355

The
British
Psychological
British Journal of Social Psychology (2005), 44, 355–370
q 2005 The British Psychological Society
Society

www.bpsjournals.co.uk

Taking the strain: Social identity, social support,

and the experience of stress

S. Alexander Haslam*, Anne O’Brien, Jolanda Jetten,

Karine Vormedal and Sally Penna
University of Exeter, UK

The social identity/self-categorization model of stress suggests that social identity can
play a role in protecting group members from adverse reactions to strain because it
provides a basis for group members to receive and benefit from social support.
To examine this model, two studies were conducted with groups exposed to extreme
levels of strain: patients recovering from heart surgery (Study 1), bomb disposal officers
and bar staff (Study 2). Consistent with predictions, in both studies there was a strong
positive correlation between social identification and both social support and life/job
satisfaction and a strong negative correlation between social identification and stress. In
both studies path analysis also indicated that social support was a significant mediator of
the relationship between (a) social identification and stress and (b) social identification
and life/job satisfaction. In addition, Study 2 revealed that group membership plays a
significant role in perceptions of how stressful different types of work are. Implications
for the conceptualization of stress and social support are discussed.
In formal terms, stress can be defined as the psychological and physiological state of a
person responding to demands that stressors in an environment place upon them
(i.e. strain) under conditions where those stressors are perceived to be threatening to the
self and well-being (Cooper, Dewe, & O’Driscoll, 2001; Haslam, 2004). Traditional
approaches to the study of this phenomenon have tended to break this area down into
what are seen as its constituent parts, focusing in particular on the nature of the stressor
and the personality or circumstances of the person subjected to stress. Thus certain types
of event (e.g. serious illness) are seen as more likely to cause stress than others
(e.g. Holmes & Rahe, 1967) and certain personality types (e.g. low hardiness, high
neuroticism, Type A; Kobosa, 1982; Rosenman et al., 1964) or occupational groups
(e.g. miners, police; Statt, 1994) are seen as being particularly likely to experience the
adverse effects of stress. As main effects models, these approaches encounter a number of
problems in accounting for the nuances of the stress process, but nonetheless, they retain
broad appeal – not least as the building-blocks of textbook approaches to this topic (for a
recent review see Haslam, 2004, pp. 183–206).

* Correspondence should be addressed to Alex Haslam, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK
(e-mail: A.Haslam@exeter.ac.uk).

DOI:10.1348/014466605X37468
356 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

The most influential alternative to approaches which attempt to predict stress on the
basis of the presence or absence of specific risk factors is provided by the transactional
model (after Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The main contribution of this approach has
been to conceptualize stress as a process that is psychologically mediated so that the
impact of any given stressor depends on the way that it is construed by the person who
is exposed to it. More specifically, stress is seen as the outcome of a two-phase process of
appraisal. Primary appraisal involves the perceiver assessing the degree to which a
particular stressor poses a threat to self. In the event that any stimulus event is
categorized as a threat, secondary appraisal involves the perceiver’s assessment of their
own ability to cope with that threat. In this way, stress (i.e. an adverse reaction to strain)
only develops into a long-term problem when a threat to self is perceived to exist in
conjunction with insufficient coping resources.
Initial investigations of the transactional model focused largely on the way that an
individual’s cognitions affected his or her appraisal of particular events. Most famously,
Lazarus (e.g. 1966) conducted studies in which participants were given instructions that
led them to appraise particular situations as either stressful or non-stressful. For
example, participants were shown films of bodily mutilation and were either told
nothing or that these were student training films involving actors. When given the latter
instructions, participants’ appraisal of the videos was more benign, and consequently,
they were less distressed by them.
As it has developed, research has elaborated on these insights by exploring the
potential for social factors to impact on the experience of stressful events ( Jackson,
Schwab, & Schuler, 1986; Pearlin, 1993). In particular, considerable research has focused
on social support as a means of reducing the harmful effects of stress (Aspinwall &
Taylor, 1997; Berkman, 1985; Cohen & Wills, 1985; Underwood, 2000). A social support
network is thought to reduce the effects of stress through four explicit functions ( House,
1981). Specifically, it can provide an individual with (a) a sense of acceptance and self-
worth (emotional support), ( b) affiliation and contact with others (social companion-
ship), (c) concrete aid, material resources, and financial assistance (instrumental
support), or (d ) information useful in understanding and coping with potentially stressful
events (informational support).
All four of these forms of input contribute to positive secondary appraisal, but
informational support also plays a key role in primary appraisal. That is, it impacts on the
stress process by influencing the appraisal of events that have the potential to be
threatening to self (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Cohen & Wills, 1985). More specifically,
informational support (also called appraisal support) is thought to provide individuals
with the opportunity to compare their reactions with others, increasing their
understanding of the situation and indicating the appropriateness of their emotional
reactions. Along lines suggested by Lazarus, and implicit in the manipulations used in his
own early studies (e.g. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), this exchange of information within a
social network enables individuals to acquire new interpretations and to clarify their
understanding of potentially threatening situations (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Cohen &
Wills, 1985; Hopkins, 1997).
This general line of research suggests that the social context in which individuals find
themselves (in particular, their location within a society of interacting groups, some of
which they belong to) may exert influence over their response to stressful situations
(Haslam, 2004; Terry, Callan, & Sartori, 1996; Terry, Carey, & Callan, 2001). Nonetheless,
within the transactional model itself, theorizing about such contextual impact has tended
to be rather limited. In particular, most researchers have followed Festinger’s (1954)
 Social identity and stress 357

