This thesis examines how Palestinian ethnicity is negotiated and embodied in different contexts by young people with Palestinian background in Sweden. It is based on semi-structured interviews and uses Social Identity and Self Categorization theory. A main result is that the Palestinian ethnicity of the respondents play an essential role for their identity building, regardless of context. While being “Palestinian” is fore-fronted by all the interviewees as central to their identities, they ascribe somewhat different meanings to the concept of Palestinian-ness - what actually makes them “feel Palestinian” or can claim a Palestinian identity. Further, the interviewees’ perception of how Palestinian-ness is generally regarded in different contexts matter. Lastly, their notion of Palestinian ethnicity is strongly connected to the Palestinian territory and the historical-political situation and conflict with Israel. Together, these themes show the complexity of identity and ethnicity, however, the interviewees relation to their Palestinian background is solid.

The majority of information related to the postprison experiences of exonerated individuals is frequently found in reports by journalists, or based on the findings of scholars on systematic factors that contribute to wrongful incarcerations. There is a lack of social science research on the unexplored meanings and essence of the postprison lived experiences of exonerees exclusively from their perspectives. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the postprison lived experiences of exonerated individuals, 1 year or longer after their prison release. The conceptual framework was guided by Tajfel's social identity theory and Becker's social reaction theory. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 8 exonerated males who were released from prison 1 year or longer. The data were analyzed using van Kaam's 7-step phenomenological analysis process as modified by Moustakas. The 7 themes that emerged from the data were employment and financial challenges, negative societal reaction, broken family relationships, unresolved emotional and psychological factors, self-imposed social isolation, role of family support, and resilience. Understanding the experiences of exonerees contribute to positive social change by providing knowledge to policymakers and others in the criminal justice system to assist in creating policies to expunge the records of exonerees without the necessity of litigation. Findings from this study also provide valuable insights on the need to offer monetary compensation and social services assistance to exonerees in all U.S. states to help in their reintegration experiences as they transition into their communities.

The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons for the decline of young adult church attendance after an affiliation with church during childhood. Religion plays an important role in the lives of African Americans as a coping mechanism for loss, adversity, racism, and trauma. In addition, spiritual exploration is a component of psychological development during maturation. Using the social identity theory, the study explored the impact of childhood church affiliation and coping styles of young adults. African American Youth between 18 and 30 years old were randomly selected to complete a combination of questions from the Lasting Faith Scale, Private Religious Practices questions, Brief Religious/Spiritual Coping, and Organizational Religiousness scales (n = 103) via Survey Monkey to (a) assess variables which contributed to their decision on whether or not to continue participating in organized fellowship and (b) examine the relationship between the childhood affiliation and their adult coping styles. The design for the study was quantitative and comprised of correlational measurements using Spearman's Rho. Among young adults who attended church as children, there was a significant positive relationship between church attendance and positive spiritual coping. This study will increase church leaders' understanding of this congregation's needs. It will provide a framework for program development that addresses the needs of young adults as related to coping styles. The implication for social change is a greater understanding from church leaders and young adults of what is beneficial for the spiritual development of children and how it is related to identity and coping factors later in life.

This study was conducted to identify what principles leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were teaching women about their gender roles and expectations from 2000 through 2007, and to investigate whether age, marital status, or media exposure correlated with women's perceptions of levels of importance of those concepts to both their leaders and to themselves personally. This study used deductive and inductive framing analyses to examine visiting teaching messages and General Conference Relief Society talks published in the Ensign, the official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study built on those results to create a survey conducted with LDS women living in Cache Valley, Utah, in 2008. Survey results provided insight into levels of importance LDS women living in Cache Valley assigned to doctrinal and cultural concepts surrounding the "ideal Mormon woman." The doctrine reflected an overwhelming emphasis on both inner spiritual characteristics and religiously motivated actions. Lack of correlation between exposure to either visiting teaching messages or General Conference talks and what the women said Church leaders thought was important indicated some disconnect between what was being taught and what the LDS women reported. Although leaders' priorities were revealed by the frequency with which they taught individual components of the doctrine, the women did not recognize those priorities. Instead, they perceived that nearly everything was very important or important to their leaders. The women also indicated that although religiously motivated actions were very important, inner spiritual characteristics were even more important to them personally. Although the women reported inner spiritual characteristics as more important, they were also taking on responsibilities for those behaviors that may be more visible and easily compared to others. Exposure to General Conference talks correlated highly with how important survey items were to the women personally, which may indicate a channel of communication that is working for Church leaders. Statistically significant correlations in women's perceptions about what their leaders think and what they think personally were also found according to age and marital status, but there are not consistent trends that can be easily summarized.

