Authentic Self Research Articles

Fringe Consumers

Abstract We all consume the humanities through our engagement with the cultural, creative, and historical materials that influence our views on ourselves, others, and the world around us. However, can consumers also be considered humanists? We argue the answer is yes when consumption choices become symbols and expressions of one’s authentic self and meaningful connective points to others. Using hard-core surfing enthusiasts and thrifters as examples, we introduce the notion of fringe consumption as a form of cultural entrepreneurship and public expression of the humanities that centers individuality, authenticity, and otherness in an otherwise dominant mainstream environment that pushes people to always want more of the same.

Caring for Transgender and Gender Diverse Prehospital Patients: a NAEMSP Position Statement and Resource Document

ABSTRACT Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people have long faced significant barriers to safely accessing medical care–especially gender-affirming care, which has been shown to strikingly improve health outcomes like suicidality and depression. In the prehospital setting, gender-affirming care amounts to showing respect for the TGD patient’s identified gender and maintaining a safe environment that fosters a positive therapeutic relationship throughout the encounter. This represents a challenge for many Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems due to the lack of TGD-specific training for EMS clinicians, a paucity of TGD-specific research to inform EMS education and clinical care, and in some cases the resistance of EMS clinicians to such training. Transgender and gender diverse people are facing a regression in legal access to essential medical care. With this position statement, NAEMSP joins other professional medical societies in providing recommendations to improve care for TGD patients, thereby affirming TGD individuals’ right to exist as their authentic selves, as well as their entitlement to the same high-quality prehospital medical care as their cisgender peers. NAEMSP Recommends: EMS clinicians should maintain basic cultural competency regarding TGD populations, including familiarity with TGD-related health and health care disparities, consideration of TGD populations as underserved, and understanding the centrality of stigma and transphobia in creating disparities and other challenges which complicate daily life for TGD people. EMS clinicians should demonstrate cultural humility towards the TGD community, which includes self-assessment of knowledge gaps, as well as openness to new or unfamiliar ideas, information, and advice from those with different lived experiences. EMS clinicians should understand basic TGD-specific terminology and use appropriate language–including patient-identified name and pronouns–during direct patient care, in handoffs, and in documentation. EMS clinicians should treat a patient’s TGD status as sensitive health information and take care not to inadvertently disclose this information without the patient’s express permission. EMS clinicians should have a basic understanding of social transitioning and of gender-affirming medical and surgical treatments. EMS clinicians should employ a trauma-informed approach when caring for TGD patients. EMS education and training should incorporate learning domains that address comprehensive care for TGD patients, with educational content providing the specific knowledge and skills required to promote equitable care. EMS workplaces should implement policies to improve recruitment and retention of TGD personnel, covering harassment protection, non-discrimination practices, inclusive working environments, equal advancement opportunity and tailored employee benefits. Future EMS research should focus on elucidating the disparities in and barriers to prehospital care of the TGD patient population with emphasis on patient experience and education of prehospital clinicians.

Truth to Action: Lived Experiences of Indigenous Healthcare Professionals Redressing Indigenous-Specific Racism.

The experience of discrimination through stereotyping, profiling, and bias-informed care not only leads to poor access to healthcare services, but low retention rates of Indigenous health professionals (IHP). As health systems transformation evolves, a significant gap remains in supporting IHP to safely address racism, to be supported culturally to bring their authentic selves and voices to work, and to attend to one's own intellectual, physical, relational, cultural and spiritual wellness within a westernized model of care. The aim of the study was to investigate the experiences of IHP working in mainstream healthcare in order to understand how their work environment impacts the delivery of cultural safe practices. What is reported in this manuscript, as an exercise in truth-telling, is findings about lived experiences of IHP working in one mainstream provincial healthcare region, and not the whole context and outcomes of the study. Using Indigenous research methodologies, we embodied our Indigeneity into every facet of the research process. We facilitated three talking circles with participants grounded in a distinct cultural and ceremonial context following Secwepemc protocols. The collective voices of IHP revealed the following common experiences: confronting genocide; addressing Indigenous-specific racism; uprooting toxicity and inequities; and upholding Indigenous human rights while enhancing accountability of systems transformation. The experience of IHP working in health systems goes beyond mere individual employment obligations, its often about a families and communities advocacy for Indigenous rights, culturally safe working environments and access to dignified and respectful healthcare service. This study highlights the need for IHP to be actively involved in health system transformation to ensure the redesigning and restructuring of healthcare service delivery by and for Indigenous Peoples remains centered on Indigenous health and human rights.