social comparison theory and assumed that the impact of informational support on
appraisal and stress depends simply on the amount and quality of information that it
provides (i.e. as ‘objectively’ measured; Kulik, Mahler, & Moore, 1996; Aspinwall & Taylor,
1997; Gump & Kulik, 1997).
However, in contrast to this view, social identity and self-categorization theories
(Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, 1985; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987;
Turner, Oakes, Haslam, & McGarty, 1994; see also McGarty, Haslam, Hutchinson, &
Turner 1994; Balaam & Haslam, 1998) suggest a more complex model of stress in which
appraisal processes and stress outcomes are structured by group memberships that are
internalized by individuals to a greater or lesser extent (Haslam, 2004). In particular, this is
because a sense of shared identity is argued to be a basis for both giving and receiving
social support.
This model is supported by findings from a number of previous studies. For example,
research conducted by Levine and colleagues demonstrates that a person’s willingness
to help a stranger in distress (the phenomenon of ‘bystander intervention’; Darley &
Latané, 1968) is enhanced when the stranger in question is perceived to share a relevant
social identity with the prospective helper (Levine, Cassidy, Brazier, & Reicher, 2002;
Levine, Prosser, Evans, & Reicher, 2005). A second strand of Levine et al.’s work also
shows that manipulations of social identity salience affect the interpretation of health
and stress symptoms. So, for example, stressors (e.g. a facial scar) that are perceived to
be threatening when one identity (e.g. as a woman) is salient are perceived to be much
more benign when another (e.g. as a physical education student) is made salient
(Levine & Reicher, 1996; Levine, 1999).
Some of our own previous experimental research also supports the suggestion that
the impact of social support depends on the social categorical status of the person who
provides it. Thus Haslam, Jetten, O’Brien, and Jacobs (2004) found that when students
were given informational support that encouraged them to construe a mathematical task
as challenging and benign (rather than threatening and stressful), this only had a positive
effect on subsequent stress levels if it was provided by an in-group rather than an out-
group member.
Research by Branscombe and her colleagues (e.g. Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey,
1999; Postmes & Branscombe, 2002; see also Schmitt, Branscombe, & Postmes, 2003)
has also shown that when low-status groups are exposed to strain in the form of
discrimination and prejudice, the sense that – as victims of injustice – they share identity
with other members of those groups is a basis both for receiving social support and
engaging in collective action designed to resist and overcome that injustice (for related
ideas, see Ellemers, Doosje, & Spears, 2004; Stott & Drury, 2004). As Haslam and Reicher
(2003) note (following social identity theory; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), in the absence of
this sense of secure social identity, individuals are more likely to pursue a strategy of
personal mobility or social creativity by trying to avoid or deny the stressors associated
with their low status.
Taken together, such research suggests that social identity and self-categorization
processes do indeed play a key role in structuring people’s experience of stress and
hence their stress outcomes. More generally too, it is consistent with the claim that
positive primary and secondary appraisal – in particular, the experience of beneficial
social support – is more likely to occur to the extent that individuals are socially
identified with those in a position to provide support.
In this way, social identification can be seen as a critical substrate of positive stress
reactions. Having said that, it is apparent that previous tests of these ideas have rarely
358 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

focused directly on issues of stress. Where they have, they have also tended to be
conducted in ‘weak’ situations, in the sense that the stressors to which participants
have been exposed (or on which they are reflecting) tend to be relatively mild.
Amongst other things, this has been a product of ethical constraints that place limits
on the extent and type of stress-related manipulations that can be attempted in
experimental situations. Accordingly, there is clearly a need to examine the social
identity/self-categorization model of stress in contexts where participants are (or have
been) exposed to more acute stressors. As part of a broader programme of research
(which also includes longitudinal and case study analysis; e.g. Haslam & Reicher, 2005;
Haslam, Waghorn, O’Sullivan, Jetten, & O’Brien, 2004), this was the primary goal of
the present research.

STUDY 1
The first study in the present series was designed to examine the stress experienced by
patients who had recently undergone heart surgery. Previous research suggests that this
form of surgery is associated with high levels of morbidity ( Newman, 1997 ) and hence
that patients who undergo it are liable to experience greater levels of stress than would
be expected with almost any other form of medical intervention ( Johnston, 1997 ).
Indeed, heart surgery has been found to almost double the likelihood that an individual
will subsequently be classified as having a psychiatric disorder ( Mayou & Bryant, 1987 ).
Despite this, it is interesting to note that psychology and its insights have had almost no
impact on the practice of cardiology or on the management of those who undergo
surgery ( Lewin, 1995).
The research took the form of a survey administered to patients shortly after their heart
surgery had been performed, and once they were no longer in a critical condition. In order
to test the social identity/self-categorization model, the survey instrument contained three
categories of measures pertaining to (a) participants’ social identification with their family
and friends, (b) the amount of support they had received during their hospitalization, and
(c) their subjective experience of stress and well-being. In line with previous research (e.g.
Berkman, 1985), we expected that social support would be a significant predictor of
positive psychological outcomes after surgery. However, as suggested by the path model
presented in Fig. 1, we also predicted that this support would itself be predicated on social
identification and that it would mediate a relationship between social identification and
positive outcomes. Our core hypotheses were as follows.

Hypothesis 1. That social identification would be associated with perceptions of increased social
support and reduced stress.

