Rusi Jaspal

When preparing for future global pandemics, it is important to learn lessons that can be gleaned from previous pandemics. Since the availability, medical effectiveness, and mass uptake of vaccines ...

Identity loss refers to the complete breakdown of the identity structure. It is characterised by ‘feelings of emptiness, being lost, broken, and simply not knowing who one is’ (Kaufman et al., 2019...

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of different self and relational schemas upon psychological wellbeing in a sample of heterosexual men and women in the United Kingdom (UK). Psych...

In honour cultures, the group’s social image and reputation are central to its identity and individuals (especially women and girls) within the group are expected to uphold them. A qualitative interview study was conducted to examine understandings of honour and the implications for identity processes in a sample of 18 second-generation British South Asian young adults. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis through the conceptual lens of psychological coherence from identity process theory. The following four themes were developed: (1) understandings of honour; (2) honour entrusted to women; (3) threats to psychological coherence; and (4) strategies for managing psychological coherence. The findings indicate that the competing demands of honour expectations and Britishness can undermine psychological coherence. British South Asian young adults may attempt to safeguard feelings of psychological coherence by rejecting rigid behavioural expectations, by concealing aspects of their lives to navigate dual cultural pressures, and by redefining the content of their identity to resist honour expectations. Psychotherapeutic interventions should support clients to elect adaptive, effective, and sustainable coping strategies.

Background/Objectives: Gay men face mental health inequalities compared to the general population but there is limited evidence concerning the risk of paranoid ideation in this population and none that examines the cognitive-affective factors that may predispose gay men to paranoid ideation or protect against it. Methods: A sample of 257 gay men in the United Kingdom participated in a cross-sectional correlational survey study and completed measures of psychological emptiness, identity loss, loneliness, identity resilience, and subclinical paranoid ideation. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression showed that psychological emptiness was strongly associated with paranoid ideation, followed by identity loss. A moderated mediated generalized linear model showed that psychological emptiness and identity loss were associated directly with higher paranoid ideation and indirectly through the mediation of loneliness. Identity resilience moderated the relationships between identity loss and loneliness and between identity loss and paranoid ideation, essentially weakening them. Conclusions: Psychological emptiness and identity loss may operate as diagnostic cognitive-affective dispositions that are associated with paranoid ideation in gay men. Interventions that focus on developing a stable identity characterized by meaning and purpose may be effective against paranoid ideation and reduce the risk of severe psychopathology.

This cross‐sectional correlational survey study uses the vulnerability‐stress model to examine interactions between trait characteristics and exposure to abusive dating behaviours (ghosting, breadcrumbing, gaslighting and coercion) and their associations with paranoia. A sample of 544 individuals in the United Kingdom provided socio‐demographic information and then completed measures of ghosting, breadcrumbing, gaslighting, coercion, attachment style, rejection sensitivity, identity resilience self‐esteem and paranoia. Two generalised linear models showed that being single interacted with breadcrumbing to predict higher paranoia; that rejection sensitivity and anxious and close attachment interacted with ghosting to predict higher and lower paranoia, respectively; and that being single and anxious attachment style interacted with gaslighting and coercion to predict higher paranoia. People with certain trait characteristics may be more or less prone to paranoia when exposed to the common abusive behaviours of ghosting, breadcrumbing, gaslighting and coercion from a dating partner. Psychological interventions should focus on developing secure working attachment models and identity resilience self‐esteem to reduce the risk of paranoia in people faced with abusive dating behaviours.

In January 2025, devastating wildfires affected Southern California. The timing and iconic nature of these wildfires, which destroyed the properties of high-profile celebrities, created a unique opportunity to examine how metaphors function at the intersection of climate communication, celebrity culture, and public response. Various studies have analysed the metaphorical framing of extreme events, such as floods and fires, as well their implications for public and policy responses. The present study of 135 articles published in the Los Angeles Times between 7 and 17 of January 2025, the initial phase of the fires, revealed four types of metaphors, with the majority mapping what people know about human, animal, or mythical agents or objects (source domain) onto fires (target domain) and a minority mapping aspects of fires (source domain) onto human action (target domain). The first type of mapping structures conventional metaphors, situation-specific metaphors, and creative explanatory climate-informed metaphors, while the second structures fire metaphors used to frame the spread of misinformation surrounding the wildfires. The analysis revealed a shifting metaphorical landscape of conventional and situation-specific metaphors where natural forces and human behaviours are represented through interconnected conceptual frameworks. They can be used both to enhance and hinder public and policy responses to extreme and novel weather events.

Sociosexuality refers to the proclivity to engage in casual sex without commitment and is generally operationalized in terms of attitudes, behavior, and desire. Moving beyond the dominant focus on sexual risk and pathology in studies of sociosexuality, this study conceptualizes sociosexuality as a positive psychological variable that reflects the enactment of sexual identity among gay and bisexual men. Using cross-sectional correlational survey data from 512 gay and bisexual men in the United Kingdom, the direct associations between sociosexuality and identity resilience and LGBT+ community connectedness, and indirect associations through the mediation of internalized homonegativity, were examined. Results showed that identity resilience was indirectly associated with higher sociosexuality via decreased internalized homonegativity, and that LGBT+ community connectedness was directly and positively associated with sociosexuality and indirectly via decreased internalized homonegativity. The findings suggest that the adaptive self-schema of identity resilience and the adaptive relational schema of community connectedness may militate against internalized homonegativity, which in turn may facilitate sociosexuality among gay and bisexual men. Interventions to support sexual identity enactment should therefore focus on developing these adaptive schemas.