Inevitable challenges of autonomy: ethical concerns in personalized algorithmic decision-making

Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have transformed human decision-making processes. Individuals increasingly rely on algorithms to assist with various tasks such as searching and shopping. However, the widespread use of personalized algorithmic decision-making has raised numerous ethical concerns, specifically its impact on user autonomy. This article examines these concerns and argues that algorithmic decision-making presents several challenges to user autonomy that are difficult to eliminate. These challenges include the fact that algorithms deviate from a user’s authentic self, create self-reinforcing loops that narrow the user’s self, and lead to a decline in the user’s capacities. This article attributes these challenges to the ontological differences between users and AI, as well as their unawareness regarding the ethical risks associated with algorithms, asserting that the sense of autonomy users experience in algorithmic decision-making is merely an illusion. From the perspective of human-AI interaction, it is proposed a strategy that achieves a balance between human insight and AI through a human-in-the-loop approach to mitigate these challenges. This approach maximizes the strengths of AI in processing and analyzing data while ensuring that users retain agency.

Korean transgender and nonbinary workers' development of critical consciousness through interpersonal relationships at work: A grounded theory.

Research on the experiences of transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals in counseling psychology is expanding, but studies focusing on their work experiences remain limited and primarily address workplace discrimination. This study aimed to develop a grounded theory on Korean TNB workers' interpersonal experiences at work, exploring not only their challenges but also their growth through workplace relationships. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the authors interviewed 16 Korean TNB workers from diverse professions and industries. The resulting theory demonstrates how TNB workers develop critical consciousness of gender, self, and society through significant changes in workplace social interactions and status. This heightened awareness enables TNB workers to balance their authentic selves with others' expectations and to engage in social advocacy. The study concludes with implications for strength-based counseling practices, advocacy needs, and directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Existential Authenticity, Religiosity, and Mental Health: Age Differences in an Increasingly Secular Society

With the increasing secularization of society, uncertainty exists regarding how this age-related trend may be associated with mental health. Using online surveys, this study examined potential relationships among religiosity (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest orientations), existential authenticity (i.e., behaving in ways that align with one’s true self), and mental health (i.e., anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction) among university student (n = 659) and older adult (n = 261) samples. Analyses revealed that among younger adults, intrinsic religiosity was associated with higher authenticity and greater life satisfaction, and authenticity also indirectly linked intrinsic religiosity to each mental health index. However, among older adults, only quest religious orientation was associated with greater authenticity, while authenticity also indirectly linked quest religiosity to each index of mental health. Taken together, these results suggest that religiosity may be differentially associated with mental health as a function of age, in part through uniquely linking to conceptualizations of one’s authentic self.

Power + Fashion

“Power dressing,” itself a women’s dress reform movement, as it came to be called in the 1970s, used to distinguish typical feminine dress styles and was seen as a necessary strategy for a more subdued image on par with the masculine, serious, and formal professional dress, namely the ubiquitous suit and tie. This new ‘career’ woman became visible by her appearance and choice of dress codes that reinforced her position as a businesswoman who was seriously committed to her work. But from the perspective of the first decades of the new millennium, power dressing and power and fashion have far wider meanings and ramifications. For Michel Foucault, power is a regulatory principle that is used to control social interactions and to impose structures that inform the ways in which we act and appear. In line with Foucault’s analysis, to dress is already to respond to tacit frameworks of power, and because it involves already accepted codes of visualisation and behaviour, to “power dress” is not simply to wield or enact power voluntarily but to succumb to it as well. Further, as this paper will reveal, power dressing can also be understood according to Foucault’s “technologies of self”, which sees the historical subject as both subject and object of a network of discursive forces that are considered normative as opposed to constructed. Power dressing still exists today but according to a more nuanced and multivalent configuration. It can also be thought of as a particular form of renunciation that facilitates an embodiment of power much as religious asceticism and privation is (purportedly) constitutive of a more authentic self.

Does Perceiving the Authentic Self Affect the Meaning of Life?

Self-authenticity and the meaning of life are important for an individual’s psychological well-being. However, studies on the relationship between authenticity and the meaning of life using a quantitative approach have been largely carried out in Western countries, with minimum research being conducted in the Indonesian context. However, several studies have found differences in self-authenticity among different social and cultural conditions. The purpose of this study was to unveil the influence of perceived authenticity on the meaning of life by controlling for self-esteem and positive affect in Indonesian adults. These control variables were added to see the influence of the two variables more precisely. This study involved 369 adult Indonesians (aged 18-64 years old, M=32.2 years). The instruments used were the Authenticity Scale, Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Test. Data collection was carried out online, and multilevel regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The findings indicate that, by controlling for self-esteem and positive affect, feeling authentic influences the person’s meaning in life. Perceived authenticity in the 18-35 age group is lower than in the 36-45 and 46-55 age groups. The study also found that the married group perceives themselves as more authentic than the unmarried. The findings of this study can be a basis for future studies on authenticity in Indonesia and help build awareness about the importance of authenticity for Indonesian adults.

