Sense Of Social Identity Research Articles

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

Iconic 21st Century Activist "T-Shirt and Tote-Bag" Combination Is Hard to Miss These Days!

Musical taste, in-group favoritism, and social identity theory: Re-testing the predictions of the self-esteem hypothesis

Musical taste is thought to function as a social “badge” of group membership, contributing to an individual’s sense of social identity. Following from this, social identity theory predicts that individuals should perceive those who share their musical tastes more favorably than those who do not. Social identity theory also asserts that this in-group favoritism is motivated by the need to achieve, maintain, or enhance a positive social identity and self-esteem (i.e., the “self-esteem hypothesis”). The findings of the present study supported both of these predictions. Participants rated fans of their favorite musical style significantly more favorably than fans of their least favorite musical style. The present findings also offer, for the first time, evidence of significant positive correlations between an individual’s self-esteem and the in-group bias shown to those who share their musical tastes. However, significant relationships with in-group identification also indicate that self-esteem is unlikely to be the sole factor responsible for this apparent in-group bias. Together these findings suggest that those who share our musical taste are likely to be regarded as in-group members and will be subject to in-group favoritism according to our self-esteem and how strongly we identify with our fellow music fans.

Factors which Influence Risk Taking and the Evolution of Social-Identity in Stroke Narratives: A Thematic Synthesis.

Background: The disruption of a stroke can impact an individual’s sense of social identity. A comprehensive review is required to understand the factors and processes that influence changes in social identity following a stroke. Aims: To undertake a review of literature to discover a process of social identity evolution for people with stroke and identify the factors which influence it. Methods: A meta-ethnographic approach to review was undertaken and a subtle realist viewpoint was assumed. Studies were included if they documented experiences and perceptions relating to stroke. Eight electronic databases were searched from January 2009 until January 2019. Quality assessment and synthesis techniques were applied. Findings: Out of the 18 papers included, a total of 251 (141/251, 56% male, 109/251, 43% female, 1/251, 0.4% undisclosed) individuals were included within the synthesis. The evolution of social-identity model was developed and identified with five key stages to represent a process that individuals with stroke can experience. Factors which influence the process were identified and direct implications for clinical practice are given. Conclusion: This review has highlighted the major themes within the evolution of social identity and management strategies for risk taking to achieve a desired future. Further research is required to consider how these findings may be tested in clinical practice.

Recovering a sense of self in schizophrenia.

Diverse theoretical orientations on psychopathology, including the most recent phenomenological and neuroscientific approaches, consistently have viewed a core component of schizophrenia to be the loss, or distortion, of a person's sense of self as an effective agent in a shared, social world. How such a sense of self becomes lost or distorted and the questions of whether or not, and if so, how it can be recovered have received considerably less attention. These questions are taken up in the present paper. A review of a substantial body of longitudinal research, enhanced by a growing trove of recovery narratives, provides ample evidence that many people recover a sense of self over time. Based on a review of this qualitative literature, this contribution describes the components and processes involved in the gradual reconstruction of an effective sense of social agency. Processes of reconstructing a sense of self begin with acceptance and an instillation of hope, which together provide a foundation for rediscovering one's efficacy in seemingly small but concrete ways that then are incorporated into a sense of social identity as a worthwhile member of one's community. Implications of such an understanding for recovery-oriented practice are considered.

Social identities and racial integration in historically white universities: A literature review of the experiences of black students

South African government has been promulgating pieces of legislation aimed at ensuring racial integration, especially in higher education, and indirectly enforcing acculturation in historically white universities. Studies have proven that institutional cultures in historically white universities alienate and exclude black students’ identities. These students’ sense of social identity, which includes culture, heritage, language and traditions, and consequently self-esteem and self-concept, is altered in these institutions. Research has been scant regarding the shape and form that black students’ identity assumes when they get to these spaces. Using Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) social identity theory and Berry’s (2005) theory of acculturation, this article explores the experiences of black students in negotiating their social identities in historically white universities. Evoking Steve Biko’s analysis of ‘artificial integration’ (1986), we hope to illustrate how the ‘integration’ narrative sought to discard the identity of black students and psychologically enforce a simulation of black students into white-established identities. The study has implications for policy development as we hope to sensitise theoretically the historically white universities to, apart from mere opening of spaces of learning, understand the social identity challenges of black students in these institutions.

