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Updated: May 29, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Facing social identity change: interactive effects of current and projected collective identification on expectations
Dominic J Packer1, Alison L Chasteen, Sonia K Kang
1Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. djp208@lehigh.edu
Abstract:
We hypothesized that prospective changes in social identity that involve transitioning out of a currently valued group would be associated with negative expectations regarding future states, but that this effect would be mitigated among individuals who expect to belong to a future in-group of similar importance. Consistent with predictions, strongly identified young adults in two studies projected significantly lower self-esteem/psychological well-being in old age than weakly identified young adults. Critically, however, this effect was fully attenuated if they expected to identify with their future aged in-group when they were old. Study 2 showed that the capacity for projected identification to buffer projected well-being among strongly identified young adults was contingent on their membership in the future in-group being highly salient. Analyses of participants' written descriptions of old age (Study 1) and a valence manipulation (Study 2) indicated that these effects were not attributable to the anticipated valence of future selves/states, but rather to the value placed on current and future group memberships.
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