Personal condition but social cure: Agentic ingroups elevate well‐being in chronically ill patients through perceptions of personal control

Abstract

Objectives. Social-cure research has shown that ingroup identification can be beneficial for personal health and well-being. Initial evidence for healthy participants suggests that this might be due to group membership providing a sense of personal control. In this research, we investigate this pathway for chronically ill patients, assuming that any ingroup (even patient identity) can serve as social cure by increasing control as long as the ingroup is perceived as agentic (i.e., effective).Design. We conducted six correlational field studies with patients suffering from different chronic conditions, e.g., cancer (N total = 795).Methods. All participants were asked about one specific ingroup, e.g., their self-help group. Our main measures were ingroup identification, ingroup agency, personal control and well-being, as well as self-esteem and social support (both discussed as alternative mediators). We performed simple mediation and/or moderated mediation analyses for each study and across studies (merging Studies 2-6).Results. Overall, the impact of ingroup identification on personal well-being was uniquely mediated via personal control (Studies 1, 2, 3, 6) but, as expected, only for those perceiving their ingroup as highly agentic (Studies 4, 5, 6).Conclusions. Ingroup agency is a boundary condition for the control-based pathway of the social cure effect supporting the model of group-based control. This has practical implications for clinical interventions with chronically ill patients.

Agency Through the We: Group-Based Control Theory

“…Indeed, in a test of this hypothesis, people who identified, or were made to identify, more strongly with their in-group (e.g., their own nation) indicated a higher sense of personal control and wellbeing (Greenaway et al, 2015). My colleagues and I (Relke et al, 2021) recently showed similar effects for people with various kinds of chronic or potentially terminal diseases. Identification with self-help groups or the group of cancer patients was associated with an elevated sense of control and well-being, particularly when patients perceived these groups to be agentic.…”

“…Obviously, humans' propensity to perceive control not only on the personal level but also on collective levels of the self has the potential to unfreeze individuals' paralysis in the face of the great collective challenges of our time. At the same time, as a spillover, when people perceive themselves as being part of a collective endeavor, such as saving the climate, this might not only enable personal action but also improve their health (Relke et al, 2021).…”

“…Although control might be an important source of self-esteem, it is conceptually distinct, because control requires not only high social status but also a sense of agency. Accordingly, the indirect effects of in-group identification on well-being through perceived control have been shown to operate even when self-esteem is accounted for (Greenaway et al, 2015; Relke et al, 2021). Furthermore, in other studies, threat to control had an effect on in-group identification even though the control manipulation did not affect self-esteem (Goode et al, 2017), and the effect of threat to control on in-group identification was shown to be moderated by collective agency but not collective status (Stollberg et al, 2015).…”

Social Agents? A Systematic Review of Social Identity Formalizations

“…Groups may help people to satisfy basic psychological motivations, such as the need for self-esteem, the desires for inclusion (or belonging) and distinctiveness, or the need for certainty or control (Easterbrook & Vignoles 2012). For example, identified group members reported higher levels of belongingness (Jetten et al 2014), perceived support (Haslam et al 2005), and control (Greenaway et al 2015;Relke et al 2021). SIA can further help to explain how social context affects the salience of specific identities and how this, in turn, affects which behaviours are perceived as normative.…”

Reminders of an agentic ingroup buffer disease uncontrollability

“…If this is true, group membership should only elevate people's personal control if they ascribe agency to their group; that is, believe the group has autonomous goals which it pursues effectively (Fritsche & Masson, 2021). Building on initial correlational evidence (Relke et al, 2022), we test this proposition experimentally. Specifically, we focused on the impact of experiencing health-related (un) controllability on people's general sense of control, and whether making an agentic ingroup salient helps in buffering the effect of perceived uncontrollability on people's overall perception of control in life.…”