Social Group Identity Research Articles

Social Group Identification as a Predictor of Pretreatment Suicidal Ideation and Intent in those Receiving cCBT: Evidence from a Scottish Primary Care Sample

Suicidal ideation and intent are strongly linked with suicidal attempts and completions; however, no study to date has explored the predictors of ideation and intent within a sample receiving computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (cCBT) as an intervention for mild to moderate depression. The current study investigates the impact of social group identification and socioeconomic deprivation, together with a number of important clinical and demographic factors, on suicidal ideation and intent within a Scottish primary care sample. Participants (N = 1062) were recruited from referrals to a cCBT program, “Beating the Blues” (BtB), over a 33-month period. Participants completed three versions of the group identifications scale (GIS), one for each of three groups: family, community, and a social group of choice. Single-item questions on suicidal ideation and intent were delivered through the BtB program, and demographic and clinical information were collected on commencing BtB. More severe psychological distress, fewer group identifications, younger age, and being male, all significantly predicted the presence of suicidal ideations, however only greater severity of psychological distress was associated with more serious suicidal intent. These results provide valuable insight into factors associated with suicidal ideation and intent within a clinical population from a psychosocial, psychopharmacological, and demographic perspective.

Viral forgetting, or how to have ignorance in a syndemic

This paper argues for the concept of viral forgetting to understand how and why the lessons of HIV were not easy to remember in the context of COVID. Building on recently drawn analogies between the two epidemics, we argue that new normative injunctions to ‘flatten the curve’ and ‘stay at home’ individualise responses to COVID that make memory of the first decade of HIV vital in recent viral times. Individualistic responses, including those that bind individuals to social identity groups, obscure the ways in which effective care for others and the self requires a recognition of the partiality of community, the inevitability of vulnerability, and a complex interpretation of scientific evidence and human ontology. We draw on Eve Sedgwick’s thinking about ignorance and power to critique how political leadership in 2020, particularly in the USA, created chaos that suggested that an individualist masculine response to the epidemic was the only thing that could save us.

Interpersonal Outcomes of Religious Identity Management at Work

AbstractDespite potential positive intrapersonal outcomes of expressing important aspects of identity, people fear its negative interpersonal consequences. Two complementary studies with triangulating methodologies explore the interpersonal implications of a full range of religious identity management behaviours, from concealing to ardently revealing religion in the workplace. A field experiment manipulating religion and identity management behaviours demonstrated that ardently revealing a religious affiliation improved interpersonal reactions across religious groups. A complementary virtual experiment suggested that the effects of revealing behaviours (whether in relation to one’s religion or another social identity group) on interpersonal reactions were explained by enhanced perceptions of authenticity. Together, these findings provide robust evidence that being open about social group memberships can result in positive interpersonal experiences.

A Managerial Model of Stigma Buffering Through Target-Relational Identification

In this paper we theorize how managers can effectively reduce the experience of stigma for those groups that are its targets. We depart from prior theories of stigma reduction that have predominantly emphasized how managers work to influence stigmatizers’ perceptions of a targeted group’s attributes to reduce their negative evaluations by theorizing how managers effectively relate to targeted groups to “buffer” them from the experience of stigma during interactions. Drawing from Goffman’s (1963) observation that individuals relate to stigma in different ways, we propose a managerial model of stigma buffering through target-relational identification. We theorize that managers’ capacity to protect targets from the experience of stigmatization will depend upon their internalization of social and professional group identities that enable them to relate to the stigmatized, navigate interactions with those targets, and connect with them. Our theory building extends research on stigma reduction by moving beyond how managers work to normalize targeted groups in the eyes of stigmatizers to delineating how managers use their roles to relate to targets in order to limit stigma’s salience during targets’ interactions in organizations and communities.

Creating safe spaces: An exploration of dominant and subordinate identity status

Through a qualitative study consisting of 68 undergraduate business students representing both dominant and subordinate identities, we examine how students make meaning of situations where they feel “unsafe”. Participants were primed on the increased occurrence of incidents involving negative comments or behavior about diversity on U.S. college campuses. They were then asked to think about a time when they felt unsafe in a diversity-related situation and to describe the situation and how it made them feel. Next, we conducted a grounded theory qualitative analysis to study participant’s explanations of how those unsafe experiences. Our results reveal that feeling unsafe is triggered by norms violations such as repeated offensive behaviors and comments. Furthermore, we find these triggers are interpreted as identity, contextual, vicarious, and hazardous working-condition threats which lead to affective and self-protective responses. Additionally, we found evidence that members of dominant groups reported vicarious and hazardous working condition threats more frequently than members of subordinate identity groups did. We propose that social identity group status influences interpretations of norm violations and how people make meaning about being unsafe. In the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, our results underscore the practical importance of higher education institutions providing concrete action items to address safety inequities on college campuses and beyond.

