Social Psychological Processes Research Articles

Integrating Social Development and Clinical Psychology: Implications for Enhancing Mental Health Interventions

This study investigates integrating social development theories and clinical psychology practices to enhance mental health interventions. The research underscores the importance of considering socio-cultural contexts in clinical settings by critically examining the interplay between social determinants and psychological processes. This interdisciplinary approach provides a nuanced understanding of how community dynamics, socio-economic conditions, and cultural norms impact mental health outcomes. The findings advocate for a comprehensive framework incorporating social development insights into clinical psychology to create more effective, culturally sensitive, and sustainable mental health interventions. This integration is posited to improve therapeutic efficacy and contribute to the broader goal of mental health equity across diverse populations.

Weaving narrative threads with social psychological processes: Narrative modulations in online consumer reviews of a medical memoir

With the growing prevalence of health and illness narratives on digital platforms, research examining the social psychological processes involved in these storytelling environments remains scarce. This paper addresses this research gap by conducting a mixed-methods study of digital storytelling within the UK’s healthcare context, focusing on online consumer reviews of the medical memoir, Do no harm: stories of life, death and brain surgery (Marsh, 2014). Utilising computer-assisted text analysis methods of LIWC-22 and the Sketch Engine, linguistic cues for cognitive, affective, social and perceptual processes are identified in a corpus of online consumer reviews. A subsequent qualitative analysis, based on ‘narrative modulation’ (Huang, 2024, 2020), investigates the role of these processes in constructing and developing storylines across the user reviews. Finally, the study explores how consumer reviews in the form of ‘small stories’ challenge canonical narratives in the UK’s healthcare services. This research advances the field of narrative studies by emphasising the role of social psychological processes (Chung and Pennebaker, 2019) in modulating emerging, evolving and counter narratives in digital storytelling. The findings reveal an instrumental role of social psychological processes, as signalled by linguistic cues, in shaping narrative threads in online user reviews. This study not only develops narrative modulation as a valuable concept for narrative analysis, but also underscores its effectiveness when combined with computer-assisted text analysis tools for in-depth examinations of narrative data. Furthermore, it provides critical insights into digital storytelling in healthcare contexts, promoting knowledge transfer across narrative studies, stylistics, social psychology and medical humanities.

The place of the social in psychiatry: from structural determinants to the ecology of mind.

Social psychiatry considers the ways in which mental disorders are shaped by particular social environments. This paper outlines a cultural-ecosocial approach that emphasizes the ways in which cultural meaning and practices mediate the effects of the social determinants of mental health on the mechanisms of illness, disorder, and disease. Selective review of literature and conceptual synthesis. "The social" in psychiatry stands for the structures and dynamics of groups of people interacting on multiple scales from the intimate sphere of couple and family to neighbourhoods, communities, societies, nations, and transnational or global networks. These interactions create social contexts, niches, forms of belonging, identities, institutions, and larger systems that influence the causes, expression, course, and outcome of mental disorders. Characterizing these systems requires theory that considers the ways in which social systems constitute dynamical systems that configure material, energetic, and informational flows that give rise to human experience. Unpacking the health consequences of these local and extended systems requires an interdisciplinary approach that considers: (1) the social psychological, psychophysiological, and sociophysiological processes that mediate the impact of the environment on body, mind, and person; (2) the interactional dynamics of social systems that give rise to structural adversity and inequity as well as resilience; and (3) the recursive effects of self-understanding, agency and subjectivity. In the cultural-ecosocial view, "the social" is shorthand for interactional processes that constitute material and symbolic structures that provide cultural affordances, constraints, and challenges as well as resources for healing, recovery, and adaptation.

Becoming singular: Musical identity construction and maintenance through the lens of identity process theory

This study uses identity process theory to understand the social–psychological processes that motivate individuals to construct an identity in which music, singing, and singing teaching feature prominently. We conducted reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 10 Australian singing teachers (with an average age 60) to understand how they enacted identity principles that motivate identity construction and maintenance. Findings were captured in two themes: (1) ‘It has just been music’: Living a musical life is my destiny; (2) ‘I know my value’: Achieving goals in music and teaching is motivating. Participants’ consistent musical engagement across the lifespan satisfied the identity principles of continuity and positive distinctiveness. The identity principles of self-efficacy and self-esteem were satisfied through the social connections created with peers and through teaching singing; participants derived self-worth from celebrating and contributing to the success of others. Teaching singing was a way to become ‘singular’, that is, distinctive, and distinctively valued by the self and others. This article provides an example of how identity process theory can be applied in musical identities research to uncover new insights into the psychological processes of identity construction, with implications for understanding identity resilience and musical engagement across the lifespan.

