Topic The role of identity resilience in psychological wellbeing – Professor Rusi Jaspal
Date Tuesday 25 January 2022
Time 16:00 – 17:30
Location Online (please arrive in the online platform 5 minutes prior)
The Resilience Forum is for ANYBODY (with a pulse!) involved with or interested in resilience research
Session Summary
Identity process theory is a social psychological theory of how people construct and manage their identity as well as how they cope when their sense of identity is challenged. Identity resilience is conceptualized in Identity Process Theory as a relatively stable self-schema, akin to a trait. Identity resilience is said to be high when individuals perceive their identity to be characterized by a high overall combined rating of their self-efficacy, self-esteem, continuity and positive distinctiveness. It is thus conceptually different from the psychological construct of resilience. People reporting higher identity resilience respond more favorably to, and cope more effectively with, events and situations that question or threaten their identity. The aims of this Forum are: (1) to describe the concept of identity resilience and its association with psychological wellbeing and coping strategies, (2) to show how identity resilience can be measured in empirical research into psychological wellbeing and coping, (3) to outline two empirical studies using identity resilience which focused on gay men’s coming out experiences and the psychological impact of COVID-19 risk in a general population sample, and (4) to discuss how feelings of identity resilience can be promoted in distinct populations.
Presenter
Professor Rusi Jaspal
Rusi Jaspal is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom. He is a Chartered Psychologist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Professor Jaspal’s research cuts across the fields of psychology and public health, focussing particularly on social psychological approaches to promoting good psychological and physical health outcomes. Additionally, he has conducted extensive research into aspects of psychological wellbeing among gay men, the management of identities in conflict, national identity, prejudice and discrimination, public understanding of science, technology and medicine and, more recently, the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rusi Jaspal is the author or editor of six books, the most recent of which is HIV and Gay Men: Clinical, Social and Psychological Aspects (Palgrave, 2020), and has written over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Who might be most interested
All welcome – the Forum will designed to be accessible to a wide range of communities including academics, practitioners, researchers, students, carers, community workers, service users, people with lived experience of mental health problems, adults.
Useful links
Breakwell, G. M., Fino, E., & Jaspal, R. (2021). The Identity Resilience Index: Development and validation in two UK samples. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2021.1957895 (OPEN ACCESS)
Breakwell, G. M., & Jaspal, R. (2021). Coming out, distress and identity threat in gay men in the United Kingdom. Sexuality Research & Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00608-4 (OPEN ACCESS)
Jaspal, R. (2021). Coronavirus and mental health: Risks, protective factors and care. UoN Blogs/ Making Science Public, 2 July 2021. https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2021/07/02/coronavirus-and-mental-health-risks-protective-factors-and-care/ (OPEN ACCESS)
Blog: The British Psychological Society adopts our Boingboing definition of resilience
Access Information
The forum will be held online on Microsoft Teams. Please arrive in the online platform 5 minutes prior. An email with instructions will be sent out the day before the event. We have chosen this platform as it appears to be more secure and transparent in its data practices than many others. Please see our privacy statement for more information about Microsoft Teams terms and conditions.
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The Resilience Forum is for ANYBODY (with a pulse!) involved with or interested in resilience research
Previous Resilience Forums
You can find information about our previous Resilience Forums in Brighton, Blackpool, Hastings and online here. Many of our previous Resilience Forums and Centre meetings have slides you can download, blogs you can read, or short films you can watch.