Figure 1. Paths predicted by the social identity/self-categorization model of stress.

 Social identity and stress 359

Hypothesis 2. That the relationship between social identification and stress would be mediated
by social support.

Method
Participants
Participants were 34 patients (28 men, 6 women) recovering from heart surgery in a clinic
in Oslo, Norway. The patients were recruited with the assistance of nursing staff during a
6–7 day post-operative period. Their ages ranged from 45 to 80 years, with a mean age of 60.

Measures and procedure

After providing informed consent to take part in the study, participants were given a
four-page questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire was produced in Norwegian,
translated from the English by a native Norwegian speaker (the fourth author). In
addition to relevant demographic information, this contained measures of (a) social
identification with family and friends (2 items, after Doosje, Ellemers, & Spears, 1995;
a ¼ 86; ‘I identify with my family and friends’, ‘I feel solidarity with my family and
friends’); (b) social support (10 items; a ¼ :81; typical item: ‘Do you feel you get the
emotional support you need’); (c) depressed mood (6 items; a ¼ :74; typical item: ‘In,
general, how has your mood been over the past few days?’); (d) stress (7 items; a ¼ :74;
typical item: ‘Are you stressed?’); (e) personal self-esteem (10 items, after Rosenberg,
1965; a ¼ :64; typical item: ‘I feel that I have a number of good qualities’);
(f ) satisfaction with environment (8 items, a ¼ :79; typical item: ‘I feel hemmed in by
this environment’); and (g) life satisfaction (5 items, a ¼ :82; typical item: ‘I am satisfied
with my life’). Participants responded to all items using seven-point scales with
appropriately-labelled end-points, for example, not at all (1), definitely (7). After
appropriate recoding, all scales had satisfactory reliability and so item scores were
aggregated to create a single score on each measure for each participant. There were six
instances of missing data (, 1% of responses), and in each case these were substituted
with the median value in the sample on that measure. After completing the
questionnaire, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Results
Simple correlations
Correlations between the above seven measures are presented in Table 1. From this it is
apparent that, as predicted under Hypothesis 1, patients’ social identification with their
family was a significant predictor of perceived social support and other key outcome
measures (stress, personal self-esteem, satisfaction with environment, life satisfaction;
all ps , :05). As required in order for Hypothesis 2 to be satisfied, these outcome
measures (and mood) were also correlated with social support (all ps , :05).

Path analysis
In order to examine Hypothesis 2, a series of path analyses were performed to examine
the role that social support played in mediating between social identification and key
dependent measures with which it was correlated (stress, personal self-esteem,
satisfaction with environment, life satisfaction). Following procedures outlined by Baron
and Kenny (1986), these involved (a) regressing the mediator (m, social support) on the
360 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

Table 1. Study 1: Correlations between measures

Depressed Environment Life

Mean Support mood Stress Self-esteem satisfaction satisfaction

Social identification 6.51 .58** 2.12 2 .34* .46** .42* .42*

with family
Social support 5.78 2.58** 2 .55** .46** .38* .58**
Depressed mood 1.81 .74** 2.48** 2 .20 2.40*
Stress 1.92 2.44* 2 .20 2.43**
Personal self-esteem 5.33 .30 .42*
Environment 6.27 .23
satisfaction
Life satisfaction 5.90

Note. **p , :05; *p , :01 (two-tailed).

independent variable (i, social identification), (b) regressing the dependent variable in
question (d, mood, stress, etc.) on social identification, and (c) regressing the dependent
variable on both social identification and social support. For mediation to be present,
there must be a significant relationship between the mediator and the independent
variable (which there was, b ¼ 0:61, p , :01), but when the dependent variable is
regressed on both the mediator and independent variable, a previously significant
relationship between the independent and dependent variables should be significantly
reduced or rendered non-significant.
Relevant statistics are presented in Table 2. As this table indicates, when (a) stress and
(b) life satisfaction were regressed on social identification and social support
simultaneously, the relationship between social identification and these measures
was significantly reduced (applying Sobel’s test, Preacher & Leonardelli, 2001;
zs ¼ 2.35, 2.32, respectively, both ps ¼ :02). Regressing personal self-esteem and
environment satisfaction on social identification/social support also reduced previously
significant relationships between social identification and these two dependent variables,
but under these conditions, the relationship between social support and these variables
was also reduced, suggesting an imperfect mediational model (see Haslam & McGarty,
2003, for a discussion).

Table 2. Study 1: Results of path analyses

b Social ident family b Social support

b Social ident b Social (entered with (entered with
with family support social support) social ident)

Dependent variable
Stress 2 0.34* 20.55** 20.03K 2 0.53**
Personal self-esteem 0.46** 0.46** 0.29 0.29
Environment satisfaction 0.41* 0.38* 0.31 0.20
Life satisfaction 0.42* 0.58** 0.13K 0.51**

Note. Correlations: **p , :01, *p , :05; change: Kp , :05.