Intragroup Processes in Social Psychology: My Past, Our Present, Your Future

The first section of this article summarizes my life as a group researcher, beginning with my graduate student years at the University of Wisconsin and continuing with my time as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, where my work focused on majority/minority disagreement, with an emphasis on reaction to deviance group socialization and the relationship between social and cognitive processes. The second section presents my analysis of the decline of intragroup process research in social psychology and reasons why such research is so much more popular in organizational psychology/behavior. The third section lays out a possible path to a brighter future in which social psychologists focus on how generic intragroup processes operate in important real-world groups and employ multiple methodologies to increase the external validity of their research. In this context, I suggest that families and extreme groups are particularly worthy of attention.

Black Dog Bias in the Courtroom: A Potential Disadvantage?

ABSTRACT Because facility dogs can provide comfort to vulnerable testifying witnesses, they are beginning to become commonplace in some courtrooms. However, certain dogs (and by extension the witness they testify with) might be discriminated against because of their coat color. Known as “Black Dog Bias” (BDB), black dogs are often reported to be discriminated against in animal adoption centers, resulting in higher rates of euthanasia. Black dogs are often viewed as less friendly, less emotionally stable, and more aggressive than their other-colored counterparts. Other research, however, argues that BDB does not exist; rather, bias against certain dogs is associated with phenotypic traits or breed. With the proliferation of facility dog employment in courtrooms, there is a possibility that BDB also could manifest in this setting. This study investigated whether BDB occurs in the courtroom and affects perceptions of the witness through the social psychological process of transference. A child witness, as they were testifying about a sexual assault, was either comforted by a black dog, a white dog, or no dog. Counterintuitively, community-member participants (n = 133) believed that the witnesses appeared less sad, less emotional, and happier when comforted by a black dog compared with a white dog. Furthermore, perceptions of the witness were not affected by the facility dog, suggesting that transference did not occur. A potential explanation for the findings posits that a stereotype violation occurs when a black dog serves as a facility dog, allowing the animal to be perceived positively. This finding adds a new caveat to BDB – that when a black dog fulfills a positive role, this might cause a stereotype violation that leads to positive evaluations of that dog. These findings also contribute to existing literature that the presence of facility dogs is more beneficial than harmful to courtroom settings, suggesting that they do not seem to unfairly sway juries.

Psychological and Biological Aspects of “Without-Body Bereavement”: Reflections at COVID-19 Pandemic Time

Grief is an individual, family, and social psychological process following the death of a loved one, during which the pain caused by loss follows several stages that will lead to the reorganization and acceptance of the mourning event. In this article, we will examine some elaboration processes that can allow for an analysis of the cultural, social, and religious processes and structures as a consequence of the “grief without a body,” namely, the mourning by the relatives who have experienced the loss of a loved one without being able to ritualize the social function of the funeral because of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, some biological and neurological processes that modulate and allow for the mourning process will be synthesized.

Brokerage and social segregation: a case study of cluster housing environment in Gading Serpong, Indonesia

PurposeThe paper aims is to see why social conflict caused by class segregation did not occur in Gading Serpong? What factors prevent conflict from occurring? This research seeks to find the causes of the nonoccurrence of social conflict due to class segregation in the Gading Serpong cluster area and explore the factors that restrain conflict there.Design/methodology/approachThis research is qualitative research with data collection techniques through in-depth interviews with several parties identified as brokerages in the research object area. In this context, one of the media and analytical tools is to recognize agents or brokers who connect two groups of people. Brokerage occurs in sectors, patterns or forms of informal, personal relationships; to understand it, one must pay close attention to micro-level relationships and social psychological processes. However, brokerage can have a significant impact on macro-level social relations, as it is generally associated with social integration processes.FindingsThe lack of involvement of developers in overcoming social conflicts that occur between Gading Serpong natives and migrants in Gading Serpong housing has given rise to new actors. These new actors are what we can call brokers, where they have a role as brokers who are able to connect between migrants and natives in the Gading Serpong area. The broker phenomenon is actually familiar in academia, where in practice the broker acts as someone who is able to find solutions to problems. The broker is the reason even social segregation is created between migrant citizens and native citizens in Gading Serpong but never becomes a conflict between them.Research limitations/implicationsEven if the brokerage phenomenon is the reason why there is no conflict over social segregation brokerage is not the only factor in this nonconflict segregation. Therefore, to cover the larger area of these suburban segregation problems, there must be further research on this topic.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of this research is to encourage the housing developers that create urban housing, such as clusters or other gated communities, to evaluate the social factors, such as potential segregation and conflict management. Also to encourage the developers to get involved and create some social engineering systems, like brokerage, market and other social agents, to create some nonconflict segregation or even more inclusive communities.Originality/valueThis research is uncovering the main reason why social segregation between migrant and native people in Gading Serpong, which could potentially lead to conflict, is never a conflict. The main reason is social actors like brokerage.

