Feedback on OMRSE plans to model social identity

[Bill Hogan]

Dear OBO Community,

We had our monthly OMRSE (Ontology for Medically Relevant Social Entities) last week.  We plan to model social identity data, and to understand and represent the reality that such data are about, we will be looking at reality through the lens of Social Identity Theory.

We are soliciting input as to whether the community sees any problems with, or has any recommendations for alternatives to, or any cautions in using, Social Identity Theory.

If you or someone you know is versed in this theory and would like to participate, please contact me.

Thanks!

Bill Hogan

on behalf of the OMRSE community

[Bjoern Peters]

Hi Bill, 

I had never heard of 'Social Identiy Theory' - is there a quick primer that you would recommend reading to understand better? Or can you give a list of examples what kind of classes you would anticipate creating? 

- Bjoern

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[Bill Hogan]

Bjoern,

Here is one resource that I found: https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/hdbk_socialpsychtheories2/n45.xml#:~:text=Social%20identity%20theory%20is%20a,rather%20than%20as%20unique%20individuals.&text=The%20theory%20also%20specifies%20different,with%20a%20devalued%20social%20identity.

It's ok, but I am actively looking for additional resources.  I don't want to invest seriously in any resources if it's not the right direction.

The PDF I linked above describes three processes that might be classes: social categorization, social comparison, and social identification.

Hard to say where even in BFO a "social identity" like gender or ethnic identity fits without doing more research, thinking, investigation, discussion, etc..  Is it a process?  Role?  Other realizabile?  Something else?  Maybe there are processes that create realizabiles....

Bill

[Bjoern Peters]

Hi Bill, 

The document at that link is behind a paywall for me. So I went to Wikipedia (should have thought of that earlier), and think I understand enough now to know that I don't understand enough to contribute meaningfully :) 

As long as there is a clear placement of terms related to social identity within BFO / OBO, that allows to easily distinguish them from others, I see no problems and would welcome such work. 

- Bjoern  

[Janna Hastings]

Hi Bill,

We have been looking at identity in the context of the UCL behaviour-related projects (Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology, Addiction Ontology) that I'm involved in.

We have tried to come up with definitions for identity and related entities that would be theory-neutral in themselves but would be compatible with various theories, including the Social Identity Theory, Self-Categorisation Theory, Psychological Identity Theory, and others. I am not sure what the relative advantages and disadvantages of these theories are, but  I would imagine that it would not be so useful to draw from just one of these theories without looking at the others.

The basic idea we're working with is that identity is a representational entity, representing personal attributes and group memberships. This then separates 'identity' as such from physical attributes, even though in many cases these may closely track one another.

With that in mind we are proposing the following entities and associated definitions, which then fit in the appropriate places beneath BFO via mid-level ontologies:

identity: A mental representation of a person as perceived by the person or by others. ['mental representation' is in the Mental Functioning Ontology]

core identity: An identity that is enduring and important to the person who has the identity.

self-identity: An identity that a person has about themselves.

self-appraisal of identity: Appraisal in which the object of the appraisal is an aspect of one's own identity.  ['appraisal' is in the Emotion Ontology, it is an affective evaluation]

positive self-appraisal of identity: Self-appraisal of identity that construes the identity as good.

These are still under development -- the main expert that is working with us on this topic is Caitlin Notley, a social psychologist and addiction expert (https://people.uea.ac.uk/c_notley, CC'ed). She is leading a paper we are currently working on about the ontological representation of identities that we are hoping to submit soon-ish (it has been a bit delayed by COVID).

Just a side point about theories, we have also been working on a database of theories represented as constructs and relationships -- you can see social identity theory here in it: https://theory-database.appspot.com/theory/68. We are in the process of mapping each of the constructs in this theory database to ontologies so that we will hopefully be able to map between research studies that made use of different theoretical frameworks.

We would be happy to discuss all of this further with you?

Best wishes,

Janna

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[Bill Hogan]

Janna, Caitlin,

Thank you!!  We definitely don't want to re-invent the wheel and were undertaking the task with a good deal of circumspection, if not outright apprehension.  We are more than happy to re-use in OMRSE what you have done in BCIO/AO.  We'll look at that work in our next monthly OMRSE meeting, which if you want/are able to join us, occurs the first Wednesday of the month at 11a ET.   We'd be happy to schedule a special meeting to discuss these issues separately if that works better for you.

Caitlin, what you say about too much focus on the individual is interesting.  After reading/studying the summary I linked to, I thought there must be more written elsewhere about the group dynamic that helps explain for example the degree of impermeability of group boundaries.

Bill

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 10:02 AM Caitlin Notley (MED - Staff) <C.No...@uea.ac.uk> wrote:

Hi Janna

 

Thanks for CC’ing me in to this message. I am not sure of the background and context apart from scrolling through the message thread, but I am happy to help and join a discussion anytime.

 

I had not seen the prototype theory database – this will be a fantastically useful resource. And being able to map studies that use different theoretical positions according to the database will be extremely insightful.

 

SIT – it is an influential theory in social psychology but also well critiqued, mainly from a more sociological perspective as overly focusing on the individual as relatively decontextualised albeit influenced by a narrow range of social influence (primarily at the meso, or small group, level). The approach largely ignore macro social influence on identity, class, culture, social structure etc. As Janna says, I would caution against a focus on SIT in isolation and would advocate for a diverse theoretical approach. Our ontological definition of identity strives to be atheoretical , but can be operationalised within different theoretical approaches, each of which may cast a slightly different lens on the definition.

 

Really more than happy to discuss identity and related theory anytime!

 

Caitlin

 

 

Professor Caitlin Notley

Professor of Addiction Sciences

Chief Investigator: The BabyBreathe Trial

Co-lead for the COVID-19 Health Behaviour and Wellbeing Tracker study

Chief Investigator: The NeSCi Study - Neonatal unit Smoking Cessation intervention development

MBBS Module 11 lead, Mental Health and Psychiatry

Due to COVID-19 I will be working flexibly and may be working unusual hours. Please do not feel obliged to reply until your own working hours.

Norwich Medical School
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University of East Anglia
Norwich Research Park

Tel: 01603 591275 email: c.no...@uea.ac.uk twitter: @AddictionUea

www.uea.ac.uk/medicine/research/addiction

 

 

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From: Janna Hastings <janna.h...@gmail.com>
Sent: 15 January 2021 14:42
To: Bill Hogan <hog...@gmail.com>
Cc: obo-discuss <obo-d...@googlegroups.com>; Caitlin Notley (MED - Staff) <C.No...@uea.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [obo-discuss] Feedback on OMRSE plans to model social identity

 

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