The impact of social identity integration on well-being, performance, and information behavior

人类的自我概念是灵活的，能够适应社会世界的多样性。目前的研究方案旨在调查拥有多个社会身份的个人的内部多样性管理。更具体地说，考察了(1)自我概念的组织如何影响幸福感和绩效，(2)自我概念组织是否可以被情境改变，(3)自我概念组织如何影响信息行为。研究表明，当一个人在一种社会认同的基础上进行体验时，这些体验可以通过另一种社会认同来减少。基于个人自我概念的研究结果，提出只有独立的社会认同才适合减少或放大单一身份体验。然而，社会认同或多或少地被整合到自我概念中。研究方案的第一部分调查了当一个社会认同受到影响时，两种社会认同之间的整合是否会对另一种社会认同的潜在缓冲或放大效应产生影响。基于自我概念的网络理论和社会认同复杂性模型，与社会认同独立时相比，基于一个社会认同的积极和消极体验都会溢出到认同的整体部分，从而对影响和自我评价产生更大的影响。在教育领域，据预测，刻板印象威胁的影响只能通过独立的替代社会身份来缓冲。研究建议的第二部分调查身份整合如何在情景中改变。研究假设，激活关于社会认同之间的异同的知识可以调节情境自我概念组织，从而改变单一身份体验的效果。研究建议的第三部分旨在调查身份整合对信息行为的影响。据预测，当身份整合程度较高时，个体在信息偏好、解释、对异质信息的学习和媒介行为方面的偏向程度会低于身份整合程度较低的情况。11项研究，包括实地研究和实验，以及各种样本被提出，以系统地检验预测。综上所述，该研究项目有助于更好地理解自我概念组织对异质社会世界的适应及其对幸福感、绩效和信息行为的影响。有了这些知识，环境可以被积极地设计来支持人们进行个人多样性管理，以适应复杂的社会环境。

The human self-concept is flexible and capable of adaption to diversity in the social world. The current research proposal sets out to investigate the intrapersonal diversity management of an individual who possesses several social identities. More specifically, it is investigated (1) how the organization of the self-concept affects well-being and performance, (2) whether the self-concept organization can be situationally changed and (3) how the self-concept organization affects information behavior. Research has demonstrated that when an individual makes experiences on the basis of one social identity, these experiences can be reduced by an alternative social identity. Based on findings from the personal self-concept, it is proposed that only independent social identities are suitable to reduce or amplify single-identity experiences. Social identities are, however, more or less integrated in the self-concept. The first part of the research proposal investigates whether the integration between two social identities has an impact on the potential buffering or amplifying effect of an alternative social identity when one social identity is affected. Based on network theories of the self-concept and on social identity complexity models, it is predicted that positive as well as negative experiences based on one social identity spill over to integrated parts of the identity and therefore influence affect and self-appraisal more strongly, compared to when the social identity is independent. In the educational domain, it is predicted that the effect of stereotype threat can only be buffered by independent alternative social identities. The second part of the research proposal investigates how identity integration can be situationally changed. It is assumed that activating knowledge about similarities and differences between the social identities can tune the situational self-concept organization and thereby change the effect of single identity experiences. The third part of the research proposal sets out to investigate the consequences of identity integration on information behavior. It is predicted that when identity integration is high, individuals will be less biased in information preference, interpretation, their learning from heterogeneous information and their media behavior than when identity integration is low. Eleven studies, including field studies and experiments, and a variety of samples are proposed to systematically test the predictions. Taken together, the research project contributes to a better understanding of the adaptation of the self-concept organization to a heterogeneous social world and its consequences for well-being, performance, and information behavior. With this knowledge, circumstances can be actively designed to support people in their intrapersonal diversity management as an adaptation to a complex social environment.