The Couple's Mutual Identity and Reflexivity: A Systemic-Constructivist Approach to the Integration of Persons and Systems

This paper presents a systemic-constructivist approach to working therapeutically with couples. Therapeutic change is optimal when both the intrapersonal processes of each individual and their unique interpersonal system are synthesized. This approach targets partners' ways of knowing and experiencing themselves in the context of their relationship. The therapist endeavors to engage the aspect of personal identity which each partner derives through his or her participation in the relationship. Emphasis is placed upon (1) The mutual identity that emerges as a result of the couple's intersubjective, dialectical interplay; (2) each partner's ability to engage as participant–observers within their own relationship; and (3) the ability for the couple to utilize their conjoint reflexive faculty in the service of their own change. Change which arises from this combination of personal motivation and collective agency exhibits a self-generated life of its own predicated upon the couple's own expertise rather than that of an external agent.     

大学生性别角色形成研究——双性化与未分化个案的对比

采用刘电芝编制的中国大学生性别角色量表(CSRI-50),甄别出双性化、未分化和单性化被试。在此基础上,对双性化和未分化个案进行深度访谈,以探究影响大学生性别角色形成的主要因素。结果表明父母教养方式、父母个性特点、父母期待、亲子关系、玩伴和自我期待是性别角色的六大影响因素。其中家庭因素最为重要,在家庭因素中父母处于核心地位。通过双性化和未分化个案的比较研究,表明教养者的温柔、鼓励,民主型教养方式,良好的家庭气氛,兄弟姐妹间友好关爱,积极的自我调节有利于双性化的发展;反之,则加剧未分化的形成。     

Threats to Moral Identity: Testing the Effects of Incentives and Consequences of One's Actions on Moral Cleansing

Individuals engage in moral cleansing, a compensatory process to reaffirm one's moral identity, when one's moral self-concept is threatened. However, too much moral cleansing can license individuals to engage in future unethical acts. This study examined the effects of incentives and consequences of one's actions on cheating behavior and moral cleansing. Results found that incentives and consequences interacted such that unethical thoughts were especially threatening, resulting in more moral cleansing, when large incentives to cheat were present and cheating explicitly harmed others. Implications are discussed in terms of ethics training, using incentives as motivators, and the depersonalized norms of science.     

Adaptation of the Utrecht‐Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U‐MICS) to the measurement of the parental identity domain

The present studies examined the psychometric properties of the Utrecht‐Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U‐MICS ) adapted to the measurement of identity formation in the parental identity domain. As the parental identity domain has only been studied within the neo‐Eriksonian approach to a very limited extent, the aim of these studies was to prepare a short, valid and reliable tool for the measurement of parental identity in order to fill this gap. The associations of commitment, in‐depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment in the parental domain with well‐being and with other identity constructs were analyzed. The results showed that parental identity formation is associated with mothers’ satisfaction with life and trait anxiety and with identity formation in other areas as well. The initial results suggest that the adapted version of the U‐MICS is a valid and reliable measure that can be used in future studies on parental identity formation.     

The Effects of Personal Need for Structure and Occupational Identity in the Role Stress Process

Abstract

The authors formed and tested a model of the antecedents, consequences, and possible moderators or mediators of the role ambiguity construct in a new occupational group of nurses (N = 1,240) in Finland. They hypothesized that (a) job characteristics (control and feedback) would be associated with role ambiguity and (b) this association, in turn, would be moderated by personal need for structure. The authors hypothesized that role ambiguity would affect occupational strain partially by the strength of occupational identity. They tested these models by using hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling (LISREL 8; K. G. Jöreskog & D. Sörbom, 1993). Both hypotheses were supported.     

National Identity,Collective Events,and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents’ Autobiographical Narratives of Flag Ceremonies in Finland

Although collective events are central to group identity processes, little is known about how young people experience and remember national ceremonies in which they have participated. This qualitative study analyzes 80 autobiographical narratives written by upper secondary school students about flag ceremonies from their past in Finland. The analysis reveals that the narratives fall into three categories ((Dis)honored, Deserved and Loved Flag) according to how the social context, participants’ actions, narrator’s role, and emotions are described, all of which combine to create a dense web of meanings associated with this common national ceremony. The results also indicate that different group contexts—family and peer group networks and the national context—are inextricably linked in the narratives and that the meanings associated with these contexts tend to fuse. The findings highlight the importance of analyzing national collective events and related autobiographical memories to better understand the sources of national identity’s emotional power.     

