Medical Education Research Group, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Med Educ. 2012 Feb;46(2):143-52. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04099.x.
The clinical workplace in which doctors learn involves many social groups, including representatives of different professions, clinical specialties and workplace teams. This paper suggests that medical education research does not currently take full account of the effects of group membership, and describes a theoretical approach from social psychology, the social identity approach, which allows those effects to be explored.
The social identity approach has a long history in social psychology and provides an integrated account of group processes, from the adoption of group identity through a process of self-categorisation, to the biases and conflicts between groups. This paper outlines key elements of this theoretical approach and illustrates their relevance to medical education.
The relevance of the social identity approach is illustrated with reference to a number of areas of medical education. The paper shows how research questions in medical education may be usefully reframed in terms of social identity in ways that allow a deeper exploration of the psychological processes involved. Professional identity and professionalism may be viewed in terms of self-categorisation rather than simply attainment; the salience of different identities may be considered as influences on teamwork and interprofessional learning, and issues in communication and assessment may be considered in terms of intergroup biases.
Social identity theory provides a powerful framework with which to consider many areas of medical education. It allows disparate influences on, and consequences of, group membership to be considered as part of an integrated system, and allows assumptions, such as about the nature of professional identity and interprofessional tensions, to be made explicit in the design of research studies. This power to question assumptions and develop deeper and more meaningful research questions may be increasingly relevant as the nature and role of the medical profession change.
医生学习的临床工作场所涉及许多社会团体，包括不同专业、临床专业和工作场所团队的代表。本文认为，医学教育研究目前没有充分考虑到群体成员身份的影响，并描述了一种来自社会心理学的理论方法，即社会认同方法，该方法可以探索这些影响。
社会认同方法在社会心理学中有很长的历史，它为群体过程提供了一个综合的解释，从通过自我分类过程采用群体认同，到群体之间的偏见和冲突。本文概述了这一理论方法的关键要素，并说明了它们与医学教育的相关性。
本文通过参考医学教育的许多领域来说明社会认同方法的相关性。本文展示了如何以社会认同的方式重新构建医学教育中的研究问题，从而可以更深入地探讨所涉及的心理过程。专业身份和专业精神可以通过自我分类来理解，而不仅仅是通过实现；不同身份的显著性可以被视为对团队合作和跨专业学习的影响，而沟通和评估方面的问题可以从群体间偏见的角度来考虑。
社会认同理论为考虑医学教育的许多领域提供了一个强大的框架。它允许将群体成员身份的各种影响和后果视为一个综合系统的一部分，并允许对专业身份和跨专业紧张关系等假设进行明确说明，作为研究设计的一部分。随着医学职业的性质和角色发生变化，这种质疑假设和提出更深入、更有意义的研究问题的能力可能变得越来越重要。