Navigating the Labour Market: Women Job Seekers’ Mobilisation of a Postfeminist Sensibility

Job seeking is a crucial yet overlooked process through which people navigate the world of work. Yet there remains limited qualitative research examining the complex and nuanced experiences of job seekers in a contemporary labour market. This article explores 38 interviews with job-seeking women in England, all of whom were interviewed over a six-month period. Using a postfeminist sensibility, findings revealed an oscillation between empowerment and success on the one hand, and disempowerment and perceived failure on the other, including wanting to: find the ‘right’ job, but accept any job; convey an authentic self but imitate what they think employers want; negotiate salaries, but accept pay cuts; emulate ‘successful’ behaviours, but experience doubt, uncertainty and negativity. This article contributes to the sociological practice of employment, identifying that through this oscillation, women experience a form of postfeminist precarity that starts from the outset of job seeking.

Young Women's Silencing-Type Behaviors in Heterosexual Relationships.

Feminist researchers have demonstrated that engagement in silencing of the self (i.e., self-restrictive and sacrificial behaviors reflecting how women "should" be in relationships) remains a prevalent strategy for relationship maintenance. However, little is known about (young) women silencing themselves in relationships where abuse is present. Young women's experiences of silencing and other partner-focused behaviors (e.g., sexual compliance) within their relationships were thus explored. Young, partnered women (Mage = 21; N = 146) completed an online survey and open-ended questions about their current intimate relationships. Comparing between groups (abuse, n = 108; non-abuse, n = 38), the former scored higher on measures of total self-silencing, sexual compliance, and non-constructive communication and lower on measures of constructive communication (all p < .001). A mixed inductive and deductive content analysis found that while the importance of communicating with their partner was a preferred strategy for conflict management, multiple participants still emphasized self-suppression as an important part of their experience of relational conflict. Also, most participants indicated feeling as though they could be their authentic selves in their relationships, which suggests that their silencing may be situational and strategic in nature. These findings nuance previous understandings of self-silencing as inherently harmful and instead frame it as something sporadic and done strategically. They also bring forth questions about the extent to which young women's emphasis on communication and insistence that they can be authentic are a product of changing societal expectations of women in today's society compared to the 1980s/1990s when much of the foundational work on self-silencing was being done.

The impostor phenomenon among racially minoritised university students: ‘who knows how to get rid of this?’

ABSTRACT Less is known about the impostor phenomenon in undergraduate students and, more so, racially minoritised students in the UK. Impostorism has a constraining effect on constructing an authentic identity, leading to a feeling of phoniness. When impostorism intersects with a gendered and racially minoritised identity, individuals may face specific challenges, such as managing compound identity labels or struggling to achieve in their academic environment. This paper reports experiences of the phenomenon in Black female undergraduate students. Semi-structured focus group interviews with 10 students were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Four themes were generated: contextual experiences of impostorism, finding sense of belonging, struggling to maintain and value an authentic self, and taming my impostor. The findings point to university environments as both barriers and enablers for taming the effect of the impostor phenomenon on academic and cultural identities and provide novel insights into an underrepresented student population.

“If I bring my whole self to school, I am opening myself up to hurt”: A case study and (re)humanizing counterstory of an early career, multiply-marginalized multiracial teacher with justice commitments

ABSTRACT This study conceptualizes the teaching profession as a dehumanizing institutional space for teachers of Color, embodying the oppressive ideologies that explain, justify, and normalize the perpetuation of white supremacy and racism. Although research on teachers of Color has examined issues of recruitment and retention, and impactful social conditions, less is known about their experiences through a humanizing lens that attends to their emotional health and well-being. Drawing on humanizing frameworks, this qualitative case study and counterstory illustrates the inner conflicts and tensions of an early-career, multiply marginalized multiracial teacher with justice commitments that emerge from her own humanizing efforts, commitments, and identities being frequently at odds with the external dehumanizing forces and racist ideologies that undergird the teaching profession. Findings revealed three major tensions, whether to: (1) be present as her authentic self, (2) take risks or make safer choices, and (3) act on personal or institutional values.

