Members Of Social Groups Research Articles

Self-referencing and optimal distinctiveness theory: The theoretical underpinnings to US multicultural marketing

This paper revisits in-culture marketing, a model that has served as the strategic backbone to Hispanic marketing in the USA for more than three decades. Although popular and useful, in-culture marketing lacks a theoretical foundation and empirical validation. To help brands do a better job of engaging with an increasingly multicultural population, this paper introduces two theories rooted in social psychology: self-referencing, which has been shown to drive advertising effectiveness when information is linked to the self, and (2) optimal distinctiveness theory, which helps explain social identity and how people come to define themselves in terms of their social group memberships. At a time when the US population is becoming increasingly multicultural, this paper advances a conceptual fourquadrant model designed to improve marketing effectiveness for leading corporations. The paper argues that the US advertising industry bears the responsibility to develop and promote new strategic approaches that help leading brands grow — even if it means challenging today’s business models and disrupting the status quo.

Factors Influencing the Level of Benefits Derived from Social Group Participation

This research empirically examined factors influencing the level of benefits derived from social group membership in Eastern Wollega Zone, Ethiopia. Methodologically the study used an explanatory research design. Quantitative data were gathered from 490 rural households of the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) targeted districts using a multi-stage sampling technique. Multiple imputation techniques are used to deal with missed observations. An ordered logistic regression model is employed to empirically evaluate the predictors of the level of benefits derived from social group membership. The econometric results of an ordered logistic regression identified nine explanatory variables as factors influencing the benefits derived from the social group. The significant variables were marital status (p<0.05), education (p<0.05), farming status (p<0.01), mixed farming (p<0.01), livestock production (p<0.01), status in membership (p<0.01), trust index (p<0.01), decision making index (p<0.05) and labor contribution index (p<0.05). However, most of the explanatory variables were insignificant i.e. crop production, age, gender, farm size, heterogeneity index, diversity of membership index, cash meeting attendance index, and cash contribution index (not significant at less than 5% but significant at 10%) This study is very important in contributing to scarce literature related to the factors contributing to the level of benefits derived from social group participation in Ethiopia. The results are expected to support decision-makers at the local level, federal government higher ministries, and policymakers by providing empirical evidence on the factors affecting the level of benefits derived from social group participation.

Multiple group memberships promote health and performance following pathway transitions in junior elite cricket

Coping well with transitions (e.g., progressing from youth to senior level, transferring between clubs, retiring from sport) is an integral part of elite athletes’ lives—poor adjustment can lead to dropout, poor performance, and even alcohol and drug abuse. Recent research from the wider social psychology literature has demonstrated that people’s social group memberships may represent a key resource upon which people can draw when navigating various transitions. In this study, conducted in conjunction with the England and Wales Cricket Board, we investigated the importance of group memberships for the health and performance of young cricketers transitioning into high-performance pathways. Over a two-year period, 257 cricketers (Mage = 15.53) completed between 1 and 5 questionnaires, for an average of 1.77 questionnaires, resulting in 456 unique responses. Linear mixed models showed that cricketers who belonged to more pre-transition groups, and who belonged to a greater number of new groups after the transition, demonstrated greater post-transition health and performance. The continuity of cricketers’ group memberships across the transition also had a positive but less pronounced impact on their health. Finally, there was also evidence that group membership effects were partly dependent on the time since transition, with effects more prominent soon after the transition than later. Results are timely, given recent research and applied interest in athlete development pathways, and the mental health of those on such pathways. They also have important implications for the design—and continued monitoring—of elite-performance pathways. Indeed, the England and Wales Cricket Board has already implemented policy changes based upon the present study’s findings.

Reckless gambles and responsible ventures: Racialized prototypes of risk-taking.

