Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University.
Dev Psychol. 2017 Nov;53(11):2052-2065. doi: 10.1037/dev0000356.
Identity research largely emerged from clinical observations. Decades of empirical work advanced the field in refining existing approaches and adding new approaches. Furthermore, the existence of linkages of identity with psychopathology is now well established. Unfortunately, both the directionality of effects between identity aspects and psychopathology symptoms, and the mechanisms underlying associations are unclear. In the present paper, we present a new framework to inspire hypothesis-driven empirical research to overcome this limitation. The framework has a basic resemblance to theoretical models for the study of personality and psychopathology, so we provide examples of how these might apply to the study of identity. Next, we explain that unique features of identity may come into play in individuals suffering from psychopathology that are mostly related to the content of one's identity. These include pros and cons of identifying with one's diagnostic label. Finally, inspired by Hermans' dialogical self theory and principles derived from Piaget's, Swann's and Kelly's work, we delineate a framework with identity at the core of an individual multidimensional space. In this space, psychopathology symptoms have a known distance (representing relevance) to one's identity, and individual multidimensional spaces are connected to those of other individuals in one's social network. We discuss methodological (quantitative and qualitative, idiographic and nomothetic) and statistical procedures (multilevel models and network models) to test the framework. Resulting evidence can boost the field of identity research in demonstrating its high practical relevance for the emergence and conservation of psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record
身份认同研究主要源于临床观察。几十年来的实证工作在完善现有方法和增加新方法方面推动了该领域的发展。此外，身份认同与精神病理学之间的联系现在已经得到充分证实。不幸的是，身份认同和精神病理学症状之间的影响方向以及关联的机制尚不清楚。在本文中，我们提出了一个新的框架，以激发基于假设的实证研究，以克服这一局限性。该框架与人格和精神病理学研究的理论模型基本相似，因此我们提供了如何将这些模型应用于身份认同研究的示例。接下来，我们解释说，在患有精神病理学的个体中，可能会出现与个体身份认同相关的独特特征，这些特征主要与个体身份认同的内容有关。其中包括认同自己的诊断标签的利弊。最后，受 Hermans 的对话自我理论以及 Piaget、Swann 和 Kelly 工作中得出的原则的启发，我们描绘了一个以个体多维空间为核心的框架。在这个空间中，精神病理学症状与个体身份认同有一定的距离（代表相关性），个体多维空间与他们社交网络中其他人的多维空间相连。我们讨论了用于测试该框架的方法学（定量和定性、个体化和规律化）和统计程序（多层次模型和网络模型）。由此产生的证据可以促进身份认同研究领域的发展，证明其对于精神病理学的出现和维持具有很高的实际意义。