A Development of the Heart: Popular Buddhist Engagements With the Xin in Contemporary China

Based on long-term ethnographic research, this study examines how Chinese lay Buddhists have approached the “heart” ( xin). For most lay Buddhists, understanding the nature of the heart is a crucial means of cultivating an authentic self which they believe is both constitutive of and prior to an everyday self that is ego-centered and calculating. In developing this understanding of the heart, lay practitioners draw on a combination of Confucian ideas on the heart as a source of ethical conduct and Chan Buddhist sources on the quieting of the heart. Different groups of lay Buddhists were initially motivated to understand the heart for different reasons. Older, working-class lay Buddhists saw the heart as providing ethical direction for a society that they believed was venal and corrupt while younger, middle-class lay Buddhists turned to the heart as a therapeutic refuge from the competing pressures of work and family. The study concludes by arguing that, despite these outward differences, for both groups of lay Buddhists, cultivating the heart had both ethical and therapeutic functions.

“A place of our own”: Club ‘70, Womonspace, and the Creation of Queer Social Spaces in Edmonton

While queer history is an ever-expanding field, academic attention has primarily been focused on larger cities such as New York and Vancouver. However, there is immense value in studying the queer histories of smaller, more traditionally conservative areas such as Edmonton; without also centering these areas in historical research, it is impossible to develop a nuanced understanding of the various challenges that queer Canadians have historically faced. This paper aims to contribute to the larger field of Canadian queer history by highlighting a portion of Edmonton’s (often overlooked) history. The organizations discussed in this paper - Club ‘70 and Womonspace - constituted some of the earliest formal social spaces available to queer Edmontonians. Each organization addressed slightly different needs; Club ‘70 provided a space for all queer Edmontonians to socialize, whereas Womonspace was founded specifically as a lesbian-focused organization. The existence of these social spaces allowed for queer Edmontonians to connect with each other and find community at a time when the broader political climate was not especially welcoming. Both organizations significantly expanded the social opportunities available to queer Edmontonians, and broadened the scope of LGBTQ+ organizational activities across the prairies. By facilitating socialization and providing a space for members to be their authentic selves, both Club ‘70 and Womonspace contributed to the development of an interconnected and distinctive “queer community” in Edmonton.

TikTok for language teachers: Affordances of TikTok on teachers' identity and emotional vulnerability

This qualitative study examines how five secondary school TESOL teachers in Thailand use TikTok to express their emotions and shape their professional identities. The research uses semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to explore the platform's role as an emotional outlet and a medium for enhancing teacher-student relationships. Findings indicate that TikTok helps teachers manage work-related stress and allows them to present authentic selves, facilitating deeper connections with students. This interaction further informs their pedagogical practices and supports their professional identity development. The study suggests that TikTok's ability to bridge emotional expression with professional engagement offers valuable insights for integrating social media into educational frameworks. Recommendations are provided for leveraging these platforms to enhance teachers' well-being and instructional strategies, highlighting the need for further research with a broader sample. This study demonstrates the potential of social media to impact teaching dynamics and professional growth.

"It's like having a superpower": Reclaiming creativity and the intersectional experiences of trans young adults of color.

Trans young adults of color experience systemic harm that contributes to negative health outcomes and hinders their ability to live freely. The present study used a grounded theory qualitative methodology rooted in a critical-ideological paradigm to understand the intersections of racial and gender oppression. Trans young adults of color from across the United States (N = 15; ages 20-29; majority racial identities: Asian, Black, and multiracial; majority gender identities: nonbinary and transmasculine) participated in a semistructured interview. Analyses identified a six-category empirical framework explaining major dimensions and processes of intersectional experiences of trans people of color. The core category, Reclaiming Creativity, reflected how trans communities of color use creativity to build their identities and communities beyond intersectional oppressive societal norms and imagine a better, more liberated world. The remaining five categories were Creating and Recreating Identity, Experiencing Discrimination and Its Impacts on Wellness, Surviving Oppression and Compromising Authentic Self, Embracing Identity Strengths, and Finding Liberation. They provided insights into the role of creativity within the intersectional experiences of trans young adults of color. In doing so, they provided directions to address structural injustice, pursue liberation, and allow creativity to flourish. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Beyond struggle: A strengths-based qualitative study of cannabis use among queer and trans youth in Québec