Background and aim: The consumption of illicit drugs remains stable among youths in Sweden, yet an increase in consumption has been observed in affluent areas. This study aims to explore the reasons for illicit drug use in these areas and if this could be further understood using Social Identity Theory. Methods: Twenty participants from four high schools in an affluent municipality participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews regarding substance use. The interviews were coded using thematic analysis and six themes emerged.  Results: Social influence was the prominent influence for illicit drug use. Furthermore, this use was normalized and availability was high. The influence of family norms and outspoken negative effects of drugs caused a decrease in consumption. Conclusion: These results are in accordance with previous research claiming social influence on illicit drug use, and further confirms this in an affluent area. Social Identity Theory (i.e. how informants categorize, identify and compare themselves with their social group) had an impact on consumption.

The purpose of this essay is to, with help of content analysis, analyze three posts on the website Chabad.org to regarding how married orthodox Jewish women within the group Chabad express their choice of wearing a sheitel. The analysis is based on social identity theory as well as identity process theory. Chabad is a jewish orthodox group who follow the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy and are known to follow the progress of technology to spread God’s word. The result of the essay is that married women within the group express different opinions about wearing the sheitel, but both seem to wear them because of the ingroup norm. They way the women express themselves it seems from an identity process theory standpoint that their hair is as big of a part of their identity as their religion.

Interviews with impact investors have been conducted to gain a clearer understanding of how socially sustainable investments are made taking into account the identity and gender views of impact investors. The gender lens applied to the study aimed to investigate how gender has been taken into account during company audits and before investment decisions by the impact investors. Furthermore, social identity theory has formed the basis for the deductive study that has been carried out. It has been used to study the impact investors' self-image and how they acted in their professional role in order to gain a deeper understanding of the origin of the impact investors' actions in relation to their identity. These actions have been thematised and examined in terms of criteria, actions, challenges and measures. The recurring factor that most influenced both the company assessment and investment decisions was the dual goals of impact investors, financial return and impact. The clearest contribution the study made was that there is a clearer link between impact investors' self-image and their profession compared to other professionals. How this affects impact investors' actions could not be discerned. Furthermore, the study also found that gender is not taken into account during company audits and investment decisions to the extent that previous research has shown. Risk understanding, potentially increased returns and social sustainability are possible outcomes that gender lens investments contribute to. The study's findings suggest that impact investors were aware of this, yet few of the study's respondents were willing to consider gender when making investment decisions. / Intervjuer med impact-investerare har genomförts för att skapa en tydligare förståelse för hur socialt hållbara investeringar sker med hänsyn till impact-investerarnas identitet och syn på genus. Den genuslins som applicerats på studien avsåg att undersöka hur genus har beaktats under företagsbesiktningar och inför investeringsbeslut av impact-investerarna. Vidare har social identitetsteori legat till grund för den deduktiva studie som gjorts. Den har nyttjats för att studera impact-investerarnas självbild och hur de agerade i sin yrkesroll för att få en djupare förståelse för härkomsten av impact-investerarens aktioner i relation till sin identitet. Dessa aktioner har tematiserats och undersökts utifrån kriterier, handlingar, effekter och åtgärder. Den återkommande faktorn som påverkade både företagsbesiktningen och investeringsbesluten i störst utsträckning var de dubbla målen impact-investerare arbetar mot, finansiell avkastning och impact. Det tydligaste bidraget studien medförde var att det fanns en tydlig koppling mellan impact- investerarnas självbild och förhållandet till deras yrkesgrupp och kultur. Hur det påverkar impact-investerarnas aktioner kunde inte urskiljas. Fortsättningsvis fann studien även att genus inte tas i beaktning under företagsbesiktningar och inför investeringsbeslut i den utsträckning som tidigare forskning visat. Riskförståelse, potentiellt ökad avkastning samt social hållbarhet är möjliga utfall som genuslinsinvesteringar bidrar till. Studiens resultat tyder på att impact-investerarna var medvetna om detta. Trots det var få av studiens respondenter villiga att beakta genus inför investeringsbeslut.