Muslim Americans’ Responses to Social Identity Threats: Effects of Media Representations and Experiences of Discrimination

ABSTRACTDirect and indirect social identity threats can influence stigmatized individuals to seek identity management strategies that restore a positive sense of social identity. The current study examined the effects of media representations and self-reported experiences of discrimination on Muslim American students’ identity management strategies. Results revealed that Muslim American students who viewed negative media representations of their religious ingroup, relative to a control video, were less likely to desire acceptance by other Americans and more likely to avoid interactions with majority members. Additionally, self-reported experiences of discrimination significantly and positively influenced a desire for collective action. These results reveal the powerful effects of media representations and discrimination in threatening minority group members’ social identity and exacerbating negative intergroup relations between majority and minority groups.

Promoting Continuance Through Shaping Members' Social Identity in Knowledge-Based Versus Support/Advocacy Virtual Communities

A fundamental issue confronting virtual community (VC) managers is how to retain the existing members and promote their continuance in the VC. Being a virtual interaction space in which members are not formally bound to stay, the extent to which members have a sense of social identity, or perceiving themselves as a part of the VC, may be a key to determine their continuance intention in the VC. However, it is important to recognize that social identity is neither a unidimensional concept nor are VCs universal in nature. In this study, we examine two variants of VCs, one focusing on knowledge sharing and another on support/advocacy, and show that different dimensions of social identity matters for the two VCs. In particular, members' sense of cognitive social identity promotes their continuance intention in knowledge-based VCs, whereas it is the emotional social identity that works in support/advocacy VCs. Furthermore, the cultivation of the two dimensions of social identity requires the facilitation of different VC artifacts. Overall, our findings offer a more nuanced understanding of the role of social identity in promoting members' continuance in VCs, and underscore that a naive universal approach of cultivating social identity without considering VC type is not enough; rather, a VC-dependent strategy with differential emphasis on developing different VC artifacts could be more fruitful.

Identity, influence, and change: Rediscovering John Turner's vision for social psychology

John Turner, whose pioneering work on social identity and self-categorization theories changed the face of modern social psychology, died in July 2011. This unique virtual special issue celebrates Turner's life and work by reproducing a number of key articles that were published in the British Journal of Social Psychology and the European Journal of Social Psychology over the course of his career. These articles are of three types: first, key position papers, on which Turner was the leading or sole author; second, papers that he published with collaborators (typically PhD students) that explored key theoretical propositions; third, short commentary papers, in which Turner engaged in debate around key issues within social psychology. Together, these papers map out a clear and compelling vision. This seeks to explain the distinctly social nature of the human mind by showing how all important forms of social behaviour - and in particular, the propensity for social influence and social change -are grounded in the sense of social identity that people derive from their group memberships. As we discuss in this editorial, Turner's great contribution was to formalize this understanding in terms of testable hypotheses and generative theory and then to work intensively but imaginatively with others to take this vision forward.

The crowd as a psychological cue to in-group support for collective action against collective disadvantage

Collective action against collective disadvantage is an important socio-psychological phenomenon that represents a powerful pathway to social change. One key conclusion from the psychological literature on collective action is that a strong subjective sense of social identity is almost a necessity for disadvantaged group members to become motivated to undertake collective action against collective disadvantage. We propose, however, that even those individuals who may not identify strongly with their group might engage in collective action when they are in a crowd. This is because one core feature of the crowd, the physical co-presence of in-group members, conveys a psychological cue to in-group support for collective action against collective disadvantage. This is particularly relevant for lower identifiers, because, unlike higher identifiers, they do not view themselves as similar to other group members and thus do not expect in-group support. As a consequence, expectations of in-group support and therefore interest in collective action should increase for lower identifiers when they are in a crowd. We tested this idea in a psychological experiment in which higher and lower identifiers with a disadvantaged group were randomly assigned to a physical co-presence or control condition. Results showed indeed that the physical co-presence of in-group members increased only lower identifiers' expectations of in-group support and their interest in collective action against collective disadvantage. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.

