Analysing identity processes for
Counselling Psychology Identity
Structure Analysis –
diagnostic and etiological
features.
Doctorate Programme, Counselling Psychology, London
Metropolitan University
6 September 2007
Prof Peter Weinreich, University of Ulster
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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A basic premise for counselling
psychology:
one’s sense of identity

Whatever the origins of people’s
psychological distress – whether these
derive primarily from genetic
predispositions or dysfunctional
biographical experiences – people
generate a sense of identity that
incorporates their interpretations of
themselves living in the social world
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Identity Structure Analysis
provides the means for
assessing fundamentals of
people’s sense of identity…

Based upon the processes of appraisal
and identification
Adaptable

approach
A meta-theoretical framework
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A Metatheoretical Framework…
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Psychodynamic approach…identity over the
lifespan through identifications
Symbolic Interactionism…identity through
communication
Social constructionism…identity through society
Reference Group Theory…identity through
comparison and aspiration
Personal Construct approach…identity through
experience and meaning
Cognitive-affective consistency
theory…identity subject to emotional and cognitive
pressures
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Integration of qualitative aspects
and quantitative parameters of
identity

Qualitative (emic):
(1) Discourses in the vernacular;
(2) Biographical experiences;
(3) Case-study.

Quantitative (etic):
Quantification and standardisation of
identification parameters.
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Identity is defined as…
“… the totality of one's self-construal, in
which how one construes oneself in
the present expresses the continuity
between how one construes oneself as
one was in the past and how one
construes oneself as one aspires to be
in the future”.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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The process of appraisal…

People appraise the circumstances in
which they are involved in order to
bring meaning to the circumstance
…against the greater background of
how they appraise self in relation to
their social world.
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The process of appraisal…


During appraisals of the social world people
use constructs to construe and evaluate
other agents and events during which they
interact. They form cognitions about these
agents and experience emotional tones with
respect to them.
Such cognitions and affects may be
compatible or incompatible, as when a good
friend joyfully supports a valued objective,
or an admired person engages in a
despicable event, respectively.
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The process of appraisal…


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Compatibilities between cognitions and affects
secure and stabilise self’s evaluative connotations
of one’s constructs, whereas incompatibilities
undermine and destabilise them.
Core evaluative dimensions of identity are ones
whereby constructs are used with high cognitiveaffective compatibility.
Dimensions under stress are designated by
constructs associated with much cognitiveaffective incompatibility.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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The processes of identification…

People identify with elements of
significant others who have influence
over their personal well-being, either
for good or ill.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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The processes of identification…
They form aspirational identifications
with others when they wish to
 emulate their prized features
or
 dissociate from their unpalatable
aspects.

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Aspirational identification in
two aspects…


They form idealistic-identifications with
others when they wish to emulate
their prized features.
They form contra-identifications with
others when they wish to dissociate
from their unpalatable aspects.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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The processes of identification…


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a different mode in the here and now …
People empathetically identify with
others when they recognise in the
others features of themselves,
whether good or bad.
… a person’s empathetic identification with
another modulates according to situations,
contexts and mood states
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Conflicted identifications…

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When self empathetically identifies with another
person while simultaneously contra-identifing
with that person, self’s identification with the
other is conflicted.
I.e., Self is as the other in several respects, while
wishing to dissociate from some of the
characteristics of the other - “to be as the other,
while not wishing to be”
… Since people’s empathetic identification with others modulate
according to situations, contexts and mood states, so will their conflicted
identifications alter accordingly
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Identity diffusion …

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People’s conflicted identifications with others
may be dispersed across several persons.
A state of high identity diffusion is manifest
when self’s conflicted identifications with
others are both substantial and dispersed
across many others.
… extent of identity diffusion may also modulate
according to situations, contexts and mood states.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Identity Structure Analysis is
operationalised through…

…the ‘ipseus’ computer software …

… in these modes …

Idiographic – for individual analyses

Phase – for longitudinal analyses

Nomothetic – for group analyses

Nomothetic-phase – for group longitudinal
analyses
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How does it work?

Psychological definitions

Algorithms

 Analysis
Computer software
and interpretation
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Customised identity instrument

2 lists:
– Entities – people, groups, emblems,
images, events, abstractions,
material objects, etc
– Constructs – discourses about
experiences and expectations,
beliefs and values, attributes, etc
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Customised identity instrument

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E.g.,
 Entities – my best friend; my Member of
Parliament
 Construct – discourse about ‘trust’
9 point scale:
…can be trusted
…can’t be trusted
4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4
Would you place your best friend at the same
place on the scale as your Member of Parliament?
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Identity, Depression & Anxiety
(Alison McKenna)

Joiner, Coyne, & Blalock, 1999:3
By ignoring “the intricacies of
depressed persons’ involvement with
other people” one may “attribute to
depressed persons characteristics they
do not possess” and “leave significant
aspects of their experience
unexplained.”
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Depression & Anxiety

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Prolonged, unresolved periods of anxiety
often precede depressive episodes (Wolpe,
1971; Bittner et al, 2004).
Sloman, Farvolden, Gilbert, & Price, 2006:98
“…[they] have complex and important
co-regulating influences on each other that
may explain [their] high comorbidity…”
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Postulates Examined


Participants’ biographical experiences within
their social milieu are likely to be reflected by
ISA through their modulation of identity indices
with significant others.
The psychological processes underlying
comorbidity of depression and anxiety will be
elucidated through examination of participants’
identifications with others across depressed
and anxious selves.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Case study “Philip”: diagnostic
results


