Health and the social context
Mikko Mattila, Lauri Rapeli, Hanna Wass, Peter Söderlund in Health and Political Engagement, 2017
Social contexts also generate collective identities (Iglič and Font, 2007). A collective identity is “an individual’s cognitive moral and emotional connection with a broader community, category, practice or institution. It is a perception of a shared status or relation, which may be imagined rather than experienced directly” (Polletta and Jasper, 2001, p. 285). Collective identities have been particularly useful in explaining mobilization through social movements, which often seek to promote minority rights or raise awareness of a specific societal question. Collective identity theory has also been employed as a solution to the classic free-rider dilemma in collective action: why do some people choose to free-ride, while others become engaged? Whereas social networks provide a platform for mobilization, a sense of collective identity is therefore a potential source of motivation to engage. Moreover, as Eder (2009, p. 428) contends, by positioning the individual in relation to others, an identity helps people understand where they stand politically. Similar to social ties with other people, collective identities also work as a heuristic, making complex political choices simpler for the individual.
The dynamics of groups online
Ciarán Mc Mahon in Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology, 2020
The term ‘group identity’ is a term used to describe the common characteristics and common goals, similar beliefs and standards that often exist between group members (Chen & Li, 2009). ‘Collective identity’ is a related term which refers to how people are similar to each other within a group, when the psychological connection between the individual self and the social group is considered (Abrams & Hogg, 2001). As with many groups, roles and norms emerge within online groups to allow them to function effectively. A role within any group refers to the ‘position’ a person may fill within that group, such as a ‘leadership’ role, similar to a ‘captain’s role’ within a team perhaps. Roles within groups can, therefore, be described as formal or informal. An example of a formal role would be a managerial role or a captaincy role. Such roles are explicitly stated and clearly identified. An informal role could include the ‘joker’ role, or indeed, the ‘peacemaker’ role within the group. Norms differ from roles in groups as they typically refer to the rules a group puts in place in order to regulate the behaviour of the group members. Groups often develop their norms by observing the ‘normal’ or ‘accepted’ behaviours of other groups (Borsari & Carey, 2003). For example, a norm within a work setting might be that all employees are expected to arrive to work on time, with only special exceptions to this rule being tolerated. Penalties are often put in place to punish members of groups when they ‘break’ the rules, in order to motivate the members to conform to the group norms, and so that the group can exist in a harmonious way (Kirwan & Power, 2014).
“And I Live It”
John R. Cutcliffe, José Carlos Santos, Paul S. Links, Juveria Zaheer, Henry G. Harder, Frank Campbell, Rod McCormick, Kari Harder, Yvonne Bergmans, Rahel Eynan in Routledge International Handbook of Clinical Suicide Research, 2013
Grounding engagements are opportunities for harmony grounded in the four foundational categories of engagement within the activists' self/community life-world. For this reason, the four grounding engagements are named after the four foundational categories of engagement, themselves: Connection: The grounding engagement of connection is the experience of connectedness within and across the various spheres of the self/community life-world. As George put it, connection asserts, “You are part of this, you are born to this, you're not alone.”Empowerment: The grounding engagement of empowerment is the experience of agency within the activist's self/community life-world. All of the participants identified the empowerment they felt when they saw the positive changes resulting from their efforts as activists in their self/community life-world. For example, Alice found empowerment through contribution to others as a healer: They would come in with a sore back, headaches and such, and I'd be able to help them! I was doing it myself, healing people through Reiki… And I never thought I could do that for somebody. And after that there was no stopping me.Identity: The grounding engagement of identity is the self-referential description of the self/community life-world. For all of the activists, the recognition of their individual identity was essential to their healing journey. However, their collective identity, in relation to their family and community, was also deemed essential by the participants. George asserted, If you're a Kwakwaka'wakw child, you're a member of a clan; then you know your territory, the roles and responsibilities you have in the family, the roles and responsibilities with the resources around you, and what you need to do to support other people in the clan.Vision: The grounding engagement of vision is the participants' self/community world-view. Nature was considered the template for the vision of life and how to live for most of the activists. And the terms balance and harmony were identified by the activists as essential to their vision. Vision includes the ethics and principles by which one is to live. Felicity shared: For me, healing is balance in all aspects of the emotional, spiritual, and physical, and mental… I know that at times I'm out of balance, and not only healthwise, but out of balance with family or with nature or with community. And so I work towards restoring balance and harmony in whatever it is.
