Negative Identity Research Articles

Gender diverse people's psychological wellbeing and identity in the context of gender affirming speech pathology practice: A qualitative study protocol.

Gender diverse people may experience discomfort with the sound of their voice. Additionally, their psychological wellbeing, closely connected to a person's identity, or perspective of themselves, is often reduced. A primary goal of gender affirming healthcare is to support clients' psychological wellbeing. Speech pathology practices assist clients to alter their voice to develop authentic self-presentation. These practices have been shown to have positive outcomes related to clients' voices but have not yet been shown to improve overall client psychological wellbeing. Assisting gender diverse people to transform a negative identity perspective into a positive one could have a beneficial impact on their psychological wellbeing. Therefore, to support clients' psychological wellbeing, gender affirming speech pathology care could benefit from focusing on gender diverse clients' identity more broadly, i.e., beyond gender. For this type of care, speech pathologists would need to see themselves as responsible for supporting client psychological wellbeing and identity. However, some clinicians may be hesitant to incorporate more holistic approaches to provide such care. This study aims to explore gender diverse speech pathology clients' views on psychological wellbeing and identity and speech pathologists' perspectives and actions in supporting clients in that regard. This qualitative study approaches the research topic through insights from gender diverse people's and speech pathologists' subjective perspectives and experiences on psychological wellbeing and identity. Gender diverse people will participate in one-on-one episodic interviews, whereas speech pathologists providing gender affirming care will participate in focus group discussions. Data will be analysed with reflexive thematic analysis. The study is supported by collaborators from the gender diverse community. Study findings will be disseminated in an accessible manner to healthcare professionals providing gender affirming care, mainly speech pathologists, and to the gender diverse community. Study findings are anticipated to contribute to further understanding gender diverse people's psychological wellbeing and identity in a gender affirming speech pathology context to tailor practices to the unique needs of gender diverse clients.

Beyond disdain: Measurement and consequences of negative partisanship as a social identity

Negative partisanship, voters’ rejection of a party, increasingly garners scholarly attention. Yet we lack robust empirical evidence on the nature of the concept and how it shapes attitudes towards citizens of the “other side” of politics. In this paper I argue negative partisanship should be conceptualised as a type of social identity, beyond a mere “dislike” of a party. Leveraging a three-wave online panel administered during the 2021 German federal elections, I test the measurement properties of a multi-item scale measuring negative party identification. Further, I examine the effects of negative identities on attitudes towards other citizens by combining the online panel with a nine-country survey. I find that negative identification is at least as stable as (positive) partisanship and it predicts hostile attitudes towards out-voters. These findings suggest that, when dislike of a party becomes part of one’s sense of self, the consequences for social cohesion are particularly egregious.

“El nombre de nuestro país está en nuestros corazones”: exploring the impact of school-based identity messaging in Central American immigrant youth

ABSTRACT For immigrant youth, the development of a bicultural identity is associated with well-being and academic achievement. The institutional and social contexts of the receiving society, including public schools, shape processes of bicultural identity development. This exploratory qualitative study, which employed a phenomenological design, explored the experiences and perspectives of 20 Central American immigrant youth, with specific attention paid to messaging received about their identities of origin in the educational milieu. Despite experiences of both positive and negative identity messaging, all participants described an enduring sense of pride from and a strong desire to retain a meaningful connection to their identities of origin. Building on these participant perspectives, this study offers a preliminary exploration of identity resilience in this population of immigrant youth. These perspectives challenge previous theoretical models and empirical work related to the effects of acculturative stress, negative identity messaging, and collective identity trauma on connection to identity of origin.

Концептуализация феномена негативной идентичности

This article provides a systematic analysis of research devoted to the study of various aspects of social identity in order to determine the theoretical framework for studying the phenomenon of negative identity within the framework of sociology. The following theories are considered: social identity, realistic conflict of identity uncer-tainty. The theory of social identity constitutes a conceptual model elucidating how individuals define their iden-tities through affiliation with social groups, emphasizing the significance of social categories and stereotypes in identity formation. The theory of realistic conflict offers an approach to analyzing conflicts based on the prem-ise that they arise from struggles for material, “realistic” values and resources, even when groups are nominally divided. The theory of identity uncertainty, in turn, focuses on situations wherein individuals encounter difficul-ties in defining their identities, encompassing the concept of “entitativeness” within its scope. In synthesizing these theoretical perspectives, this article offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the multifacet-ed nature of negative identity within sociological discourse. By elucidating the underlying mechanisms and contextual factors shaping negative identity formation, scholars can advance theoretical and empirical inquiries into this complex phenomenon.