The Role of Personal Values in Shaping Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Public Health Officials During a Global Pandemic

Major environmental jolts can prompt individuals to critically evaluate their personal view of the legitimacy (i.e., propriety) of established authorities, especially when jolts amplify conflicts between the authority and individuals’ value priorities. The COVID-19 pandemic constituted a major jolt that highlighted both clashes and alignment between the values of public health officials (enhancement of health and disease prevention) and other basic values. Using data from a survey of 1,356 U.S. adults collected in spring 2022, I descriptively assess whether the pandemic jolt prompted individuals to critically evaluate the legitimacy of public health officials. I then investigate how basic values that aligned and clashed with public health values during the pandemic shaped assessments of public health officials’ propriety two years into the pandemic as well as intentions to comply with them in a future health crisis. Descriptive findings reveal that individuals actively assessed public health legitimacy during the pandemic. Other analyses demonstrate how value (mis)alignment affects evaluations of the propriety of public health officials. Values also operate through propriety assessments to influence future compliance intentions, providing insight into social psychological processes undergirding institutional endurance and change.

Interest convergence and the maintenance of racial advantage: The case of diversity in higher education

AbstractOne of the major tenets of Critical Race Theory, the interest convergence hypothesis postulates that policies promising improvements for Black Americans are enacted only to the extent they advance White Americans’ interests. We elaborate and update Bell's argument by demonstrating that current diversity commitments in higher education are another example of interest convergence. First, we present empirical and theoretical evidence that ubiquitous approaches to diversity serve the psychological interests of White Americans more than those of Black Americans. Second, we advance a systemic framework for how social psychological processes intersect with normative ideologies in the law and in universities’ operations to facilitate the prioritization of White over Black interests. In so doing, our goal is to illuminate the primacy of White identity and power as fundamental to shaping American society's collective embrace of diversity.

Prejudice towards Immigrants: A Conceptual and Theoretical Overview on Its Social Psychological Determinants

Immigration processes and the possible marginalization of ethnic minorities in the receiving countries are essential issues in contemporary societies. Prejudice and discrimination can be critical obstacles to immigrants’ integration into the host country and can severely affect their well-being and mental health. This theoretical and conceptual overview aims to highlight the critical social–psychological processes underlying attitudes toward immigrants. First, it tackles the social psychological roots of social prejudice by focusing on the role of individual (ideological, motivational, and cultural) factors and categorization processes. Second, it examines how contextual factors such as intergroup perceptions and structural relations can lead to high levels of prejudice and discrimination towards immigrants. This review highlights how prejudice against immigrants can be driven by various factors at the individual and contextual level, suggesting that programs aimed at facilitating harmonious relations in contemporary multi-ethnic societies should consider such different determinants. Accordingly, the conclusion discusses possible interventions that can promote better relations between the majority and immigrant groups and counteract the negative impact of discrimination.

Connecting to Community: A Social Identity Approach to Neighborhood Mental Health

Academic Integrative theorizing is needed to advance our understanding of the relationship between where a person lives and their mental health. To this end, we introduce a social identity model that provides an integrated explanation of the ways in which social-psychological processes mediate and moderate the links between neighborhood and mental health. In developing this model, we first review existing models that are derived primarily from a resource-availability perspective informed by research in social epidemiology, health geography, and urban sociology. Building on these, the social identity model implicates neighborhood identification in four key pathways between residents’ local environment and their mental health. We review a wealth of recent research that supports this model and which speaks to its capacity to integrate and extend insights from established models. We also explore the implications of the social identity approach for policy and intervention. Public We need to understand the connection between where people live and their mental health better than we do. This article helps us do this by presenting an integrated model of the way that social and psychological factors affect the relationship between someone’s neighborhood and their mental health. This model builds on insights from social epidemiology, health geography, and urban sociology. Its distinct and novel contribution is to point to the importance of four pathways through which neighborhood identification shapes residents’ mental health. A large body of recent research supports this model and highlights its potential to integrate and expand upon existing theories. We also discuss how our model can inform policies and interventions that seek to improve mental health outcomes in communities.

