Self,social identity and psychological well-being

Self and social identity are key elements in the understanding of a person’s strivings for health and well-being. This review (i) examines the concepts of self, social identity, and psychological well-being; (ii) integrates empirical evidence that relates various self-aspects or social identities to psychological well-being; (iii) analyzes within a stress and coping framework the well-being consequences of socially devalued self or threatened identities, perceived discriminations, challenges of acculturation and identity management; and (iv) delineates the role of self, social identity and related psycho-social variables as moderators and mediators in pathways leading to psychological well-being. Besides listing some methodological issues and empirical deficits, major concerns for future research are also identified. An explicit self and social identity perspective of this research synthesis brings personal and social aspects together, and this interface offers exciting opportunities for research advancement.     

Crossing National Boundaries: Social Identity Formation Among Recent Immigrant Women in Australia From Former Yugoslavia

For both individuals and communities, crossing national boundaries involves managing personal and social identities in new social settings. This process is facilitated by social, cultural, and economic features of both the country of origin and the country of destination as well as the personal skills of the individuals who migrate. In-depth interviews with women in Australia from former Yugoslavia reveal how they draw ethnic boundaries and maintain a native ethnic identity in their private lives, partly in response to the difficulties they face in crossing other boundaries in Australian society, such as the labor market, educational institutions, and relationships with the Australia-born population. Women's previous and current socioeconomic status, and their ethnic and educational background, interplay in developing new identities in the new social setting that cannot be reduced to native ethnicity. In this article we deal with women's practices in their private lives that symbolize immigrants' identity formation within a given social context.     

Effects of trustors' social identity complexity on interpersonal and intergroup trust

Although previous literature has revealed the effect of a single social identity on trust, only few studies have examined how multiple social identities affect trust in others. The present research examined the effects of trustors' social identity complexity on their level of trust toward another person (interpersonal trust), outgroup members (outgroup trust), and ingroup members (ingroup trust). Study 1, which was a correlational study, indicated that trustors' social identity complexity was positively related to their interpersonal and outgroup trust. Three experimental studies were performed to identify causal relationships. Study 2 found that activating trustors' high social identity complexity produced high levels of interpersonal trust, and Studies 3 and 4 found that this effect was more pronounced when the trustee was an outgroup member (outgroup trust) rather than an ingroup member (ingroup trust). The implications of these results for social harmony are discussed.     

被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响

被信任者社会身份是单一的还是多样的, 这种数量差异可以体现其社会身份的复杂性。本研究探讨了被信任者社会身份复杂性(单一身份、多重身份)如何影响人们对其可信性的评价。实验1考察了被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响以及社会距离在其中的中介作用。实验2用于检验被信任者所属群体类型(内群体、外群体)是否调节他们的社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响。研究结果表明：被信任者多重社会身份的凸显会提高人们对其可信性的评价, 社会距离在二者之间起着完全中介作用; 群体类型对社会身份复杂性的影响具有调节作用, 社会距离的中介作用在对外群体成员的可信性评价中更为明显。     

Economic inequality and the rise of far‐right populism: A social psychological analysis

It is argued that far‐right (FR) populism in the West is fuelled by inequality. In this paper, we argue that three social psychological processes are central to explaining these phenomena. We suggest that these processes are recursive although we do not specify their temporal order. Drawing on the social identity tradition, we first examine how inequality is linked to reduced social trust and cohesion, which has consequences for both low‐ and high‐income groups. We examine the known effects of perceived threat in amplifying tensions between groups and consolidating identity positions. Second, we argue that national identity consolidation is a particularly likely response to inequality, which, in turn, reduces tolerance of cultural diversity as an associated consequence. Finally, we consider the value of these strengthened national identities to those who harness them effectively to gain political ground. In this way, those who offer FR populist rhetoric aligned with nationalism can blame immigrants, “foreign” powers, and mainstream politics for both the lack of social cohesion and reduced economic circumstances of many. We conclude that FR populist leaders not only tap into the negative social consequences of inequality, their policy positions also fail to address and may even compound the situation.     