 Social identity and stress 361

Discussion
The findings of this study provide support for our hypotheses and for the social
identity/self-categorization model of stress. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, social
identification with family and friends was a significant predictor of positive responses to
the stressful situation in which the participants found themselves. To the extent that
they identified with this social group, participants were less stressed, had higher
personal self-esteem and were more satisfied with the hospital environment and their
life in general. In line with previous research (e.g. Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Cohen &
Wills, 1985; Underwood, 2000) there was also evidence that these same positive
outcomes, as well as less depressed mood, were also predicted by the level of social
support that participants experienced.
Most significantly, though, mediational analysis served to shed light on the nature of
the relationship between these two putative causal variables. Thus, in line with
Hypothesis 2, there was evidence that the impact of social identification on stress and
life satisfaction was mediated by social support. Indeed, when these variables were
entered simultaneously in relevant regression equations, the impact of social
identification was fully attenuated. Such patterns are consistent with the view that
social identification has a positive impact on stress because it serves as a psychological
basis for individuals to receive and benefit from the support that fellow group members
can provide (Branscombe et al., 1999; Haslam, 2004; Levine, et al., 2002).
These findings represent an advance on previous studies in providing a direct
examination of the social identity/self-categorization model of stress and in showing that
patterns which have previously been observed with convenience samples (typically
undergraduate students) generalize to samples whose exposure to stressors is more
immediate and acute. In doing this they also suggest at a very practical level that there
might be considerable value in clinicians taking steps to bolster (or at least not
undermine) patients’ identity-based ties in order to take advantage of the capacity for
these to provide a platform for buffers to the strain associated with acute surgery. In this
way the study points to a clear place for psychological considerations in the
management of cardiac conditions that has not previously been identified (Lewin,
1995).
Having said that, this first study clearly lacks the control associated with
experimental studies, and so causal inferences need to be treated with caution. To a
large extent this is unavoidable, but nonetheless there appeared to be some utility in
conducting a follow-up study in which participants from multiple groups were included
in the research design. In the first instance this would address issues of restricted range
associated with sampling from a single subpopulation. Second, in light of the fact that
social identification with one’s family can be considered quite a ‘difficult’ construct
( because it is bound up with distinct patterns of personal ties and experience, and
clearly-defined forms and norms of support), it was important to try to replicate the
above findings in a study which included members of more loosely structured groups in
which social identification and support were less constrained. It is also the case that in
this first study we assumed that the social support participants reported receiving had
been provided by in-group members (in this case, friends and family) but did not
establish this directly in our measures. A follow-up study provided an opportunity to
clarify this point. It also allowed us to extend our empirical analysis into issues of
primary appraisal (i.e. a beyond a focus solely on the mechanics of secondary appraisal
in the form of social support).
362 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

STUDY 2
As with Study 1, the purpose of this study was to examine the role that group
membership and an associated sense of social identity plays in reactions to potential
stressors. In this case, the key participants who were recruited for the study were bomb
disposal officers trained in the handling of military ordnance. As intimated above, in
order to extend the range of potential responses it was necessary to include another
group of participants whose work exposed them to other forms of stress. For this
purpose we obtained a sample of bar workers.
Along the lines observed in Study 1, we expected that participants who had a
stronger sense of social identity (in this instance with their work colleagues) would
perceive themselves to receive more social support and that this support would play a
key role in helping them to cope with work-related strain. In this study, though, we
ensured that items measuring social support made explicit reference to the fact that this
was provided by an in-group source (work colleagues).
Despite these modifications, our core hypotheses were the same as those in Study 1.
Hypothesis 1. That social identification would be associated with perceptions of increased social
support and reduced stress.

Hypothesis 2. That the relationship between social identification and stress would be mediated
by social support.

As noted above, these predictions relate mainly to issues of secondary appraisal in being
concerned with the basis and impact of social support. However, as outlined in the
Introduction, we also expected that social identity would be implicated in the primary
appraisal of work-related stressors as posing a threat to the self (i.e. actually having the
potential to cause stress). More specifically, and on the basis of the role that
occupational group membership should play in shaping individuals’ experience of
particular stressors (Ashforth, 2001; Haslam, 2004), we proposed the following
additional hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3. That occupational group membership would provide a basis for perceptions of
the extent to which any particular form of work is stressful.

The above three hypotheses accord with Lazarus’s observation that appraisal processes
play a key role in stress reactions (e.g. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). However, in line with
the self-categorization model of stress, they suggest that rather than being individual
cognitive processes, both primary and secondary appraisal are actually socially
mediated in the sense of being critically shaped by group membership. More
specifically, psychologically salient group memberships (i.e. social identities) are seen to
provide both (a) a lens through which threat to self is appraised (Hypothesis 3) and (b) a
basis upon which social support is given and can prove effective (Hypothesis 1 and
Hypothesis 2).

Method
Participants
Two samples of participants were recruited for this study. The first comprised
20 members of the Royal Air Force Bomb Disposal Team. All were male, their mean age
 Social identity and stress 363

was 31 years and their mean length of employment in the RAF was 13 years. The second
group comprised 20 bar staff working in a large bar in Exeter. Half were male, their mean
age was 20, and their mean length of employment was 1 year.