Anxiety was associated with his high identity
diffusion that accompanied his engagement
with the social world that entailed
problematic conflicted identifications with
others.
Depression accompanied his social
withdrawal, that is, diminution of his
empathetic identification with others, which
diminished his identity diffusion through
resolution of his conflicted identifications
with others.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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“Philip”: diagnostics of anxietydepression co-morbidity

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Being depressed is to realise that self in unable to
effectively pursue one’s aspirations that require
engagement with the social world.
However, re-engagement with the social world is to
reinstate problematic conflicted identifications, that is,
high identity diffusion accompanied by greater anxiety.
A vicious cycle ensues whereby social withdrawal that
relieves anxiety results in depression, and efforts to come
out of depression require social re-engagement that
generates anxiety: … depression is traded off against
anxiety, and vice versa …
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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“Philip”: further diagnostics
and etiological factors

He had endured numerous prejudicial attacks.

Nevertheless, he held strong aspirations towards
positive social relationships (SP=99.69).

Depression likened to loss – related to loss of
relationships due to prejudicial encounters.

Idealized his “well” self states, thus inducing the
retaliations of others and amplifying their
prejudicial appraisals of him.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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A case of aggressive impulsivity in
paranoid schizophrenia (Cherie Part)

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Entities
Past selves:
‘Me when I hurt someone…’
‘Me when I calmed down after hurting someone…’
‘Socially deviant’ others:
‘A violent prisoner…’
‘A teenager who opens fire with a gun in his school…’
Victim domain:
‘Someone I have physically hurt…’
‘An abused child…’
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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A case of aggressive impulsivity in
paranoid schizophrenia (Cherie Part)
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Bipolar Constructs
Impulsivity: BIS-11 (Patton et al., 1995)
…act/s quickly without
…think/s carefully before
thinking
doing anything
Aggressive Impulsivity:
…lose/s it
…suddenly gets violently
angry
…stay/s calm
…think/s or talks things
through calmly
Perceived Threat: (Link et al., 1998; 1999)
…believe/s there are people
…doesn’t think there’s
who want to do them harm
anyone out to hurt them
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Paranoid schizophrenia - diagnostic
and etiological features: “Peter”
From case history notes
49-year-old Peter was first diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia in his late teens. He had
a history of verbal and physical aggression
towards his wife. During one episode of an
active psychotic state, he had attacked his wife
with an axe. The couple had been separated for
several years prior to this investigation.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Paranoid schizophrenia - diagnostic
and etiological features: “Peter”
Postulate
•
The experience of a process of intimate
defensive identification with his wife, his
perception of her threat to his well-being,
alongside a desire to defend self and
escape the aversive ‘threatening’
relationship gave rise to Peter’s aggressive
impulses.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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A Process of Intimate Defensive
Identification is defined by …
Exertion of malevolent power over self
 Perceived threat to self’s well being
 Inability to escape the aversive
situation
 Identification with the coercive other
while wishing to dissociate from that
other

(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Evidence: “Peter”



Peter contra-identified with ‘my ex-partner’ to a
profound extent (0.81), indicating a process of
defensive identification with her.
He referenced ‘me when I hurt someone’ as
being self when he had attacked his wife with the
axe.
His profoundly high empathetic identification with
her as based in this ‘past’ self-image (0.81)
revealed that he felt closest to his wife when he
was hurting her.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Evidence: “Peter”


Peter’s simultaneous close empathetic
and high contra- identification with his
ex-wife accords with his attack on her.
This extremely strong conflicted
identification with her when cued into his
‘impulsive aggressive’ state (0.82)
highlighted a pathological identity
problem for Peter.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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


Peter appraised his ex-wife as ‘impulsive’ and ‘aggressively
impulsive’. Through a process of defensive identification, he
appeared to have integrated his wife’s perceived ‘aggressive
impulsive’ stance into his own self-concept and had acted
accordingly when cued by a particular social context,
exhibiting the same ‘abhorrent’ characteristics appraised in
the coercive other (his wife).
He was intensely ego-involved with his ex-wife (4.15) where
her power over him was experienced as malign and
perceived to have had a detrimental impact upon his sense
of well-being.
Peter indicated that he ‘believed that there were people who
wanted to do him harm’ when he expressed his aggressive
impulses. Thus, he had felt ‘threatened’ when he ‘lashed out’
and may have been acting in defence.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Sharp
decline in empathetic identification with
wife following the attack illustrated an attempt
to:
Reverse
‘power’
Escape
Resolve
the exertion of her malevolent
the coercive experience
his conflicted identification with her
Undo
internalisation of wife’s ‘aggressive
impulsive’ stance into own self-concept
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Conclusions: ISA is able …
To provide diagnostic evidence of the
nature of a client’s psychological
distress
 To elucidate ongoing psychological
processes
 To assist in comprehending etiological
aspects of psychological distress based
in biographical experiences

(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Reference

Weinreich, P. and Saunderson, W.
(Eds.) (2003) Analysing Identity:
Clinical, Societal and Cross-Cultural
Applications. London: Routledge &
Psychology Press.
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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www.analysingidentity.org

Website for ISA powered by Sycadex Ltd.
provides
 information
about ISA and resources such as
research papers
 a discussion forum and network for ISA
practitioners with postings about the ISA
Study Group
 access to the dedicated computer software
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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Next ISA Workshop

University of Chester
27 – 28 September 2007
www.analysingidentity.org
(c) P. Weinreich 2006
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