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Contextualizing social identity in considerations of what it means to be a nurse
Author(s) -
Millward Lynne J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420250305
Subject(s) - optimal distinctiveness theory , identity (music) , psychology , social psychology , social identity theory , social identity approach , meaning (existential) , interpersonal communication , context (archaeology) , social group , representation (politics) , orientation (vector space) , identity formation , self concept , psychotherapist , aesthetics , paleontology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , politics , political science , law , biology
This paper describes research which provide the context for a discussion of how social representations can circumscribe identity possibilities and render feasible certain groups evaluations. Specifically, a research approach is advocated in which Social Identity and Social Representation Theory are integrated within single complementary paradigm, (Breakwell, 1993). A brief but critical examination of both theoretical traditions is ofered as the backdrop to this. A case study is described as a means of illustrating the unique potential of the integrated paradigm to predict and explain the meaning of social identity and the evaluations it affords. An investigation is then described involving 178 nurses ranging from Trainee to Charge Nurse status. Nurses were invited to use Q‐sorts to describe the meaning of their group membership. As predicted from having identified the types of social representation of nurses available, two diferent identity orientations emerged: a communal‐interpersonal (Patient Centred) and instrumental‐intergroup (Professional Distinctiveness). The communal‐interpersonal identity orientation was most typical of the lower status trainee nurses and also female nurses. In turn, higher status nurses and also male nurses, articulated a primarily instrumental‐intergroup identity orientation. The evaluations signalled by group membership were also predictable from the identity orientations exhibited.