Measures and procedure

After providing informed consent to take part in the study, participants were given a
four-page questionnaire to complete. In addition to relevant demographic information,
this contained two measures that were the same as those used in Study 1 (or very slightly
modified): depressed mood (4 items, a ¼ :73), and personal self-esteem (10 items;
a ¼ :88). The social identification measure from the previous study was also adapted so
that it was relevant to work-related groups (2 items, a ¼ :84; ‘I identify with my
colleagues at work’, ‘I feel solidarity with my colleagues at work’). So too were the
measures of social support (which now related specifically to support provided by
work colleagues; 3 items, a ¼ :81, typical item: ‘Do your colleagues give you social
support when you need it?’), work stress (or burnout; 5 items, a ¼ :68; typical item:
‘I feel frustrated by my work’), and satisfaction (which now related to job satisfaction;
5 items, a ¼ 81; typical item: ‘I enjoy my work here’). In addition, this questionnaire
included measures of perceived stressfulness of bomb work (3 items, a ¼ 95; typical
item: ‘If you were confronted with a live bomb would you find it stressful?’); perceived
stressfulness of bar work (2 items, a ¼ 71; typical item: ‘If you had to work long shifts in
a noisy bar would you find it stressful?’).
Participants responded to all items using seven-point scales with appropriately-
labelled end-points, for example, not at all (1), definitely (7). After appropriate recoding,
all scales had satisfactory reliability, and so item scores were aggregated to create a single
score on each measure for each participant. After completing the questionnaire,
participants were given debriefing information and thanked for their participation.
Participants who wanted to discuss the study further were given this opportunity and, on
this basis, several bomb disposal officers took part in informal post-study interviews.

Results
Simple correlations
Correlations between key measures are presented in Table 3. From this it is apparent that,
as predicted under Hypothesis 1 and as found in Study 1, workgroup social identification
was a significant predictor of social support (the proposed mediator; r ¼ :67, p , :01)
and other key outcome measures (work stress, job satisfaction; ps , :05). As required in
order for Hypothesis 2 to be satisfied ( Baron & Kenny, 1986), work stress and job
satisfaction were also correlated with social support ( ps , :05).

Path analysis
In order to examine Hypothesis 2 directly, a series of path analyses were performed to
examine the role that social support played in mediating between social identification
and those outcome measures with which it was significantly correlated (work stress, job
satisfaction). Relevant statistics are presented in Table 4.
As Table 4 indicates, when stress was regressed on social identification and social
support simultaneously, the relationship between social identification and stress was
significantly reduced (Sobel test; z ¼ 1:98, p , :05) and became (marginally) non-
significant (b ¼ 0:29, p ¼ :06). Along similar lines, when job satisfaction was regressed
on social identification and social support simultaneously, the relationship between
364 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

Table 3. Study 2: Correlations between measures

Depressed Work
Mean Support mood Work stress Self-esteem satisfaction

Social identification 5.39 .67** 2.34* 2 .63** 2 .06 .49**

with workgroup
Social support 4.98 2.32* 2 .69** .00 .58**
Depressed mood 2.49 .42** 2 .61** 2.37*
Work stress (burnout) 2.53 2 .22 2.73**
Personal self-esteem 5.55 .05
Job satisfaction 3.95

Note. **p , :05; *p , :01 (two-tailed).

Table 4. Study 2: Results of path analyses

b Social ident work gp. b Social support

b Social ident. with b Social (entered with (entered with
work group support social support) social ident.)

Dependent variable
Work stress (burnout) 2 0.63** 20.69** 20.29K 2 0.50**
Job satisfaction 0.49** 0.58** 0.18K 0.47**

Note. Correlations: **p , :01, **p , :05; change: Kp , :05.

social identification and job satisfaction was significantly reduced (z ¼ 2:38, p , :02)
and also became non-significant (b ¼ 0:18, p ¼ :33).

Analysis of variance
As noted above, the design of this study also provided an opportunity to examine the
relationship between participants’ occupational group membership (bomb disposal
officers, bar staff) and the perceived stress associated with different stressors (bomb
work stress, bar work stress, a repeated measure). This analysis revealed main effects for
both stressor, Fð1; 38Þ ¼ 6:58, p , :05, and group, Fð1; 38Þ ¼ 51:4, p , :001. Handling
bombs was perceived to be more stressful than doing bar work (Ms ¼ 3.85, 3.13,
respectively) and bar staff saw work as generally more stressful than bomb disposal
officers (Ms ¼ 4.50, 2.23, respectively). However, as the means presented in Fig. 2
indicate, these main effects were conditioned by a significant interaction between group
and stressor, Fð1; 38Þ ¼ 68:3, p , :001. Post hoc tests (by Tukey’s method with
a ¼ :05) indicated that this interaction arose from the fact that while there was no
difference in the extent to which members of the two occupational groups saw bar
work as stressful (Ms ¼ 3.35, 2.90, respectively), bar staff perceived bomb work to be
much more stressful than did bomb disposal officers (Ms ¼ 6.15, 1.55, respectively).

Discussion
The findings from this study are consistent with those from Study 1 in confirming our
first two hypotheses. Consistent with H1, social identification with a workgroup was
generally associated with lower levels of work-related stress (burnout) and higher levels
of job satisfaction. Consistent with H2, there was also evidence that the relationship
 Social identity and stress 365

