Identity Change in Northern Ireland: A Longitudinal Study of Students' Transition to University

This two-wave longitudinal study followed a cohort of young people in Northern Ireland (N = 124) to examine how the transition to university impacts on identity change. Drawing on Stryker's (1968, 1987) identity theory, we examined salience, affective and interactional commitment for five identities: family member, friend, student, national and religious identity. The relative salience of national and religious identities did not change over time, but an absolute increase in the salience of religious identity was indicated at Time 2. Regression analysis provided some support for identity theory but suggested a difference between Catholics and Protestants in relation to religious identity. The implications for the identities of young people in Northern Ireland, and, more generally, for identity theory are discussed .     

Children of the Troubles: The Impact of Political Violence in Northern Ireland

This article explores the effects of political violence on children and young people in Northern Ireland. The article begins with a brief historical account of the Northern Irish conflict and the recently negotiated Belfast Good Friday Agreement of 1998. This account illustrates, as is the case with many conflicts, its basis is religious, national, economic, and political, despite its frequent construction as a battle between Protestant and Roman Catholic. The article goes on to review young peoples' experience of conflict in Northern Ireland and the impact of conflict experiences on three related areas of young people's lives. These include the effects of the conflict on everyday aspects of life, social identity, and mental health .     

Using critical social theory to develop a conceptual framework for comparative social work

This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing and contrasting social work within nation-states and across international boundaries. The framework is "situated" theoretically within a (late)modernist understanding of events within advanced capitalism and draws primarily on Habermas' critical social theory. The authors apply this framework to explicate the development of social work in Northern Ireland, a region in which high levels of political conflict mark it out as a site of local, national and international interest. It is suggested that the ideas developed from the case study have relevance for the social professions in other countries, particularly where social conflict is in evidence.     

Identity Politics Among Arab‐American Women*

Objective. Identity politics has dominated contemporary analyses of protest movements. Although multiple identities are commonplace, progress in delineating their empirical relationship has been slow. This article examines the relationships among ethnic and religious identities and feminist orientations among Arab‐American women, a group that bridges multiple cultural identities. The primary research question is whether ethnic and religious identities undermine feminism in this population or whether multiple identities are mutually supportive. Methods. Using data from a national mail survey of Arab‐American women, regression analyses examine the separate effects of various dimensions of ethnic and religious identity on women's feminist orientations. Results. Arab political identity is positively associated with feminism while religious and feminist identities are inversely related. The effects of ethnic cultural identity and Muslim affiliation are negligible. Conclusions. This study finds a complex pattern of relationships among multiple identities and underscores the underlying political dynamic linking group identities.     

芒飞节神话的流传及其认同功能——基于泰国、老挝、越南的研究

神话是人类精神的宝贵财富。在当代社会中,神话并非日益僵化、消亡与不合时宜的。芒飞节(Bun Bangfai)起源神话及其异文在泰国东北部、老挝和越南不同族群之间的传承与扩散,印证了神话在仪式中扮演的特殊角色,再现出神话对不同层次认同的铸就功能。这种认同包括了文化认同、族群认同、国家认同与宗教认同等。神话至今仍发挥着巨大的力量。     

The Impact of Political Conflict on Social Work: Experiences from Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine

This paper investigates the impact of violent political conflicton social workers and service users in three countries: NorthernIreland, Israel and Palestine. Despite its significance forsocial work (and other helping professions), there is a dearthof research on the subject. The authors construct a researchframework which encapsulates the complexity and ambiguity ofthe issues at stake and three parallel empirical studies, whichfollow this framework, are presented. The findings highlightthe burden of working and living in a violent political conflict,not just for service users but also for social workers. Emotionalstress, fear, competing national and religious identities, yetsome indication of resilience, are key findings from these studies.A number of moral and professional dilemmas emerged across allthree studies, often testing loyalty to universal social workvalues. Thus, some respondents at times found it difficult todeal with colleagues and service users who were perceived tobe ‘the enemy’. These studies highlight the needto raise the consciousness of social workers, agencies and policiesabout such issues in a world which is increasingly afflictedby violent political conflict. Support, education and trainingfor social workers which transcend national contexts and furtherinternational research in this important area are recommended.     

The Interdependence of Israeli and Palestinian National Identities: The Role of the Other in Existential Conflicts

The interactions between identity groups engaged in a protracted conflict lack the conditions postulated by Gordon Allport in The Nature of Prejudice (1954) as necessary if contact is to reduce intergroup prejudice. The article examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from this perspective. After summarizing the history of the conflict, it proposes that a long-term resolution of the conflict requires development of a transcendent identity for the two peoples that does not threaten the particularistic identity of each. The nature of the conflict, however, impedes the development of a transcendent identity by creating a state of negative interdependence between the two identities such that asserting one group's identity requires negating the identity of the other. The resulting threat to each group's identity is further exacerbated by the fact that each side perceives the other as a source of some of its own negative identity elements, especially a view of the self as victim and as victimizer. The article concludes with a discussion of ways of over-coming the negative interdependence of the two identities by drawing on some of the positive elements in the relationship, most notably the positive interdependence between the two groups that exists in reality. Problem-solving workshops represent one setting for equal-status interactions that provide the parties the opportunity to "negotiate" their identities and to find ways of accommodating the identity of the other in their own identity.     

