Research suggests that people define themselves, at least in part, in terms of their group memberships and that their psychology often depends on the state of the groups that defines the self (Haslam, Jetten, Postmes, & Haslam, 2009). Historically, the number of social groups in which people are active or with which they identity is seen as social capital and as leading to better mental health (e.g. identity-complexity, or social complexity, Linville, 1987). As such, social and clinical psychologists generally advocate and perpetuate the idea that multiple group membership and complex patterns of identification is psychologically beneficial to individuals. However, is identity-complexity straightforwardly positive for everyone? The current study examined how issues of identity-complexity are associated with psychological well-being in a young population (16-25). We hypothesised that identity-complexity might not be straightforwardly positive when multiple identities conflict with one another or when particular groups are stigmatised. The sample was made up of 464 young persons from a variety of social, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds in schools, colleges, and universities. As hypothesised, participants who reported multiple identity conflicts and stigma were found to have less resilience and life satisfaction, and more depression and anxiety. Notably, findings also revealed that while it was psychologically advantageous for White participants to belong to multiple groups, the reverse was found for Black participants. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed. Results provide further insight on the relationship between multiple group membership and well-being.

SAMMANFATTNING Titel: Revisorns identifikation med klienten respektive professionen – Hur påverkas valet av förhandlingsstrategi? Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Jannicke Berghold och Vanessa Do Pilar Lemos Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2016 - Januari Syfte: Revisorers val av förhandlingsstrategi vid meningsskiljaktigheter med klienten angående rapporteringsmål, har visat sig få betydande konsekvenser på de slutliga reviderade rapporterna. Då intressenter till de reviderade företagen till stor del baserar sina investeringsbeslut på dessa rapporter är det av stor vikt att revisorn inte påverkas av den enskilda klienten vid förhandling. Social Identity Theory menar att individer identifierar sig med flertalet sociala grupper, vilka ibland besitter avsevärt skilda intressen och värderingar. Forskare menar att individen är mer eller mindre benägen att följa dessa beroende på hur stark denna identifikation är. Vidare föreslår ny forskning på området att individens beslutsfattande framförallt är beroende av vilken av dessa identiteter som är framträdande i individens sinne vid beslutsögonblicket. Vi ämnar med denna studie undersöka hur revisorns identifikation med klienten påverkar hur denne beter sig vid en förhandling med klienten, samt huruvida denna effekt förändras när professionsidentiteten är framträdande. Metod: Denna studie har genomförts genom att primärdata samlats in via en experimentell enkätundersökning. Urvalspopulationen bestod av 3600 auktoriserade och godkända revisorer i Sverige. Svarsdata har samlats in med hjälp av enkätprogrammet SUNET-survey, för att sedan sammanställas och analyseras i statistikprogrammet SPSS statistics. Resultat & slutsats: Studien visade att en stark klientidentifikation bidrog till att revisorn ansåg sig mer sannolik att använda sig av en förhandlingsstrategi som var inställsam mot klienten, gentemot när klientidentifikationen var svag. Vidare såg vi att när professionsidentiteten gjordes framträdande, så var respondenterna mindre benägen att använda sådana strategier. Vårt utfall visar att styrkan av klientidentifikation påverkar revisorns val av förhandlingsstrategi, dessutom verkar effekten av en framträdande professionsidentitet också influera revisorns val. 3 Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då det stora bortfallet i vår studie kan ha bidragit till ett missvisande resultat, så föreslår vi att framtida forskare utför en studie i likhet med denna under mer kontrollerade former. Detta för att försäkra sig om en högre svarsfrekvens och för att öka möjligheten att i större utsträckning kunna dra generaliserbara slutsatser. Ett förslag, då tidsaspekten inte utgör ett problem, vore att komplettera enkäten med ett alternativ som gör det möjligt för forskaren att mer djupgående få inblick i respondenternas svar. Uppsatsens bidrag: Vår förhoppning är att vår studie kommer att lämna ett värdefullt bidrag till förhandlingslitteraturen. Detta då vi antar en ny infallsvinkel på revisorns förhandling med klienten genom att studera huruvida valet av förhandlingsstrategi skiljer sig åt beroende på vilken av revisorns multipla sociala identiteter som är mest framträdande i beslutsögonblicket. / ABSTRACT  Title: The auditor's identification with the client and the profession - How does it effect the  choice of negotiating strategy?  Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Jannicke Berghold and Vanessa Do Pilar Lemos Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2016 – January Aim: The auditor´s choice of negotiating strategy in cases of disagreement with the client regarding the reporting objectives, has proven to have a significant impact on the final statements to be presented to the public. As stakeholders of these companies largely base their investment decisions on these reports, it is very important that the individual client doesn’t influence the auditor at negotiation. Social Identity Theory predicts that individuals identify with multiple amounts of social groups, which sometimes possess significantly different interests and values. Scientists believe that the individual is more or less prone to follow these groups depending on how strong this identification is. Furthermore, new research in the field suggest that individual decision-making above all depends on which of these identities that are salient in the individual's mind at the moment of decision. With this study we intend to examine how the auditor's identification with the client influences how she choses negotiating strategy, and whether the effect changes when professional identity is made salient. Method: This study was conducted by a collection of primary data through an experimental survey. Sample population comprised 3,600 authorized and certified auditors in Sweden. Response data has been collected using questionnaires program SUNET survey, then compiled and analyzed in SPSS Statistics. Result & Conclusions: The study showed that a strong clientidentification contributed to that the auditor was likely with the use of a negotiation strategy that is slimy to the client, when the identification towards the client was weak. Furthermore, we saw that when professional identity was made salient, so respondents were less inclined to use such strategies. Our results show that the strength of client identification affect the auditor's choice of negotiating strategy, additionally appears the effect of a prominent professional identity also influence the auditor's election 5 Suggestions for future research: Since the great shortfall in our study may have contributed to a misleading result, we suggest that future researchers conducting a study like this, would do so under more controlled conditions. This to ensure a higher response rate and to increase the possibility of generalized conclusions. One proposal, when the time aspect does not present a problem, would be to complete the questionnaire with an option that allows the researcher to get more in-depth insight into the respondents' answers. Contribution of the thesis: We hope that our study will make a valuable contribution to the negotiation literature. This by our adaptation of the new approach to the auditor's negotiation with the client by studying whether the choice of negotiating strategy differs depending on which of the auditor's multiple social identities that are most prominent in the moment of decision

Reading the Fourth Gospel, one is struck by the amount of talk about Jesus. Many of the reports in John describing such talk reflect the social process of gossip in concert with other processes and dynamics involved in constituting social personages in the ancient Mediterranean world. Although there have been a few general treatments of gossip in the New Testament, none have focused on the subject of the gossip in John’s gospel, Jesus, the generative cause of the emergence of gossip traditions. The aim of this research project is to explore how gossip is involved in constituting Jesus as a shamanic figure in the Fourth Gospel. Building on the research of Pieter F. Craffert, and thus beginning with understanding Jesus as a shamanic figure, a viable framework for identifying and explaining features and functions of gossip is constructed after considering sociolinguistic studies and a number of ethnographies of extant traditional cultures of the Mediterranean. The framework is then brought to bear on texts in the Fourth Gospel reporting or describing gossip, in order to see how gossip contributes to constituting Jesus as a shamanic figure. As a result, this research offers a significant contribution to New Testament studies as it 1) represents an exploration and appropriation of gossip that has scarcely been exploited in the field, 2) provides a viable theoretical framework for positioning gossip vis-à-vis other pivotal first-century Mediterranean social values and processes, 3) models a new way to see and understand John’s gospel, and 4) is suggestive of an alternative to the reigning paradigm of conventional historical Jesus research in that it involves linking literary features about oral phenomena in John to a historically plausible figure thoroughly embedded in his social, cultural, and historical world. / New Testament / D.Th. (New Testament)

Companies are increasingly drawing on their user communities to generate promising ideas for new products, which are then marketed as "user-designed" products to the broader consumer market. We demonstrate that nonparticipating, observing consumers prefer to buy from user-rather than designer-driven firms because of an enhanced identification with the firm that has adopted this user-driven philosophy. Three experimental studies validate a newly proposed social identification account underlying this effect. Because consumers are also users, their social identities connect to the user-designers, and they feel empowerment by vicariously being involved in the design process. This formed connection leads to preference for the firm's products. Importantly, this social identification account also effectively predicts when the effect does not materialize. First, we find that if consumers feel dissimilar to participating users, the effects are attenuated. We demonstrate that this happens when the community differs from consumers along important demographics (i.e., gender) or when consumers are nonexperts in the focal domain (i.e., they feel that they do not belong to the social group of participating users). Second, the effects are attenuated if the user-driven firm is only selectively rather than fully open to participation from all users (observing consumers do not feel socially included). These findings advance the emerging theory on user involvement and offer practical implications for firms interested in pursuing a user-driven philosophy. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1999. (authors' abstract)

