Delineating Ethnic and Religious Identities in Research with British South Asians

The present essay presents a rationale for delineating ethnic and religious identities in empirical research into self-identification among British South Asians. It is argued that the delineation of these identities is important in order to (i) predict and explain the identificatory possibilities available to these individuals; (ii) explore the differential values attributed to these identities; (iii) the level of psychological ‘connectedness’ between the identities; and (iv) the inter-relations between these identities, particularly in relation to psychological coherence. It is argued that a systematic delineation of these identities may have favourable theoretical, empirical and practical outcomes.     

Educated millennial Sikhs: Higher education,social mobility and identity formation among British Sikh youth

ABSTRACT

Large scale Sikh male migration to Britain in the 1950s gave way to family re-unions, leading to the development of vibrant Sikh communities across major cities and emergence of a millennial second and third generation Sikh youth. This chapter specifically identifies and evaluates higher education and labour market experiences of these millennial Sikhs. It argues mass participation in higher education produced differential outcomes, with a small upper segment becoming high achievers but a large bottom segment unable to realise the full potential. Further, these experiences had varied effects on their identity formation, with some moving away from their parental religion whilst others (re)embracing their tradition and adopting Sikh articles of faith. Finally, these differential experiences have also contributed to the widening of socio-economic differentiation within the British Sikh community as a whole and on potential for upward social mobility.     

Recontextualising moral injury among military veterans: An integrative theoretical review

Moral injury was originally conceived as a socially-inflicted wound of betrayal experienced by military veterans (Shay, 1994). However, moral injury has since been redefined by psychological researchers as an individualised, predominantly perpetration-driven, and psychopathological phenomenon (e.g., Currier et al., 2015; Jinkerson, 2016). However, social scientific researchers (e.g., Hodgson & Carey, 2017; Molendijk, 2019; Wiinikka-Lydon, 2017) have contested mainstream psychology's medicalisation and decontextualisation of moral injury. This theoretical review integrates insights from across these discourses, and brings them into dialogue with ideas from moral psychology, evolutionary science, and community psychology. The aim of this cross-disciplinary review is to promote a more holistic understanding of moral injury that does justice to its individual and social dimensions. Drawing on these different theoretical strands, this paper proposes that moral injury can be best understood as a psychological wound to basic human needs for social belonging and cohesion. The implications of this integrative understanding of moral injury for applied psychologists and other societal actors are explored. While the relevance of moral injury to civilian populations such as health and social care professionals is clear (e.g., Dombo et al., 2013; French et al., 2021), this paper focuses on military veterans, whose experiences originally prompted the coinage of the term. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.     

Stigma towards psychosis: Cross‐cultural differences in prejudice,stereotypes, and discrimination in White British and South Asians

Public stigma towards people with mental health problems has been demonstrated in Western societies. Little is known about non‐Western cultures and whether cultures differ in their perceptions of people with mental health problems. Aim of this study was to examine cultural differences in prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination towards people with psychosis. Participants were from White British and South Asian backgrounds (N = 128, aged 16–20 years) recruited from two schools and colleges in the United Kingdom. They completed a cross‐sectional survey on affective, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions of stigma. Results revealed significant cultural differences on all three stigma dimensions. South Asians attributed higher anger (prejudice) and dangerousness (stereotypes) to people with psychosis than White British. They also reported lower willingness to help, greater avoidance, and higher endorsement of segregation (discrimination). The effects of ethnic group on helping intentions, avoidance, and segregation endorsement were mediated by anger and by dangerousness. Understanding cultural differences in stigma towards psychosis will be important for designing stigma interventions as well as treatments for people with different cultural backgrounds.     

British Muslim lesbians: reclaiming Islam and reconfiguring religious identity

Religiously infused ideology and doctrine on maleness/femaleness, procreation, family and the condemnatory attitude towards homosexuality has been significantly damaging for lesbians. Lesbians from a Muslim background, in particular, are forced to confront religious dogma, which advocates the punishment of non-heterosexuals leading them to repress and deny their sexuality. Despite this, an investment and belief in religion continues and remains important. In the present study the powerful appeal of religion and its influence on 5 Muslim women who identify as lesbian is explored. The study seeks to understand the way in which the women reconfigure their religious identity to address the difficulties they experience in incorporating discordant identities (faith and sexuality). The data gained indicates that rather than disconnect or reject their association with their faith they contest the condemnation of homosexuality within Islam, which in turn allows them to reclaim their Muslim identity. The alienation and ostracism the women experience from the Muslim ‘community’ has not led to their disaffection from Islam. Rather they resolutely pledge the importance of faith, practice and leading a life according to Islamic moral standards and principles. The women manage and integrate complex and layered aspects of their identity, through their commitment to Islam but also a determination to recognise an intrinsic aspect of the self that they no longer refuse to deny or suppress.     