between social identification and work stress was mediated by perceptions of the social
support provided specifically by in-group members. Such a pattern accords with our
central argument that social identification achieves its effects because it is a basis for
receiving and benefiting from the support of fellow group members – support which in
turn can serve as a buffer against the adverse effects of stress (Branscombe et al., 1999;
Haslam, 2004; Postmes & Branscombe, 2002).
Beyond these effects associated with secondary appraisal, and consistent with H3,
there was also evidence that participants’ membership of specific occupational groups
with distinct social identities impacted on their primary appraisal of stressors related to
those identities. More specifically, while bar staff found dealing with bombs to be much
more stressful than doing bar work, bomb disposal experts reported the opposite
pattern. Bar staff were thus relatively unfazed by the stresses of bar work, and bomb
handlers by the stresses of handling bombs.
The correlational nature of this study does not allow us to provide a definite
explanation of this pattern. It seems plausible, though, that it reflects the fact that both
groups’ collective experiences (e.g. during training and in the course of actually doing
their job) had allowed them to normalize aspects of work that might be quite abnormal
and threatening to the uninitiated (Ashforth, 2001). As one of the senior bomb disposal
officers put it during post-study discussions: ‘You expect what you see, so it’s not so
stressful. Disposing with bombs is something you do, not something out of the ordinary.’
Yet because handling bombs is more ‘out of the ordinary’ than working behind a bar,
normalization processes of this form would be expected to be particularly important in
preparing people for this form of work – a factor which may explain why there were
group differences in the perceived stressfulness of handling bombs but not in doing bar
work. Alternatively, it may be the case that the realities of bomb disposal work are more
at odds with widely shared preconceptions of what this work entails than those of bar
work, and hence show the most change once employees become familiar with them. In
either case, though, it seems clear that group membership (and the experiences it
provides) does have some role to play in stress appraisal and in the stress-related views
that people hold. As a result, universalistic gradings of the relative stressfulness of
particular occupations (e.g. of the form presented in most organizational textbooks) are
likely to be misleading (as the pattern of interaction displayed in Fig. 2 suggests).

GENERAL DISCUSSION
The two studies reported here provide support for our central claim that social identity
has a key role to play in the stress process. In the first instance, both studies show that
social identification with a relevant group (one’s family and friends when in hospital,
one’s colleagues when at work) is generally associated with reduced stress and greater
satisfaction. Moreover, both studies provide evidence that such relationships are
significantly mediated by social support. In Study 1 the relationship between social
identification and both stress and life satisfaction was mediated by social support
( presumably provided by family and friends) and in Study 2 the relationship between
social identification and both work-related stress and job satisfaction was mediated by
social support from work colleagues.
Such patterns are consistent with the social identity/self-categorization model of
stress which suggests that social identity protects individuals from the adverse effects of
potential stressors by providing them with a psychological basis for receiving and
benefiting from the support of other in-group members (Branscombe et al., 1999;
366 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

Figure 2. Study 2: The perceived stress of bar work and bomb work for bar staff and bomb disposal
officers.

Haslam, 2004; Haslam et al., 2004). This is because when individuals identify with a given
social group they are more likely to try to help other members of that group, more likely to
receive help in return (Levine et al., 2002, 2005), and, importantly, more likely to make
use of that help – for example, by interpreting it in the spirit in which it is intended.
Significantly too, this analysis is consistent with a large body of research in areas of
clinical, health, and community psychology which points to the practical importance of
social support in helping individuals to cope with sources of potential stress (e.g.
Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Cohen & Wills, 1985; Orford, 1992; Underwood, 2000).
However, in line with some of our previous experimental research, the present findings
also suggest that social support is not a free-floating variable that is visited at random on
particular individuals. Instead, it is highly correlated with social identification,
suggesting that people only perceive and only receive social support when they sense
that they share self-defining group membership with those in a position to provide it.
Psychologically, then, social support is not so much a physical characteristic of a given
individual’s social world that is (or is not) ‘out there’ ready to be harnessed, as the
product of a negotiated social categorical relationship between relevant parties. Rather
than being operationalized purely in terms of fixed characteristics (e.g. money,
intellectual and emotional input), support thus needs to be considered in terms of its
subjective meaning vis-à-vis the social relationships that it pertains to.
The same too, is broadly true of stressors themselves. Traditionally, organizational
and clinical researchers have revealed something of a penchant for quasi-actuarial tables
which attempt to quantify the extent to which a given event or experience is likely to
induce stress (e.g. Holmes & Rahe, 1967). As noted in the Introduction, such tables are
typically accompanied by the observation that the experience of stress is likely to vary as
a function of an individual’s personality or their occupation. Beyond this, though, the
present findings suggest that (a) the nature and strength of a person’s group
identification and (b) the meaning of a specific stressor in relation to that identity are
both very important predictors of any given stressor’s impact. If one were to rely on
 Social identity and stress 367