Children's social identities

This paper provides a brief overview of recent developmental research on themes related to children's social identities. Initially, consideration is given to the capacity for social categorization, following which attention is given to children's developing conceptions of social identities, their identification with social groups, and the consequences of identification upon various phenomena such as ingroup favouritism and well‐being. Finally, some personal thoughts on the wider political implications of this research are offered. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceptions of social changes and social identity: Study focusing on Hong Kong society after reunification

Based on the social identity theory and the need for closure theory, the present study investigates how Hong Kong people's perceptions of social changes after the reunification with China are related to their social identities. A randomly selected sample of 315 Hong Kong residents participated in a telephone survey to report their perceptions of major changes in five social areas, as well as their social identities. A series of logistic regression analyses confirmed, as predicted, that the perceived pace of social change was related to the participants' preference for a single identity ('Hongkonger' or 'Chinese') over dual identities ('Hongkonger and Chinese', or 'Chinese and secondarily Hongkonger') through the mediation of social uncertainty. The results indicate that for individuals with dual social identities, perceptions and evaluations of social change are important factors contributing to social identity preference.     

Self-uncertainty,social identity prominence and group identification

Drawing on uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2007) and referring to the concept of social identity complexity, we conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that people would identify most strongly with their group if they felt both self-uncertain and that their group's identity was prominent relative to other identities, either because it was distinct from other identities or because they had few other identities. Self-uncertainty was primed in both experiments after participants had been primed to consider their group's attributes to overlap with or be distinct from the attributes of other identities of theirs (Experiment 1, N = 90) or to consider few or multiple other identities they had (Experiment 2, N = 87). As predicted, group identification was strongest under high uncertainty and when identity distinctiveness or few other identities had been primed. Implications of this research for how we conceptualize identity complexity are discussed.     

Constructing intergroup relationships in social communication

Abstract:  People communicate with each other about their ingroup and outgroup in a social context. These social communications may have profound effects in constructing intergroup relationships. In this paper, we outline how different combinations of the social identities of the sender, receiver, and target of the social communication may give rise to differing face concerns of the ingroup and outgroup, and may result in different patterns of communications about them. People may enhance or protect their ingroup social identity, and derogate the outgroup social identity to their ingroup audiences; however, they are more likely to enhance and protect their outgroup's social identity when communicating with outgroup audiences. Two studies tested these predictions. Study 1 used real groups of Australian and Asian students communicating about an Asian student in an Australian university context. In Study 2, participants assigned to two fictitious groups communicated about their ingroup and outgroup. In both studies, the findings were interpreted within the framework of intergroup communication, although there were some notable deviations from the predictions. Future directions of the research were also discussed.     

Concomitants of social support: Attitudes, personality characteristics, and life experiences

Determining the extent of social support and its consequences and personality correlates has been of increasing interest to researchers. The two studies reported here deal with the possibility that people low in social support are characterized by rigid, authoritarian personality characteristics and a lack of confidence in the support that informal social networks can provide. Groups differing in social support were compared on scales measuring attitudes toward mental illness and personal feelings of anomy. Subjects high in social support had more benign attitudes concerning the mentally ill and felt less anomy than did subjects low in social support. They also perceived their own early relationships with parents as being more positive. The findings are in agreement with several hypotheses about individual differences related to social support differences, and suggest that studies geared toward understanding the causal relations involved would be both theoretically and practically valuable.     

Shifting social identities as a strategy for deflecting threatening social comparisons

Results of three studies suggest that the multifaceted nature of identity provides a strategic basis for reducing the threat involved in upward social comparisons. After performing worse than a comparison standard, people may strategically emphasize aspects of their identity that differentiate them from the standard, thereby making the standard less relevant for self-evaluation. On the basis of previous research showing that persons low in self-esteem are less likely to make effective use of self-protection strategies, we hypothesized that this strategy of deflecting the threat involved in upward comparison (i.e., decreasing perceived comparability by emphasizing an unshared social identity) would be used primarily by persons who are characteristically high in self-esteem. This pattern was confirmed in three studies. Moreover, use of the strategy was associated with relatively more positive affect following threatening upward comparisons.     