A review of theoretical and empirical advancements

In this article, we review both theoretical and empirical advancements in retirement adjustment research. After reviewing and integrating current theories about retirement adjustment, we propose a resource-based dynamic perspective to apply to the understanding of retirement adjustment. We then review empirical findings that are associated with the key research questions in this literature: (a) What is the general impact of retirement on the individual? and (b) What are the factors that influence retirement adjustment quality? We also highlight important future research directions that may be fruitful for psychologists to pursue in this area.     

The question-behaviour effect: A theoretical and methodological review and meta-analysis

Research has demonstrated that asking people questions about a behaviour can lead to behaviour change. Despite many, varied studies in different domains, it is only recently that this phenomenon has been studied under the umbrella term of the question-behaviour effect (QBE) and moderators of the effect have been investigated. With a particular focus on our own contributions, this article: (1) provides an overview of QBE research; (2) reviews and offers new evidence concerning three theoretical accounts of the QBE (behavioural simulation and processing fluency; attitude accessibility; cognitive dissonance); (3) reports a new meta-analysis of QBE studies (k = 66, reporting 94 tests) focusing on methodological moderators. The findings of this meta-analysis support a small significant effect of the QBE (g = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.18, p < .001) with smaller effect sizes observed in more carefully controlled studies that exhibit less risk of bias and (4) also considers directions for future research on the QBE, especially studies that use designs with low risk of bias and consider desirable and undesirable behaviour separately.     

Exposure to domestic violence and identity development among adolescent university students in South Africa

This study examined the relationship between exposure to domestic violence and identity development in a sample of 108 undergraduate students with an average age of 18.7 yr. from University of Limpopo in South Africa. There were more women (n = 64; 58.7%) in the study than men (n = 45; 41.3%). Participants were classified into high and low domestic violence exposure groups on the basis of a median split in physical violence scores from the Child Exposure to Domestic Violence Scale (CEDV). Exposure was then compared with identity development as measured by the Ochse and Plug Erikson scale. The results indicated a significant mean difference between the two groups on identity development. Furthermore, exposure to domestic violence was significantly associated with lower scores for identity development as represented by subscales measuring trust, autonomy, initiative and other Eriksonian constructs. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Language and metaphysics: the case of theoretical identities

Kripke holds the thesis that identity statements containing natural kind terms are if true, necessarily true; these statements can be denominated theoretical identities. Kripke alleges that the necessity of theoretical identities grounds on the linguistic feature that natural kind terms are rigid designators. Nevertheless, I argue that the conception of natural kind terms as rigid designators, in one of their most natural views, hinders the establishment of the truth of theoretical identities and thus of their necessity. However, in Kripke’s works another proposal, not linguistic but metaphysical, is found to justify the presumed necessity of theoretical identities; it grounds on essentialism concerning natural kinds. In this regard, I question some of Kripke’s main claims, focusing on one of the main examples of theoretical identities put forward by Kripke, i.e., “Water is H\(_2\)O”. I challenge his a priori claims concerning what should be the essence of a natural kind like water. Furthermore, I adduce that the character of that theoretical identity is not that claimed by Kripke, since in the term flanking the right side of the identity sign it has to be resorted to the notion of similarity or it should have the form of a disjunction of a cluster of substances.

     

Ethnicity and behaviour in organizations: A review of British research

Research into the role of ethnicity in behaviour in US organizations has been the subject of several reviews. However no such review of British research has thus far been undertaken. Fifty‐four years' worth of selected occupational psychology, organizational behaviour and human resource management journals were therefore reviewed to identify the number and focus of articles relating to ethnicity in British organizations. On the basis of the review findings four key questions were addressed: (i) How much work has been done? (ii) Why has relatively little work been done? (iii) What have we learned about ethnicity and the British workplace? and, (iv) What do we still need to learn? The research shows that only a limited amount of research has been conducted and most of this focuses on a small number of topics. Six recommendations for future research are made: (i) studying ethnicity in a more careful and detailed way; (ii) developing theory; (iii) examining what happens to minority ethnic employees after selection; (iv) more research on minority ethnic professionals; (v) more qualitative research; and, (vi) a greater focus on specific ethnic groups. Recommendations to draw lessons from the way other disciplines have conceptualized and researched ethnicity are also discussed.     

