Date of Award

12-1-2020

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (v, 46 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Kevin Williams

Committee Members

Sylvia Roch

Keywords

Group identity, Stress (Psychology), Control (Psychology), Resilience (Personality trait)

Subject Categories

Psychology

Abstract

Group identification provides important psychological resources. One potential benefit is that it may relieve individuals’ strain in stressful situation by increasing their perceived personal control. The current research explores the different roles that group identification plays in reaction to stressful performance situations. In particular, it investigates the extent to which group identification impacts perceived control in performance contexts. It was hypothesized that activating group identification prior to performing a challenging task will bolster perceptions of personal control, thereby sustaining or improving performance. An experimental study was conducted that manipulated salience of group identification, either before or after exposure to a challenging task (stressor). The results demonstrate that group identification is positively correlated with perceived control and negatively related to stress. Also, for participants who have group identification activated before stressors, they tend to choose more difficult tasks (i.e., puzzles in this experiment) compared with those who have group identification activated after stressors. The findings suggest that activating group identification before stressors might bring more psychological benefits and help people prepare better for stressful situations. Keywords: group identification, stress, perceived control, psychological benefits

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