试论大学生家政教育的必要性和可行性

对大学生进行系统的家政教育,使他们有一定的未来家庭生活能力,是从整体上提高大学生的素质的必要环节,也是大学生社会化的基础。构建高校家政教育体系已具备了相当的主客观基础,时机日趋成熟,同时也成为我国高等教育面临的一项重要任务。     

The Mutually Constitutive Relationship between Place and Identity: The Role of Place‐Identity in Discourse on Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Recent discursive research has shown that constructions of place may function to regulate social relations and reinforce particular notions of belonging. However, extant discursive research on place‐identity has so far neglected the mutually constitutive relationships between constructions of place and identity in legitimising people's presence. To address this gap, this study, undertaken in Scotland, applies the notion of place‐identity to the discursive analysis of interviews with asylum seekers and refugees, people who work in organisations that support asylum seekers and refugees and locals who live in areas where asylum seekers and refugees tend to be housed. The analysis suggests that constructions of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ countries of origin as dangerous, and the host society as relatively problem‐free, function to constitute their identities as legitimate and to justify their presence in the host society. Moreover, constructions of place may work to portray refugees and asylum seekers as benefiting the local community and as belonging more than certain other locals. In contrast, constructing the host society as ‘full’ functions to oppose their presence through portraying them as not being able to belong. This demonstrates the mutually constitutive roles of place and identity in legitimising or resisting people's movement and belonging. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age‐Related Differences in Ethnic Prejudice: Evidence of the Mediating Effect of Right‐Wing Attitudes

The present study revealed age‐related differences in ethnic prejudice in a heterogeneous (total N = 1,308) and a representative (N = 800) sample, using measures of blatant and subtle prejudice. The relationship between age and blatant and subtle prejudice was found to be fully mediated by right‐wing social‐cultural attitudes (i.e. authoritarianism and cultural conservatism). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alternative Measures of American National Identity: Implications for the Civic‐Ethnic Distinction

Studies of national identity distinguish between ethnic and civic nations and have sought to identify these alternative conceptions of national identity in public opinion. The standard measurement technique is to assess the normative content of American national identity by asking survey respondents to rate the importance of particular traits for making someone a “true” American. We argue that such measures are problematic, chiefly because of the impact of nonrandom measurement error. We explore the influence of using ranking measures instead of ratings, using a survey experiment conducted on a nationally representative sample of Americans in 2008. The ranking method is superior for distinguishing between ethnic and civic conceptions of nationhood and, therefore, for predicting preferences on issues such as immigration policy. We develop a new statistical method that effectively “converts” ratings into scores that approximate rankings, resulting in the creation of more valid measures of both ethnic and civic national identities.     

Racial Identity as Mediator of the Relationship Between Gender Role Conflict and Severity of Psychological Symptoms in Black, Latino, and Asian Men

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent to which racial identity attitudes mediate the relationship between gender role conflict and psychological symptoms in Men of Color. The mediating role of racial identity was tested in Study 1 with a sample of Black men and in Study 2 with a sample of Asian and Latino men. The results of Study 1 provided support for full mediation, whereas in Study 2 evidence was found for partial mediation. The combination of the studies' findings underscores the importance of considering the extent to which Men of Color identify with their own racial group when examining the relationship between gender role conflict and psychological symptoms.     

Identity and the Theory of Planned Behavior: Predicting Maintenance of Volunteering After Three Years

Is identity an important predictor of social behavior? The present longitudinal study is focused on identity in order to understand why people continue to volunteer over an extended period of time. The theory of planned behavior and the role identity model of volunteering are used as theoretical framework. Two hundred thirty Italian volunteers were sampled and followed for 3 years. We analyzed functions of role identity as a volunteer. Results showed a significant impact of role identity in predicting volunteer performance after 3 years, mediated through behavioral intentions. Role identity fully mediated the relationships between behavioral intention and attitude, social norms, past behavior and parental modelling.     

Modernity and Identity: Themes and Perspectives in the Study of Older Adults

Developments in social gerontology have led to an increased awareness of the relationship between political economy, culture, and personal narrative as influences on social identity in later life. Central to this debate has been a growing interest in lifestyle choice as evidence of a change from modern to postmodern forms of aging. A key component of this process has been the erosion of a predictable framework for an aging identity, previously supplied by the welfare state. It is argued that, alongside the emergence of no-care zones in health and welfare, postmodern ideas on consumerism and the body have led to an assault on identity in old age. As a result, we may be seeing the emergence of no-identity zones which fail to sustain an authentic framework for supporting experiences in old age. A critical gerontology should include the study of identity as central to understanding the disjunction between aging from within and aging within society.     

The Art of Buying: Coming to Terms with Money and Materialism

Money and possessions hold strong attractions, but being driven to acquire them in order to enhance one's social standing is associated with lowered well-being. Literatures on money and happiness, materialism, and cultural mediators are reviewed. Consumer well-being is associated with being neither very tight nor very loose with money, with having relatively low financial aspirations, and with being low in materialism. Price-related behaviors – whether to spend low, spend high, or attempt to maximize value – are ways of responding to economic outlay vis-à-vis material wants, and these "strategies" offer a window into broader consumer lifestyles: the Value Seeker type is tight with money and materialistic; the Big Spender is loose with money and materialistic; the Non-Spender is tight with money and not materialistic; and the Experiencer is loose with money and not materialistic. Each of these types is described in terms of the potentials for well-being as well as the risks. Intrinsic motivation emerges as a key to well-being. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Veil as Stigma: Exploring the Role of Representations in Muslim Women's Management of Threatened Social Identity