objective indices, for example (e.g. Johnston, 1997), it seems highly probable that
handling bombs and undergoing heart surgery would be identified as severe stressors.
Yet it is clear that whether these were perceived as such in the present studies varied
considerably as a function both of participants’ group membership (Study 2) and of the
extent to which such group membership was self-defining.
Such findings accord with transactional models of stress (after Lazarus & Folkman,
1984) which suggest that the experience of any given stressor is mediated by inter-related
processes of primary and secondary appraisal which dictate whether individuals perceive a
stressor as threatening and, if they do, whether they perceive themselves as having the
resources to cope with it. Nonetheless, it is also clear from the present (and previous)
research that within this model the psychological processes which underpin the appraisal
process are under-specified – not least because they are implicitly individualistic (e.g. see
Cooper, Dewe, & O’Driscoll, 2001; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004). Broadly speaking,
researchers have tended to argue that appraisal is dictated simply by the sources of
information to which a person is exposed (the informational model, after Festinger, 1954).
Such arguments are undermined, however, by experimental evidence which shows that
attempts to influence appraisal are less successful to the extent that stress-related
information is provided by out-group members (Haslam et al., 2004). In the present studies,
the fact that it was social identification (and not simply group membership) that predicted
well-being also speaks against the informational model. This is because these findings
suggest that in order to benefit from informational and other forms of support, it is not
enough simply to belong (or be seen by others to belong) to a particular group (e.g. to have
family and friends) and to be exposed to its informational, emotional, and material input.
Psychologically, that group has to be subjectively self-defining (Turner, 1982, 1999) so that
one identifies with it. Failure to attend to these factors is one reason, we would suggest, why
many support-providing interventions aimed at reducing stress typically meet with only
mixed success and often prove to be counterproductive (Dunkel-Schetter, Blasband,
Feinstein, & Herbert, 1992; Terry et al., 1996; Underwood, 2000).
Yet despite the fact that the above studies provide evidence that is consistent with
the model they were designed to test, it is also the case that the correlational nature of
the present research precludes a definitive causal interpretation of the relationship
between the variables we have investigated. In our analysis we have tended to argue that
social identification leads to social support and, through this, to reduced stress. This
causal pathway is consistent with previous experimental work (e.g. Haslam et al., 2004;
Levine et al., 2002), but nevertheless it needs to be acknowledged that alternative
interpretations are both possible and plausible. Indeed, along these lines, self-
categorization principles suggest that social identification has the potential to create an
‘upward spiral’ whereby identification increases social support and psychological well-
being, which in turn increase social identification (for related evidence see
Klandermans, Sabucedo, Rodriguez, & de Weerd, 2002; Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002;
Schmitt, Spears, & Branscombe, 2003).
In order to fully unravel the causal sequences here, there would thus appear to be a
strong case for conducting not only (a) more experimental studies but
also (b) longitudinal research designed to explore the inter-related development of
stress- and identity-related variables over time, and (c) intensive case studies which are
able to corroborate self-report data through independent observation of the events to
which they relate. Research of this form has been conducted (Haslam et al., 2004;
Haslam & Reicher, 2005), and it is highly consistent with the arguments developed here
(for an overview, see Haslam, 2004).
368 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

We would also want to underline the point that, in light of the methodological
limitations alluded to above, the value of the present studies lies chiefly in their capacity
to augment this programme of research rather than in their status as isolated data sets.
In this regard, because experimental and longitudinal studies tend to examine the
impact of relatively contrived stressors on convenience samples, the external validity of
their findings is often seen to be questionable (e.g. see Cooper et al., 2001). Hence the
most distinctive and valuable feature of the above studies is that they examine the stress
process in non-convenience samples whose strain is very real and very immediate.
Ultimately, then, the value of the present research is that it contributes to a process of
triangulation through which data obtained from multiple sample types and using
multiple methodologies can be integrated within, and accounted for by, a coherent
model of the stress process. It is certainly the case that more work needs to be done to
test this model. Nonetheless, the body of data to which the present studies contribute
convince us that self-categorization and social identity processes are deeply implicated
in the stress process and that clarifying the nature and impact of these is likely to be one
of the most exciting and rewarding avenues for future work in this field.

References
Ashforth, B. E. (2001). Role transitions in organizational life: An identity-based perspective.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Aspinwall, L. G., & Taylor, S. E. (1997). A stitch in time: Self-regulation and proactive coping.
Psychological Bulletin, 121, 417–436.
Balaam, B., & Haslam, S. A. (1998). A closer look at the role of social influence in the development
of attitudes to eating. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 8, 195–212.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social
psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 602–619.
Berkman, B. F. (1985). The relationship of social networks and social support to morbidity and
mortality. In S. Cohen & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Social support and health. New York: Academic Press.
Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Harvey, R. D. (1999). Perceiving pervasive discrimination
among African Americans: Implications for group identification and well-being. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 135–149.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological
Bulletin, 98, 310–357.
Cooper, C. L., Dewe, P. J., & O’Driscoll, M. P. (2001). Organizational stress: A review and critique
of theory, research and applications. London: Sage.
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of
responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377–383.
Doosje, B., Ellemers, N., & Spears, R. (1995). Perceived intragroup variability as a function of
group status and identification. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 410–436.
Dunkel-Schetter, C., Blasband, D. E., Feinstein, L. G., & Herbert, T. B. (1992). Elements of supportive
interaction: When are attempts to help effective? In S. Spacapan & S. Oskamp (Eds.), Helping
and being helped in the real world. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Ellemers, N., Doosje, B., & Spears, R. (2004). Sources of respect: The effects of being liked by
ingroups and outgroups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 155–172.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 114–140.
Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. Annual Review of
Psychology, 55, 745–774.
Gump, B. B., & Kulik, J. A. (1997). Stress, affiliation and emotional contagion. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 305–319.
 Social identity and stress 369