The Covid-19 pandemic and gendered division of paid work, domestic chores and leisure: evidence from India's first wave.

Examining high frequency national-level panel data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on paid work (employment) and unpaid work (time spent on domestic work), this paper examines the effects of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work until December 2020, using difference-in-differences (D-I-D) for estimating the before (the pandemic) and after (the pandemic set in) effects, and event study estimates around the strict national lockdown in April 2020. The DID estimates reveal a lowering of the gender gap in employment probabilities which occurs due to the lower probability of male employment, rather than an increase in female employment. The first month of the national lockdown, April 2020, saw a large contraction in employment for both men and women, where more men lost jobs in absolute terms. Between April and August 2020 male employment recovered steadily as the economy unlocked. The event study estimates show that in August 2020, for women, the likelihood of being employed was 9% points lower than that for men, compared to April 2019, conditional on previous employment. However, by December 2020, gender gaps in employment were at the December 2019 levels. The burden of domestic chores worsened for women under the pandemic. Men spent more time on housework in April 2020 relative to December 2019, but by December 2020, the average male hours had declined to below the pre-pandemic levels, whereas women’s average hours increased sharply. Time spent with friends fell sharply between December 2019 and April 2020, with a larger decline in the case of women. The hours spent with friends recovered in August 2020, to again decline by December 2020 to roughly one-third of the pre-pandemic levels. The paper adopts an intersectional lens to examine how these trends vary by social group identity.

An image worth a thousand words? Expressions of stakeholder identity perspectives in place image descriptions

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how place identity can be expressed in residents’ place image descriptions, addressing differences and similarities in place identity expressions between residents’ descriptions of the image of their place and the image of the place as described to others.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews were conducted with residents of a Swedish city. Place image descriptions were analyzed through thematic analysis.FindingsDifferent types of identity perspectives manifest in the place image descriptions of residents. Respondents’ associations reflect place, person and social group identity perspectives, including their own perspective as residents, but also as visitors, or a combination of both. Priming is needed when gathering place image perceptions, to establish which underlying identity perspective is expressed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers a Nordic perspective on the organic communication of place image. The scope and qualitative nature of this study is a limitation to its generalizability but also suggests a rich ground for future cross-cultural studies on the topic.Practical implicationsResults point to the importance of accurately formulating questions to catch stakeholders’ place image. Insights are offered into how stakeholders communicate Nordic place image perceptions when engaging in communication about a place and into the effects of identity on organic place brand communication.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore how key stakeholders’ lenses to interpret a place brand are activated in the communication of place image, and how this influences their descriptions of the place.

The onset of COVID-19, common identity, and intergroup prejudice

ABSTRACT The research presented here examined the relationship between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social group identity, intergroup contact, and prejudice. Utilizing a common ingroup identity approach, two datasets, which were composed of data from university students collected via online questionnaires before and after the onset of COVID-19, were combined (N = 511). Participants identified as either one of two subordinate student identities: domestic (i.e. U.S. citizen or permanent resident) or international (i.e. non-U.S. citizen or foreign resident), then reported on the strength of their subordinate and superordinate identity (university identity). Participants also reported on their contact experiences with outgroup members, outgroup stereotypes, and completed a novel intergroup bias task. Results indicated that after the onset of the pandemic, participants more strongly identified with the superordinate group, which predicted greater perceived intergroup contact and lower intergroup bias. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

Examining the Relationship Between College Students’ Interworldview Friendships and Pluralism Orientation