How Social Media Algorithms Shape Offline Civic Participation: A Framework of Social-Psychological Processes

Even though social media platforms have created opportunities for more efficient and convenient civic participation, they are unlikely to bring about social change if the online actions do not propagate to offline civic participation. This article begins by reviewing the meta-analytic evidence on the relation between social media use and offline civic participation. Following this discussion, we present a theoretical framework that incorporates the attitudinal, motivational, and relational processes that may mediate the effect of social media use on offline civic participation. The framework highlights how social media algorithms may shape attitudes on important societal issues, promote generalized action goals among habitual users, and build social capital. We further discuss factors that may strengthen or undermine each of these processes, suggest ways to design and implement algorithms that may promote offline civic participation, and propose questions for future research.

Is Jethro an Ingroup or an Outgroup? Group Analysis of the Hebrew Bible and Its Early Interpretations

A social scientific approach to the Hebrew Bible allows us to ask questions that were not central to writers of the biblical narrative. Thus, the article uses concepts from group processes in social psychology to analyse the group identity of Moses'father-in-law as he is portrayed in the Bible and early Jewish and Christian interpretations. Jethro is a particularly interesting figure as he displays characteristics of both an ingroup and an outgroup member. This analysis illustrates how tools from social sciences can contribute not only to a better understanding of group relations in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible but also in the communities of early Jewish and Christian interpreters of these texts.

The Influence of Victim Self-Disclosure on Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying.

The frequent occurrences of cyberbullying on social platforms have sparked a great deal of social conflict, and bystander intervention plays a crucial role in preventing the escalation of cyberbullying. This research examines the impact of victim self-disclosure on bystander intervention in cyberbullying through two experimental studies. The studies collected data from March to July of 2022, utilizing a convenience sampling approach to recruit university students as experiment participants. Study 1 recruited 247 valid participants, while Study 2 recruited 522 eligible participants. The results of Study 1 indicate that the perceptible dimensions (frequency, privacy, and valence) of victim self-disclosure impact bystander intervention. Specifically, in a low privacy context, positive self-disclosure increases bystander intervention, while negative self-disclosure does the opposite. The results of Study 2 suggest that the valence of self-disclosure affects bystander intervention through the mediation of victim blaming, with interpersonal distance moderating the impact of victim self-disclosure valence on the extent of victim blaming. This moderated mediation model clarifies the psychological process by which the valence of victim self-disclosure affects bystander intervention. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the social psychological process behind bystander intervention, providing a scientific basis and pathway for reducing cyberbullying and fostering a harmonious online environment.

Therapeutic of educational psychology of red cultural identity on college students with borderline personality disorder

BackgroundBorderline personality disorder is a common personality disorder in psychiatry, accompanied by a variety of impulsive behavior characteristics, and is also a complex, serious and destructive mental disorder. With the increasing pressure of life and study, this disorder is increasingly appearing in college students. Cultural body is a social psychological process in which individuals form a sense of belonging to their culture and cultural groups, so as to obtain, maintain and innovate their own cultural attributes. It has special value functions such as guidance, promotion and education, which is helpful to improve the ideological and moral quality and spiritual outlook of young students.Subjects and MethodsRed culture is a culture with Chinese characteristics formed on the basis of constantly “sublating” Chinese and foreign cultural thoughts. This study mainly discusses the intervention effect of red cultural identity education psychology on borderline personality disorder college students. 70 college students with borderline personality disorder were randomly selected for the intervention of educational psychology of red cultural identity. SPSS 23.0 software was used for statistical processing.ResultsBefore the intervention, the baseline data of all students had no statistical significance (P>0.05). After intervention, the borderline personality disorder of college students was significantly improved, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).ConclusionsThe educational psychology of red cultural identity has a positive therapeutic intervention effect on borderline personality disorder college students, which can help them gain a sense of belonging and improve their self-confidence and spirituality.AcknowledgementIn 2021, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education’s Youth Innovative Talent Project (No.2021WQNCX215).

