Measurement of Shared Social Identity in Singing Groups for People With Aphasia.

Mark Tarrant,Raff Calitri,Ruth A Lamont,Amy Sanders,Mary Carter,Sophie Spicer,Sarah G Dean

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669899

Mark Tarrant, Raff Calitri + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669899

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Abstract

Community groups are commonly used as a mode of delivery of interventions for promoting health and well-being. Research has demonstrated that developing a sense of shared social identity with other group members is a key mechanism through which the health benefits of group membership are realized. However, there is little understanding of how shared social identity emerges within these therapeutic settings. Understanding the emergence of shared social identity may help researchers optimize interventions and improve health outcomes. Group-based singing activities encourage coordination and a shared experience, and are a potential platform for the development of shared social identity. We use the “Singing for People with Aphasia” (SPA) group intervention to explore whether group cohesiveness, as a behavioral proxy for shared social identity, can be observed and tracked across the intervention. Video recordings of group sessions from three separate programmes were rated according to the degree of cohesiveness exhibited by the group. For all treatment groups, the final group session evidenced reliably higher levels of cohesiveness than the first session (t values ranged from 4.27 to 7.07; all p values < 0.003). As well as providing confidence in the design and fidelity of this group-based singing intervention in terms of its capacity to build shared social identity, this evaluation highlighted the value of observational methods for the analysis of shared social identity in the context of group-based singing interventions.

Highlights

Group singing, and the arts more generally, is often used in community settings to promote and maintain health and well-being (World Health Organisation, 2019)
By understanding the social identity processes that contribute to positive outcomes, and the factors that account for variability in their success, group-based singing interventions can be optimized (Moore et al, 2015; Richards and Hallberg, 2015; Levati et al, 2016)
Cohesiveness was reliably higher at the end of the intervention compared to the beginning, for all three groups (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The arts more generally, is often used in community settings to promote and maintain health and well-being (World Health Organisation, 2019). By understanding the social identity processes that contribute to positive (health) outcomes, and the factors that account for variability in their success, group-based singing (and other group) interventions can be optimized (Moore et al, 2015; Richards and Hallberg, 2015; Levati et al, 2016). To this end, the current paper reports on the emergence and progression of SSI in the context of a groupbased singing intervention for people with post-stroke aphasia (Tarrant et al, 2018)

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