Background One of the most influential factors shaping college students’ prosocial development—the development of attitudes and behaviors that involve positive engagement within one's community and larger society—is the peer group. Friends have an especially important influence on students’ learning and development because of the time and emotional investment friendship involves. While ample research documents the association between college students’ friendships across racial differences and the development of prosocial attitudes and behaviors, the question of whether friendships across other social boundaries may also do so remains. Purpose This study was guided by the theory of civic friendship, which posits that friendships that cross social boundaries (e.g., religion, race) can foster positive attitudes toward people of other social identity groups and a commitment to justice because of the solidarity and attention to injustice that develop within such relationships. We focused on friendships across the social boundary of worldview identity. More inclusive of secular and spiritual students than “religious identity,” “worldview identity” is defined as a student's guiding life philosophy based on religious, spiritual, and/or non-religious perspective(s). Specifically, the purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus and one particular prosocial attitude, pluralism orientation, which reflects acceptance of and active engagement with worldview diversity. Participants We utilized Time 1 and Time 2 data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national, longitudinal dataset comprised of 7,194 first-year students of diverse racial and worldview identities at 122 U.S. institutions. Research Design We ran a series of blocked multilevel regression models to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships and pluralism orientation at Time 2, controlling for four domains of variables shown in prior literature to also be associated with pluralism orientation. Results Results revealed that, holding constant other predictors, the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus is positively associated with pluralism orientation. Conclusions Our results provide additional support for the particularly powerful relationship between friendship across social differences and students’ prosocial development. It is essential, therefore, that colleges and universities create conditions that will help students develop and solidify these vital relationships early in their collegiate journey. By supporting interworldview friendships among their students, colleges and universities are contributing to the creation of a more just and egalitarian society and a stronger democracy.

Public History: a New Discovery or a Forgotten Antiquity?

To answer the question of what is public history, let's turn to its origins. The emergence of academic history in the nineteenth century, now called official, was associated with the separation of history from other fields of knowledge. At that time, it was believed that without a professional historical education, it was impossible to be an erudite and intelligent person, and to tell the past objectively and truthfully. Otherwise, these stories would resemble myths and fairy tales.
 Over time, history gradually became a scientific discipline, as well as an ideological science, as its primary task during the rapid kaleidoscope of changes in various political regimes was to educate ideologically savvy professionals for state-building. Thus, historical science was formed during the creation of nation-states and affirmed the national identity of different social and ethnic groups that formed one nation. What prompted recent history to approach man as the object of study? In our opinion, interest in man - a phenomenon of any civilization has existed since Hellenic times, and in the era of authoritarianism and totalitarianism has been replaced by interest in power and strength. Such a change, unfortunately, led to the tragic consequences of the First and Second World Wars.
 The disproportionately heavy burden of the tragedies of the Second World War and the emergence of new threats to world security in the bipolar period forced two opposing ideological camps to understand the need for dialogue, finding common ground and finding consensus in peace building. The Helsinki process began, and cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union deepened in strategic areas: space and high technology. Security levers have been strengthened, and a regional security structure, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE / OSCE), has been established in the European dimension.
 Civilizational exchange contributed to the growth of education of the population, the deepening of the intellectual component of society. At the center of the state and history was an intelligent man – Homo Sapiens, who felt his significance for the world, history and the future. World wars have forced historians to rethink the meaning of life, its fragility and vulnerability. And the deep political, economic, and social world crisis of the 1970s drew the attention of historical science to the person. Oral history, new social history, public history, etc. appeared. The philosophical and social sciences began to study individual social groups – women's society, religious communities, working and student youth, etc. With the growth of interest in the person, the interest in history as it is, without ornaments and artificial exaggerations, the history of ordinary people and places, increased.

Relative Deprivation and Prosocial Tendencies in Chinese Migrant Children: Testing an Integrated Model of Perceived Social Support and Group Identity.

As a particularly vulnerable group, children from rural areas in China whose families migrate to urban areas often encounter social exclusion, prejudice, and discrimination as they adjust to city life. Hence, migrant children may experience a sense of relative deprivation when they feel they are treated unjustly when compared to their urban counterparts. Although previous research has demonstrated that relative deprivation is a risk factor for prosocial tendencies, this association has not yet been examined in the population of migrant children in China. Further, few studies have revealed the mediating and moderating mechanisms between relative deprivation and prosocial tendencies. Therefore, this study constructed an integrated model examining the possible mediating role of perceived social support and moderating role of in-group identity on the association between relative deprivation and prosocial tendencies. A large sample of 1,630 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children (845 girls; Mage = 12.30, SD = 1.74) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires regarding relative deprivation, prosocial tendencies, perceived social support, in-group identity, and demographic variables. The results indicated that relative deprivation was negatively correlated with migrant children's prosocial tendencies and this connection was partially mediated by perceived social support. Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that in-group identity moderated the effect of perceived social support on prosocial tendencies, with a high level of in-group identity strengthening the positive association between perceived social support and prosocial tendencies. Parents, educators, and other members of society concerned about migrant children's psychosocial adaptation should provide adequate social support resources and help them foster positive in-group identity to migrant populations to mitigate the adverse effects of relative deprivation and promote their prosocial tendencies.