Risk-taking is sometimes admired and sometimes disparaged. In this research, we examine previously unexplored questions concerning how membership in social groups is related to expectations and perceptions of risk-taking. We propose that prototypes of risk-takers incorporate racial associations. We conducted five studies (NTotal = 1,603, predominantly White residents of the United States) examining whether prototypes of risk-takers-primarily reckless and responsible ones-activate racial stereotypes and discrimination. We first focused on whether participants perceive Black (vs. White) men as more likely to engage in risk-taking, broadly construed (Study 1). Next, we tested whether the trait attributions (Studies 2 and 3) and mental images constructed with the reverse correlation task (Study 3) of reckless risk-takers are more stereotypically Black (and less White) than responsible risk-takers. In Study 4, we employed an investment game to investigate participants' willingness to trust targets we depicted using the racialized mental images of reckless and responsible risk-takers derived from Study 3. A final study examined whether thinking about reckless risk-takers evokes Black stereotypes broadly, including even positive stereotype content. Findings confirmed that reckless risk-takers were imagined as more phenotypically Black and as having more stereotypically Black traits (both positive and negative), compared with responsible risk-takers. Theoretical and practical implications for this novel stereotype content in the domain of risk are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

You Too? Female Radiologists' Narratives on Discrimination and Harassment.

There is a paucity of examples of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in radiology. This lack of knowledge can limit radiologists' ability to relate to this topic, acknowledge its importance and impact, and take actions toward improvement. We conducted a qualitative analysis using the model of thematic analysis developed by Braun and Clarke of narrative responses to a survey on the topic of #MeToo, which was distributed to a social media group of female radiologists. In all, 575 anonymous survey responses from 3,265 social media group members were analyzed. Among these responses, the study team identified important themes with examples, including Victims and Perpetrators, Acts of Gender Discrimination, Inequalities, Sexual Harassment and Assault, and Microaggressions. The narratives provide relatable examples of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in radiology. These may spark discussions that raise awareness among radiologists and result in interventions geared toward improvement.

International Refugees in The Protection of Human Rights: A Discourse of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law

Refugees are defined as people who are due to a reasonable fear of persecution, caused by reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in certain social groups and political parties, are outside their nationality and do not want protection from the country. When refugees leave their home country or residence, they leave their lives, homes, possessions and family. The refugees cannot be protected by their home country because they are forced to leave their country. Therefore, protection and assistance to them is the responsibility of the international community. In countries receiving refugees, they often experience inhumane treatment such as rape, assault, discrimination, repatriated by force, those lead to the violation of human rights. There has been regulation for human rights in refugee issues both internationally and regionally, for instance Convention related to Status of Refugee 1951 and The Protocol related to the Status of Refugee 1967. There are at least five basic rights of refugees, they are the right to be protected from returning to the country of origin forcibly (non refoulement), the right to seek asylum, the right to obtain equality and non-discrimination, the right to live and to be secured, as well as the right to return home.

Experiences of race- and gender-based discrimination among Black female physicians

IntroductionRecently, in the United States, there has been a strong effort to increase representation of members of social groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM). Experiences of discrimination among URiM group members, including women and people of color, have negative effects on their health and well-being and drive further underrepresentation. Here we report results of a qualitative research study designed to characterize Black female physicians’ experiences of discrimination related to their identities both as women and people of color, in medical education and the practice of medicine. MethodsA trained interviewer conducted semi-structured qualitative, in-depth interviews with twenty Black, cis-gender, female physicians working in various fields of medicine. Broadly framed within intersectionality theory and analyzed using a pragmatic analytic approach, all interviews were transcribed, read, coded, and analyzed identifying key emergent themes. ResultsTwo broad and overlapping themes emerged: (1) experiencing and managing micro/macroaggressions and biases in the workplace; and (2) strategies to overcome experiences of intersectional discrimination. Each theme contained several subthemes, such as “presumed incompetence”, “isolation and exclusion”, “managing burdensome expectations”, “building support systems”, “speaking up”, and “resilience”. Participants described both intersectional and independent forms of discrimination and a range of sources of discrimination, including patients, peers, and colleagues, in their careers as trainees and professionals. Most described minimal and largely ineffective efforts to prevent or mitigate the impact of discrimination at any level of their educational and professional contexts. DiscussionBlack female physicians report experiencing damaging discrimination with few effective intervention efforts in tAheir medical training and workplaces. There is need for more research and evaluation of interventions to reduce discrimination at all levels of education and training.