BackgroundQueer and trans (QT) youth report higher rates of cannabis use than their cisgender and heterosexual peers. Explanations for this have overwhelmingly focused on the difficulties QT youth face, while little research has examined how cannabis use can relate to QT youth's strengths. We sought to explore how cannabis use could be involved in the experiences of QT youth from a strengths-based perspective. MethodsWe conducted a QT youth-led, community-based study composed of 27 semi-structured interviews with QT young adults aged 21–25 years and living in Québec who use(d) cannabis regularly. Through reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019), we used a strengths-based lens informed by the Minority Strengths Model (Perrin et al., 2020) to explore how cannabis use featured in participants’ efforts to survive and thrive. ResultsWe generated three themes representing how cannabis featured in participants’ efforts to survive and thrive. First, cannabis was used to facilitate the production of an authentic QT self, a process that involved self-discovery, introspection, exploration, awareness, and expression. Cannabis supported, accompanied, and/or complicated this process. Second, cannabis use (and non-use) was involved in building QT community and connection, which constituted a crux of participants’ wellbeing. Third, cannabis was used to face adversity, such as marginalization, QT oppression, mental health challenges, and structural under-resourcing. This adversity contrasted experiences of QT identities themselves, which were described as a source of joy and pride. ConclusionOur analysis illustrates many ways in which cannabis use (and non-use) features in QT youth's efforts to survive and thrive. As a result, we encourage loved ones, clinicians, researchers and policy makers to adopt a view of QT cannabis use that is expansive and inclusive of QT youth's strengths.

When I can be my whole authentic self, I feel safe and know that I belong: a photovoice study exploring what culturally safe pregnancy care is to Karen women of refugee background in Victoria, Australia

ABSTRACT Objectives Inequitable pregnancy care experiences and outcomes disproportionately affect refugee background women in Australia. Culturally safe care is essential for achieving health equity, however, cultural safety can only be determined by the person receiving care. To our knowledge, women of refugee background in Australia are yet to be asked what culturally safe pregnancy care is to them. Specifically, this study aimed to explore what culturally safe pregnancy care is to Karen women (from Burma) of refugee background. Design A photovoice study founded on community-based participatory research principles was undertaken with a Karen community of refugee background living in Victoria, Australia. A community advisory group was established, guiding study design and conduct. Five S’gaw Karen-speaking women with experience of pregnancy care in Australia were invited to take photos within their community. Participants shared their photos and stories with each other in four online discussion groups. Results Reflexive thematic analysis guided by a critical constructionist lens developed three themes: Building foundations for belonging; cultivating reciprocal curiosity; and storytelling as an expression of self and shared power. These themes sit within the overarching theme When I can be my whole authentic self, I feel safe and know that I belong. Conclusion When Karen women can embrace their cultural and spiritual identity without fear of discrimination, including racism, culturally safe pregnancy care is possible. This study contributes to the design and delivery of maternity services by providing insights that can enhance equitable and culturally safe pregnancy care for Karen women of refugee background.

Feeling phony online – The impostor phenomenon's link to online self-presentation, self-esteem, and social network site use

This study examined the relationship between the impostor phenomenon, self-esteem, online self-presentation, and social network site usage across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Tinder. The sample consisted of n = 541 individuals (46 % men; Mage = 27, SDage = 8.5). In addition to demographics, quantitative social network site use metrics, and self-esteem, the impostor expression emerged as an incremental predictor for the online self-presentation facets adaptable self (β = 0.26, p < .001), authentic self (β = −0.29, p < .001) and freedom of self online (β = 0.25, p < .001). Self-esteem partially mediated the impostor expression's effect on the authentic self. Findings suggest that a high impostor expression links to lower online authenticity, higher online self-adaption, and a preference for online communication and self-presentation.

Inequity and distrust: imagining the anti-racist law school

ABSTRACT Research on the experience of Black law students is hampered by a lack of trust in the legal academy by people of colour. Staff and students of colour have put emotional energy into responding to universities’ requests for feedback only for their views to be misrepresented or ignored; leading to an intergenerational distrust and therefore disengagement. This makes it difficult for law teachers to gain insight into how to decolonise the experiences of their students, leading to clumsy attempts that fail to recognise the vulnerability we demand of students. We give our law students assessments that require them to open themselves up to being judged, often including reflective exercises that reward students who expose their authentic (White) selves. We expect students to trust our assessment practices, despite there still being a considerable Black awarding gap. Black students are the least likely group to submit work - the response of law schools is to encourage Black students to submit, without addressing the underlying lack of trust. This deficit approach is inappropriate. It is our responsibility as legal educators to build trust and maintain it. This paper concludes by imagining an anti-racist law school, that deserves the trust of its Black students.