Safety and solidarity: Using collective documents to share sex workers’ insider knowledges

Western culture and Western health care systems have created places of sexual health care that are highly individualised, privatised and professionalised. For people engaged in sex work, this reduces the possibilities for sharing skills and knowledges and instead leaves people with internalised feelings of shame, guilt and isolation. This paper describes collective therapeutic work that elicited insider knowledges, skills and sparkling moments from sex workers. These accounts sidestepped negative identity conclusions and fostered mutual support among the workers, even though the participants never met each other. The work was guided by narrative practice concepts including externalising, double listening, re-authoring, privileging insider knowledges and developing collective documents.

How perceived rights and duties influence identity positions in an international TESOL graduate program

AbstractThe continued push to internationalize Korean higher education means that international and Korean students are enrolling in courses that are undergoing dynamic changes that neither group may be prepared for. This research investigated how the experiences of international students and Korean students who attended the same TESOL graduate school assigned identity positions to each other and their professors during such courses. Using positioning theory allowed this qualitative study to illustrate how participants assigned perceived rights and duties to act, know, or believe in accordance with who they believed they, and other people were, on their program. Violations of these perceived rights and duties resulted in assigning negative identity positions that previously were limited in description to vague “tensions” which impacted international student performance. Findings explain how cultural differences connected to language, participation, hierarchy, and friendships were keenly felt by all participants, and the perceived rights and duties that were violated due to these differences reinforced the marginalized identity position some international students felt.

Intersecting Identities and Adjustment to the Primary-Secondary School Transition: An Integrative Review

The primary-to-secondary school transition is a milestone for children because of the multiple changes they must navigate. Although most adjust successfully, approximately 30% of children have difficulties during this transition. Intersecting identities are also likely to influence how children navigate the adjustment of the school transfer, but there have been no syntheses of existing evidence relating to the impacts of intersectionality. We conducted an integrative review using eight databases (Education database, ERIC, ProQuest Education, PsychInfo, Scopus, SocIndex, Sociology Database, and Web of Science) and searched for quantitative or qualitative studies that examined how intersecting identities impact children’s self-concept, mental health, and adjustment of the primary-to-secondary school transition. We initially identified a total of 3,193 studies through database searches, with 1,790 remaining after deduplication. After we screened the titles and abstracts, 83 studies were included for full-text screening, of which eight met the review criteria. The studies included in the review were published between 2000 and 2018; no studies were found after 2018. Syntheses of the included studies (three quantitative studies, four qualitative studies, and one mixed methods study) revealed three themes: (1) academic and social discord; (2) defining and constructing negative identities; and (3) the female body. Our findings from the review highlighted how children with minority intersecting identities are faced with additional challenges during the transition to secondary school and how these can have negative ramifications for their self-concept, mental health, and adjustment to the transition. Future research needs to be directed away from prioritizing identities, such as gender and ethnicity, to include intersectional identities.

Learner experiences of low attainment groups in the context of a rights approach to education

ABSTRACT Participation is seen as an important right for learners, though there is lack of evidence to understand learners’ views on classroom practice. This includes decisions about grouping learners, for example, in terms of their prior attainment or perceived ‘ability’. This research took place in Wales where children’s rights are strongly promoted as an educational approach, but where there is also evidence of widespread attainment grouping in schools. Focus groups and interviews were carried out with secondary school learners in lower attaining groups (n = 70) and teachers and teaching assistants (n = 10) to understand experiences of learning support. Findings suggest strong learner satisfaction with groups, but also lack of movement between groups that reinforced ability hierarchies in schools and supported the development of negative identities for some learners. There was a lack of consensus among educators about the purpose of attainment grouping, with some seeing it as a way of addressing systemic issues within the school.

“I Had Already Reconciled With Being a Slut When I Came out as Bisexual”: Experiences of Binormativity, Prototypicality, and Marginalization Within the Bisexual Community

Bisexual people encounter pervasive stigmatization resulting in significant negative health outcomes. To avoid stigmatization, bisexual people may attempt to resist stereotyping by acting in ways counter to common bisexual stereotypes (i.e., rejecting binormativity). The current mixed-methods study investigated the effects of binormativity through an online survey (N = 68, Mage = 31.56) completed by self-identifying bisexual individuals. Our quantitative findings indicated that conformity to binormative standards predicted feelings of identity illegitimacy, but also predicted lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. These findings were supported by qualitative data indicating many participants reported experiencing pressure to act either less or more stereotypically bisexual, and some participants reported experiencing shame or social identity threat due to their engagement in “stereotypically bisexual” behaviors (e.g., promiscuity). Furthermore, participants were generally reluctant to engage with binormative standards by labeling any behaviors as “bad” representations of bisexuality, instead endorsing the notion that all bisexual people are valid. Our quantitative and qualitative data collectively indicate that bisexual people navigate binormativity in their everyday lives and may experience negative identity outcomes related to binormative standards (e.g., identity illegitimacy), yet generally maintain a positive sense of identity and pursue an inclusive definition and community of bisexuality.

