COPING WITH THREATENED IDENTITIES - UNEMPLOYED PEOPLES SELF-CATEGORIZATIONS

This article presents a theoretical argument to explain the way in whi ch unemployed people react to and cope with threats to their identitie s that derive from perceptions of stigma and low self-worth. It is arg ued here that strategies used by unemployed people to cope with such t hreats are influenced by whether the individuals categorize themselves as ''unemployed'' or adopt some other categorization (e.g., housewife , retired coal-miner). It is also proposed that the concept of self-ca tegorization can be framed within Folkman and Lazarus's (1980, 1985) c oping model of distress in order to provide a more general framework f or understanding these issues. The study reviews literature about stig ma and coping with threatened identities with reference to these integ rated frameworks, and concludes with a general model for predicting th e way in which unemployed people self-categorize and cope with stigma and low self-esteem. This takes into account the role played by situat ional and individual factors, and suggests that individuals recategori ze themselves in order to cope better during different phases of their unemployment.