Disorder Identity: Opportunity or Obstacle?
Date
2016
Authors
Webb, Hugh Alistair Campbell
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Abstract
This thesis develops a social psychological analysis of
Hacking’s (1999) “looping kinds”
account of psychopathology. Informed by Social Identity Theory
(SIT, Tajfel & Turner,
1979) and Self Categorization Theory (SCT, Turner et al., 1987),
a Disorder Identity
Analysis is proposed, according to which the symptoms of
psychopathology are partly shaped
by the interaction between expert clinical categorisation schemes
and first person Disorder
Identities, represented as self-categories and shared by fellow
individuals who experience
disorder. A set of theoretically informed predictions are then
derived for empirically
scrutinising Hacking’s “looping kinds” account and to help
explain apparent coherence,
stability and change observed in psychopathology. Results from
five experimental studies
are then reported, demonstrating support for one of the
predictions derived from the Disorder
Identity analysis: that identifying with fellow disorder
sufferers could either enable or be a
barrier to clinical change, depending on the group’s normative
understanding about the
malleability of the condition. These findings suggest that the
proposed Disorder Identity
Analysis shows promise as a means of specifying, and empirically
operationalising,
Hacking’s “looping kind” arguments.
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Keywords
Disorder Identity, Social Identity Theory, Self Categorisation Theory, Looping Kinds, Psychopathology, Homeostatic Property Cluster, Social Identity
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Thesis (PhD)
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