“I STARTED THE DAY JUST CRYING FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT.” ECHO-LOCATING THE VULNERABLE SELF ON INSTAGRAM.

Building on previous online-ethnographic fieldwork on the #strokesurvivor-community on Instagram, this contribution dives deeper into practices of echo-locating (Markham 2020) the vulnerable self on Instagram. This paper aims to reconstruct practices of adapting to a new body, identity and self through communicating on Instagram from a symbolic-interactionist perspective. I build on Goffman’s concept of stigma, Charmaz’ studies on adapting to illness and impairment and use the lens of Markham’s (2020) concept of echo-locating the self through online connection, Based on close readings and interpretations of postings, including pictures, captions and comments, as well as interviews with active community members, two critical antipodes of sense- and self-making in the #strokesurvivor-community emerged: First, mourning the loss of the familiar body, self, and identity and related identity goals. Users seek permission to mourn and also validation for their grief through their postings and comments. Second, and probably oppositional, perseverance, or in its extreme form, toxic positivity - this concept refers to a (more or less forced) attitude of optimism while ignoring valid reasons to actually not be positive, a mindset that seems to be embedded in a “contemporary cult of happiness” (Wright 2014) and cruel optimism (Berlant 2010). In the #strokesurvivor-community, a positive mindset and belief in the possibility of regaining physical and mental functions is a recurring theme and strong imperative. The contribution focuses on the reconstruction of patterns and practices of mourning and perseverance and their relevance to the echo-location of the vulnerable self.

Identity, agency and intercultural dialogic competencies in L2 ultimate attainment

This preliminary study seeks to examine the role of agency and bilinguals’ identity negotiated in the processes of acculturation as key factors in attaining a very high or near-native L2 proficiency. Since these aspects appear to have been underestimated in research on L2 ultimate attainment, interviews were carried out with eight L2 speakers of Polish (four near-native and four highly advanced bilinguals) in order to obtain qualitative data on participants’ self-identity and acculturation. The results show that the near-native subjects identified themselves very strongly with the receiving society, whereas highly proficient L2 speakers retained a much stronger sense of L1-related identity. It is hypothesized that bilinguals’ acculturation strategies and intercultural dialogic competencies may be decisive factors in determining L2 near-nativeness.

Work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior: the role of intrinsic motivation and self-construal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of intrinsic motivation and self-construal in explaining the relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey of 637 respondents from 15 organizations in southern China, this study examines four hypotheses with regard to the relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior through hierarchical regression analysis. Findings The research results indicate that work-related identity discrepancy is negatively related to employee innovation behavior, but intrinsic motivation mediates their negative relationship, and self-construal moderates this mediating effect further. Specifically, the results demonstrate that perceiving work-related identity discrepancy can lower intrinsic motivation among employees with interdependent self-construal and subsequently reduce their innovation behavior. Originality/value Drawn on social cognitive theory, this study reveals the negative effect of work-related identity discrepancy on employee innovation behavior and the moderated mediation effect of intrinsic motivation and self-construal on the negative relationship. The finding expands existing literature on work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior.

The Moderated-Mediation Effect of Workplace Anxiety and Regulatory Focus in the Relationship between Work-Related Identity Discrepancy and Employee Innovation

Extant research on work-related identity discrepancy mostly has probed its effects on employees’ attitudes and emotions but has paid little attention to its impact on employee behaviors. Drawing on self-discrepancy theory, we examined the influencing mechanism and conditions of work-related identity discrepancy on employee innovation behavior. With data collected from 563 employees who personally experienced leadership transition in the workplace, we found that work-related identity discrepancy predicts employee innovation behavior through workplace anxiety. We also discovered that employees’ personality traits—promotion regulatory focus and prevention regulatory focus in particular—can intensify or buffer the negative relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and employee innovation behavior. We further discuss the conceptual and practical implications of these findings.

Work-Related Identity Discrepancy and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Role of Emotional Exhaustion and Supervisor Incivility

This research investigates the role of emotional exhaustion and supervisor incivility in explaining the relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and counterproductive work behavior. Based on resource conservation theory, our study hypothesizes a moderated mediation model that work-related identity discrepancy impacts counterproductive work behavior through emotional exhaustion, and supervisor incivility is deemed as the boundary condition in the indirect effect. Drawing on a sample of 863 employees, we found support for the moderated mediation model in which the positive relationship between work-related identity discrepancy and counterproductive work behavior was mediated by emotional exhaustion, such that the mediating relationship was strengthened for new leaders with a low level of supervisor incivility and weakened for those with high level of supervisor incivility. We further discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Split-Level Legitimacy and Politicization in EU Governance

Chapter 3 explores the dilemmas of the EU’s “split-level” legitimacy, where output and throughput operate primarily at the EU level and input at the national, and then examines the impact of politicization on both national and EU levels. The chapter begins by considering the EU’s legitimacy problems stemming from the fragmentation of its governing activities, with policies and processes located mainly at the EU level while politics remains national. While the EU has been largely successful in improving legitimacy in all three categories over time, it has faced major challenges to legitimacy. In the Eurozone crisis, citizens’ sense of EU legitimacy has suffered even if their EU-related identity may not have. The chapter then focuses on the EU’s biggest challenge, the politicization of EU governance. After briefly describing the longstanding depoliticization of EU technocratic governance, this section argues that the EU’s politicization has been increasing not only at the bottom, as evidenced by the weakening of mainstream parties to the benefit of populist challengers, or from the bottom up, as national politics influences EU actors, but also at the top, where EU actors have become more politicized. The chapter uses the debates about who is in charge or control of EU governance to show how scholars’ defense of “their” actor through “new” or traditional versions of intergovernmentalism, supranationalism, and parliamentarism actually demonstrates the EU’s increasingly political dynamics of interaction. This chapter ends with the question: Is such politicization a good thing or a bad thing?

Van Tongeren et al. (2020) JPSP - Religious Residue

More than 1 billion people worldwide report no religious affiliation. These religious “nones” represent the world’s third largest religion-related identity group and are a diverse group, with some having previous religious identification and others never identifying as religious. We examined how three forms of religious identification—current, former, and never—influence a range of cognitions, emotions, and behavior. Three studies using nationally representative samples of religious Western (United States), secular Western (Netherlands, New Zealand) and Eastern (Hong Kong) cultures showed evidence of a religious residue effect: formerly religious individuals (i.e., religious “dones”) differed from never religious and currently religious individuals in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes. Study 1 (n=3,071) offered initial cross-cultural evidence, which was extended in a preregistered replication study that also included measures of charitable contribution (Study 2; n=1,626). Study 3 (N=31,604) found that individuals who deidentified were still relatively likely to engage in prosocial behavior (e.g., volunteering) after leaving religion. This research has broad implications for understanding changing global trends in religious identification and their consequences for psychology and behavior.