Willful testimonial injustice as a form of epistemic injustice

AbstractIn the debate on epistemic injustice, it is generally assumed that testimonial injustice as one form of epistemic injustice cannot be committed (fully) deliberately or intentionally because it involves unconscious identity prejudices. Drawing on the case of sexual violence against refugees in European refugee camps, this paper argues that there is a form of testimonial injustice—willful testimonial injustice—that is deliberate. To do so, the paper argues (a) that the hearer intentionally utilizes negative identity prejudices for a particular purpose and (b) that the hearer is aware of the fact that the intentionally used prejudices are in fact prejudices. Furthermore, the paper shows how testimonial injustice relates to recognition failures both in terms of a causal as well as a constitutive claim. In fact, introducing willful testimonial injustice can support the constitutive claim of such a relation that has so far received little attention. Besides arguing for a novel form of testimonial injustice and contributing to the recent debate on the relation between epistemic injustice and recognition failures, this paper is also motivated by the attempt to draw attention to the inhumane conditions for refugees at the border of Europe as well as elsewhere.

MAPPING MENTAL HEALTH PATHWAYS AMONG BISEXUAL WOMEN, MEN, AND NONBINARY INDIVIDUALS IN MID AND LATER LIFE

Abstract The health-related pathways of bisexual individuals are most often compared to those of lesbians and gay men or examine participants of different genders separately. However, little is known regarding how the health-related pathways of bisexual individuals of diverse genders compare to one another, particularly in mid- to later life. This analysis examines identity-related and social factors which impact the mental health outcomes of midlife and older bisexual women, men and non-binary individuals and compares health-related pathways across genders. Analyses examined data from the National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study (NHAS), including bisexual women (96), men (102), and non-binary individuals (16) ages 50+. The study utilized structural equation modeling to investigate direct and indirect associations between gender and mental health via sexual identity-related (victimization, negative identity perception, and outness) and social factors (LGBTQ community engagement). For both men and women, negative identity perception was associated with being less out, particularly among women. Bisexual men who reported more victimization also reported more negative identity perception. However, negative identity perception was associated with worse mental health only among women. Across genders, victimization negatively impacted mental health and identity outness increased community engagement. Community engagement mediated the relationship between identity outness and mental health among men. Findings indicate distinct mental health pathways across genders. Thus, mental health interventions might also differ. While LGBTQ community engagement might be particularly beneficial to bisexual men, bisexual women might struggle more with identity perception. Future research will benefit from larger subsamples, particularly among non-binary individuals.

The people of Chernobyl: a community of loss in Svetlana Aleksievich’s Chernobyl Prayer

Svetlana Aleksievich conducted hundreds of interviews with those affected by the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine and her native Belarus and assembled them in her 1997 novel Chernobyl Prayer. A Chronicle of the Future. Aleksievich, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, created a complex, polyphonic blend of oral history and literature and provided a fragmentated and diverse narrative of memory, trauma, and victimhood. The article examines Aleksievich’s rendition of the ways in which “the people of Chernobyl” convey their own understanding of this identity. The many voices of Aleksievich’s novel coalesce to speak for what Serguei Oushakine calls a community of loss. The article traces the articulation of their identity: from the frustrated search for appropriate discursive tools and points of reference, to the explicit sense of having formed a unique social entity, a community. This transition is also a progression, through the process of articulation and analysis, from a negative identity, defined by loss and a radical change in status, to one enhanced by philosophical and environmental awareness. This is also a shift from the mainstream Soviet worldview and identity to other more complex, albeit less comforting perspectives.