Commentary: Being gay in straight places--exploring density effects on the mental health of homosexual and bisexual populations

Evidence is irrefutable that homosexuals and bisexuals suffer higher rates of psychiatric disorder, substance abuse, suicide and deliberate self-harm than heterosexuals. Research hitherto has focused almost solely on individual-level risk factors that may explain the excess of such psychiatric morbidity in homosexual and bisexual populations. Common factors explored include stigma, social isolation, prejudice and discrimination. The paper from Hatzenbueler, Keyes and McLaughlin is to be commended for advancing scholarship on the mental health of homosexuals and bisexuals in diverse manners. First, they measured contextual-level factors and link this to psychiatric outcomes, namely whether a higher density of same-sex couples modifies risk for mental illness among homosexuals and bisexuals. This is a welcome development, shifting the focus away from traditional risk factor epidemiology to a more modern multi-level approach. Secondly, through this design and conceptualization, they were able to focus on resiliency and protective factors, shifting the pathological gaze that is often disparagingly fixed on homosexual and bisexual populations. Thirdly, they examined the interaction between a protective factor (density of same-sex couples) and risk factors (namely social isolation and economic adversity), as such testing both a main effect and a buffering hypothesis for the above-named protective factor. Hatzenbueler et al. found that homosexual and bisexual respondents living in states with a low density of same-sex couples were at increased risk for psychiatric morbidity when compared with homosexuals living in states with a high density. Homosexuals and bisexuals living in states with a low density of same-sex couples were particularly vulnerable to mood and anxiety disorders when exposed to economic adversity or social isolation. Indeed, homosexuals and bisexuals exposed to economic adversity and social isolation experienced increased risk for psychiatric morbidity only in states with a low concentration of homosexuals. In other words, being gay in straight places was worse for the mental health of homosexuals and bisexuals therein. In response to their findings, authors note that there is a large extant literature implying that the mental health of ethnic minorities is worse where they comprise a smaller proportion of the local population—the so-called ‘ethnic density effect’. Authors then speculate whether mechanisms thought to underpin the ethnic density effect can be at work explaining geographical variations in the mental health of homosexuals and bisexuals. To my knowledge, this is the first time that density effects have been posited as applying to a group bound together not by ethnicity, but by a behavioural characteristic that brings with it a strong sense of social identity and what Meyer labels ‘minority stress’. Whitley et al. propose an empirically grounded model with four mechanisms through which ethnic density can influence mental health and psychological well-being. These are (i) exclusion from local networks; (ii) a need to rely on geographically dispersed culturally specific services and facilities; (iii) physical and psychological intimidation; and (iv) damaging effects of everyday racism. Could these mechanisms (or variants thereof) explain the worse mental health of homosexuals and bisexuals living in places where they comprise a smaller proportion of the population? There may well be a real or perceived exclusion from local networks where there are few other homosexuals and bisexuals, lacking the ‘safety in numbers’ characteristic of high-density areas. This may lead to social isolation, discrimination and stigma. Indeed Whitley and McKenzie note that regional ‘social capital’ may sometimes be reliant upon homogeneity and obedience to social and behavioural norms, which may be asphyxiating, constraining and exclusionary for those who deviate from these norms. Do homosexuals and bisexuals living in low-density areas need to rely on geographically dispersed Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association

Patterns of outdoor territorial control: a case study of single-family urban housing in Jordan

Understanding how and why people control external spaces in their residential settings is vital for the environmental planning and design and planning of effective housing layouts. The research presented examines the patterns of outdoor territorial control in a single-family complex in Jordan. This country is rapidly urbanizing with the development of new housing types. While previous studies have examined the home, little work has examined the external environment related to the home. Increasingly, this domain is being used to reinforce occupants' sense of social identity. This case study involves the examination of a new housing complex. The data were collected using face-to-face interviews through a structured questionnaire with a sample size of 93 occupants. The results of the study demonstrate that an occupant's use of physical territorial control is high. The most used physical territorial pattern is fencing and the least is signs. Findings also suggest that physical control is associated with the presence of children in the family, employment, age and family life cycle. The strongest predictor seems to be age, as it is associated with the physical territorial control patterns of fencing, decorating, modifications, signage and locking gates, which simply confirms the relation between identity and territorial control.

