Purpose & Questions
Hey everyone. The Coles notes version is that I'm building on my Master's work. A key finding in social psychological literature is that among marginalized or disadvantaged social groups...identification with ones group acts as a protective factor against the negative psychological consequences associated with perceived disadvantage in society (which of course is bad). Because perceiving that you may be disadvantaged also implicates one's group (i.e., "I face discrimination because I am a deaf person"), not just one's self and because perceived disadvantaged is an intergroup appraisal as well as an individual appraisal, beliefs about what one's group as a whole can do, might be just as important if not as important as beliefs about what you can do as an inidvidual in order to protect psychological well-being. In clinical literature coping with stressors is only framed as what an individual acting alone can do to cope. Basically my MA showed that group ID can foster grou-level appraisals and these appraisals in turn help protect psychological well-being. After a lengthy review of clincal psych literature I have created a variety of appraisals (group, and individual) and am currently creating my own measure of coping in response to perceived disadvantaged--which doesn't exist. This study is preliminary in the sense that I'm more interested in seeing what types of factors emerge (what items hold together etc.)...so that I can pair it down to a few factors. We are looking at a variety of groups and have so theoretical and empirical ideas as to which factors might be most protective and which might mediate the relationship between identification and well-being. Basically this line of research (which is funded by the Canadian government--also meaning I can avoid having to take out loans for my PhD..which is nice...believe me I ain't rich I've been a student for a long time now) is to inform clinicians, coucellors and members of disadvantaged social groups about which types of points/or beliefs to stress when helping people who have experienced discrimination because of their group membership or who just feel bad about what they have to go through in life as a result of that group membership.
No item was exactly the same...some were very similar and that was not done so much for honesty in this study but just to see what types of items hold together when we do the statistical analyses because this preliminary measure is eventually goingt to be paired down.
Also, you may not be helping yourself by doing this but ultimately in the long run you could be helping others which is good. That's why I love doing what I do (Yes Im a nerd).
Thanks for helping out everyone. It's greatly apreciated. Hope that answers a few questions....sorry for the length! 