Haslam, S. A. (2004). Psychology in organizations: The social identity approach (2nd ed.).
London: Sage.
Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., O’Brien, A., & Jacobs, E. (2004). Social identity, social influence, and
reactions to potentially stressful tasks: Support for the self-categorization model of stress.
Stress and Health, 20, 3–9.
Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (2003). Experimental design and causality in social psychological
research. In C. Sanson, C. C. Morf, & A. T. Panter (Eds.), Handbook of methods in social
psychology ( pp. 235–264 ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Haslam, S. A., & Reicher, S. D. (2005). Stressing the group: Social identity and the unfolding
dynamics of responses to stress. Manuscript submitted for publication: Universities of Exeter
and St Andrews.
Haslam, S. A., & Waghorn, C., O’Sullivan, L., Jetten, J., & O’Brien, A (2004). Social identity, stress
and positive work-related outcomes: A five-phase longitudinal study. Manuscript submitted
for publication: University of Exeter.
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of
Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–218.
Hopkins, K. M. (1997). Supervisor intervention with troubled workers: A social identity
perspective. Human Relations, 50, 1215–1238.
House, J. S. (1981). Work stress and social support. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Jackson, S. E., Schwab, R. L., & Schuler, R. S. (1986). Toward an understanding of the burnout
phenomenon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 630–640.
Johnston, M. (1997). Hospitalization in adults. In A. Baum, S. Newman, J. Weinman, R. West & C.
McManus (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of psychology, health and medicine. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Klandermans, B., Sabucedo, J. M., Rodriguez, M., & de Weerd, M. (2002). Identity processes in
collective action participation: Farmers’ identity and farmers’ protest in the Netherlands and
Spain. Political Psychology, 23, 235–251.
Kobosa, S. (1982). The hardy personality: Toward a social psychology of stress and health.
In G. Sanders & J. Suls (Eds.), Social psychology of health and illness (pp. 3–32). Hillsdale,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Kulik, J. A., Mahler, H., & Moore, P. J. (1996). Social comparison and affiliation under threat: Effects
on recovery from major surgery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 967–979.
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer Publishing
Company.
Lewin, B. (1995). Cardiac disorder. In A. Broome & S. Llewelyn (Eds.), Health psychology
(2nd ed.). London: Chapman and Hall.
Levine, R. M. (1999). Identity and illness: The effects of identity salience and frame of reference on
evaluation of illness and injury. British Journal of Health Psychology, 4, 63–80.
Levine, R. M., Cassidy, C., Brazier, G., & Reicher, S. D. (2002). Self-categorization and bystander
non-intervention: Two experimental studies. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32,
1452–1463.
Levine, R. M., Prosser, A., Evans, D., & Reicher, S. D. (2005). Identity and emergency intervention:
How social group membership and inclusiveness of group boundaries shape helping behavior.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 443–453.
Levine, R. M., & Reicher, S. D. (1996). Making sense of symptoms: Self-categorization and the
meaning of illness and injury. British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 245–256.
Mayou, R., & Bryant, B. (1987). Quality of life after coronary artery surgery. Quarterly Journal of
Medicine, 62, 239–248.
McGarty, C., Haslam, S. A., Hutchinson, K. J., & Turner, J. C. (1994). The effects of salient group
memberships on persuasion. Small Group Research, 25, 267–293.
370 S. Alexander Haslam et al.

Newman, S. (1997). Cardiac surgery. In A. Baum, S. Newman, J. Weinman, R. West, & C. McManus
(Eds.), Cambridge handbook of psychology, health and medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Orford, J. (1992). Community psychology. Chichester: Wiley.
Pearlin, L. (1993). The social contexts of stress. In L. Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of
stress (2nd ed., pp. 303–315 ). New York: The Free Press.
Postmes, T., & Branscombe, N. (2002). Influence of long-term racial environmental composition
on subjective-well-being in African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
83, 735–751.
Preacher, K. J., & Leonardelli, G. J (2001). Calculation for the Sobel Test: An interactive
calculation tool for mediation tests. http://www.unc.edu/ , preacher/sobel/sobel.htm
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
Rosenman, R., Friedman, M., Straus, R., Wurm, M., Kositchek, R., Hahn, W., & Werthessen, N.
(1964). A predictive study of coronary heart disease. Journal of the American Medical
Association, 189, 15–22.
Schmitt, M. T., & Branscombe, N. R. (2002). The meaning and consequences of perceived
discrimination in disadvantaged and privileged social groups. European Review of Social
Psychology, 12, 167–199.
Schmitt, M. T., Branscombe, N. R., & Postmes, T. (2003). Women’s emotional responses to the
perception of pervasive gender discrimination. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33,
297–312.
Schmitt, M. T., Spears, R., & Branscombe, N. R. (2003). Constructing a minority group identity out
of shared rejection: The case of international students. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 33, 1–12.
Statt, D. A. (1994). Psychology and the world of work. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Stott, C., & Drury, J. (2004). The importance of social structure and social interaction in the
processes governing stereotype consensus and content: Is the whole greater than the sum of
its parts? European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 11–23.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin &
S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations ( pp. 33–47 ). Monterey, CA:
Brooks/Cole.
Terry, D. J., Callan, V. J., & Sartori, G. (1996). Employee adjustment to an organizational merger:
Stress, coping and intergroup differences. Stress Medicine, 12, 105–122.
Terry, D. J., Carey, C. J., & Callan, V. J. (2001). Employee adjustment to an organizational merger: An
intergroup perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 267–290.
Turner, J.C. (1982). Towards a cognitive redefinition of the social group. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Social
identity and intergroup relations ( pp. 15–40 ). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Turner, J. C. (1985). Social categorization and the self-concept: A social cognitive theory of group
behaviour. In E. J. Lawler (Ed.), Advances in group processes (Vol. 2, pp. 77–122). Greenwich,
CT: JAI Press.
Turner, J.C. (1999). Some current issues in research on social identity and self-categorization
theories. In N. Ellemers, R. Spears, & B. Doosje (Eds.), Social identity: Context, commitment,
content ( pp. 6–34 ). Oxford: Blackwell.
Turner, J. C. Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the
social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, New York: Blackwell.
Turner, J. C., Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. A. (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and
social context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 454–463.
Underwood, P. W. (2000). Social support: The promise and reality. In B. H. Rice (Ed.), Handbook
of stress, coping and health ( pp. 367–391 ). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Received 8 September 2003; revised version received 9 August 2004