0000000000189330
AUTHOR
Marina Herrera
showing 16 related works from this author
Association Between Group Identification at School and Positive Youth Development: Moderating Role of Rural and Urban Contexts.
2020
These studies are framed within Social Identity Theory and the Positive Youth Development approach. The aim is: (1) to analyze the relationship between group identification at school and key positive development variables (such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, assertiveness, empathy, alexithymia, satisfaction with life, and academic performance); and (2) examine the moderator role of context (rural or urban areas of residence) and sex in these relationships. The samples were composed of 246 adolescents from a rural context (Study 1) and 156 students from rural and urban contexts (Study 2). As proposed in our hypotheses, the results show statistically significant relationships between group id…
Perceived collective continuity and ingroup identification as defence against death awareness
2008
"Perhaps unique among the animal species, humans are aware that they will ultimately die. Terror management theory (TMT) posits that investing in a social group helps people to manage paralysing anxiety stemming from death awareness. In line with this proposition, research to date has shown that when reminded of their own mortality, people increase their identification with a relevant group and defend its beliefs, values, and practices. In the reported study, we demonstrate that a mortality salience induction enhances people’s perceptions of group temporal endurance—or perceived collective continuity (PCC), as we define it. Enhanced PCC leads, in turn, to enhanced group identification. This…
Child maltreatment is linked to difficulties in identifying with social groups as a young adult.
2019
Subjective feelings of disconnectedness from social groups have been found to be detrimental to mental health. However, little is known about the factors determining people's ability to attach to groups. We contend that child maltreatment will impair people's ability to group identification across the lifespan, and present a cross-sectional study involving 396 young adults from Spain, aimed at testing this hypothesis. Results reveal that, as expected, a greater degree of maltreatment received before the age of 14 is linked to a lower number of social groups one identifies with, even after controlling for current levels of depression, anxiety, and borderline personality. Statement of contrib…
Contesting Category Salience: A study of the perceptions of the sides involved in the Persian Gulf War
2001
AbstractPrevious studies of political rhetoric in general, and the rhetoric surrounding the Gulf war in particular, have suggested that social categories are not defined by perceptual features of context, but rather rhetorically constructed and contested for the purposes of mass mobilisation. Thus western leaders portrayed the conflict as ‘Civilisation against Saddam Hussein’ in order to maximise the pro-war constituency, while leaders of the western anti-war movements portrayed it in terms of ‘Western leaders against ordinary (Iraqi) people’ in order to minimise the pro-war constituency. However these studies focus exclusively on leaders and fail to show whether ordinary people differ in t…
Perceived collective continuity: seeing groups as entities that move through time
2007
This paper presents two studies, conducted in two different countries, investigating perceptions of ingroups as enduring, temporally persistent entities, and introduces a new instrument measuring ‘perceived collective continuity’ (PCC). In Study 1 we show that perceptions of ingroup continuity are based on two main dimensions: perceived cultural continuity (perceived continuity of norms and traditions) and perceived historical continuity (perceived interconnection between different historical ages and events). This study also allows the construction of an internally consistent PCC scale including two subscales tapping on these two dimensions. Study 2 replicates findings from the first study…
Perceived collective continuity and social well-being: exploring the connections
2008
Research has shown that people tend to perceive the groups to which they belong (e.g., national groups) as temporally persistent. In this paper we argue that enhanced perceptions of collective continuity lead to lower levels of anomy and misfit, and to higher levels of social well-being (SWB). Furthermore, we argue that the effects of perceived collective continuity (PCC) on SWB are mediated by collective self-esteem (CSE). Finally, we contend that PCC has positive effects on perceived group entitativity (PGE), which in turn has a positive influence on CSE. This model is tested by means of a cross-sectional study using a sample of Spanish nationals (N = 145) drawn from the general public. R…
Positive Adolescent Development: Effects of a Psychosocial Intervention Program in a Rural Setting
2020
The Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach identifies adolescents as resources to be empowered rather than problems to be solved. All adolescents have strengths and will fully develop when these strengths are integrated with healthy resources in the diverse environments where they live and interact. The objective of this study was twofold: (1) to present the Positive Development Program for Adolescents living in rural areas (DPAR Program) and (2) to pilot test the intervention program. The DPAR program was evaluated using a repeated-measures design before and after the intervention, with an intervention group and a control group. The sample consisted of 176 adolescents between 11 and 15 …
Percepción de continuidad e identificación grupal: implicaciones para el bienestar social
2010
ResumenLa investigacion sobre los grupos en general y sobre la percepcion grupal en particular ha tendido a analizar los grupos como entidades a-temporales, sin tener en cuenta su continuidad. En este trabajo se presentan tres estudios en los que se demuestra la relevancia de un nuevo constructor la ‘percepcion de continuidad colectiva’ (PCC), y su relacion con la identificacion grupal y el bienestar social. El primer estudio muestra que la PCC correlaciona positivamente con la percepcion de entitatividad grupal y con diversas medidas relacionadas con la identidad social, como la autoestima colectiva y la identificacion grupal. El segundo estudio revela que la percepcion de continuidad cole…
¿Afectan los cambios en el contexto intergrupal a la percepción de los medios de comunicación? Un estudio longitudinal antes y después de las Eleccio…
2009
ResumenSe analiza el efecto de la fuerza de la identidad y de los cambios en el contexto intergrupal sobre la percepcion de los medios de comunicacion durante las elecciones generales de 2004. Ciento veinte sujetos identificados con uno de los dos principales partidos politicos formaron parte del estudio, el cual se realizo en dos fases (antes y despues de las elecciones). La percepcion de sesgos y de influencia de los medios de comunicacion se analizo en ambas fases, y el impacto percibido de la informacion en relacion con el atentado del 11-M en la segunda. Los resultados muestran diferencias en la percepcion de los media en las dos fases, sobre todo entre los sujetos con una alta identif…
Comparing social contact and group identification as predictors of mental health
2012
Current research on social integration and mental health operationalizes social integration as frequency of interactions and participation in social activities (i.e., social contact). This neglects the subjective dimension of social integration, namely group identification. We present two studies comparing the effect exerted by social contact and group identification on mental health (e.g., depression, stress) across two different groups (family; army unit), demonstrating that group identification predicts mental health better than social contact.