This dissertation examined the relationship between language diversity and the implementation of on-the-job training programs. Using India as the empirical context, I conducted a multi-case study research, which involved semi-structured interviews and direct observations in the headquarters of two Indian multinational enterprises. Drawing from social identity theory, I first examined the factors that influence the emergence and transformation of two types of language -based clusters, coping clusters and clusters of convenience. The two types of clusters display distinct mechanisms related to arousal, ingroup favoritism and outgroup bias, which questions one of the key assumptions of social identity theory related to the role of affect. Additionally, I found that language diversity can create cognitive discomfort for training recipients, and emotional anxiety for both training facilitators and recipients. However, training recipients, training facilitators, and the executive management, (i.e., the firm) can utilize certain language accommodation approaches that can reduce the emotional and cognitive discomfort experienced by employees. Using communication accommodation theory, I discuss that the influence of each language accommodation approach depends on its source and time of implementation. As well, language -based clusters can facilitate the exchange of interpersonal information during on-the-job training programs. The emergent findings also suggest that linguistic identity seldom operates in isolation. It often intersects with other dimensions of social identity, specifically, the status differentials attached to gender, education and regional dialects. The findings have implications for research on language diversity and language management in international business, social identity theory and communication accommodation theory. / Graduate / 2022-08-22

The South African Constitution provides a comprehensive list of rights, many of which are important, directly or indirectly, to meet the needs of religious minorities in the country. However, due to South Africa being a secular state and also having particular needs, many workplaces tend to adopt this approach which leads to a conflict between Muslims' religious obligations and the rules of the workplace. As a result, Muslim employees may perceive that their employers are religiously discriminating against them. Muslim women may face more discrimination than Muslim men as their stigma is less concealable due to their modest dressing and the hijab (religious identity marker). Surprisingly, there has been an increase in cases of religious discrimination against Muslim women. To elucidate, these Muslim women employees were asked to remove their hijab on their job as it somewhat violated the company policies. Therefore, presenting a challenge for Muslim women as their religious identity is part of their self-concept and they are required to follow their religious obligations. Informed by theories such as Social Identity Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory, the present study utilised a cross-sectional design to examine the role of Muslim identity in perceived religious discrimination in the workplace. To gain insight about the hijab in various contexts, the current study also examined the comfortability of wearing the hijab in different contexts. The participants were 75 Muslim women living and working in organisations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The findings of this research indicate that the dimensions of Muslim identity are not significant predictors of perceived religious discrimination; however, psychological identity can lead Muslim women to perceive less or no discrimination. Furthermore, the ANOVA showed that Muslim women did not feel significantly more comfortable wearing the hijab in certain contexts. This study offered implications for both research and practice and made significant recommendations for future research.

Using social contact and social identity theories, I seek to show how attitudes of mainstream American society toward individuals of Middle-Eastern descent (Arabs) have changed eight years after September 11, 2001 when compared to similar data from shortly after the terrorist attacks. I use data gathered from nationally representative opinion polls and the theoretical constructs of social contact theory and social identity theory to understand how attitudes have changed in the eight-year period. I first provide a firm grounding in the social contact and social identity literature, analyze the race/attitudinal data, and finally show how both social identity and social contact theories are useful when looking at attitudes toward Arabs post September 11, 2001. Initially, I expect that an inverse reaction to social contact will be observed leading to negative attitudes. At the same time, I expect that shared social identity will increase over time and positively affect attitudes toward Arabs. The results suggest that greater contact does not necessarily lead to positive attitudes about an out-group (in this case the Arab minority). In addition, the results show social identity's ability to affect attitudes decreases over time. I conclude that the ability to change attitudes is dependent on an individual developing greater understanding and knowledge of the out-group thereby expanding social identity. I argue that this is a useful method to decrease out-group prejudice. I conclude the two theories are useful as they both can inform public policy campaigns and public perception.