Am I Who I Say I Am? Social Identities and Identification

When we talk about social identities, we can have one of at least two senses of the phrase in mind: (1) We can think of social identities as a social status. On this view one bears some social identity S, just in case one can be classified as an S according to some criteria.1 The social sta tuses relevant for considerations of social identity include gender and race, as well as familial roles like being a father, a mother, a sister, or a brother, and occupational roles like being a professor, a firefighter, or a landscaper. (2) We can also think of social identities as psychological in nature. On this view one bears a social identity S, just in case one has the appropriate psychological attachment to some social status. Social identity when thought of according to (1) is an objective mat ter, so to speak. That is, if one wants to know if some person bears some social identity S, one does not need to consult a person's opinion regard ing whether or not she thinks of herself as an S. There are social and his torical facts that determine a person's social identity. In contrast, there is a tendency among theorists to think of social identities according to (2) as subjective. That is, bearing some social identity depends on whether a person endorses her social status or, at the very least, explicitly believes that she bears some social status. On this view, social identity, in the psychological sense, just is one's subjective take on one's social statuses. This paper will focus on the second sense of social identity. I take the prevailing view in the field, noted above, to be mistaken. Psychological social identity is not a matter of subjective self-ascription. It is instead a feature of a person's mental life that does not rely on a person's explicit ly held understanding of who or what she is. Psychological social identi ties are a product of our emotional life, which often operates below the surface of self-reflective awareness. I arrive at this conclusion by first showing how the prevailing view fails to address the following cases:

Musical Taste and Ingroup Favouritism

Musical taste is thought to function as a social `badge' of group membership, contributing to an individual's sense of social identity. Following from this, social identity theory predicts that individuals should perceive and behave more favourably towards those perceived to share their musical taste than towards those who do not. The findings of two studies supported these predictions. The first showed that stereotypes of the fans of different musical styles demonstrate ingroup favouritism, and the second study used the minimal group paradigm to show that individuals allocate greater rewards to those believed to share their musical taste. This suggests that those who share our musical taste are likely to be considered ingroup members, and should be subject to ingroup favouritism.

Study participation as a social group influencing sexual behaviours in an HIV-prevention trial for men who have sex with men

Perceived group membership, perceptions about accompanying group norms and the degree to which a person identifies with a social group are predictive of a wide range of human behaviours. Behavioural clinical trials in general, and HIV-prevention intervention trials in particular, however, have not examined the degree to which individuals who join a large behavioural study (and hence, a group) may, in an unanticipated way, develop a sense of social identity related to the study, and how this identity or associated group norms may influence participants’ behaviours and, potentially, study outcomes. Project EXPLORE was a large-scale behavioural intervention trial in six US cities to prevent HIV seroconversion among men who have sex with men (MSM) (EXPLORE Study Team, 2004). We previously found that participants (examined at one study site) were more likely to engage in high-risk sexual activities with other MSM who were EXPLORE participants than other partners. The present ancillary study (n=271) sought to examine the degree to which perceived group membership, group identity and group norms among EXPLORE study participants was associated with sexual behaviour with other EXPLORE participants, high-risk sexual behaviours with other EXPLORE participants and intentions to engage in high-risk sex with other EXPLORE participants. A principal components analysis of a 14-item scale assessing perceived group membership and norms regarding being part of EXPLORE yielded six principal components (PCs): PC1: perception that EXPLORE participants engage in safer sex; PC2: social comfort with EXPLORE participants; PC3: perceived group identity with EXPLORE; PC4: trust of other EXPLORE participants; PC5: perception that EXPLORE participants are cunning; and PC6: feeling detached from EXPLORE. Social comfort with other EXPLORE participants (OR = 1.24; p = 0.013) and trust of other EXPLORE participants (OR = 1.44; p=0.003) was significantly associated with a higher odds of having sex with another EXPLORE participant. Feeling detached from EXPLORE (OR = 0.56; p=0.020) was significantly associated with a lower odds of engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour with other EXPLORE participants. Regarding intentions to engage in high-risk sexual behaviour with other EXPLORE participants, social comfort with EXPLORE participants (OR = 1.39; p<0.001) and trust of other EXPLORE participants (OR = 1.30; p<0.027) were significantly associated with higher odds of this outcome and the perception that EXPLORE participants are cunning (OR = 0.66; p<0.004) and feeling detached from EXPLORE (OR = 0.68; p<0.007) were significantly associated with lower odds of this outcome. Final models controlled for potential confounders found to be statistically significant in the bivariate analyses. These findings suggest that large-scale studies such as EXPLORE may result in participant's perceptions about group membership, identity and norms, and that these perceptions can influence study outcomes.