Effects of colour narrative in community-dwelling older adults: A mixed methods study

Background Based on occupational storytelling/story-making, this study developed Colour Narrative, a program to promote the health and well-being of community-dwelling older adults. Objectives To conduct a pilot study to implement Colour Narrative in a heavy snowfall area of Japan and verify the participants’ experiences in the program and its effectiveness. Material and methods An advanced mixed methods design was used. The participants were 22 members of a community-based social group for older adults. Quantitative measurements of life functions and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were conducted before and after the intervention. Qualitative data were collected from focus group interviews regarding the participants’ experiences during the intervention process. Lastly, both datasets were integrated. Results The harsh living conditions due to heavy snowfall reduced the participants’ overall activity. In this environment, Colour Narrative encouraged them to control their lives more in their own ways and enhanced their HRQOL. The core of their experiences was ‘negotiating occupations’. This negotiation was a highly intellectual task that significantly improved their cognitive function. Conclusions The structure and content of Colour Narrative were found to be useful and feasible for community-dwelling older adults. Significance Colour Narrative offers a new occupation-based intervention strategy for preventive occupational therapy.

New group memberships formed after an acquired brain injury and posttraumatic growth: A prospective study

ABSTRACT Predicting positive psychosocial outcomes following an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) remains a challenge. Considerable research demonstrates that social group memberships can have positive effects on psychological well-being, particularly during life transitions. Social group memberships are argued to help people derive a sense of self. This prospective study examined if social group memberships (number of groups and connectedness with groups) could predict posttraumatic growth (PTG) in those affected by ABI. Thirty-six participants (10 females, Mage = 46.56, SD = 11.46) engaged in community rehabilitation services completed measures at two time-points. Mediation analyses demonstrated that the number of new group memberships (groups formed post-injury) predicted greater PTG at time 2, via stronger connectedness with these new group memberships (controlling for initial PTG). The observed results suggest that a focus on developing and strengthening connections with new group memberships may promote positive adjustment after brain injury.

Thinking Outside the Altruistic Box

Two theories currently share prominence as explanations for the near universality of organized religion. Theory 1, the costly signalling hypothesis and its extensions have not to date generated predictions about the central question of why religion is religious; that is, why does religion invoke the gods? Theory 2, supernatural punishment, predicts that religion would be religious, but it requires group selection to stabilize its proposed evolutionary dynamics. We should not immediately dismiss group selection hypotheses, but given its rarity in the rest of nature, asserting group selection in humans requires extraordinary evidentiary support that at present is not enjoyed by the supernatural punishment hypothesis. Researchers studying the evolution of religion should consider more fully alternatives to these two currently popular hypotheses. Alternatives include the hypothesis that standardization of religious rituals and beliefs for signalling social group membership but potentially without group selection, that religion might function primarily for emergence of mutualism rather than prosocial altruism, and that group selection might apply to religious systems only during punctuated bursts of denominational diversification and death.

Degemination in Emirati Pidgin Arabic: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

This study examines the production of geminates in Emirati Pidgin Arabic (EPA) spoken by blue-collar workers in the United Arab Emirates. A simple naming test was designed to test the production of geminates to determine whether the EPA speakers would produce a geminated or degeminated phoneme. Following that, a semi-structured interview was conducted with a subset of the study cohort to obtain the participants’ own explanation of where they degeminated the consonants. Our findings suggest that the exercising of this choice functions as a sociolinguistic strategy, akin to the one observed by Labov in his study of Martha’s Vineyard. In particular, our findings show that speakers of EPA are inclined to degeminate consonantal geminates to establish themselves as members of a particular social group. The reasons for wanting to achieve this aim were given as follows: to claim privileges only available to members of this group (such as employment); and to distinguish themselves from the dominant cultural group. The study concludes that degemination in EPA has developed into a sociolinguistic solidarity marker.