Group performance and interpersonal evaluations as determinants of egotistical attributions in groups1

Group members often try to claim personal credit for the successes of their group while avoiding blame for group failures. Two experiments examined the effects of evaluations from their fellows on such egotism in groups. In Experiment 1, 96 subjects participated in four-person, problem-solving groups, and, after completing the group tasks, rated the competency and worth of each of the other group members. Subjects then received bogus written feedback indicating that the group had either succeeded or failed, and that the other members had considered them: (a) the most competent member of the group, (b) the least competent, or (c) of average competence. Group performance and personal evaluations interacted in influencing subjects' perceptions of their personal performances, relative responsibility for the group performance, and potency within the group, generally supporting predictions derived from self-esteem and equity theory. Subjects claimed more responsibility for success than for failure only when they were favorably evaluated by their peers, and claimed the least responsibility for group success when they were unfavorably evaluated. The latter acceptance of negative peer evaluations was examined in Experiment 2, which manipulated the consensus of the evaluations given 76 high or low self-esteem subjects. Regardless of their self-esteem or the consensus of the evaluations, subjects again seemed to accept unfavorable evaluations. High self-esteem subjects did, though, rate their personal performance and relative responsibility higher than low self-esteem subjects.     

Effects of performance expectancy and self-focused attention on social interaction

We investigated the impact of performance expectancies and self-focused attention on social performance in a mixed-sex dyad. A group of 48 undergraduate men with self-reported moderate social anxiety were divided into two groups on the basis of their high or low performance expectancies. Subjects were asked to respond to several self-report questionnaires before and after making a 4-5-min phone call to a female confederate for the purpose of getting acquainted. Half of the subjects in each expectancy group performed in the presence of a self-focusing stimulus (video camera). When anxiety level was controlled for, focus of attention alone had a very limited effect on performance. Expectancy had a significant influence on social performance, but only if subjects were self-focused. Thus confident subjects were rated by judges as more socially skilled than were doubtful subjects, but only when the camera was present. The interaction between these variables parallels previous research and supports the self-regulation model of Carver and Scheier.     

The motivational implications of adolescents' school‐oriented possible identities in a social change context

In line with the identity‐based motivation theory (Oyserman, 2015), which postulates that the motivational implications of possible identities depend on social context, the present research argues that the interplay between accessible possible identities and motivation is also influenced by adolescents' perceptions of social change. According to social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), perceptions of social change were conceptualized as intergroup comparison outcomes, which are assumed to influence the motivational implications of possible identities under the condition that the social change process is perceived as insecure. The results of the present study, which surveyed 631 South African adolescents, supported our assumption. For instance, Black township participants' motivational implications of their possible identities were informed by their identification with Black South Africans. However, the results with regard to white suburb and Black suburb participants were rather ambiguous. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in detail.     

The variability of the delinquent self: Anti-authority attitudes and endorsement of neutralization techniques among incarcerated delinquents in Singapore

This study presents research findings showing that the delinquent social identity is not a fixed entity but varies according to situational factors. Participants were incarcerated Singapore delinquents of both genders, who responded to a vignette of a rule-breaking situation when either their family or their gang social identities are made salient. Another manipulation involves confrontation by authority either in public or in private. Results demonstrate that delinquents' attitude toward authority and their endorsement of the techniques of neutralization vary depending on the salience of their identities and confrontation by authority. This lends support to self-categorization theory's concept of the variable self.     

Psychoticism,social desirability and situation selection

Previous research on personality and activity preference has shown that extraverts have a significantly and meaningfully different pattern of activity preference from introverts. This finding was also true of high and low neurotics but not to the same extent. This study was designed to see whether the traits of psychoticism and social desirability are also related to situational selection. Subjects from a large group were divided first into high P and low P scorers, and then high L and low L scorers. They indicated how much time they had spent in leisure situations over the past week; rank ordered their preferences for activities related to some of Murray's major needs and presses; rated their choice or avoidance of other abstractly described situations; and then stressful, anxiety-provoking, social situations. It was shown that both psychoticism and social desirability are related to situation selection in meaningful and predictable ways. The implications for personality assessment are considered.     

Self-Consciousness and Strategic Self-Presentation

ABSTRACT People who are publicly self-conscious have been characterized as being especially concerned about their social identities and oriented toward gaining approval and avoiding disapproval. In two experiments, it was found that “pure publics” (i.e., those high in public and low in private self-consciousness) were the most concerned about matching their deeds and words. These subjects presented themselves to a partner consistently with their publicly known, prior performance on a supposedly valid test of social sensitivity. However, they presented themselves in a uniformly positive manner if the test could be dismissed as invalid and/or if their performance was unknown. In contrast, subjects low in public or high in private self-consciousness did not display these strategic patterns and presented themselves positively in all cases. Pure publics are thus the most likely to engage in patterns of self-presentation that have been shown to maximize approval and minimize disapproval in social interactions.