Identity Dynamics

Research in this area focuses on the construction and development of personal, social, national and civic identities and on their consequences as revealed, for example, in speech and political behaviour. We are particularly interested in the roles played by history, social memories and cultural and political contexts in shaping these identities as well as the dynamics among them.

Members involved: Lyons, Cohrs, Gheorghiu, Kremer, Storey, Trew

Specific research projects

  • Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2007: Social identity module (John Kremer and Karen Trew; in collaboration with Orla Muldoon, University of Limerick)
  • Development of social identities in children and youth (Evanthia Lyons and Karen Trew)
  • Oppositional group identities (Lesley Storey)
  • Changing identities in Northern Ireland after the Good Friday agreement (Christopher Cohrs and Mirona Gheorghiu; in collaboration with Sam Pehrson, University of Limerick)
  • Effects of stigmatisation and threat on identities (Evanthia Lyons)
  • Identities and environmental behaviour (Evanthia Lyons)

Current PhD projects

  • Social representations, social memory, and processes of European identification within an intergroup conflict context: The case of Cyprus (Nikos Ilia; Supervisor: Evanthia Lyons)
  • Social representations of neutrality (Emma O'Dwyer; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Christopher Cohrs)
  • The role of multiple identities and political trust in the construction of adolescents’ national identity in an intergroup conflict context: the case of Northern Ireland (Ahmet Coymak; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons, Mirona Gheorghiu and Ulrike Niens, School of Education)

Completed PhD theses

  • 2008 – Ageism in the organisation: An investigation into the origins of older age stigma in non-manual workplace (Dinah Bisdee; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Chris Fife-Schaw, University of Surrey)
  • 2007 – The development of national identity: A socio-cultural approach (Julia Candy; Supervisor: Karen Trew)
  • 2006 – The mediating influence of an integrated identities paradigm on the distinctiveness-ingroup bias relation: A study of Northern Irish identities (Ian Schermbrucker; Supervisor: Karen Trew)
  • 2006 – Baby love: Self-evaluation processes of young mothers (Hilary Bruffel; Supervisor: Evanthia Lyons)
  • 2005 – “When is a group not a group?” A social psychological exploration of representations of Blackness and Britishness and the influence of the past (Lesley Storey; Supervisor: Evanthia Lyons)
  • 2003 – Threats to aspects of national distinctiveness as barriers to British-European identification (Despina Rothi; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Xenia Chryssochoou, Panteion University, Athens)
  • 2003 – Children's understanding of nationality (Rachel Penny; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey)
  • 2002 – The psychosocial impact of enforced relocation (Gerda Speller; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Claire Twigger-Ross, University of Surrey)
  • 1998 – The development of regional identity in children (Hannah Wilson; Supervisors: Evanthia Lyons and Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey)
  • 1994 – Women's construction of feminism in Northern Ireland (Carol Percy; Supervisor: John Kremer)
  • 1993 – Postmodernism, social psychology and everyday life (Brendan Gough; Supervisor: John Kremer)

Core publications

Barrett, M., Lyons, E., & Bourchier-Sutton, E. (2006). Children's knowledge of countries. In C. Spencer & M. Blades (Eds.), Children and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces (pp. 57-72). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Barrett, M., Lyons, E., & del Valle, A. (2004). The development of national identity and social identity processes: Do social identity theory and self-categorization theory provide useful heuristic frameworks for developmental research? In M. Bennett & F. Sani (Eds.), The development of the social self (pp. 159-188). Hove: Psychology Press.

Barrett, M., Wilson, H., & Lyons, E. (2003). The development of national ingroup bias: English children's attributions of characteristics to English, American and German people. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21, 193-220.

Bennett, M., Barrett, M., Karakozov, R., Kipiani, G., Lyons, E., Pavlenko, V., & Riazanova, T. (2004). Young children's evaluations of the ingroup and outgroups: A multi-national study. Social Development, 13, 124-141.

Cassidy, C. & Trew, K. (2004). Identity change in Northern Ireland: A longitudinal study of students' transition to university. Journal of Social Issues, 60, 523-540.

Lyons, E. (1996). Coping with social change: Processes of social memory in the reconstruction of identities. In G. M. Breakwell & E. Lyons (Eds.), Changing European identities: Social psychological analyses of social change (pp. 31-39). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Lyons, E. & Breakwell, G. M. (1996). Changing European identities and social change in Europe: A challenge for social psychology. In G. M. Breakwell & E. Lyons (Eds.), Changing European identities: Social psychological analyses of social change (pp. 3-12). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

McLaughlin, K., Muldoon, O., & Trew, K. (2007). Young people and ethno-national identity along the border of Northern Ireland. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 25, 579-594.

McLaughlin, K., Trew, K., & Muldoon, O (2006). Religion, ethnicity and group identity: Irish adolescents' views. Nationalism and Ethnic politics, 12, 599-616.

Muldoon, O., Trew, K., Todd, J., Rougier, N., & McLaughlin, K. (2007). Religious and national identity after the Good Friday Agreement. Political Psychology. 28, 89-103.

Rothi, D., Lyons, E., & Chryssochoou, X. (2005). National attachment and patriotism in a European nation: A British study. Political Psychology, 26, 135-155.

Todd, J., Muldoon, O., Trew, K., Canas Botto, L., Rougier, N., & McLaughlin, K. (2006). The moral boundaries of the nation: The constitution of national identity in the South Eastern border counties of Ireland. Ethnopolitics, 5, 365–382.