The head of University of Limerick's (UL) new psychology department is determined to make a real change, writes Lorna Siggins
IT MAY be an alarming radio report about 700 food parcels distributed in one week this month to unemployed foreign nationals in Dublin, or television images of famine and strife in Darfur.
“I switched it off, couldn’t bear it,” is the sort of common response one might hear about such news the day after in city centre pub or coffee shop chats. And other members of the social grouping will rattle and hum in sympathy.
In fact, such diplomatic responses, articulated by people who may feel they really do contribute to building a better society, may not be sufficient anymore, according to Prof Orla Muldoon, head of University of Limerick’s (UL) new psychology department.
“The group process within the middle class wants us to believe that the world is fair, and yet we don’t want to be confronted by difficult reality.
“In fact, if we are to ensure a more equitable society, we have to be confronted and we have to work very hard at change,” she said.
Recent research at Harvard Medical School in Boston suggests that social groupings influence our behaviour far more effectively than we might think, and we can “catch” opinions as easily as we can catch a cold.
As Michael Bond noted in a report in an analysis of the research in New Scientist, we may feel we are in control of our future but we are "little more than back-seat drivers since most social influence operates at a subconscious level".
In her inaugural address at UL last week, Muldoon outlined the value of a social psychological approach to understanding social issues. Entitled Seeing the Woods and the Trees: A social psychological analysis of adaptation and adversity, her presentation outlined the effect that 'accidents of birth' can have on one's life chances.
Research has already shown that those born into poorer families or minority groups are those who are likely to encounter the most stress, and have the most negative views of themselves and their abilities, by as early as eight years of age, she said.
“Our experiences of life can differ radically, contingent on our place in society. As a result of a common psychological process known as social identification, the manner in which we see ourselves can thus become bound up in our group memberships,” she said.
“So we don’t always see ourselves as an individual – sometimes we view ourselves in terms of our group memberships, as in ‘we are Irish, a Munster supporter or a mother’,” she explained.
Social identification has its benefits, she noted, drawing on 15 years of research in this area. “It allows us to access the resources of the group and thus can assist in terms of social and psychological wherewithal available to cope with life’s difficulties and adversities.
“Alternatively, if the group is limited in resources, for instance in terms of low social capital, adversity can have a greater impact and consequences for psychological wellbeing,” she said.
“This identification process can also contribute to key misunderstandings between groups – for example, the rich and the poor and Protestant and Catholic, due to their very different lived circumstances and perspectives,” she said.
In Northern Ireland, where she studied and worked for 17 years at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), her research found that “more Catholics tended to be victims, while more Protestants tended to be fearful”.
"For the victim, their experience brings on anger, whereas fear is generated by threat," she told The Irish Timesafterwards. "Similarly in Limerick, where I am based now, the fear is most prevalent among the middle classes – where one could expect the fear should be among those living the actual experience of poverty and inequality in the more deprived areas of the city. Which means the two groups cannot see each other's point of view.
“We’ve allowed a system of inequity to develop, not just in Limerick but in many other parts of this island,” she said. “Whether it’s a sin of omission or commission, focusing on blame for this doesn’t help us to move on.
“The reality is if you are part of the mainstream middle class white grouping in Ireland, there is a system of meritocracy which isn’t there for other groupings – although women in this grouping are slightly more marginalised.
“We use our social groups to systematically divide us,” she said.
“In the North, there is a totally segregated system of education. In the Republic, you have a policy of church-run schools on behalf of the State. The Educate Together system of multi-denominational education is a good model, but it isn’t a serious option for a lot of people who may not live sufficiently near such schools.
“Our definition of Irishness is also used to exclude,” she said. “We liked to apply our Irishness politically to promote the self-stereotype of being friendly, open, welcoming and having had an experience of being victims in past history. The reality is that we can also use our Irishness very strategically to keep people out.”
One example of this is the State’s attempt to protect the Irish language.
“A language is about communication and about being able to communicate effectively – but a language that one can only speak to some people, and which excludes others, is by definition exclusive.”
Thus gaelscoileanna, established for altruistic motives, can “sometimes be tied up in this very exclusive definition of Irishness”.
“We have to be pro-active, rather than reactive, in our approach to the language and our definition of Irishness,” she said. Significantly, research which she led at QUB 10 years after the Belfast Agreement found that people in Northern Ireland were increasingly abandoning the traditional national and religious identities which underpinned The Troubles for decades.
Almost two-thirds of those who responded to a survey used for the QUB research identified themselves as either British Protestants or Irish Catholics. The 2007 Northern Ireland Life and Times Surveyconducted by Ark was a joint research initiative by QUB and the University of Ulster.
About a quarter of those questioned opted for the “Northern Irish” label, compared with one- fifth in previous surveys. Within the Northern Irish group, about a third described themselves as being equally British and Irish and did not see either Britishness or Irishness as being mutually exclusive.
Muldoon believes that if we are to avoid the mass segregation of urban areas on racial and social lines that still exists in other societies, we have to “work very hard on developing policies which break down boundaries and encourage integration”. Many residents in middle class Dublin can live their lives without venturing into areas of serious deprivation, for instance.
“Regeneration areas don’t work if access is limited – if, in Limerick’s case, there is only one entrance and one exit. In Dublin, it would have been much better if the Scandinavian store Ikea was located in Ballymun for instance. The footfall of the upper middle class shopper through Ballymun would have helped in a small way to break down barriers.”
Integration makes not only social but also economic sense, in her view. Breaking down group boundaries and associated inequalities will “maximise health and wellbeing across the lifespan, as well as maximise our chances of creating a fair and just society”.
Muldoon, who first trained as a nurse and took a degree and PhD in psychology at QUB, joined UL in 2007 to develop the new psychology department there. Psychological services and mental health are not prioritised sufficiently in this State, with consequent excessive cost to the Exchequer, she said.
“One in two people will encounter mental health problems during their lifetime, but there is still a very negative moral tone to views on same here in Ireland. There is a perception that one is a malinger or one has something to be ashamed of.
“That would be fine if we didn’t already know that this approach to mental health is contributing to inequity in society. We need to expand beyond the very limited support for clinical psychology to incorporate health psychology – supporting people with chronic health problems – and educational psychology in mainstream support services.”
She believes psychology will be a “growing profession”. Many companies could benefit from employing a psychologist who can support a more positive working environment, she said. “Happier people make for better employees – and that’s a fact.”
UL is now poised to take the first group of single honours degree psychology undergraduates this autumn. The students will be working to a head of department who has a firm belief that “theoretically grounded and methodologically sound” social psychological research “can be a powerful and positive force for social change”.