Postconflict Reconciliation: Intergroup Forgiveness and Implicit Biases in Northern Ireland

Even after a conflict has formally ended, there is still a need for postconflict reconciliation and the building of mutual forgiveness and trust between communities. This article addresses psychological processes crucial to moving beyond a history of violent sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. We investigated the predictors of intergroup forgiveness, in terms of intergroup emotions, infrahumanization, empathy, and intergroup contact. Intergroup trust and measures of implicit intergroup bias were also explored in this area of real intergroup conflict. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for postconflict reconciliation in Northern Ireland and other conflict areas.     

Cinema and Touch

ABSTRACT

Ireland has long been identified as the Green Isle. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this article explores the color green in Ireland in terms of visualization and marketing in relation to dress and tourist design. The focus on different ways of seeing Ireland's green reveals the color as an identity marker, highly charged politically and culturally. Starting out as a political statement of Irish identity, green became a marker to outsiders signaling Irishness. The ban on “the wearing of the green” during British colonialism reinforced the significance of green in Ireland. Green was the color of the Republican revolutionary organization, and was identified as the national color long before Ireland became an independent nation in 1922. Now green remains an indicator in outsiders' visual construction of Irishness. The extensive wearing of green on St Patrick's Day, the national day, is a continued celebration of national independence fueled by the legacy of the ban, not only in Ireland but among Irish diaspora communities across the globe. The color green is the signature color in the branding of Ireland as a tourist destination.     

The Development of Intergroup Forgiveness in Northern Ireland

As societies like Northern Ireland, Israel, and South Africa strive to resolve social conflict, there is growing theoretical and empirical interest in the role of intergroup forgiveness. This study examined intergroup forgiveness among 340 young adults in Northern Ireland. A short form of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory explored possible influences on propensity to forgive. All participants were Catholic and female (mean age 17.36 years), and had experienced verbal or physical injury or bereavement due to the Northern Irish political violence. Overall forgiveness levels were low in comparison with previous studies of interpersonal forgiveness but similar to previous studies of intergroup forgiveness in Northern Ireland. The strongest (negative) predictor of forgiveness was the perceived degree of hurt caused by the injury .     

CIVIC IDENTITY IN AUSTRALIA

A typology of macro‐social identities is suggested based on the strength of social attachments (strong vs. weak) and the nature of the objects‐referents of such attachments (society vs. nation), It yields three types of identity: civic, ethno‐national, and denizen. This typology is then operationalized using national survey data (1995 ISSP). The analysis reveals two modal forms of identity in Australia (the denizen identity appears to be very rare). The largest proportion (38%) of Australians embrace civic identity, and this identity is most widespread among ‘baby boomers’, tertiary educated, and the secular. Ethno‐nationalists form a sizable minority (30%), and they are predominantly older, less educated and religious people. The key issue dividing the adherents to civic and ethno‐national identity is immigration and its socioeconomic consequences. The proportion of ethno‐nationalists is likely to shrink in the process of generational replacement, educational revolution and progressive secularization.     

Arab-Jewish Bilingual Coeducation in Israel: A Long-Term Approach to Intergroup Conflict Resolution

This article offers insights into a new educational adventure in Israel that attempts to overcome interethnic conflict through bilingual coeducation. These insights were gathered during a two-year research project in which the authors followed the activities of two recently established Arab-Jewish bilingual schools. Their analysis is based primarily on qualitative data of educational and sociocultural processes involved in the functioning and development of the schools as they relate to four major areas: language, cultural and religious identity, national identity, and social interactions. The study showed the potential benefits of one type of intergroup contact, namely, bilingual long-term coeducation, but also shed light on the complexity and the difficulties facing all of the parties involved in such an adventurous enterprise.     

Truth,partial truth,and irreconcilable truths: Reflections on the prospects for truth recovery in Northern Ireland

The issues facing truth recovery work in Northern Ireland arise in the context of a peace process in which there has been no clear winner, where several key issues, such as policing and criminal justice remain unresolved, and where there is a lack of trust between the parties to the conflict. Yet there is a demand for processes that have the potential to uncover the truth about unresolved killings and disappearances. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is often cited in Northern Ireland as a model for truth recovery processes, in spite of its shortcomings and the contextual differences between South Africa and Northern Ireland. While there remains a demand for truth about human rights violations and contested killings, the compromised nature of the Northern Ireland settlement and the culture of silence that prevails within Northern Ireland institutions are obstacles to the progress of truth recovery work there. Nor is Northern Ireland ready for the rewriting of its history, although some argue that truth recovery work could provide an important disincentive to those who would return to violence. The assumption that truth recovery is always a prerequisite for healing is challenged, and painful effects of truth processes in reopening the wounds of the past are pointed out. Yet the role of truth recovery in improving public awareness of the wrongs of the past, and in providing new opportunities for forgiveness and reconciliation is acknowledged. However, truth recovery can inadvertently reinforce a dis‐empowered and unhealthy “victim culture” and may also prejudice future judicial processes. The paper concludes by summarizing the recommendations for truth recovery in Northern Ireland of the Healing Through Remembering Project. They suggest that a range of mechanisms, including some community‐based self‐help processes, are the preferred paths for this work in Northern Ireland.     