“I was able to ask for help when I became stressed rather than sitting alone and struggling”: psychology and law students’ views of the impact of identity and community on mental wellbeing

ABSTRACT People derive a sense of self from membership of social groups. Universities consist of many different groups and provide a significant opportunity to explore how group memberships can affect mental wellbeing. A key university group is students’ school of study, membership of which enables individuals to develop an academic identity. We argue that a strong sense of belonging, and thus academic identity, within the school community can lead to positive mental wellbeing. We focus on belonging within academic schools because the positive impact of group membership is likely to exist to a greater degree in an academic school than in other university communities. We conducted online focus groups with 21 undergraduate students studying either law or psychology at a research-intensive university. Our aim was to explore their academic identity and belonging within their academic school of study, and how these variables affected their mental wellbeing. Our thematic analysis indicates that students with strong identities, who feel a sense of belonging in their school community – particularly among peers – display greater help-seeking behaviours in difficult times. If peers are viewed negatively, students are less forthcoming when in need of support. Promoting peer support is therefore a way of improving student mental wellbeing.

Alcohol and drinking within the lives of midlife women: A meta-study systematic review.

A range of societal changes have created positive and encouraging environments for women's alcohol use. Within this context, in Western countries there is evidence of rising rates of alcohol consumption and related harms among midlife and older women. It is timely and important to explore the role of alcohol in the lives of midlife women to better understand observed data trends and to develop cohort specific policy responses. Focussing on Western countries and those with similar mixed market systems for alcohol regulation, this review aimed to identify 1) how women at midlife make sense of and account for their consumption of alcohol; 2) factors that play a role; and 3) the trends in theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research that explores women's drinking at midlife. A meta-study approach was undertaken. The review process involved extracting and analysing the data findings of eligible research, as well as reviewing the contextual factors and theoretical framing that actively shape research and findings. Social meanings of alcohol were interwoven with alcohol's psycho-active qualities to create strong localised embodied experiences of pleasure, sociability, and respite from complicated lives and stressful circumstances in midlife women. Drinking was shaped by multiple and diverse aspects of social identity, such as sexuality, family status, membership of social and cultural groups, and associated responsibilities, underpinned by the social and material realities of their lives, societal and policy discourses around drinking, and how they physically experienced alcohol in the short and longer term. For harm reduction strategies to be successful, further research effort should be undertaken to understand alcohol's diverse meanings and functions in women's lives and the individual, material, and socio-cultural factors that feed into these understandings. As well as broad policies that reduce overall consumption and "de-normalise" drinking in society, policy-makers could usefully work with cohorts of women to develop interventions that address the functional role of alcohol in their lives, as well as policies that address permissive regulatory environments and the overall social and economic position of women.

Conflict Mobilization in Russian Social Media Communities As an Actual Practice of Protest Communication: Collective and Personal Dimension

From the standpoint of communicative approach conflict mobilization is considered in the article as an actual practice of protest communication in modern Russia. The parameters of the collective-personal dimension of conflict mobilization in the most popular social networks among Russian users: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook are presented. Major forms of social group members online participation in protest actions, interaction means of conflict mobilization communities and the formation of Internet solidarity have been characterized with such criteria as publication volume and frequency. Selective factual and emotional-psychological argumentation with elements of defamation of opponents is concluded to prevail in the communicative behavior of the addresser. Frequent implementation of phatic strategy through consolidating appeals to community members with elements of idealization and glorification of protest actors is revealed. The addresser's self-presentation strategy is noted to be applied rather rarely; it is actualized mainly through their identification with the collective position of the group and the mass addressee. It has been established that the addressee is characterized by active self-presentation through the presentation of a subjective position opposed to a mutual opponent, is distinguished by an appeal to ethical and emotional argumentation, a variety of phatic tactics. The article reveals the relevant language means of implementing the identified strategies, shows the features of the text structure of mobilization posts.

