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Facing social identity change: Interactive effects of current and projected collective identification on expectations regarding future self‐esteem and psychological well‐being
Author(s) -
Packer Dominic J.,
Chasteen Alison L.,
Kang Sonia K.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1348/014466610x519683
Subject(s) - psychology , valence (chemistry) , social identity theory , salient , social psychology , young adult , self esteem , identification (biology) , developmental psychology , identity (music) , ingroups and outgroups , social group , computer science , acoustics , physics , botany , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , biology
We hypothesized that prospective changes in social identity that involve transitioning out of a currently valued group would be associated with negative expectations regarding future states, but that this effect would be mitigated among individuals who expect to belong to a future in‐group of similar importance. Consistent with predictions, strongly identified young adults in two studies projected significantly lower self‐esteem/psychological well‐being in old age than weakly identified young adults. Critically, however, this effect was fully attenuated if they expected to identify with their future aged in‐group when they were old. Study 2 showed that the capacity for projected identification to buffer projected well‐being among strongly identified young adults was contingent on their membership in the future in‐group being highly salient. Analyses of participants' written descriptions of old age (Study 1) and a valence manipulation (Study 2) indicated that these effects were not attributable to the anticipated valence of future selves/states, but rather to the value placed on current and future group memberships.