Why Does Ingroup Identification Shield People from Death Anxiety?
2013
Research to date guided by terror management theory has demonstrated that mortality salience increases ingroup identification. However, the process that leads from death reminders to group investment has remained underinvestigated. We tested a model in which mortality salience increased the perceived continuity of the group while at the same time strengthening the perception of group entitativity. In turn, higher perceived group entitativity led to enhanced ingroup identification. Three-path mediation analysis showed that mortality salience transmitted its effects onto ingroup identification indirectly, progressing first through perceived collective continuity and then through ingroup enti…
Making sides and taking sides: an analysis of salient images and category constructions for pro- and anti-Gulf War respondents
1998
This paper reports supportive evidence for a modified self-categorisation model of mass social influence, whereby category definitions are determined rhetorically and the character of collective action is shaped through category arguments. The study was conducted shortly after the Gulf War and was concerned with the respective constructions of pro- and anti-war respondents. Respondents were first asked to recall the images of the war which had most impact on them. They were then shown 29 images of the war and asked to rate the impact of each one as well as explain why they had given such impact ratings. Finally, they were asked to select the five images which had most impact on them. The re…
Greater family identification-but not greater contact with family members-leads to better health: Evidence from a Spanish longitudinal study
2015
We investigated the effect of family identification (one's subjective sense of belonging to and commonality with the family) on self-reported ill-health in 206 Valencian undergraduates, with eight months between T1 and T2. While greater family identification T1 predicted lower ill-health T2, ill-health T1 did not predict family identification T2. family contact T1 (one’s intensity of interaction with family) was unrelated to ill-health T2. This shows that family identification impacts positively on health over time (rather than health impacting positively on family identification over time), and this is not reducible to effects exerted by family contact. These findings indicate that encoura…
Perceived family continuity: Implications for family identification and psychological well-being
2011
AbstractResearch has shown that people tend to perceive the national and regional groups to which they belong as temporally persistent. In this paper we conducted two studies to investigate that the family may also be perceived as having different degrees of continuity through time, and that those perceptions have implications on family identity and psychological well-being. In the first study (N = 149; with a mean age of 23, SD = 5.7), we found that perceived family continuity was positively correlated with several family related variables (e.g., family functioning, perceived family entitativity) and with psychological well-being. Our second study (N = 152; with a mean age of 40.80, SD = 1…
Greater university identification - but not greater contact - leads to more life satisfaction: evidence from a Spanish longitudinal study
2018
Background: A growing body of literature has highlighted the relationship between group identification (a subjective sense of belonging to one’s social group, coupled with a subjective sense of commonality with the group’s members) and wellbeing. However, little of this work is longitudinal, and few studies address reciprocal causality or control for intensity of contact with fellow group members.\ud \ud Method: We investigated the effect of university identification on satisfaction with life (SWL) over time (and vice versa) in 216 Spanish undergraduates, with seven months between T1 and T2. \ud Results: While greater university identification T1 predicted higher SWL T2, SWL T1 did not pred…
Environmentalism and Political Participation: Toward a New System of Social Beliefs and Values?
1992
This study examines the social beliefs and values of the Spanish population with regard to environmentalism. A questionnaire on environmental beliefs was produced and administered to two sample groups. The first group, to be called “activists” (comprising 86 subjects), is characterized by belonging to one or other environmental organization. The other, termed “nonactivists” (comprising 410 subjects), is composed of people not belonging to any environmentalist organization. We conclude that, as in other Western countries, environmentalism has moved from being a set of beliefs held by a small group of people to becoming a central element in the system of beliefs characterizing our society. In…