Mental Health and Social Identification
What are people's perceptions of themselves, and how do they view themselves? Because people's perceptions of themselves are affected by the environment they experience, they look outside of themselves to the social context. Identity is described as a notion of the self, the substance of the self, or knowledge about who I am, built-in terms of norms and orders that apply to social situations, according to social identification theories.
Introduction
Symbolic interactionists have defined the process of
constructing the self-concept by emphasizing the importance of individual
structure relationships. Self-continuity is defined as a sense of continuity
between one's past and present identities and has been linked to improved
mental wellbeing. Studies show, for example, that self-evaluation temporal
stability is connected to higher levels of positive impact and lower levels of
depression. In contrast, emotions of dissociation, sadness, and even suicide have
all been linked to a notion of self.
Nancy Chodorow gives a psychological examination of the
creation of gender identity in the close social surroundings of the family in
The Reproduction of Mothering (1999). Gender identity, according to Chodorow,
is the result of a unique family arrangement in which women are solely
responsible for child care. Children develop their gender identity by
separating themselves from their primary caretakers, often their mothers.
Chodorow claims that individuals acquire diverse gender
identities based on sex because their early social environments change and are
perceived differently by male and female toddlers. Her research has been
particularly significant in describing how patriarchal behaviors in Western
societies affect individual identification processes.
Social identification theories have broadened the scope of
study into transdisciplinary domains in recent years. Various social-scientific
concepts and viewpoints, such as collective protest, political rhetoric, diversity,
and system-justification beliefs, are progressively included as essential parts
of social identification processes.
On the other hand, social identification theories have been
criticized for treating identities as individual status categories such as
race/ethnicity or gender. By focusing on the development of specific
social-status categories, identification theorists sometimes overlook
structural concerns, such as unique historical and cultural antecedents or the
political ramifications of identification experiences in a given society.
Many social theorists try to link social identity with
psychological wellbeing. For example, social identity theory initially proposed
that in-group identification and preference lead to increased self-esteem.
Overall, these theories suggest that social identity is linked to psychological
wellbeing, defined as increased positive-hedonic indicators like self-esteem
and life satisfaction and decreased negative indicators like depression,
anxiety, and stress.
Group identification and mental health
The social identity viewpoint has helped emphasize the
significant implications that group identification may have on people's
behavior and mental processes, whether in adults or children or adolescents.
Researchers have shown that persons who are members of organizations with which
we identify are more likely to help, like, and collaborate with them.
Importantly, the numerous advantages of belonging to a
community also apply to mental health. Greater identification with the family,
the workgroup, and the support group predict higher levels of psychological
wellbeing and lower levels of self-reported psychiatric symptoms, according to
research (particularly depression, anxiety, and stress).
Group identification and adolescent mental health
While many studies have focused on the crucial impacts that
group identification may have on adult populations' mental health, few social
identity researchers have looked into the influence of group identification on
teenagers' mental health. This is a significant oversight, given that 75% of
mental problems manifest before age 25, and many claim that young people's
mental health is deteriorating.
Adolescent mental health problems increase the risk of
mental illness in adulthood; this has prompted calls for adolescent treatment
plans and preventative actions for potentially vulnerable individuals to be
taken earlier in life.
Multiple group identifications and mental health
One of the major concepts of social identity theory is that
we all belong to several social groups, even if we don't necessarily identify
with all of them. The possible health advantages of multiple group memberships
have begun to be discussed in the social identification literature, but perhaps
more crucially, the potential health benefits of identifying with numerous
social groups simultaneously.
For example, Iyer et al. (2009) found that having multiple
group identifications can be particularly beneficial for wellbeing in their
study assessing wellbeing after joining university, because being a member of a
group with which one feels a sense of belonging can provide individuals with
knowledge and opportunities, which can provide material and psychological
resources.
References
Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Postmes, T., & Haslam, C.
(2008). Social Identity, Health and Well‐Being: An Emerging Agenda for Applied
Psychology. Applied Psychology, 58(1), 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00379.x
McIntyre, J. C., Wickham, S., Barr, B., & Bentall, R. P.
(2017). Social Identity and Psychosis: Associations and Psychological
Mechanisms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 44(3), 681–690.
https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbx110
Miller, K., Wakefield, J. R., & Sani, F. (2015).
Identification with social groups is associated with mental health in adolescents:
Evidence from a Scottish community sample. Psychiatry Research, 228(3),
340–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.088
Sharma, S., & Sharma, M. (2010). Self, social identity
and psychological wellbeing. Psychological Studies, 55(2), 118–136.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-010-0011-8
"Social Identification ." International
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved January 24, 2022 from
Encyclopedia.com:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/social-identification
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