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Social identity in eating disorders
Author(s) -
Ison Julie,
Kent Sarah
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.1001
Subject(s) - superordinate goals , eating disorders , psychology , interpretative phenomenological analysis , social identity theory , identity (music) , qualitative research , perception , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , social group , sociology , social science , physics , neuroscience , acoustics
This qualitative study examines social identity in eating disorders. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight females with an eating disorder diagnosis. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data. Three superordinate themes emerged from participants' accounts: (1) Shifts in social identity; (2) Outgroup perceptions and influences and (3) Eating disorders as an ingroup. The findings suggested that a person's social identity can change during the course of having an eating disorder, and an interaction between social identity and a person's recovery from an eating disorder was proposed. Clinical implications, methodological issues, and directions for future research were discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.