I is for… Identity

Suggested by Jonathan Artman 

'Identity is an integral part of every single one of us. Identity also plays a huge part in psychology, including a number of psychological disorders. There are many different factors that make up one's identity, like personality, looks and beliefs. Erik Eriksson was one of the first psychologists to explore identity formally.'

A 2016 study led by Ines Blix, covered on our Research Digest, surveyed people caught up in the 2011 Oslo attacks. Those who saw the event as central to their identities had higher levels of trauma (the 'launch') and this remained after two years (the 'snare').
 
How can you encourage your students to go beyond plagiarism to develop their own 'authorial identity'? James Elander had some advice in a July 2015 article for us.
 
What's it like to work in a national Gender Identity Clinic? Penny Lenihan, Christina Richards and Felicity Adams talked about their roles in a October 2011 piece.
 
Reminding a banker they're a banker makes them more dishonest. 'Our results suggest that banks should encourage honest behaviours by changing the norms associated with their workers' professional identity,' Alain Cohn and colleagues concluded in a 2014 Nature study. 'For example, several experts and regulators have proposed that bank employees should take a professional oath analogous to the Hippocratic oath for physicians.'

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