Doctoral Disseration Research: Strategic Framing and Identity Management within Social Movement Organizations

霍莉·麦卡蒙考特尼·缪斯范德比尔特大学这项论文研究解决了具有潜在冲突身份的个人如何设法参与围绕这些不和谐身份建立的社会运动的问题。 具体来说，社会运动组织可以为运动参与者利用哪些框架或信息来改善身份冲突，从而维持运动参与？ 迄今为止，社会运动学者或对运动身份感兴趣的社会心理学家尚未明确研究这些关系。为了了解组织如何影响其成员之间的身份冲突，联合首席研究员将研究小木屋共和党人 (LCR)，这是一个由同性恋保守派组成的组织，这两种身份通常不相关。 对 LCR 网站和公众采访的初步内容分析表明，LCR 章节使用至少 20 个不同的框架来调和同性恋和共和主义。 共同PI认为，这些框架使LCR成员能够克服美国保守派和同性恋者的困难，并且LCR框架工作对于分会为维持其选区而进行的身份管理至关重要。 数据将通过对亚特兰大、芝加哥和纳什维尔约 80 名 LCR 分会成员的深入访谈来收集。 这些访谈旨在获取有关三方成员之间身份冲突经历的信息，以及 LCR 框架工作是否/如何有助于减少这些冲突。 本论文将通过弥合组织框架和身份的讨论来为社会运动文献做出贡献。 通过检查组织框架和框架咬合器的特征，我们可以更准确地评估哪些运动群体可能获得支持。 这项研究将提供证据，证明哪种类型的框架过程和框架特征最能成功地减少选民之间的身份冲突，并说明个人如何利用组织信息来克服潜在的身份冲突。 除了理论贡献外，这项研究还有更广泛的影响。 该研究将产生一个独特的数据集，其中包括社会运动研究人员之前未检查过的信息。 该数据集将提供给其他学者，以便他们可以继续进行这一研究。 该研究还将为任何有关性别、性行为和/或社会运动的本科生提供新的视角。

Holly McCammonCourtney MuseVanderbilt UniversityThis dissertation research addresses the question of how individuals with potentially conflicting identities manage to participate in a social movement built around those discordant identities. Specifically, what frames or messages do social movement organizations that can be utilized by movement participants in order to ameliorate moments of identity conflict and thus sustain movement participation? To date, these relationships have not been explicitly examined by scholars of social movements or by social psychologists interested in movement identities. In order to understand how organizations influence identity conflicts among their members, the co-PI will study the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organization composed of gay conservatives -- two identities not typically associated. A preliminary content analysis of LCR websites and public interviews shows that LCR chapters are using at least 20 different frames to reconcile homosexuality and Republicanism. The co-PI argues that these frames allow LCR members to overcome the difficulties of being conservative and gay in America, and that LCR framing efforts are essential to the identity management undertaken by the chapters to maintain their constituencies. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews with approximately 80 LCR chapter members in Atlanta, Chicago, and Nashville. These interviews are designed to elicit information about experiences of identity conflicts among constituents and whether/how LCR framing efforts help to reduce those conflicts. This dissertation will contribute to the social movement literature by bridging the discussions of organizational framing and identity. By examining the characteristics of organizational frames and frame articulators, we can more accurately evaluate which movement groups are likely to garner support. This research will provide evidence of what type of framing processes and frame characteristics most successfully reduce identity conflicts among a constituency as well as illustrate how individuals utilize organizational messages to overcome potentially conflicting identities. In addition to the theoretical contributions, there are broader impacts of this research. The study will produce a unique data set that includes information not previously examined by social movement researchers. This data set will be available to other scholars so that they may continue in this vein of research. The research will also provide a new perspective for undergraduate students in any classes on gender, sexuality and/or social movements.