The phenomenon of identification is a common process for the human being. Indeed, in the fiction or the real life the human being usually identify himself as another human or character fictional. To give a definition, the identification is an imaginative experience in which a person abandons the conscience of her own identity and experiment the world across someone else. So identification leads to take an extern point of view and worldview across an alternative social reality.
To give an example, we can use a study about the identification with the main character and the desire to smoke. This study is about a movie where the main character smokes few cigarettes during all film. There are two groups, one smoke cigarette often and the other groups don’t smoke. After seeing the movie, participants have to answer a survey about the level of identification with the main character and the desire to smoke. And the study shows something interesting, even if the participants don’t smoke, after having seen the movie, they develop the desire to smoke. So that shows the power of identification, on human being, even if the character is fictional.
In addition to the first example, we will talk about the identification with a video game character. The experiment is about the effect of violent video game on real-life violence. Indeed, the purpose was to make some participants play a violent video game, some a neutral video game and the others a non-violent video game, to answer a survey. The participants were all men, and the survey was about the violence on women. The result show that playing at violent video game increase theoretically violence against women than playing non-violent or neutral video game.
Now let’s talk about the phenomenon of identification with real people and for talk about that we are going to explain “what is role model”. For explain what the role model is, we have to explain the theory of social learning by Bandura. A role model is the fact that people search a person with commune experiences for identify himself with him. Usually, this type of identification is more present when the person deals with a new environment like a new workplace.
For explain more precisely this theory, we will talk about a study who link the LGBTQI+ community and the role model theory. The study is about the importance of the identification with role model for a member of the LGBTQI+ community, in carrier choices and development. So, the article shows in general that members of the LGBTQI+ identify them self-more than heterosexual and they know more career role model than heterosexual. In addition, LGBTQI+ community member’s will be more likely to admire the career role model and to want to be like him. Indeed, this importance of role model make sense because this identification allows to the LGBTQI+ community to have an example of what type of behavior is accepted in the workplace. While heterosexuals don’t really need it because heterosexuality is not a minority.
To conclude, with these two different instances, we saw that identification have the same functioning in the reality and in the fiction.
Sources:
Cin, S. D., Gibson, B., Zanna, M. P., Shumate, R., & Fong, G. T. (2007). Smoking in Movies, Implicit Associations of Smoking With the Self, and Intentions to Smoke. 18(7), 6.
Fox, J., Ralston, R. A., Cooper, C. K., & Jones, K. A. (2015). Sexualized Avatars Lead to Women’s Self-Objectification and Acceptance of Rape Myths. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 39(3), 349‑362. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684314553578
M. Nauta, M., M. Saucier, A., & E. Woodard, L. (2001). Interpersonal Influences on Students’ Academic and Career Decisions : The Impact of Sexual Orientation. 49, 352‑362.
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575‑582. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045925
Croteau, J. M. (1996). Research on the work experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people : An integrative review of methodology and findings. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48(2), 195‑209. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0018