Cognitive habilitation in schizophrenia: A theoretical review and model of treatment

Evidence has accumulated for information processing deficits in schizophrenia. The functional significance of these deficits is only beginning to be understood. There are indications that these deficits may respond to intervention. Training on deficient functions has been demonstrated to relate to improvements in performance. A treatment program of cognitive rehabilitation is deduced from the literature and induced from clinical experience. The treatment is designed to impact directly on the information processing deficits of schizophrenic patients and indirectly to ameliorate functional deficits.     

National disidentification and minority identity: A study among Muslims in Western Europe

Host national disidentification in which immigrants explicitly distance themselves from society is problematic for a cohesive national community and is likely to hamper immigrants’ successful host society integration. Among Sunni Muslim immigrants of Turkish origin living in Germany and the Netherlands we tested whether (a) an empirical distinction between national disidentification and identification can be made, (b) whether higher perceived group discrimination of Muslims (“reactive religiosity path”) and (c) stronger Muslim self-centrality (“intrinsic religiosity path”) are associated with stronger host national disidentification, to the extent that they are associated with a stronger commitment to religious identity content. Disidentification was found to be a separate construct and both the reactive religiosity path and the intrinsic religiosity path were found to be related to higher levels of disidentification, mediated by religious identity.     

A qualitative exploration of alcohol use among student sportspeople: A social identity perspective

Research indicates that university student sportspeople are a high‐risk subgroup for hazardous alcohol consumption. Adopting a social identity perspective, we explored the social and psychological processes linking sports participation and alcohol use. Twenty‐two individual semi‐structured interviews were conducted with UK student sportspeople (male: 12; female: 10). A deductive thematic analysis identified three core themes: social identification and sports group membership, identity processes in (alcohol) behaviours and sport context‐specific significance of alcohol. Results suggest that the consumptive practices among student sportspeople were strategic activities underpinned by social identity processes, and which served to provide a positive sports experience at the group level. Our findings highlight the interactions between the sport environment, the social structure of sport participation and the multipurpose function of alcohol in this context. We discuss the implications of these results in support of a social identity approach to sport‐related drinking.     

Personality and prejudice: a meta-analysis and theoretical review

Despite a substantial literature examining personality, prejudice, and related constructs such as Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), there have been no systematic reviews in this area. The authors reviewed and meta-analyzed 71 studies (N = 22,068 participants) investigating relationships between Big Five dimensions of personality, RWA, SDO, and prejudice. RWA was predicted by low Openness to Experience but also Conscientiousness, whereas SDO was predicted by low Agreeableness and also weakly by low Openness to Experience. Consistent with a dual-process motivational model of ideology and prejudice, the effects of Agreeableness on prejudice were fully mediated by SDO, and those of Openness to Experience were largely mediated by RWA. Finally, the effects of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were robust and consistent across samples, although subtle moderating factors were identified, including differences in personality inventory (NEO Personality Inventory-Revised vs. Big Five Inventory), differences across prejudice domain, and cross-cultural differences in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Implications for the study of personality and prejudice are discussed.     

Ethnic identity and preferences among Asian immigrant children in Glasgow: A replicated study

The aim of first study, carried out by an English investigator, was to assess the extent to which Asian immigrant children had moved away from the values of their culture of origin. For this purpose some novel techniques were employed, including an identikit task and one focusing on Scottish versus Asian names. The outcome suggested that the children had been very powerfully influenced by the values of the host community. Since it was suspected that these results might have been in part a function of the ethnic membership of the investigator and/or the specific methods employed, the study was repeated on a comparable sample with an Indian psychologist and using modified test materials. The results of the second study remained unchanged as far as factual aspects were concerned; however, preferences expressed changed significantly in the direction of Asian cultural values. The theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed, and it is argued that studies of this type are likely to have an inherent element of uncertainty which calls for caution in making generalizations.     

Employee commitment and well-being: A critical review, theoretical framework and research agenda

Although a great deal is known about the implications of employee commitment for organizations, less attention has been paid to its ramifications for employees themselves. Previous research has been unsystematic and the findings have sometimes been inconsistent. The most consistent findings pertain to the positive links between affective commitment and employee well-being. Relations between continuance commitment and well-being are more variable, but generally negative. Little is known about relations involving normative commitment. There is considerable inconsistency in findings pertaining to the moderating effects of commitment on stressor-strain relations. We provide a theoretical framework based on an integration of the three-component model of commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997) and Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory of motivation to help explain both the consistencies and inconsistencies, and to guide future research. We also argue for a broadening of the concept of employee well-being to include indices of eudaimonic as well as hedonic well-being.