Coping with threatened identities: Unemployed people’s self-categorizations

This article presents a theoretical argument to explain the way in which unemployed people react to and cope with threats to their identities that derive from perceptions ofstigma and low self-worth. It is argued here that strategies used by unemployed people to cope with such threats are influenced by whether the individuals categorize themselves as “unemployed” or adopt some other categorization (e.g., housewife, retired coal-miner). It is also proposed that the concept of self-categorization can be framed within Folkman and Lazarus’s (1980, 1985) coping model of distress in order to provide a more general framework for understanding these issues. The study reviews literature about stigma and coping with threatened identities with reference to these integrated frameworks, and concludes with a general model for predicting the way in which unemployed people self-categorize and cope with stigma and low self-esteem. This takes into account the role played by situational and individual factors, and suggests that individuals recategorize themselves in order to cope better during different phases of their unemployment.     

Globalization,Threatened Identities,Coping and Well-Being

This paper explores the links between the changes associated with the processes of globalization and their psycho-social consequences. Focusing primarily on socio-cultural domain, it examines the impact of globalization on various facets of individual psyche. The paper also looks at social functioning, delineates the role of globalization and acculturation processes in the decentring, dislocation, and reconstitution of core identities that provide crucial linkages to the well-being consequences. The review shows that despite threats to their valued identities, ethnic-minority immigrants who adopt active, problem-focused coping and/or identify with their social identity-based support groups cope efficaciously with stress of identity-based discrimination and devaluation, protect their well-being, and even report enhanced collective self-esteem. The “threatened identities” and “coping options—resources and strategies” that are invoked to cope with such threats, are significant psycho-social moderators between the processes of globalization and the well-being of individuals and groups.     

Disengagement and Engagement Coping with HIV/AIDS Stigma and Psychological Well-Being of People with HIV/AIDS

The stigma associated with HIV/AIDS poses a psychological challenge to people living with HIV/AIDS. We hypothesized that that the consequences of stigma-related stressors on psychological well-being would depend on how people cope with the stress of HIV/AIDS stigma. Two hundred participants with HIV/AIDS completed a self-report measure of enacted stigma and felt stigma, a measure of how they coped with HIV/AIDS stigma, and measures of depression and anxiety, and self-esteem. In general, increases in felt stigma (concerns with public attitudes, negative self-image, and disclosure concerns) coupled with how participants reported coping with stigma (by disengaging from or engaging with the stigma stressor) predicted self-reported depression, anxiety, and self-esteem. Increases in felt stigma were associated with increases in anxiety and depression among participants who reported relatively high levels of disengagement coping compared to participants who reported relatively low levels of disengagement coping. Increases in felt stigma were associated with decreased self-esteem, but this association was attenuated among participants who reported relatively high levels of engagement control coping. The data also suggested a trend that increases in enacted stigma predicted increases in anxiety, but not depression, among participants who reported using more disengagement coping. Mental health professionals working with people who are HIV positive should consider how their clients cope with HIV/AIDS stigma and consider tailoring current therapies to address the relationship between stigma, coping, and psychological well-being.     

The Transformative Effects of Stigma: Coping Strategies as Meaning‐Making Efforts for Immigrants Living in Greece

The present article examines the strategies that immigrants living in Greece use to cope with stigma that arises in their interaction with both Greek society and their communities of origin. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted with immigrants from a variety of countries, a dialogical analysis illuminates the ways in which immigrants actively negotiate stigmatizing perspectives and transform themselves. Strategies include the deployment of social categories such as those of ‘human being’ and ‘crazy’ person, and concepts such as those of ‘lawfulness’ and ‘fate’. These were used to construct meanings of equality and inclusion into society, to deny responsibility for stigma and to discredit stigma as absurd. They enabled participants to see themselves as proud, equal, self‐dependent individuals who plan actions for social change. The article suggests that coping with stigma should not only be understood in terms of stress regulation, leading to positive or negative outcomes, as suggested by current literature, but as a meaning‐making effort, through which individuals transform the way they see themselves and act within their world. A meaning‐making approach moves away from individualistic, outcome‐oriented explanations to a socially situated perspective on stigma that studies the processes through which social meanings are subjectively perceived as stigmatizing and are used to challenge stigma. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religiosity,coping, and suicidality within the religious Zionist community of Israela thematic qualitative analysis

The relationship between religion and mental health has been the subject of extensive research, particularly in recent years. The issues of coping and suicidality have also been widely studied. Significantly, however, how religious people cope with harsh life situations is an area which has been overlooked. The present study based on 18 semi-structured interviews, analyses have members of the Religious Zionist community in Israel cope with harsh life situations. Although the study confirms the conclusions of previous research – in general religion creates a buffer to suicide – the results showed a relatively low impact of religiosity on coping: in general these religious interviewees found it difficult to access their religiosity during harsh life situations. The paper suggests a range of explanations, for example the complexity of personal and collective identities which characterise this group, or – more significantly – the possibilty that religious coping is not actually absent but is only available in a second, later stage of coping.     

