Kristen Marcussen Richard Serpe Kent State University
This research will help to clarify the relationship between social roles and psychological distress. The study extends identity-discrepancy theory, which differentially predicts depression and anxiety as a result of discrepancies between how individuals believe they are viewed by others (self-relevant perceptions), how they desire to be in a given identity (aspirations) and how they feel they should be with respect to a given identity (obligations). The investigators hypothesize that discrepancies between self-relevant perceptions and aspirations will be associated with depression, whereas discrepancies between self-relevant perceptions and obligations will be associated with anxiety. Using a nationally representative sample of 1000 adults, this research refines and tests measures of identity that better differentiate aspirations and obligations attached to identities, examines the relationship between aspirations, obligations and well-being within the context of five distinct identities, and broadens the scope of identity-discrepancy theory by examining the extent to which self-esteem influences the relationship between identity discrepancies and psychological well-being.
Broader Impacts
This research has the potential to help scholars better understand the causes and consequences of stress on mental health outcomes. The results may help increase our knowledge of how mental health problems result from the successful or unsuccessful enactment of social roles in everyday life. In doing so, the findings will broaden our theoretical understanding of the relationship between stress and psychological well-being, and may also have implications for clinical research and practice in mental health populations. Finally, the study will provide opportunities for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Students will be involved in each phase of the project, gaining valuable research experience.
Our research examines the relationship between social roles and psychological distress. Identity theorists argue that the ability to verify one’s identity, or confirm one’s self-views, is directly related to their psychological health. We combine aspects of two sociological and psychological theories into an integrated model of identity (identity-discrepancy theory) to examine this assertion. We ague that our new model advances identity theories of mental health by differentially predicting depression and anxiety as a result of discrepancies between self-relevant perceptions (how individuals believe they are viewed by others) and identity specific aspirations (how they desire to be in a given identity) and obligations (how they feel the should be in a given identity). Specifically, we expect that individuals who experience a discrepancy between their self-relevant perceptions and their aspirations will experience depressive symptoms, and individuals who experience discrepancies between self-relevant perceptions and obligations will experience anxiety symptoms. Predicting specific mental health outcomes is a goal of stress research, and also advances identity theories of mental health. To test our ideas, we collected a national sample of approximately 1400 adults. Respondents were chosen randomly via a Computerized Assisted Telephone Interview system. Respondents were asked to report on their aspirations and obligations about two identities. The four identities studied in this project were: parent, employee, spouse/partner, and friend. To examine the self more broadly, we also included a "person" role, which asked individuals to respond to how they wanted to be and felt obligated to be more generally as a person. For each identity, respondents were asked to say how they felt they (1) wanted to be, (2) should be and, (3) thought others evaluated them to be on various dimensions of each identity (e.g., loyal, efficient, ambitious). Discrepancies were the calculated by comparing their aspirations and their obligations within each identity to how they felt they were viewed by others. If they felt others evaluated them as more or less favorably than they wanted/felt obligated to be, this constituted a discrepancy. According to the theory any difference between one’s aspirations/obligations and self- perceptions, whether it is favorable or unfavorable for the respondent, negatively impacts mental health because it is not consistent with one’s self-view. Our initial findings show that aspiration and obligation discrepancies do influence mental health in different ways. Aspiration discrepancies, as predicted by the theory, increase the likelihood of depressive symptoms more so than anxiety. This pattern holds across all identities. Obligation discrepancies, however, do not operate as the theory predicts. Instead, obligation discrepancies follow principles of self-enhancement rather than self-consistency. In other words, discrepancies that indicated the respondent was perceived in a more positive light as they feel they should be do not lead to mental health problems. A discrepancy that indicates the respondent perceives others see them as underperforming in terms of obligations does predict poor mental health outcomes for the employee, friend and parent identity. This pattern was true with respect to depression but not anxiety; also inconsistent with our expectations. The finding that some aspects of one’s identity (aspirations) require verification or consistent feedback to maintain mental health and other aspects of one’s identity requires enhancement, or positive feedback to maintain mental health marks an advance in theories of identity and mental health. We also find that, while failure to verify one’s identity negatively impacts self-esteem, the influence of discrepancy on mental health remains even after taking into account this effect. By integrating identity theory and self-discrepancy theory we have provided a theory meets three goals. First, it draws on the strengths of psychological research predicting specific forms of distress. Examining multiple outcomes is increasingly desirable in sociological studies of mental health. Depression and anxiety differ in terms of their expression, social consequences, and clinical treatment. Second, by incorporating aspects of sociological models of distress, our theory emphasizes the link between social structure (via our everyday social roles) and psychological conditions, which may increase our understanding of the social distribution of mental health problems. Third, we also incorporated self-esteem into our research, which can serve as a vehicle for linking two extensive bodies of social psychological research that each contribute greatly to the sociology of mental health. To the extent that identity theories can advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of stress on mental health outcomes, this research has the potential to contribute to the discipline more broadly, and may have implications for clinical research and practice in mental health populations. Finally, our study provided opportunities to train undergraduate students (who were involved in the data collection process as interviewers and supervisors in the SRC) and graduate students (who assisted in each phase of the project). Findings for the project will result in papers submitted for publication to a broad academic audience, and presentations at national conferences.
