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Perceived Self-In-Group Prototypicality and Psychological Well-Being

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Perceived Self-In-Group Prototypicality and Psychological Well-Being PERCEIVED SELF-IN-GROUP PROTOTYPICALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING Peta Hoffmann A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology) of The Australian National University April 2018 © Copyright by Peta Hoffmann 2018 All Rights Reserved PROTOTYPICALITY & PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING i DECLARATION The research described in this thesis represents original work undertaken in the Department of Psychology, at the Australian National University. The writing and work outlined in the thesis chapters are solely my own. _______________________ Peta Hoffmann Word Count: 76,355 PROTOTYPICALITY & PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Michael Platow, who has been a wonderful guide, mentor and supporter throughout my studies. Without his unending support and outstanding teaching ability I would not have achieved what I have. I would also like to thank the countless academic and administrative staff at the Australian National University, who have made all the little things so much easier. I could not fail to thank my fellow students who undertook the professional training in Clinical Psychology, for their constant presence by my side has made the whole experience so much more enjoyable and I look forward to working with and growing in professional acumen with them into the future. I also wish to acknowledge my clinical supervisors, Mrs. Annaliese Blair, Dr. John Brown, Mr. Rexton D’Cruz, Dr. Antoinette Harmer, Mrs. Elissa Jacobs and Mrs. Joan Webb, who throughout my studies expertly nurtured my therapeutic skills as a Clinical Psychologist and taught me so much about the complexity of human psychology, elements of which are reflected on in this thesis. With their support I was able to intellectually explore this research in a clinical setting with real clients, increasing my understanding of the practical application of the theory tested here. I would also like to thank all those participants who generously consented to be involved in my research project, for without you freely giving your time, this research would not have been possible. Finally, I would like to thank my family who supported me all the way. Thank you all. PROTOTYPICALITY & PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING iii ABSTRACT Recent work examining health and well-being has identified people’s group memberships as important contributors to positive life outcomes. Social identification with these groups, in particular, has been identified as a powerful positive predictor of psychological well-being. In the current thesis I present five studies, two correlational, two experimental and one overarching study which combined the data from the preceding studies. Each of these studies expands upon this earlier work from within the social identity approach to understanding psychological well-being by examining not only people’s relative levels of social identification with their groups, but their perceptions of their own relative in-group prototypicality within these groups. Building explicitly upon self-categorization theory principles, the results of these five studies demonstrate that: (1) perceived self-in-group prototypicality can be measured separately from social identification with a group, and that (2) these two combine multiplicatively, so that people who have both high social identification and high perceptions of self-in- group prototypicality also have the highest level of psychological well-being on several psychological well-being outcome measures. This latter effect occurs even after controlling for known factors related to these outcomes, including age, gender and major life stressors. Overall, this thesis provides evidence for the first time that perceived self-in-group prototypicality contributes to predicting whether a social group may be beneficial to an individual’s psychological well-being. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings of this thesis are then discussed in relation to the social factors in the biopsychosocial model of psychological well-being. PROTOTYPICALITY & PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION............................................................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................ 1 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 1 Aims and Objectives of the Thesis .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................ 6 Psychological Well-being .............................................................................................. 6 Chapter Overview ........................................................................................................................... 6 Defining Psychological Well-being .................................................................................................. 7 What Causes Psychological Well-being?................................................................................... 10 Biological factors in Psychological Well-being .............................................................................. 12 Psychological factors in Psychological Well-being ........................................................................ 13 Social factors in Psychological Well-being .................................................................................... 15 Measuring Psychological Well-being ............................................................................................ 17 Application of the biopsychosocial model to the treatment of psychopathology ........................ 21 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 3 .............................................................................................................. 25 Social component to psychological well-being ............................................................ 25 Chapter Overview ......................................................................................................................... 25 Defining Social Factors .................................................................................................................. 26 Social factors and psychological wellbeing at different levels of analysis .................................... 29 Interpersonal level processes in psychological well-being ........................................................... 29 Mere Presence of Others .......................................................................................................... 29 Social Stressors ......................................................................................................................... 31 Social Support ........................................................................................................................... 35 Societal level processes in psychological well-being ..................................................................... 37 Social group processes in psychological well-being ...................................................................... 41 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 4 .............................................................................................................. 45 Social Model to explain Social Processes in Psychological Well-being .......................... 45 Chapter Overview ......................................................................................................................... 45 The social psychological analysis of groups .................................................................................. 46 Key tenants of the social identity approach .................................................................................. 47 Content of social categories ..................................................................................................... 49 Self-categorisation .................................................................................................................... 51 Social Identification and Psychological Well-being ....................................................................... 54 Measuring Social Identification ................................................................................................ 59 Prototypicality ............................................................................................................................... 60 Measuring Prototypicality ........................................................................................................ 62 Prototypicality and Psychological Well-being ........................................................................... 66 The Relationship between Social identification and Prototypicality ........................................ 69 PROTOTYPICALITY & PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
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