONG SOLDIERS AND THE EFFECT OF SOCIOPOLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS ON AGGRESSION
OP-1.1.-DEHUMANIZATION
AMONG THE SOLDIERS IN THE FOREIGN MISSION – OCCURRENCE OF DEHUMANIZATION AMONG
THE CZECH SOLDIERS IN FORMERLY YUGOSLAVIA
Štrobl,
D.
Stress Research Center of
Military University of Ground Forces, Prague, Czech Republic
New sort of military operations –
called peace missions – has started at the beginning of the nineties. It meant
new experiences and new reactions of the soldiers. Dehumanization is not
described sufficiently so far, but its consequences are well known. This kind of
reaction means a disparaging of value of inhabitants, or members of some ethnic,
nation, or religion. It appears if a soldier is faced with a different system of
values. Soldier has got his own value system for critical situations - he is the
first of all (instinct of self-preservation), then his friends
(fellow-fighters), compatriots and at the end the local inhabitants and the
enemies as the case may be. It rises if the local people are of different race.
It is not racism, but dehumanization. It
may explain the bestialities of the American soldiers in Vietnam and many other
similar situations. Dehumanization has been observed and examined by the
military psychologists of almost all armies of NATO. Occurrence of
dehumanization among the Czech soldiers participating in missions in formal
Yugoslavia was done by the questionnaire method by personal department of the
Ministry of Defense. Dehumanization tendency appeared among almost one third of
the Czech missioners. It groves with repeating of the service in mission. It was
proved that dehumanization get higher risk of aggressive behavior and gets lower
empathy and compassion. Efficient training before mission, including information
about race, ethnic and culture of the mission area is necessary. The field
psychologists to prevent aggressive reactions of soldiers to the local
population must check observation of dehumanization.
OP-1.2.-SOCIOPOLITICAL
TRANSFORMATIONS AND VIOLENCE IN SOCIETY: A
CASE STUDY OF POLAND
Fraczek, A.S.
Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of
Education and Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
The aims of this presentation are as follows: to analyze if patterns of violence in society have changed in a period of peaceful systemic transformations that are ongoing in Poland since 1990; to discuss a sociopsychological mechanisms (e.g. changes in a value system, appearance of the “aggressive culture”models in media, a dysfunction in societal control, etc.) that explain connections between systemic changes on one hand and dynamic of violence in society on the other; to consider if and what forms of societal control can prevent development of violence in society under sociopolitical transformations. Analysis of available data concerning criminal justice convictions in Poland in 1990-1999 have shown: steady increase of different indicators of violence in this period; the most noticeable increase was registered in “aggressive offenses”, related both to impulsive (e.g. participation in a fight) as well as instrumental (e.g. robbery with direct assault against people) forms of aggression; a relatively high increase of aggressive offenses appeared in sub-samples of juvenile males in big cities; -there was no direct relation between level of economical deprivation of a region where people lived and level of aggressive offenses. It can be concluded that the increase of violence in society is one of a possible costs or side effects of systemic changes toward democracy, effective marked-oriented economy and stable international security. Even if all above mentioned goals are positively valued by distinct majority of a people, it does not automatically prevent society from a appearance of negative phenomena and disturbances in interpersonal and social life in a period of systemic changes. However, it seems plausible to assume that societal conditions and psychosocial processes underlying the described increase of violence in society are substantially different than the mechanisms of destructive violence involved in wars or deadly clashes between representatives of conflicting ideologies.