Identity Adaptiveness: Affect Across Multiple Identities

Most empirical work that examines the effects of stereotypes on targets considers only one of a target's many social identities. This study examined how individuals implicitly affectively orient themselves toward their social identities in situations in which one or another of these identities is relatively adaptive. An adaptive identity is one associated with stereotypes that predict desirable performance in a given context. One hundred and twenty-one Asian American females generated ethnicity- and gender-related memories in contexts in which their gender identity was relatively adaptive, their ethnic identity was relatively adaptive, or neither identity was relatively adaptive. Self-reported affect expressed in these memories was analyzed. In a context in which their ethnic identity was adaptive, participants generated more positive ethnicity-related memories than gender-related memories. In contrast, in a context in which their gender identity was adaptive, participants generated more positive gender-related memories than ethnicity-related memories. When neither identity was adaptive participants expressed similar affect toward both. Similar results were found when blind raters coded memory affect. Findings suggest that stereotypes and different social contexts do not simply result in targets' "identification" or "disidentification" along a single dimension of identity, but rather prompt a reorientation of implicit affect across their multiple identities.     

Young People and Political Involvement in Northern Ireland

This article reports some of the findings from the Pathways study which traced influences on the developmental pathways of adolescents and young adults in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and in Dublin (Republic of Ireland). Sample size was 130 aged 27 (66 male, 74 female) and 311 aged 17 (142 male, 169 female) most of whom had participated in earlier waves of the project at age 12. The study explored relationships between the participants' actual or intended involvement in politics and other factors, including family support, educational and occupational level, religious practice, and experience of the Troubles. The study concludes by looking at the relationship between these variables over time using a life-course approach within the socio-ecological model.     

Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions of Conflict and Distance among Multiracial Individuals

This article examines how multiracial individuals negotiate their different and sometimes conflicting racial identities. Drawing from previous work on bicultural identity integration (see   Benet-Martínez & Haritatos, 2005 ), we proposed a new construct, multiracial identity integration (MII), to measure individual differences in perceptions of compatibility between multiple racial identities. We found that MII is composed of two independent subscales: racial distance that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as disparate, and racial conflict that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as in conflict. We also found that recalling positive multiracial experiences increased MII, while recalling negative multiracial experiences decreased MII. These findings have implications for understanding the psychological well-being of multiracial individuals, and the development of social policy and programs catered to this population.     

Understanding and negotiating identity: Children from cross-community families in public care in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, most research on the impact upon children of living through the ‘troubles’ and in a divided society has assumed that children are from either the Catholic or Protestant community. There has been very little research with children from cross‐community families who have one parent from a Catholic background and one from a Protestant background. It is known, however, that these children are over‐represented in the public care system in Northern Ireland. The study reported in this paper addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring the experiences and views of children from cross‐community families who are in public care in Northern Ireland. The study has key messages for the development of services for looked after children from cross‐community families, if these are to be delivered in accordance with legislative duties in Northern Ireland and in an anti‐sectarian manner.     

Identity Conflicts and Value Pluralism—What Can We Learn from Religious Psychoanalytic Therapists?

Does the way we think about our personal self‐complexity affect how we accept others? Researchers have offered various conceptualizations of how individuals manage their complex identities, while others have identified links between cognitive complexity and acceptance of outgroups. This paper integrates the two bodies of work by positing a route by which personal identity conflicts may lead to cognitive and cultural pluralism. For individuals committed to multiple identities perceived as conflicting, the intra‐psychic experience of value conflicts may lead to a recognition of self‐complexity, which is then transposed from the personal domain to the social one and expressed as a pluralistic attitude towards others. This argument find support in a study of Israeli Jewish Orthodox psychoanalytic therapists who belong to what they perceive as non‐pluralistic religious groups, yet express value pluralism, which they attribute to their complex identities. One of the educational implications of this study is that facilitating engagement with internal complexity, multiple identities and personal value conflicts may promote pluralistic thinking for individuals in religious societies.     

Maternal Religiosity,Family Resources and Stressors,and Parent–Child Attachment Security in Northern Ireland

This study explores the associations between mothers' religiosity, and families' and children's functioning in a stratified random sample of 695 Catholic and Protestant mother–child dyads in socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a region which has experienced centuries of sectarian conflict between Protestant Unionists and Catholics Nationalists. Findings based on mother and child surveys indicated that even in this context of historical political violence associated with religious affiliation, mothers' religiosity played a consistently positive role, including associations with multiple indicators of better family functioning (i.e., more cohesion and behavioral control and less conflict, psychological distress, and adjustment problems) and greater parent–child attachment security. Mothers' religiosity also moderated the association between parent–child attachment security and family resources and family stressors, enhancing positive effects of cohesion and mother behavioral control on mother–child attachment security, and providing protection against risks associated with mothers' psychological distress. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for understanding the role of religiosity in serving as a protective or risk factor for children and families.