Labels and the Self: Identity Labels as Scaffold

This paper considers how labels may be used: “Neurodiverse,” “genderfluid,” “sex-positive,” “ADHD,” and “highly-sensitive” are just some of the labels that may be offered by patients in introducing themselves. Such labels can be thought of as shortcuts, a way to define identity and sum up a feeling state, attitude, or behaviour. While they may sometimes be “given” in the sense of a diagnosis, they are also “found” and self-adopted. Using scaffolding as a metaphor for allowing growth or development to take place (or compensate for its absence), the phenomenon of self-labelling is presented as fulfilling different functions, namely: Label as mirrored reflection; Label as creative defence; Label as something with which to play; Label as container for that which cannot yet be known; Label as calling something into being; and Label as collective dream image. The article starts with three brief composite clinical sketches, and goes on to explore some of the ways that labels may be used with reference to the presented clinical material.     

There is an ‘I’ in truth: How salient identities shape dynamic perceptions of truth

This research examined the hypothesis that people judge as true those claims aligned with the normative content of their salient social identities. In Experiment 1a, participants’ social identities were manipulated by assigning them to ‘inductive-thinker’ and ‘intuitive-thinker’ groups. Participants subsequently made truth judgements about aphorisms randomly associated with ‘science’ and ‘popular wisdom’. Those with salient inductive-thinker social identities judged science-based claims as more truthful than popular wisdom-based claims to a greater extent than those with salient intuitive-thinker social identities. Experiment 1b was a preregistered replication, with additional conditions eliminating an alternative semantic-priming explanation. In Experiment 2, American Conservatives and Liberals judged as more true claims associated with the ideological content of their social identities. This difference was attenuated through a manipulation that framed participants as more moderate than they had originally indicated. Overall, these experiments suggest an identity-truth malleability, such that making salient specific social identities can lead to related perceptions of truth normatively aligned with those identities.     

COVID-19-related threat perceptions,political identity,and voting in the 2020 presidential election

Perceptions of the COVID-19 virus varied drastically in the United States, with many people highly concerned by health-related consequences (realistic threats) and many others concerned by sociocultural implications (symbolic threats). Across three studies, we tested whether differing realistic and symbolic COVID-19 related threat perceptions varied along gender and political identity near the 2020 US Presidential Election. In all three studies, we found that realistic COVID-19 related threat perceptions were positively associated with a liberal political identity; this pattern did not vary by gender. In Studies 1 and 3, symbolic COVID-19 related threat perceptions were positively associated with a conservative political identity and also did not vary by gender. In Study 2, however, the association between symbolic threat and political identity did vary by gender. Symbolic COVID-19 related threat perceptions were positively associated with a conservative identity for men but not women; for women, threat and political identity were unrelated.     

Content and predictors of the ethnic identity of Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents in Finland

The content and predictors of the ethnic identity of Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents ( N =170) in Finland were investigated. The ethnic identity of immigrants was found to be composed of two dimensions, one reflecting the cognitive, evaluative and emotional components of their Russian identity and the other reflecting those of their Finnish identity. The ethnic and linguistic self-identifications of adolescents were strongly related to the extent of and the value given to the Russian and Finnish identity, but neither to the frequency of using nor to their proficiency in the respective languages. The immigrants' perceptions of the relationships with parents were strongly related to their Russian identity. This association was, however, very different for girls and boys. In addition, the Russian contact orientation and Russian language use were strong predictors of the adolescents' Russian identity, whereas their Finnish contact orientation and Finnish language use strongly predicted their Finnish identity.     

Non-Traditional Women's Group

This paper focuses on an intensive large group experience for women that addresses issues of female identity and the cultural constructs that contribute to women's basic experience of self. It includes a discussion of self-concept and the social constructionist theory of the social, emotional, and psychological processes of the development of an individual's view of herself and the world. The author contrasts aspects of traditional group psychotherapy leadership, which tends to perpetuate society's devaluation of the feminine, with the leadership style of this workshop. The use of story and metaphor and other techniques used to achieve the workshop goals--including narrative therapy, guided imagery, movement and dance, and ritual enactment--are also discussed.     

Schools,identity and the conception of the good. The denominational tradition as an example

The Dutch education system relies upon a large number of publicly-subsidized, denominational schools. The authors defend the importance of schools that educate children within a specific — including denominational — conception of the good by arguing for the importance of such a conception for the development of the child's identity. An essential component of this developmental process is critical reflection, conceived as crucial to the formation of moral autonomy.     

Self,community and the overcoming of prejudice

Using discussion from Gadamer, Burbules and Rice, and Banks, and practical examples from a multicultural teacher education classroom, this paper examines the effects of community on the construction of identities and on the development and overcoming of prejudice.     

Identity and injustice: Exploring women's participation in collective action

The present study is an investigation into the social psychological factors associated with women's reported participation in a range of different types of political action in the context of gender relations. At time 1,610 women were asked to rate their readiness to participate in various actions and to provide measures of social beliefs. Factor analysis extracted four types of action: participation in women's groups, collective protest, informal participation, and individual protest. One year later, at time 2, a subgroup of the same women were asked to say how much they had actually participated over the previous 12 months. Reported participation was related to gender identity, collective relative deprivation, efficacy, collectivist orientation, and identification as an activist. Regression analysis showed that identification as an activist was by far the most powerful correlate of participation, followed by gender identity; and that gender identity also played a role in moderating relationships between reported participation and other predictor variables. These findings show the important role of identity processes underlying participation in collective action and suggest the need to develop interaction models of participation.     

REVERSAL OF BASELINE RELATIONS AND STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE: II. CHILDREN

In a systematic replication of a study using college-student subjects (Pilgrim & Galizio, 1990), 5- to 7-year-old children learned two conditional discriminations (i.e., A1B1, A2B2, A1C1, and A2C2) in a two-choice arbitrary match-to-sample task and showed the emergence of two three-member equivalence classes (A1B1C1 and A2B2C2). Baseline conditional discrimination performances were quickly controlled by reversals of the AC reinforcement contingencies (i.e., choosing Comparison Stimulus C2 was reinforced given Sample A1, and choosing C1 was reinforced given Sample A2) when the reversals were introduced in restricted baselines. On reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity/equivalence probes following the reversal, there was some limited indication of equivalence-class reorganization (i.e., A1B1C2 and A2B2C1) in keeping with the concurrently performed baseline relations for 2 of 5 subjects, but the predominant pattern across probe trials was one of inconsistent conditional control. These findings suggest that, given similar challenges, equivalence-class performances may be more easily disrupted in young children than in adults.     

Identity and influence in social interaction

Researchers studying argumentation often make the simplifying assumption that rational persuasion can be studied independently from the processes through which social identities are established and maintained. However, developments in the study of message design, particularly the groundbreaking work of Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) on politeness, suggests that in practice the multiple functions of messages are intertwined in message structure and effects. In contrast to the view that identity issues distort rational processes in communication, both the communication of identity and the use of identity-based appeals in social influence are best seen as prototypical examples of rationality in message design.