Medical Students' Perception of Interprofessional Education: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background and objective Interprofessional education (IPE) involves learners from multiple health professions learning collaboratively to improve patient care. This study assessed medical students' perceptions of IPE at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 319 medical students in years two to six of graduate medical school and internships completed the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) questionnaire between April 2022 and July 2022. RIPLS consists of 19 items measuring teamwork/collaboration, negative/positive professional identity, and roles/responsibilities. Comparisons were made based on gender and academic level by using the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results Students generally expressed positive attitudes towards IPE. The majority agreed that IPE improves teamwork, communication, and patient care. In our cohort, 148 students (46.4%)strongly agreed and 140(43.9%) agreed that shared learning enhances understanding of clinical problems. However, 186 students (60%) disagreed that clinical problem-solving is profession-specific. On the teamwork/collaboration subscale, 279 students (87.7%) strongly agreed that learning with others makes them more effective team members. Regarding negative identity, 186 students (58.3%) disagreed that learning with other students wastes time. By gender, males had lower ranks for negative identity (p=0.03) and positive identity (p=0.03) versus females. As for academic level, clinical students and interns had higher and lower ranks, respectively, for negative identity (p<0.01). Conclusion Based on our findings, medical students generally hold favorable views toward IPE and recognize its benefits for collaboration, communication, and patient care. Incorporating IPE throughout medical training may further improve attitudes and interprofessional skills.

Ambedkar's Śūnyatā and the Impermanence of the Theologico-Political

This article engages with B. R. Ambedkar as political philosopher and key contributor to debates on global democracy and the genealogy of democratic ideas outside the West. I focus specifically on Ambedkar's use of Buddhist philosophy and the concept of śūnyatā (emptiness/impermanence), which plays a central role in his search for a nontheological democratic politics. In order to explore the implications of such a politics, the article brings Ambedkar into conversation with Claude Lefort and his theorization of the relationships between politics, religion, and democracy. Through this reading, Ambedkar's political philosophy becomes legible not only as a profound challenge to what Lefort has called the “permanence of the theologico-political” but also as a radical way of combining everyday political practice with an emphatic notion of negative identity.

Methods of Russian information propaganda and their influence on the image of Ukraine in the world

This article is devoted to the definition and analysis of the main methods of Russian information propaganda and the study of their real impact on creating a negative image of Ukraine in the international community.&#x0D; Analysis of the foreign press showed that the Western information space is a mixture of professional research, falsifications, propaganda, open manipulation and primitive claims. It is important to note that today there is a fairly large number of foreign publications which, while supporting the Putin regime, still consider Ukraine and Russia as inseparable objects and which almost always publish negative materials about Ukraine and its people. Such sources include some information resources of Serbia, France, Turkey, etc.&#x0D; Western observers can obtain more objective and truthful information from official representatives of the state, diplomats, and from influential world publications that provide high-quality analytics and expert opinions. Through the websites of organizations that provide analytical and statistical materials. Also, well-known bloggers, openly declaring their political preferences and support, can shape the opinion of some people.&#x0D; Among the main information methods used by Russia in the fight against Ukraine are the manipulation of history and current events, the distortion of historical facts and contemporary events, the creation of a negative identity of Ukraine in the eyes of the international public, speculation on facts, the production of fake news, etc.&#x0D; In general, the spread of Russian propaganda about Ukraine has a negative impact on its perception in the world. And this, in turn, can create significant obstacles to the preservation and support of Ukraine's sovereignty, as well as its international integration. To combat this phenomenon, it is important to continue to strengthen international cooperation in the field of information security and to openly highlight facts and truthful information about Ukraine.

“Notice of major cleaning”: A qualitative study of the negative impact of encampment sweeps on the ontological security of unhoused people who use drugs

BackgroundUnhoused people who use drugs in the United States are at risk for a variety of negative health outcomes. As the crisis of houselessness continues to impact major urban areas, a wave of punitive policies has been enacted to remove visible unhoused people from public spaces. There is reason to believe that harsh policies of encampment displacement will have negative immediate and downstream impacts on this community. MethodsParticipant observation was conducted weekly or bi-weekly at unhoused encampments in Los Angeles County, USA over the course of two years (2021, 2022). Data were generated through the lens of ontological security theory via in-field jottings and comprehensive field notes. Formal, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 unhoused people who use drugs recruited primarily through peer-referral sampling at these same venues. Data were coded and analyzed thematically using the Template Analysis approach. Field notes were used to triangulate and further contextualize thematic analysis of interview data. ResultsEncampment sweeps impacted nearly all participants and occurred multiple times at every visited field site. They were observed to occur both with and without the presence of police, but always resulted in the loss of the personal property of encampment residents. Sweeps occurred across seasons, hazardous weather, and without offers of alternative shelter. Participants described sweeps as impacting all aspects of their ontological security, including dismantling material and social constancy, disrupting routines of daily life and resource management, increasing feelings of surveillance, and potentially creating negative identity formation. ConclusionsIn both ethnographic observation and participant interviews, encampment sweeps were noted to be physically, psychologically, and socially destructive. Sweeps left participants feeling anger, loss, and hopelessness while further driving the societal marginalization of unhoused people who use drugs. Sweeps should be discontinued as they harm the capacity of unhoused people to improve their well-being.

