Sandra Obradović

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Verified

Sandra verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at The Open University

Research on group-based nostalgia has begun exploring how different ways of representing the pasts shapes our group belonging and political preferences. So far, this body of work has focused on measuring levels of nostalgia, at the expense of considering what people are nostalgic for. The present paper develops a bottom-up approach to examining how...

Critical voices within social psychology have, for some time, emphasized that context matters for understanding psychological phenomena and processes. This special issue examines what a social psychology of context, and in context, can contribute to understanding contemporary geopolitics. We argue that, in examining the interplay between social psy...

Creating a shared group identification has been theorized as one pathway for overcoming intergroup divides within larger, superordinate contexts. Although self‐identification with superordinate groups has been extensively studied in political psychology, less attention has been paid to how others' recognition of our belonging shapes this process. T...

Citizenship Education (CE) has been found to be an effective tool in preparing young people to participate actively in a democracy. However, recent years have seen a decline in both the quality and provision of CE, coupled with a notable absence of public input on the subject. This paper provides an initial exploration of the British public's views...

In this paper, we conceptualize the days of mourning that followed the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. as constituting a liminal occasion, a moment of in‐betweenness through which we can explore sense‐making in times of transition. How do people navigate through liminal occasions, and are they always transformative? Through a rapid response ethnogra...

Much of the research on national identity investigates its negative aspects through the form of nationalism. However, what happens at the opposite end of the spectrum, when someone does not glorify the national ingroup but actively rejects it? Across two studies conducted in Serbia (Ns = 349 and 554), we investigated national identification and dis...

Background Self-harm is a significant problem in university students because of its association with emotional distress, physical harm, broader mental health issues and potential suicidality. Research suggests that fewer than half of students who have self-harmed seek professional help when at university. AimsThis study aimed to explore the help-se...

Has rising income inequality become a scandalous social problem as the English ethical socialist R. H. Tawney anticipated in an earlier era? We examine the salience and framing of income inequality within major UK and US newspapers over the period 1990–2015. Specifically, this includes the global banking crisis of 2008, which was the most significa...

The current entry discusses the concept of “myths” and the role it plays in both traditional and contemporary societies. When we think of common sense understandings of myths, we often think of false beliefs or stories that are told that do not necessarily reflect real events, but can become powerful mediators within social, cultural, and political...

When faced with the aftermath of a divisive political event, how do citizens make sense of the political opinions of those who voted differently to them? Drawing on the Social Representations Approach (SRA) and its emphasis on communication as a medium through which meaning making occurs, we utilize dialogical analysis of focus group data (N = 36)...

At the core of what makes humans, and their behaviour, social, is the interplay between self and other. Our identities, for example, are essential to our functioning as social beings as they allow us to make sense of ourselves, and others, across different contexts. We care about how others see us and achieving congruence between how we see ourselv...

In recent years behavioural science has quickly become embedded in national level governance. As the contributions of behavioural science to the UK's COVID-19 response policies in early 2020 became apparent, a debate emerged in the British media about its involvement. This served as a unique opportunity to capture public discourse and representatio...

In recent years behavioural science has quickly become embedded in national level policy making. As the contributions of behavioural science to the UK’s Covid-19 response policies in early 2020 became apparent, a debate emerged in the British media about its involvement. This served as a unique opportunity to capture public discourse and representa...

The perceived collective continuity (PCC) of a national identity serves as a crucial source of stability and self‐esteem for group members. Recent work has explored the consequences of perceived continuity when the meaning of a nation’s past is seen in a negative light, and the challenges this brings for the negotiation of a positive identity in th...

Psychology can play an important role in expanding our understanding of the demand-side of populism by revealing its underlying relational logic. Social psychological perspectives on populism are beginning to show how: 1) the division between us (‘the good people’) and them (‘the corrupt elites’/’foreign others’) taps into core intergroup dynamics,...

What is at stake, psychologically, when a nation considers joining a supranational body such as the European Union? This paper addresses this question from the perspective of power, identity, and belonging vis‐à‐vis superordinate groups. Taking a mixed‐methods approach, using focus group (N=67) and survey (N=1192) data, we explore the psychosocial...

The pressure for scholarly publications creates a culture of knowledge silos, argues postdoctoral Fellow Sandra Obradović. If young researchers were also taught to explain research to a general audience, this would not only help their careers, but also bring science into society.

Social groups, and the social identities which people develop as part of them, are often experienced as stable and continuous over time. Thus, countries experiencing rapid socio-political change often face the challenge of re-constructing the meaning of the social group to adapt to the demands of the present, while simultaneously making this re-con...

In this introduction, the book editors discuss the importance of imagining the future in everyday and political life, as well as how it has been treated in social sciences. They conclude by outlining the sections of the book and presenting the different chapters.

In an increasingly globalized and integrated world, citizens of nations are put in new positions where their beliefs, values and goals for the future of their nation become intertwined with, and at times overruled by, those of a larger, superordinate union in which the nation is (or is becoming) a member. The present chapter takes a close look at o...

Political change that moves a nation towards democratization, international integration and globalization, is often viewed as progressive and positive. Indeed, certain political changes are presented as the only viable trajectories towards democratic goals. A clear example of this is that of membership in the European Union (EU). While there is an...

It is a commonly held assumption among cultural, social, and political psychologists that imagining the future of societies we live in has the potential to change how we think and act in the world. However little research has been devoted to whether this effect exists in collective imaginations, of social groups, communities and nations, for instan...

The theory of social representations is a theory of how knowledge is created, shared, and renegotiated through the interchange between the individual and the social. This entry gives a brief introduction to the theoretical frameworks, its applications, and interdisiciplinary developments, highlighting how social representations theory accounts for...

The present commentary explores the implicit and explicit role of power in shaping what is remembered and why. By addressing the three papers in this section it argues for the need to more openly consider how power relations, particularly asymmetrical power relations, come to shape the construction of memory. Implications of acknowledging power in...

The construction of national identities through political discourse is a growing field of interest to social psychologists, particularly as many countries face changing demographics, borders and social realities as part of globalization, immigration and continued political integration and conflict. Through an analysis of 17 key speeches by Serbian...

When we turn on the TV after a long day at the office, at school or wherever else we might have spent our day, we are overwhelmed with stories of conflict. These can be large-scale conflicts like wars between nations, medium-scaled like those between political parties or small-scaled like the stories we hear about neighbours quarrelling over proper...

During the years 1991 through 1995, 3 wars were fought on the territory of former Yugoslavia, which led to the fall of the supranational state and a newfound emphasis on ethnic and national identities. Since then, collective memories in the 'newly' created nations have undergone tremendous change in attempts to clarify 'who we were before and who w...