Inscribing Identity: Insights for Teaching From ESL Students' Journals

Linguistic minority students in schools must acquire and operate in a second language while negotiating mainstream texts and content areas, along with negotiating an emerging new sense of social identity. This article presents journal data from an Australian ethnographic study that explored the relationship between second-language use, textual practices in school, and the representation of identity. Such texts normally lie outside dominant school discourses, but for students they are a powerful means of negotiating identity and gaining vital language practice. For teachers journals provide critical insights into the experiences of their students and into their developing language competence.

Encouraging participation in virtual communities

Leaders of robust, sustainable virtual communities find ways tostrengthen their members' sense of social identity and motivate their participation in the community's activities.

Nourishing the Nation: The Uses of Food in an Israeli Kindergarten

Increasing numbers of people spend much of their waking lives within institutions of one sort or another. Nevertheless, whereas food and food-related occasions within domestic contexts have been studied extensively as prime sites for the transmission of social and cultural knowledge, little scholarly attention has attended to the uses and meanings of food in institutional contexts. Of such contexts, early education settings are particularly interesting, because it is during early childhood that strong links are forged between food, eating occasions, and a sense of social identity. This article, based on an ethnographic account of an Israeli kindergarten, addresses the question as to what cultural, social, and political knowledge was imparted through the preparation, consumption of, and conversation about food at an Israeli kindergarten. Various food-related events are described in terms of their contents, structure, mode of sociability, and the didactic use to which such occasions were put. The article argues that this food-complex served to mark and underpin the centrality of the Israeli state as a prime arena of allegiance and social identity and, further, that this process was related to, and reinforced by, class dynamics, as these were articulated in this particular kindergarten.

The psychology of casualization: Evidence for the mediating roles of security, status and social identification

Organizational research from a social identity perspective has shown that people expend effort on behalf of a work unit to the extent that the unit contributes to their sense of social identity. Moreover, it has been suggested that identification is enhanced to the extent that group members anticipate future interaction with one other (Worchel et al., 1998). This study examined these ideas in relation to the phenomenon of workplace casualization, looking at whether assigning individuals to different employment roles impacts on their intentions to contribute to the functioning of an organization in both typical and non-typical ways. In a scenario-based study, public sector employees (N = 138) indicated their willingness to contribute positively to the organization after being assigned either casual, temporary or permanent roles in a team that had, or did not have, a future. Consistent with the social identity approach (e.g., Haslam, 2004), results indicated that assignment to a permanent role increased willingness to contribute to the organization and that this was mediated by social identification.

Mary Malone's Lessons: A Narrative of Citizenship in Federation Australia

Between 1886 and 1896 Mary Malone, a young Australian woman of Irish Catholic background, selected eighty‐two articles and fifty‐nine poems to preserve in an old school exercise book. This article argues that the clippings Mary assembled in her exercise book formed a narrative designed to secure a sense of social identity as the Australian colonies moved towards Federation in 1901. The exercise book reflects Mary's meditation on the stories of the colonial public sphere, a meditation that in turn faciliated her participation in community, work and as a citizen. Mary's exercise book reveals the mutual dependence of public and private realms of knowledge and experience, and the subjective assimilation of public discourse required to take a place in the social world.

The Interaction of Depersonalization and Deindividuation

Abnormal experiences of the self defined here in terms of depersonalization may predispose individuals to aggressive behavior in situations that further alter their self-awareness. Conditions that raise self-awareness may inhibit the aggressive behavior of individuals prone to these .abnormal experiences of self. In the current research, individuals prone to a distorted body image were least likely to express attitudes reflecting verbal hostility when their selfawareness was raised. Individuals prone to a sense of unreality about others were most likely to express attitudes that reflect physical aggression when their sense of social identity was raised. However, these attitudes were less likely in individuals prone to self-criticism whose social identity was enhanced. The results suggest that a multidimensional construct of depersonalization may aid in the prediction of aggressive behavior that is facilitated by situations that alter the individual’s sense of self