Discipline identification, identity incompatibility, belonging and their association with deep approaches to learning and academic self-efficacy during COVID-19 in the UK

Previous research indicates that discipline identification — the level of integration of one’s discipline of study into the self-concept — is associated with deep approaches to learning and academic self-efficacy. However, it is not known whether these relationships would hold in the context of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study investigates this, as well as exploring whether belonging, identity incompatibility, and virtual and in-person time spent with fellow students and with faculty act as potential antecedents of discipline identification. A cross-sectional online survey with n = 385 students in the UK was conducted during the spring term (February–May) of the 2019–2020 academic year, when UK universities were under COVID-19 restrictions. Of those students, n = 109 completed a follow-up survey during the autumn term (September–December) of the 2020–2021 academic year. Due to pandemic-related changes, the two waves of data were analysed separately using path analysis. During the spring term, identity incompatibility and discipline identification were significantly associated with both deep approaches to learning and academic self-efficacy. There were also significant indirect effects of belonging on both deep approaches to learning and academic self-efficacy via discipline identification. During the autumn term, discipline identification was again significantly associated with both academic outcomes. Identity incompatibility was significantly associated with academic self-efficacy. There were also indirect effects of identity incompatibility and belonging on deep approaches to learning via discipline identification. These results add to the literature on the importance of discipline identification and associated social-psychological processes in predicting important higher education outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Racial Capitalism and Social Psychology: A Note for Future Research

In this research note, we describe how theories of racial capitalism offer important insights into social psychological processes of racial discrimination, stereotyping, and more. First, the racial capitalism framework sheds light on the material conditions that shape social psychological aspects of racial domination and oppression, including processes of identity formation. Second, racial capitalism thinkers have emphasized how capitalism instrumentalizes racial identity and differentiation to spur accumulation. Third, racial capitalism points to intersectionality as key to understanding how social-structural factors shape the social psychological experiences and effects of discrimination for the racially disadvantaged. Social psychologists should incorporate these insights into their examinations of race and racism.

Reconstructing self from the illness: a constructivist grounded theory study of posttraumatic growth in patients with Crohn’s disease

BackgroundSome patients with Crohn’s disease report posttraumatic growth, which can promote reductions in anxiety and depression, and improve the patient’s quality of life. However, the process of posttraumatic growth remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to explore the social-psychological process of posttraumatic growth in patients with Crohn’s disease in the context of Chinese culture and construct an interpretive understanding based on the perspectives of patients.MethodsThis research adopted Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory. Nineteen participants with Crohn’s disease were selected by purposive and theoretical sampling from three hospitals in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, as well as from the China Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. In-depth interviews were conducted. Data analysis was based on initial, focused and theoretical coding strategies, and methods such as constant comparison and memo writing were adopted. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research, a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups, was utilised.ResultsAn interpretive understanding of posttraumatic growth in patients with Crohn’s disease was constructed. The core category was “reconstructing self from the illness”, which included the following four categories: “suffering from the illness”, “accepting the illness”, “dancing with the illness” and “enriching life beyond the illness”. However, not every patient reached the last phase. Before patients enter the next stage, they might begin a new cycle by experiencing new suffering or discovering new unacceptable facts about the illness.ConclusionsThis interpretive understanding reveals a growth process centred on “reconstructing self from the illness”. These findings provide knowledge on the process of posttraumatic growth in patients with Crohn’s disease within the wider sociocultural context.

Interpreting human rights as the social psychological phenomenon of rights claiming.

In the last 5 years, the intersection between psychology and human rights has become more evident, with influential international, national and local human rights institutions, including the American Psychological Association, issuing reports and resolutions on the topic. Within jurisprudence, human rights are less of a legalistic regulatory enactment and more of what social psychologists refer to as injunctive norms. We argue that conceptualising human rights as the social-psychological process of both creating and aligning injunctive and descriptive norms clarifies human rights and makes them more accessible to groups and individuals in society engaged in rights claiming. Rights claiming is a term we use to describe the moral cognitive process of people engaged in individual and/or collective behaviour aimed at securing their social identity within the public sphere where that identity is marginalised or the subject of discrimination. We argue that placing rights claiming at the centre of human rights psychology advances human rights. Focusing psychological research on social identity, the alignment of injunctive norms, deontic moral cognitions, human dignity, social dominance orientations and collective and individual behaviours forms part of securing a clear specialty in psychological science dedicated to human rights and advancing the American Psychological Association (APA)'s human rights mandate.