Dominasi atau Kontestasi? : Relasi Negara dan Masyarakat di Desa Karangwuni di Masa Pandemi Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has occurred in Indonesia since March 2020, has created a crisis in society. The state began to take appropriate policies in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. The alignment of state’s policies in the economic or health sectors has been questioned. This research aims to examine the state’s practices in delivering aid to members of society and the incoherent images about the state which results from the practice. The relationship between the state and the society was analyzed through Migdal’s framework. This autoethnographic research was conducted in Karangwuni Village, Polokarto District, Sukoharjo Regency. Data were collected through participatory observations, archival study, and in-depth interviews with various members of social groups, such as village chief, midwives, and residents who are directly affected by Covid-19. The result of this research indicated that the village has become an arena for domination contests by the state and the society. The state’s practice of delivering aid to members of society through the village government has led village authorities, health workers, and the aid beneficiaries to construct various images about the state. Apparently, the state is not the dominant actor. The image of the state that was originally coherent has been challenged as both the state and the society tend to pull out each other.

Effects of Climate Change on Human and Social Livelihood Assets of Rural Farm Families in Orlu Agricultural Zone of Imo State, Nigeria

The study investigated the effect of climate change on human and social livelihood assets of rural farm families in Orlu agricultural zone of Imo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to ascertain rural farmers’ awareness of climate change, and identify sources of information on climate change and to describe the effect of climate change on the human and social livelihood assets of the rural farmers. A purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting a sample size of 120 farm families. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and mean; percentage were used to analyze the data. The result showed that the major evidence of climate change includes increased temperature, unpredictable rainfall pattern, drought, flooding, increased precipitation, crop damage and among others. Climate change affects the livelihood of rural people and can be seen in the effects it has on their human and social capita assets in the following ways - loss of human lives, food shortage, hunger and malnutrition, increased disease incidence, reduction in household. Other effects include prevention of assistance from members of social groups to farmers and rural people at large, interruption of familiar social linkages of the poor, widows, disruption of linkages to formal and informal community organization.

Sexual orientation and gender influence perceptions of disciplinary fit: Implications for sexual and gender diversity in STEM

AbstractScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) represent a highly valued academic discipline and career path in the 21st century; yet some individuals are excluded or discouraged from pursuing STEM because of their social group membership. Despite decades of research on social identity and fit within STEM (e.g., by gender and race), the psychological literature on issues within STEM based on sexual orientation is scant. We draw on notions of false dichotomies (i.e., social versus technical, personal versus professional, and subjectivity and interpretivism versus objectivity and positivism) to theorize how gender and sexual orientation influence perceived congruity with STEM as well as the Humanities. In the current study, we randomly assigned heterosexual participants (N = 318, Mage = 40, 52% women, 74% White) to rate one of five target groups (lesbian women, gay men, heterosexual women, heterosexual men, scientists) in terms of their perceived overlap with STEM and Humanities. We also assessed differences between target groups in terms of being rated as communal, agentic, and scientific. Results indicated that participants perceived lesbian women and gay men as less close to STEM than heterosexual men because they perceived lesbian and gay people as less agentic. In contrast, participants perceived lesbian women and gay men as closer to the Humanities than heterosexual men because they perceived lesbian and gay people as more communal. Drawing from these findings, we emphasize the profound implications of academic exclusion for lesbian and gay individuals.

"Do I still have epilepsy?" Epilepsy identity 15-20 years after anterior temporal lobectomy.

