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Identity threat and coping strategies among highly stigmatised sexual and ethnic minorities

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thesis
posted on 2023-06-09, 12:56 authored by Yasin Koc
Through a series of four studies using qualitative, correlational, and experimental methods, this thesis identifies sources of identity threat in sexual and ethnic minorities in Turkey, where these identities are highly stigmatised and subject to ongoing prejudice, and examines coping strategies and their implications for well-being. In Paper 1, extending previous qualitative findings, I show using structural equation modelling that identifying as a ‘global citizen’ helps gay men integrate their incompatible sexual (gay) and gender (male) identities in a traditional society, and this increased gay-male identity integration predicts higher well-being. In Paper 2, I substantiated these findings with an experiment, whereby participants primed with pro-globalisation worldviews increased their identification as global citizens, which then increased their gay-male identity integration. Here, I also found that access to gay-affirmative social spaces, where gay men can express their identity comfortably, also helps increase gay men’s well-being. In Paper 3, I present findings from an interview study with Kurdish ethnic minority members from Turkey, identifying key sources of identity threat for this group as well as key coping strategies that might form a basis for potential interventions to improve well-being. Finally, in Paper 4, I tested one of these coping strategies–collective ethnic nostalgia–investigating its effects on identity motives at personal and group levels, and on well-being; here, discuss potential reasons why collective nostalgia may fail to serve as a psychological resource for coping in a highly threatened group. Together, these studies contribute to the developing social psychological literatures on identity threat and coping, multiple identities, identity motives, and nostalgia. Moreover, they provide practical implications regarding how the well-being of stigmatised minority group members could be improved with bottom-up coping strategies, in contexts where minority group rights are not ensured by legal protection.

History

File Version

  • Published version

Pages

244.0

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-04-23

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