This study extends research on the relations between social representations and social identities through an exploration of how Muslim women manage the stigma of veiling. Based on analysis of individual and group interviews among Muslim women in Denmark and the UK, the study highlights the dialectical nature of social identity as constructed through and against others' representations of social groups and the norms of valuing they impose. It shows how, for the women here, the reinforcement of a shared sense of Muslim identity goes together with re‐evaluation of aspects of that identity, principally in response to representations of the veil that deny Muslim women agency and cast them as oppressed. It shows how norms of gender and agency are in this process variously resisted and affirmed, resulting in the reframing of gendered religious values. Theoretically, the study argues that an account of the role of representations in the construction of identity challenges the inter‐group framework of existing approaches to threatened social identity and sheds light on intersectional dynamics of identity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confucian Dynamism,the Role of Money and Consumer Ethical Beliefs: An Exploratory Study in Taiwan

Consumer ethics is the moral principles and standards that guide consumers to determine the certain consumption behaviors are ethically right or wrong. Whereas cultural and personal dimensions are crucial constructs affecting individual ethical attitudes and behaviors, few studies consider Confucian dynamism and the role of money in consumer ethics. Confucian dynamism, a cultural dimension based on Confucianism, has played a central role in guiding moral obligations and ethics in human relations in several East Asian countries. Thus, this study tested its hypotheses using a sample of 521 respondents obtained via a systematic random sampling technique. The authors find that individuals with a higher tendency to Confucian dynamism are less tolerant of unethical practices. These findings also show that the role of money partially influences consumer ethical beliefs. Finally, we examine the impact of demographic variables and find age and education affect consideration of ethical values.     

Micro‐analysis of a therapist‐generated metaphor referring to the position of a parentified child in the family

The purpose of this exploratory study is to develop a deeper understanding of the way in which the metaphorical language of therapists evolves in dialogue with a client over the course of a therapeutic session. We first briefly report on a study in which we categorized the metaphors used by therapists in twelve therapy sessions with a role‐played client. Then we focus on an intensive micro‐analysis of one particular metaphor that was introduced in the session by one particular therapist in the categorization study: the metaphor of a fireman in the family. Our analysis allowed us a detailed look at some of the ways in which metaphorical language opens dialogical space in the session to talk about the position of parentification of the client and about the price she has to pay for this position in terms of preoccupying worries and loneliness. Furthermore our analysis revealed the delicate dialogical nature of the therapeutic process in which, in talk, the therapist takes the client's experiencing into account all the time.     

The Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation Process of Second‐Generation Asian Indian Americans: A Phenomenological Study

This phenomenological study elucidates the identity development processes of 12 second‐generation adult Asian Indian Americans. The results identify salient sociocultural factors and multidimensional processes of racial and ethnic identity development. Discrimination, parental, and community factors seemed to play a salient role in influencing participants’ racial and ethnic identity development. The emergent Asian Indian American racial and ethnic identity model provides a contextualized overview of key developmental periods and turning points within the process of identity development. Este estudio fenomenológico dilucida los procesos de desarrollo de la indentidad de 12 individuos Americano‐Indoasiáticos adultos. Los resultados identifican factores socioculturales destacados y procesos multidimensionales del desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica. Los factores de discriminación, paternos y comunitarios parecieron jugar un papel destacado en su influencia sobre el desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica de los participantes. El modelo emergente de identidad racial y étnica Americano‐Indoasiática proporciona una visión general contextualizada de los periodos clave del desarrollo y los puntos de inflexión durante el proceso del desarrollo de la identidad.     

From Equality‐Based Respect to Environmental Activism: Antecedents and Consequences of Global Identity

Global identity reflects social identification with the world and the largest, most inclusive human ingroup and is generally associated with behavior that serves the world and all humans, such as transnational cooperation or proenvironmental engagement. While the outcomes of being globally identified are well‐established, the antecedents of global identity are only partially explored. Drawing from research suggesting that respect fosters identification in small groups, we argue that the general experience of being respected as an equal by others increases global identification. In an online study with 469 Germans (students and nonstudents), we tested the relation between equality‐based respect and global identification in a structural equation model, with proenvironmental intentions and donation behavior as outcome variables. As expected, equality‐based respect, but not other forms of social recognition (need‐based care and achievement‐based social esteem), predicted global identity while higher global identity, in turn, predicted proenvironmental activism. These effects were substantial beyond known predictors of proenvironmental behavior and thus suggest that equality‐based respect represents an important facet of responses to global challenges.     

Being in‐between: The relevance of ethnography and auto‐ethnography for psychotherapy research

Aims: This paper proposes that ethnography and auto‐ethnography can make important contributions to counselling and psychotherapy research. Auto‐ethnography is a recent methodological approach that focuses on the subjective experiences of the researcher. It is informed by anthropology, which encourages the researcher to journey alongside the persons being observed and to make meaning of complex symbolic systems in their lives. Method: Examples from a study of therapeutic processes in a mental health setting for women are examined. Discussion: If auto‐ethnography situates the researcher with the insider's perspective and ethnography is from the outsider's perspective, the researcher is caught ‘in‐between’ these two approaches. Acknowledging the concept of ‘in‐between‐ness’ can both cause discomfort and transform the experience of all who engage in the process and enhance the quality of the research.