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The purpose of this essay was to examine Islamic State’s (IS) self-image and perception of their enemies, and also what kind of propaganda technique that they use in their movies. To do so three questions were formulated: 1. According to Social Identity Theory the ingroup’s social identity is the same as the ingroup’s prototype. How is IS’s prototype portrayed, and thus their social identity, in the movies Flames of War and Clanging of the Swords IV? 2. According to Social Identity Theory a consequence of group membership is that the ingroup will associate outgroups with stereotypic images. What stereotypic images does IS’s associate outgroups with in the movies Flames of War and Clanging of the Swords IV? 3. According to Jacques Ellul propaganda can be categorized as either rational or irrational. So, based on his definition of propaganda, what kind of propaganda technique is used in Flames of War and Clanging of the Swords IV ? In this paper four segments were analyzed from two of IS’s movies: Flames of War and Clanging of the Swords IV. Two theories were used in this essay: Ellul’s theory on rational and irrational propaganda, and also Social Identity Theory. The first theory presents different techniques of argumentation that can be classified as either rational or irrational propaganda. The second theory describes the phenomenon known as prototype and stereotype. The most common propaganda technique used in the movies was that of social evidence, which is a rational strategy of propaganda. This means that the propaganda mainly uses symbols in its arguments, which in this case is the symbol of Allah. IS uses Allah, as well as their leader Al-Baghdadi, to justify their actions. Irrational propaganda is also used quite often. It can be seen in the way IS describes their own group and their enemies. IS always describes themselves with positive attributes and characteristics, while their enemies are described as their complete opposite. The purpose of this is to make the viewer automatically start to associate the ingroup (IS) as good and the outgroups (enemies) as evil. The prototype of IS is that they see themselves as the holy warriors of Allah executing His will on earth. The stereotypic image of IS’s enemies is that they are apostates and enemies of Allah. Their infidelity has provoked Allah, they’re sinners and thus IS considers it to be their duty to punish them.

Introduktion Tidigare forskning kan identifiera en tydlig revisorsstereotyp.Trots att revisorer i viss mån har arbetat för att motarbetastereotypen, kvarstår samma stereotyp idag som för 40 årsedan. Skiljer sig omgivningens stereotyp från hur revisornuppfattar sig själv, föreligger ett förväntningsgap. Brist påforskning kring hur revisorerna upplever stereotypen och hurde bemöter den, motiverar vår studie. Syfte Studien syftar till att utforska hur revisorer uppfattar denstereotypa bilden om revisorer samt hur och varför de arbetarför att påverka omgivningens föreställningar om revisorer. Metod Denna kvalitativa studie har genomförts genom tolvsemistrukturerade intervjuer. Samtliga respondenter ärrevisionsmedarbetare med olika befattningar och arbetar pånågon av de fyra världsledande revisionsbyråerna. Slutsatser Vi kommer fram till att revisorer uppfattar stereotypen omrevisorer som i huvudsak negativ och icke överensstämmandemed revisorns egen bild av sig själv. Vi har identifierat ett nyttförväntningsgap – skillnader i förväntningar om hur en revisorär. Revisorer arbetar aktivt för att motarbeta stereotypeneftersom det medför fördelar för dem i yrkeslivet. Trotsmotarbetandet kvarstår stereotypen och därmedförväntningsgapet. I viss mån sker dessutom ett omedvetetagerande som tyder på att stereotypen förstärks eller ignoreras. / Introduction Previous research identifies an evident auditor stereotype.Although auditors to some extent have attempted to change thestereotype, the stereotype as it appeared 40 years ago stillremains. Differences between the stereotype and the auditors’perceptions of themselves causes an expectation gap. The lackof research regarding how auditors perceive the stereotype aswell as how they treat it, motivates our study. Purpose The purpose is to examine how auditors perceive the stereotypeof auditors as well as how and why they are working to changethe surroundings perceptions of auditors. Method This qualitative study is based on twelve semi-structuredinterviews. All respondents are audit staff with differentpositions that work in one of the Big 4 accounting firms. Conclusions We conclude that auditors mainly perceive the stereotype ofauditors negative and not consistent with their own images ofthemselves. We have identified a new expectation gap –differences in expectations about the auditor’s traits. Auditorsare working actively to counter the stereotype as it entailsbenefits to them in their professional life. To some extent,auditors are also unconsciously acting in a way that suggeststhat the stereotype is reinforced or ignored.