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From "We" to "Me": Group Identification Enhances Perceived Personal Control With Consequences for Health and Well-Being

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Katharine Greenaway at University of Melbourne
Katharine Greenaway
S. Alexander Haslam at The University of Queensland
S. Alexander Haslam
Tegan Cruwys at Australian National University
Tegan Cruwys
Nyla R. Branscombe at University of Kansas
Nyla R. Branscombe
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Abstract

There is growing recognition that identification with social groups can protect and enhance health and well-being, thereby constituting a kind of "social cure." The present research explores the role of control as a novel mediator of the relationship between shared group identity and well-being. Five studies provide evidence for this process. Group identification predicted significantly greater perceived personal control across 47 countries (Study 1), and in groups that had experienced success and failure (Study 2). The relationship was observed longitudinally (Study 3) and experimentally (Study 4). Manipulated group identification also buffered a loss of personal control (Study 5). Across the studies, perceived personal control mediated social cure effects in political, academic, community, and national groups. The findings reveal that the personal benefits of social groups come not only from their ability to make people feel good, but also from their ability to make people feel capable and in control of their lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES
From “We” to “Me”: Group Identification Enhances Perceived Personal
Control With Consequences for Health and Well-Being
Katharine H. Greenaway and S. Alexander Haslam
The University of Queensland and The Canadian Institute
for Advanced Research, Social Interactions, Identity, and
Well-Being Program
Tegan Cruwys
The University of Queensland
Nyla R. Branscombe
University of Kansas and The Canadian Institute for Advanced
Research, Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being Program
Renate Ysseldyk
Carleton University and The Canadian Institute for Advanced
Research, Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being Program
Courtney Heldreth
University of California, Los Angeles
There is growing recognition that identification with social groups can protect and enhance health and
well-being, thereby constituting a kind of “social cure.” The present research explores the role of control
as a novel mediator of the relationship between shared group identity and well-being. Five studies
provide evidence for this process. Group identification predicted significantly greater perceived personal
control across 47 countries (Study 1), and in groups that had experienced success and failure (Study 2).
The relationship was observed longitudinally (Study 3) and experimentally (Study 4). Manipulated group
identification also buffered a loss of personal control (Study 5). Across the studies, perceived personal
control mediated social cure effects in political, academic, community, and national groups. The findings
reveal that the personal benefits of social groups come not only from their ability to make people feel
good, but also from their ability to make people feel capable and in control of their lives.
Keywords: social identity, group identification, perceived control, agency, efficacy
When people think of being healthy, it is often at the level of the
individual. How much do you exercise? What is your diet? Do you
have a genetic predisposition to particular health problems? Yet,
an emerging research agenda based on the principles of the social
identity approach demonstrates that individual health and well-
being is profoundly shaped by a person’s group memberships and
social connections (e.g., Haslam, Jetten, Postmes, & Haslam,
2009;Jetten, Haslam, & Haslam, 2012;Jetten, Haslam, Haslam, &
Branscombe, 2009). Collectively referred to as the “social cure,”
these findings show that belonging to, and identifying with, im-
portant social groups can make people healthier. However, how—
and why— do the groups we belong to improve our health and
well-being?
What is currently less well developed in the literature is an
understanding of the mechanisms through which group-level fac-
tors impact on individual health and well-being. The present re-
search addresses this gap, testing perceived personal control as a
novel mechanism through which group identification operates to
protect mental and physical health. This is a counterintuitive
approach, given that people often see groups as compromising
This article was published Online First May 4, 2015.
Katharine H. Greenaway and S. Alexander Haslam, The University of
Queensland, School of Psychology and The Canadian Institute for Advanced
Research, Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being Program; Tegan Cru-
wys, The University of Queensland, School of Psychology; Nyla R.
Branscombe, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas and The Ca-
nadian Institute for Advanced Research, Social Interactions, Identity, and
Well-Being Program; Renate Ysseldyk, Department of Health Sciences, Car-
leton University and The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Social
Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being Program; Courtney Heldreth, Depart-
ment of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Preparation of this article was facilitated by awards to the lead,
second, fourth, and fifth authors from the Canadian Institute for Ad-
vanced Research: Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-being Program
and to the second author from the Australian Research Council
(FL110100199). We thank William Bingley, Nerisa Dozo, Elise Kalok-
erinos, and Michael Slepian for assistance with analyses and manuscript
preparation and Aaron Kay and Jolanda Jetten for comments on the
manuscript.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Katharine
H. Greenaway, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane
4072, Australia. E-mail: k.greenaway@psy.uq.edu.au
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2015, Vol. 109, No. 1, 53–74
© 2015 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/15/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000019
53
... While many factors impact these constructs, ample research indicates that better well-being outcomes are associated with the ability to control impulses and regulate emotional reactions (e.g., Moffitt et al., 2011;Greenaway et al., 2015;Wang and Chen, 2023). To illustrate, longitudinal findings reported by Moffitt et al. (2011) showed how poor self-control in childhood forecasts significant adversities in adulthood such as addiction, legal troubles, and deteriorating mental and physical well-being, all of which have major costs to society. ...
... More recently, results in the 2024 World Happiness Report showed that freedom to make life choices was associated with satisfaction with life in samples from 155 countries (Helliwell et al., 2024). Freedom of choice (i.e., "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?") is conceptually related to perceived personal control (e.g., "I am free to live my life how I wish"; Greenaway et al., 2015), a focal construct in the current study. Greenaway et al. (2015) reported moderate associations between greater perceived personal control and higher levels of well-being (comprising life satisfaction, happiness, and subjective health items; Study 1: 62,000 participants from 47 countries), higher levels of life satisfaction (Study 2: 129 American community members and Study 3: 142 Australian undergraduate students), and lower levels of depression (Study 3). ...
... Freedom of choice (i.e., "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?") is conceptually related to perceived personal control (e.g., "I am free to live my life how I wish"; Greenaway et al., 2015), a focal construct in the current study. Greenaway et al. (2015) reported moderate associations between greater perceived personal control and higher levels of well-being (comprising life satisfaction, happiness, and subjective health items; Study 1: 62,000 participants from 47 countries), higher levels of life satisfaction (Study 2: 129 American community members and Study 3: 142 Australian undergraduate students), and lower levels of depression (Study 3). Indeed, perceived personal control is a critical predictor of well-being across the lifespan (Cerino et al., 2024). ...
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... Researchers have argued that social groups can function as "social cures" providing individuals with a sense of purpose and belonging, enriching them, and making them stronger and healthier [10][11][12]. Therefore, having a positive view of the social groups one belongs to can positively impact overall health and well-being, and act as a psychological resource [13,14]. ...
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