Associations of deviant peer affiliation with youths’ substance use disorder abstention motivation: The mediating role of perceived social support and the moderating role of collective identity
Published in Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 2022
Xiaoqing Zeng, Yuling Chen
Identity includes individual identity, relationship identity, social identity, and collective identity (Cheek et al., 2002). Collective identity can be defined as a group that holds the same values in terms of gender, political belief, occupation, etc. and has a feature of categorization (Ashmore et al., 2004). Previous studies have show that collective identity not only affects teenagers’ emotions and behaviors but also has a considerable impact on teenagers’ deviant behaviors (Difulvio, 2011). Some studies on the effects of identity on substance abuse (e.g. smoking behaviors) suggested that identity is significantly associated with increased smoking among adolescents (Hertel & Mermelstein, 2016). Furthermore, as one’s identity as a “smoker” increased, smoking behavior increased (Yang & Wei, 2016). When all of their companions smoke, teenagers will be forced to smoke or reinforce their identification with smoking because of their desire to be accepted by the group or pressure from their peers. After people become engaged in substance abuse, their relationships with relatives, friends, colleagues, classmates and other social groups are broken, so they can only identify with “substance users” (Dong, 2014). Therefore, collective identity may be a necessary precondition for perceived social support to improve substance abstention motivation. Hence, our second hypothesis is that collective identity plays a moderating role in the relationship between perceived social support and substance abstention motivation.
Examining Psychological Self-Sufficiency among African American Low-Income Jobseekers in a Health Profession Career Pathways Program
Published in Social Work in Health Care, 2020
Philip Young P. Hong, Caleb Kim, Rana Hong, Dara Lewis, Jang Ho Park
Interconnectedness relates to collective identity and the inclusive nature of family. Collective identity honors the uniqueness of every person yet recognizes the totality between the individual and the whole community. Depicted as a spider web, each person represents an interdependent fiber of the collective identity web (Scheiler, 1997). It is through awareness and education that individual identity develops into collective identity that begins to emerge as a process (Asante, 2003). The collective nature of the family structure requires shared work and responsibility as each member is considered part of a collective group that cares for another who they consider as a part of their collective self. For example, the collective identity of the family is developed by a twin ancestral system that comes from the lineage of both parents, rather than only the mother or father, and includes non-biological members and an extensive kinship network (Graham, 1999).
Understanding the Unique Effects of Identity in Adjustment Among Veterans
Published in Military Behavioral Health, 2021
Alan Meca, Kelsie K. Allison, Kenneth L. Ayers, Kyla Carr, Sean Cox, Adrian J. Bravo, Rachel Davies, Michelle L. Kelley
Identity refers to an individuals’ response to the question “Who am I?” (Vignoles et al., 2011). Although identity can vary across many levels (Meca et al., 2017), in the present study, we focused on personal and collective identity. Personal identity refers to aspects of one’s sense of self associated with one’s goals, values, beliefs, and life story (Vignoles et al., 2011). In contrast, collective identity refers to how individuals define themselves in relation to the groups they belong to (Schwartz et al., 2008). Put another way, a personal identity represents the answer to the question “Who am I?,” whereas collective identity addresses the question “Who am I as a member of my group?” (Meca et al., 2017; Schwartz et al., 2008).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Altered State of Consciousness
- Collective Consciousness
- Dissociative Amnesia
- Memory
- Pain
- Self-Categorization Theory
- Altered State of Consciousness
- Fear
- Harmony