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine psychological processes that can contribute to religiously motivated violence from a psychology of religion perspective in relation to the collective meaning-system of the Christian militant anti-abortion movement the Army of God. The study applied a single-case design and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 3 prominent figures within Army of God, as well as through 43 qualitative documents and 4 autobiographical books. The collected data was analyzed through a deductive approach, implementing the concept of sanctification, social identity theory, selective moral disengagement, and the Staircase to Terrorism model. The results show that the collective meaning-system of the Army of God can be understood as a form of religious fundamentalism that acts as a frame that binds the members together, and from which social categorization and group identification can induce acts of violence. The results also demonstrate that abortion is perceived as a grave injustice and destruction of something sacred, and how it leads to a moral outrage and aggression by constituting a threat towards one’s social identity. This threat moves the individuals towards a ‘black-and-white’ and ‘the ends justify the means’ mentality. The act of violence is further prompted by a perceived duty from God and facilitated by a dehumanization of the perceived enemy. The findings of the study address the need of primary empirical data in the psychological research of violent extremism. Furthermore, it brings further knowledge regarding religiously motivated violence and leaderless resistance by taking into account the search for significance and sacred values. In contrast to previous research the current study also demonstrates that a leader or a well-structured group is not necessarily a key factor when explaining religiously motivated violence from a social psychological perspective. This can contribute to the theoretical understanding regarding social identity and a collective meaning-making in relation to violent extremism and lone-wolf terrorism.

Columnists and social media users commonly stated that terrorist attacks resonate differently in the world and they speculated on some potential reasons such as familiarity, number of victims, and the difference in expectations of a country to be a stage for a terrorist attack to explain this difference. An academic perspective, more specifically a sociological one, is needed to bring light to this debate. In this study, I aimed to understand the discourse after terrorist attacks and to find out if there is a difference between reactions to terrorist attack based on where they happened. This paper embraces a text mining approach to uncover what topics are discussed after four cases of terrorist attacks and to reveal if there is a discrepancy in reactions towards terrorist attacks based on the country they happened. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, the determinants of the public interest and support and how public interest differentiates between different cases of terror attacks is explored. In the second part, topic sentiment analysis is conducted to reveal the nature of the discourse on terrorism. Using the insights from social identity theory, realistic conflict theory and integrated threat theory, I argued that social group categorization in the context of terrorism takes place in a dichotomous manner as Western and Non-Western. This argument, social self-identities being based on ‘West vs. the Rest' mentality in the context of terrorism, is supported by the statistical evidence and the topic model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Shyness as a behavioral characteristic has been in focus of research in psychology for a number of decades. Adolescent shyness has, however, been relatively overlooked compared with studies conducted on children and adults. This dissertation concentrated on adolescent shyness, aiming to attain a better comprehension about how shyness during this developmental phase might affect, and be affected by social relationships. The first aim of this dissertation was to study in which way shyness influences and is influenced by significant people in adolescents’ lives: peers, friends, and parents. Study III showed that shy youths socialized each other over time into becoming even more shy. Study VI demonstrated that youths’ shyness affected parenting behaviors, more so than parent’s behaviors affected youth shyness. The second aim of this dissertation was to investigate what shyness means for adolescents’ choices of relationships with friends, whereas the third aim focused on whether adolescents’ ways of dealing with peers would have consequences for their internal and external adjustment. As Study I showed, youths might take on off-putting, startling appearances in order to cope with their shyness. This strategy seemed, nonetheless, not particularly successful for the shy youths in terms of emotional adjustment. Study III showed that adolescents who were shy tended to choose others similar to themselves in shyness as friends. Study II showed that shyness might indeed have some positive implications for adolescent development, as it was found to serve a protective role in the link between advanced maturity and various types of problem behaviors. Overall, the findings point to some gender differences regarding all of the abovementioned processes. In sum then, the studies in this dissertation show that even though youths’ shy, socially fearful characteristics affect their emotional adjustment and those around them, shy youths are part of a larger social arena where they are active agents in shaping their own development. Although adolescent shyness might be linked with several negative outcomes, however, it might be other people’s reactions to socially fearful behaviors that help create and/or maintain these outcomes over time.