Naive, connected, and counselor tween girl identity groups: Consumption practices and social identity constructions within consumer culture

This research identifies the relationship between consumption practices and the construction of social identity among tweens in a Brazilian context. Using consumer culture theory and social identity theory, we employed 80 h of observation, 9 interviews, and projective techniques with fifteen girls. Three social identity groups were acknowledged: naive, connected, and counselors. These groups revealed different identity projects, such as the integration and maintenance within the social group of current belonging, the access to the social group with the greater distinctions, the generation of differentiable and positive distinctions (both intra- and intergroups), and the expression and consolidation of identity and its respective consumption practices. This research contributes to the consumption literature that relates to consumer identity projects. The findings reveal a current resignification of girlhood and exposes tweens’ consumption practices as a direct mechanism of the expression and construction of their social identities. These are mechanisms of social identity construction as mediated by group relations through the processes of access, maintenance, integration, differentiation, and distinction.

Addressing Implicit Bias and Stereotype Threat in the Clinical Encounter: A Digitally-Enabled Transformative Learning Approach to Address Healthcare Disparities in Dermatology and Beyond

Purpose: Positive relationships between patients and providers improve the quality of healthcare delivery and lead to better health outcomes. However, these experiences are systemically threatened by implicit bias and stereotype threat, two social phenomena that differentially affect minority groups and often potentiate each other. The automatic associations underlying implicit bias can perpetuate experiences of stereotype threat, an adverse psychological predicament that occurs when an individual who has internalized negative stereotypes about their social group and/or other diverse identities is put in a situation where they must confront those stereotypes. Stereotype threat contributes to racial and gender performance gaps, many of which exist in medicine. Biases can negatively affect the care received by minority patients, discourage those patients from seeking care, and contribute to the myriad barriers experienced by minority providers, ultimately amplifying existing healthcare disparities. To address implicit bias and stereotype threat in clinical interactions, we take a transformative learning approach to the development of digital teaching curricula for medical trainees and physicians. While the principles of our curriculum are generalizable and can be expanded, our current efforts are intended for dermatology. Dermatology is one of the least racially diverse specialties, where access to race-concordant visits is limited for minority patients. Methods: Consensus methods were used to synthesize evidence-based conceptual frameworks relevant to implicit bias and stereotype threat. Transformative learning theory informed the instructional design, which incorporates active learning exercise alongside didactic instruction. Results: We have collated implicit bias and stereotype threat teaching materials, to be structured as digital streaming modules, intended to assist dermatology trainees and providers with addressing situations of implicit bias and stereotype threat that may occur in clinic. The curriculum steps through hypothetical patient visits to identify susceptible elements throughout the dermatologic encounter. A three-point action plan is presented to participants for future use in clinical settings and focuses on increasing representation within all aspects of the patient visit, employing communication techniques to understand patient perspectives, and empathically fostering connection. Conclusion: Our innovative course can be applied to achieve skill development for dermatology providers in recognizing and managing implicit bias and stereotype threat. We are currently developing a protocol to assess the impacts of our curriculum on the clinical experiences of minority patients. Furthermore, we are working with the Diversity Innovation Hub to launch a service-learning fellowship opportunity for medical students. Ultimately, we hope this work can improve the quality of patient-doctor relationships in clinical settings and affect better health outcomes for minority patients.

Inclusive Leadership: How Leaders Sustain or Discourage Work Group Inclusion

Research on leader inclusion has continued to proliferate. However, most of the research has not focused on the importance of leader inclusion for employees with marginalized social identities. Based on Shore, Randel, Chung, Dean, Ehrhart, and Singh's (2011) model of work group inclusion consisting of fulfillment of needs for belongingness and value in uniqueness, we describe four different leadership orientations including leader inclusion, exclusion, assimilation, and differentiation. Three psychological mechanisms that result when employees feel included by the leader are discussed, consisting of psychological safety, psychological empowerment, and work group identification. While leader inclusion has been shown to be beneficial to employees generally, this article provides increased attention to the particular importance of leader inclusion for employees who are members of marginalized social identity groups.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE: INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CULTURAL ORIENTATION, SOCIAL GROUP IDENTITY, COPING STYLE, AND SOCIAL CONFORMITY