The Impact of Criminal Record Stigma on Quality of Life: A Test of Theoretical Pathways

Across multiple stigmatized groups, research suggests that stigma may negatively impact individual wellbeing. This impact often occurs through a sequential pathway that includes perceiving societal stigma, a diminished and stereotyped self‐concept (i.e., internalized stigma), experiences of discrimination and rejection, and attempts to cope with stigma (e.g., secrecy or withdrawal). While prior research supports individual links within this pathway, no study has evaluated a model representing the relationships between all of these factors in relation to criminal record stigma. This study utilized cross‐sectional data from an online survey of 198 adults to test the pathways through which criminal record‐related stigma impacts individual quality of life. The results indicated that perceived stigma was a significant predictor of discrimination and rejection experiences, secrecy coping strategies, and decreased quality of life. There was also a significant indirect association between perceived stigma and quality of life through secrecy coping. Consistent with recent criminal record stigma research, internalized stigma was low among respondents. These findings point to the importance of reducing criminal record stigma and discrimination, so that individuals with criminal records have more opportunities to enhance their quality of life without having to withdraw from society or keep their record a secret.     

Doing good,feeling good: Values and the self 's moral center

Rarely do social psychological treatments of the self highlight its moral dimension. We expect people with prosocial values to feel better about themselves when enacting such values. Social identities situate individuals within social groups and wider social structures; successfully enacting important identities increases feelings of self-esteem. This paper looks at individual differences and demonstrates that enacting a social identity (volunteering) contributes more to feelings of self-esteem for those individuals whose values align with that identity. Volunteering may increase self-esteem in general; but for those who claim the identity and hold especially prosocial values, volunteering becomes an important route toward positive self-evaluation.     

Coping with Genetic Risk: Living with Huntington Disease (HD)

Rapid developments in genetics suggest that more and more people will be identified ‘at risk’ for common illnesses. Genetic discoveries have the potential to improve disease outcomes, but they also highlight gaps in our knowledge about patient-level factors such as how individuals respond to a genetic threat to their health and how they cope with that threat. There have been few empirical applications of psychological theories to understand genetic testing decisions and outcomes, although there have been calls for this approach. Drawing upon interviews with individuals at risk for (or with) Huntington disease (HD), this study adopts a stress and coping framework to explore how people cope with genetic illness in the family. Qualitative data analyses revealed that coping strategies were dynamic and varied but could be classified as 1) primary control coping, 2) secondary control coping and 3) social comparison strategies. Important distinctions were observed in coping strategies among those who had undergone genetic testing and received a test result, those who remained at risk, and those affected with HD, along with their caregivers. Implications for clinical practice and genetics health services are discussed.     

Maintaining One's Self-Image Vis-à-Vis Others: The Role of Self-Affirmation in the Social Evaluation of the Self

Three studies examined how people maintain their self-images when they face threat to interpersonal aspects of the self. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence that low self-esteem people lower their estimates of their performance when they expect immediate feedback in order to protect themselves from the interpersonal threat inherent in such feedback, and that self-affirmation reduces this tendency among low self-esteem people. In Study 3, we found that when people are self-affirmed they are more likely to engage in upward social comparisons and less likely to engage in downward social comparisons. Together these findings suggest that people can cope with threats to interpersonal aspects of the self by affirming other important aspects of the self.     

Stigma and Mental Health in Japanese Unemployed Individuals

An Internet‐based survey was administered in Japan to compare mental health of and stigma toward unemployed individuals, workers with regular employment, and workers with irregular employment. Unemployed individuals showed higher scores for both anxiety/depression and disturbance of activities, as well as faced more stigma than did employed individuals. In addition, the factor structure of stigma that unemployed individuals have toward the unemployed was the same as that previously found for university students and employed individuals. Financial strain and stigma were the factors with the greatest influence on the mental health of unemployed individuals.