Nationalist versus Populist Constructions of “the People”: Eastern Europe and Latin America in Comparative Perspective

This article argues that while nationalist discourses construct “the people” through positive identity practices, populist discourses articulate it through negative identity practices. Nationalism emphasizes who “the people” are, by identifying a number of core positive characteristics that they share, such as ethnicity, language, culture, history, religion, or political rights and civic traditions. Populism, on the other hand, defines “the people” primarily in a negative fashion in opposition to the elites. Here, “the people” do not share any positive characteristics beyond their oppression, exclusion, and marginalization by the elites. In order to empirically demonstrate the above distinction, I compare the political discourse of Rafael Correa in Ecuador during his first term in office (2007–2012) with that of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, primarily during his second term in office (2010–2014). The comparison between these two political projects not only spells out important differences between populist and nationalist articulations of “the people” but also highlights different types of anti-system politics that have emerged in Latin America and eastern Europe.

What makes Chinese adolescents “trapped” in severe mental illness? An interactionist perspective on self and identity

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore the self and identity perspectives among Chinese adolescents with severe mental illness (SMI), with a focus on their illness experience and subjective meaning of a formal diagnosis. Thirty-one Chinese adolescents were interviewed and the interview data were analysed strictly according to principles suggested by the constructivist grounded theory approach. Five theoretical codes emerged in this study, including changes of personal values and beliefs, accumulated persistent developmental challenges and personal stresses, ineffective coping strategies and development, symptoms and development of mental illness, and changed perceptions and understandings of self. A proposed model of “The dynamic interactions of Chinese adolescents’ identity and mental illness”, was constructed and visualized. The results revealed that adolescents’ identity formation is a fluctuating and non-linear process, but tends to be predominantly negative. The negative self, as informed by long-term ineffective coping with accumulated persistent developmental challenges and stressful events, develops towards a more serious status of negative identity and contributes to relapse symptoms, although this impact occurs variably with perceived personal characteristics. Besides, some participants who had achieved a state of “Buddha-like numbness” made a conscious decision to live a seemingly normal life while coexisting with their illness. The study also highlighted the positive aspects of identity formation that can arise from the experience of illness, including an enhanced sense of realism and increased empathy. Our findings will imply much the need for person-centred treatment plan and services that take into account of individual situations.

Why vote for an independent? The relevance of negative identity, independent identity, and dealignment in a pro-independent political environment

We know that political parties play a crucial role in the electoral processes of established democracies. However, we know much less about how this role fades away. In this paper, we study the case of Chile, a country that, until a few years ago, was cited as an example of a stable and institutionalized party system. We study how the phenomenon of independent candidates has shaken the national party system. We use two separate strategies to study this phenomenon. First, we measure the marginal effect of the independent label, compared to other party labels, using a conjoint experiment. Our findings show that candidates who are presented as independents have a significant increase in their probability of being chosen. Second, we measure whether this electoral effect relates to party identification. We find that respondents show low animosity towards independent candidates and high animosity towards traditional parties. Furthermore, a majority of the studied population can be classified as negative partisans. These findings suggest that the recent emergence of independent candidates is a result of negative views on parties.

An analysis of bias and distrust in social hinge epistemology

ABSTRACT Philosophical literature has focused on the concept of trust, but often considers distrust merely as an afterthought. Distrust however, because of its pervasive role in our everyday lives, can be quite damaging. Thus, understanding the rationality of distrust is crucial for understanding our testimonial practices. In this paper I analyze whether it is rational or irrational to distrust an informant on the basis of identity bias. My aim is to show that distrust is irrational when based on negative identity bias. First, I adopt Annalisa Coliva’s account of social hinge epistemology where it is rationally required to assume certain basic presuppositions, such that people are generally reliable informants, to obtain propositional justification and participate in the testimonial practice. Secondly, I show how distrust based on negative identity bias can spread across other domains of interaction and jeopardize the testimonial practice as we fail to assume that people are generally reliable informants. Thirdly, I argue that considering bias as a defeater is beneficial to maintain the claim that bias-based distrust is irrational, as it prevents the acquisition of propositional justification. Finally, I show that distrust is rational when based on evidence and reason that the speaker is not reliable or sincere.