Social influence is a broad term used to understand how and why the presence of others changes individuals' attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs. It takes a variety of forms and one of them is social conformity. The present study was conducted to clarify the relationships between cultural orientation, social group identity, and coping style as potential predictors of social conformity among adults in Malaysia and Singapore. Participants completed self-report measures of cultural orientation, social group identity, coping style, and social conformity. Preliminary results showed that social conformity was negatively associated with vertical individualism and emotion-based coping. Social group identity was found to be positively associated with various forms of cultural orientation but not with social conformity. In addition, individuals were more likely to report higher group identity when their personal opinions were consistent with majority members in a social group. Finally, emotion-based coping was the most significant predictor of social conformity, with vertical individualism as another significant predictor. In the context of social influence, the current research unravels the relationships between cultural orientation, social group identity, coping style, and social conformity. The findings also illuminate that collectivist cultures are not generally more prone to conform to majority opinions.

The Need for More than Role Relations

This article argues for the necessity of a social group ontology in Confucian ethics. The heart of Confucian ethics is self-cultivation begun in familial relations. Social group categories can disrupt family structures in ways that can only be ignored at a high cost to the well-being of biological family members who do not share the dominant group identities. To make this disruption clear, I will articulate the challenge queer lives pose for classical Confucian self-cultivation. This discussion will give rise to an account of queer chosen kin and its compatibility with the existing Confucian role-relational ontology. The incorporation of social group identities and an account of the sociopolitical constitution of persons is necessary not only for the development of Confucian social and political philosophy, but also for illustrating the significant ways in which Confucianism can shape cross-cultural discussions of ethical self-cultivation.

Female Electability in the Arab World: The Advantages of Intersectionality

Many studies of women's electability in the developing world focus on single traits such as gender, ethnicity, or religion. Employing an original survey experiment in Jordan, we examine the impacts of multiple, intersecting candidate identities on voter preferences. We show empirically that existing theories of electoral behavior alone cannot account for women's electability. An intersectional lens that considers how power structures shape electability and produce complex effects that must be empirically verified in different contexts is needed. Although less electable overall, female candidates fare as well as males from similar social identity groups. Our findings underscore the need to apply intersectionality to theories of electoral behavior in the developing world and lay the groundwork for a larger research agenda explaining women's electability in Arab elections.

Research Note—Equity and Justice in the Social Work Explicit Curriculum

ABSTRACT In the context of the current sociopolitical climate, schools of social work’s expressed commitment to equity and justice is of paramount relevance. Utilizing course descriptions and syllabi posted online, we used content analysis to identify equity and justice-related content within the explicit curricula of 19 master of social work programs in the United States. We searched for content related to differences, diversity, disparities, and inclusion, as well as the mention of specific demographic and social identity groups. Findings indicate that, although social work courses are embedded with equity and justice-related content, the explicit curriculum may be strengthened by allocating greater attention to disparities and inclusion. Consideration of disparities and inclusion is critical in clinical courses, as part of a person-in-the-environment approach, and in macro social work courses that aim to equip future social workers to make broad changes that promote equity and justice in society and institutions.

Generative Engagement: Conceptualizing A Relational and Cross-Boundary Approach to Human Development and Sustainability in Today’s Divided World

Grounded in the findings from a case study of a nonprofit educational consulting firm that specialized in math literacy reform and operated throughout the American South during the 1990s–early 2000s, this paper presents Generative Engagement (GE), a practice-centered process model on relational behavior that fosters prosocial interaction and collaboration among social identity groups in demographically diverse, highly stratified social environments. The paper describes the dynamic interplay between generativity and inclusivity, presents four different types of relational engagement that result from this interplay and offers five testable propositions. The paper concludes with a discussion on how cross-boundary leaders, work teams, organizations, and communities can better understand, develop, and demonstrate generative relational behavior that enhances work group efficacy and sustains the greater public good. Along with encouraging scholarly exploration of GE, the generative engagement model (GEM) is offered as a tool for inspiring and equipping development and use of generative approaches to leadership, collaboration, and transformative change within organizations.

Class Altruism and Redistribution

AbstractWhy do tax rates vary so much across countries? We study the role of other-regarding preferences and ethnic fragmentation in redistribution. A government is elected by altruistic voters and chooses a redistributive income tax. Altruism is directed towards social identity groups. Three main factors yield low levels of redistribution: (i) strong in-group altruism among rich voters—referred to as class altruism; (ii) weak universal altruism—in particular among the rich; and (iii) ethnic fragmentation among poor voters. We document survey evidence that the pattern of altruism in the United States and the European Union is consistent with the observed differences in taxes.