Identity is a multifaceted construct, comprising personal identity (sense of being a unique individual) and social identity (the sense-of-self derived from membership of social groups). Social identity involves explicit identification with a group ("I am …") and implicit behaviors or attitudes associated with group membership. Following successful treatment with surgery, patients with epilepsy can undergo a complex and lasting change in personal identity. To date, there has been no research into postoperative social epilepsy identity (SEI). We sought to examine SEI 15-20years post-surgery, and the relationship between SEI and satisfaction with surgery, psychosocial improvements, mood, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Thirty-two patients who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL; 19 female) were recruited, with a median follow-up of 18years (interquartile range [IQR]=2.5). Using a novel interactive online program, we collected data on SEI, satisfaction with surgery, and perceived psychosocial improvements, alongside standardized measures of mood (Neurological Disorders Depressio Inventory-Epilepsy; Patient Health Questionnaire-Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 item) and HRQoL (Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31 item). Non-parametric analyses were used to analyse the data. Twenty-five percent of patients were free of disabling seizures since surgery, yet 65% stated they no longer had epilepsy and >90% reported satisfaction with surgery. Explicitly discarding SEI was positively associated with HRQoL at long-term follow-up, over and above seizure outcome. Implicit SEI was expressed as (a) acceptance of epilepsy, (b) a sense of belonging to the epilepsy community, and (c) difficulty disclosing and discussing epilepsy. Difficulty disclosing and discussing epilepsy was associated with increased anxiety and lower HRQoL. At long-term follow-up, over half of our patients reported an explicit change in SEI, which could promote better HRQoL. In contrast, difficulty with disclosure of epilepsy was associated with increased anxiety and reduced HRQoL, possibly reflecting the ongoing effects of stigma. These findings highlight the importance of understanding changes in patient social identity for promoting long-term well-being after surgery.

Associations of social capital and health at a city with high aging rate and low population density

Maintaining physical and mental health of older people is one of the important issues to be addressed in the aging society. Social capital, defined as the resources available to members of social groups, has recently attracted attention as a factor influencing public health. Most of the previous studies targeted various communities having different aging rates or population densities at once to examine the associations of social capital and health outcomes. However, the results of those studies are not always consistent. Moreover, because few studies have targeted a particular advanced aging society, associations of social capital and health at such societies have remained unknown. This study examined how social capital associates with health at a particular city having a very high aging rate and low population density. We targeted Iwamizawa city, Hokkaido, Japan, which is one of the most advanced aging areas, with an aging rate of 36.6% and a population density of 165/km2. We analyzed self-administered questionnaire data obtained from “HELLO (HEalth, Lifestyle, and LOcal community of Iwamizawa citizen) Study” in 2018. The sample comprised 1237 individuals aged 65 and older. Following previous studies, we regarded three items—social cohesion, reciprocity, and civic participation—as social capital indices, and targeted two health outcomes: self-rated health (SRH) and degree of depression. Multilevel Poisson regression analyses were used to calculate prevalence ratios (PRs). We found that at the individual-level, the PR (95% confidence interval) of having poor SRH among those with more civic participation was 0.81 (0.71–0.93), and that of being depressed among those with more social cohesion was 0.32 (0.21–0.51), even after adjusting for compositional factors. We also found that the community-level civic participation significantly correlated with aging rate. Our findings indicate that social capital positively associates with older people's health at the advanced aging city.

Impacts of school shooter drills on the psychological well-being of American K-12 school communities: a social media study

The toll from gun violence in American K-12 schools has escalated over the past 20 years. School administrators face pressure to prepare for possible active shootings, and often do so through drills, which can range from general lockdowns to simulations, involving masked “shooters” and simulated gunfire, and many variations in between. However, the broad and lasting impact of these drills on the well-being of school communities is poorly understood. To that end, this article applies machine learning and interrupted time series analysis to 54 million social media posts, both pre- and post-drills in 114 schools spanning 33 states. Drill dates and locations were identified via a survey, then posts were captured by geo-location, school social media following, and/or school social media group membership. Results indicate that anxiety, stress, and depression increased by 39–42% following the drills, but this was accompanied by increases in civic engagement (10–106%). This research, paired with the lack of strong evidence that drills save lives, suggests that proactive school safety strategies may be both more effective, and less detrimental to mental health, than drills.