Job loss, identity, and mental health / Dawn R. Norris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Norris, Dawn R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unemployment--Social aspects--United States.

Unemployment.

Unemployment--United States--Psychological aspects.

Unemployed--Mental health--United States.

Unemployed.

Job stress--United States.

Job stress.

Identity (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (202 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey ; London, [England] : Rutgers University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Our jobs are often a big part of our identities, and when we are fired, we can feel confused, hurt, and powerless-at sea in terms of who we are. Drawing on extensive, real-life interviews, Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health shines a light on the experiences of unemployed, middle-class professional men and women, showing how job loss can affect both identity and mental health. Sociologist Dawn R. Norris uses in-depth interviews to offer insight into the experience of losing a job-what it means for daily life, how the unemployed feel about it, and the process they go through as they try to deal with job loss and their new identities as unemployed people. Norris highlights several specific challenges to identity that can occur. For instance, the way other people interact with the unemployed either helps them feel sure about who they are, or leads them to question their identities. Another identity threat happens when the unemployed no longer feel they are the same person they used to be. Norris also examines the importance of the subjective meaning people give to statuses, along with the strong influence of society's expectations. For example, men in Norris's study often used the stereotype of the "male breadwinner" to define who they were. Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health describes various strategies to cope with identity loss, including "shifting" away from a work-related identity and instead emphasizing a nonwork identity (such as "a parent"), or conversely "sustaining" a work-related identity even though he or she is actually unemployed. Finally, Norris explores the social factors-often out of the control of unemployed people-that make these strategies possible or impossible. A compelling portrait of a little-studied aspect of the Great Recession, Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health is filled with insight into the identity crises that unemployment can trigger, as well as strategies to help the unemployed maintain their mental strength.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. Introduction

2. Why Identity?

3. "That's Not the Way We Do It at Gentay": Feedback Mismatches

4. "I Wasn't the Same Person": Time Mismatches

5. "Me Caveman . . . I Club Deer": Status Mismatches

6. "On the Mommy Track": Shifting

7. "It Was Like I Was Still Working": Sustaining

8. "Like You're Dead and Nobody Told You": Identity Void

9. Conclusion

APPENDIX A: METHODOLOGY

APPENDIX B: ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780813573816

0813573815

9780813573823

0813573823

OCLC:

949885714