Identity, Self and Social Categorisation Lab
Stress is a known feature of medical studies as well as medical practice. In much of the literature stress is dealt with in the abstract, simply measuring levels of non-specific stress. In this project, however, we go beyond documenting the link between stress and (reduced) wellbeing. We argue that some stressful events have particular implications … Read more
The summer of 2017 has been an exciting time for the project, with a new PhD student joining the team (Aisha Al-Sulaiti) and a Masters student (Malavika Subramanian) doing her thesis on a closely related topic. Caoimhe Ryan continues as our postdoctoral research fellow. Malavika’s Masters thesis has explored the core issues of the link … Read more
Aisha joins the project from the State of Qatar and will be examining identity and medical work-related stressors for doctors, trainees and medical students. She will also be expanding the questions to look at cultural identity in terms of training culture and/or host culture. The project will explore how stressors are dealt with over and above the … Read more
Stress is a known feature of medical studies as well as medical practice. In much of the literature stress is dealt with in the abstract, simply measuring levels of non-specific stress. Some attempts have been made to document the specific stressors that medical students face such as the MSSQ (Medical Student Stress Questionnaire; Yusoff et … Read more
We are conducting interviews internationally across a range of specialty areas to explore the way stress is experienced in each domain. In 2016 we conducted an interview-based study looking at the nature of stress and identity in two target specialties – emergency medicine, and oncology. We now have funding to expand this study to other … Read more
We are pleased to have a book chapter in the 2017 book on Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts. The chapter examines several of the complexities and identity conflicts in medical education. We combine the work we have done looking at identity and approaches to learning (deep and surface) with our work on medical student well-being, and analyse some of … Read more
We are delighted to have received a grant for just under £10,000 to progress the work on the link between different types of stressors and identity in the medical context into 2017. The project title is: Identity-potent stressors: The interplay of professional (social) identity and specific work-related stressors; and the implications for wellbeing of doctors and … Read more
We were delighted to have four volunteer summer interns working with the lab over the summer – three from St Andrews and a guess all the way from Turkey! The group spend the majority of their time exploring the issues around identity and well-being in the medical context. We had a lot of interesting group … Read more
by Gülşah Kurt (Project Intern 2016) Bullying is quite common phenomenon in medical education. More than one in three of the doctors report that they have been bullied at least once ( Quine, L., 2002) and bullying by a senior surgeon was the focus of recent media attention in Australia. Why is bullying so pervasive … Read more
by Cassie Lowery (Project Intern 2016) Medical identities of doctors and medical students tend to be quite strong. And while such strong identification with this identity has been shown to correlate with well being, there may be other, more negative, consequences. Identification with a group leads to the acceptance of the norms, values, and goals … Read more