'Blokes don't like that sort of thing': men's negotiation of a 'troubled' self-help group identity.
Research has demonstrated that gender is a barrier to men's participation in self-help groups. In this article I analyse how four men and seven women negotiate their identities as members of cancer self-help groups. Their accounts were transcribed and analysed using a synthetic approach to discursive psychology. Women's accounts were organized around the notion of receiving help whereas men appeared to resist this type of identity. I explore how men attended to the presentation of a masculine identity and focus on how men negotiated 'legitimately masculine' reasons to be engaged in self-help groups.
Seymour-Smith
Sarah
S
Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. sarah.seymour-smith@ntu.ac.uk
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011287:Prejudice; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D012737:Sex Factors; D012933:Social Identification