We know that social self-perceptions- the way we see ourselves in relation to other people- have important impacts on self-regard, the amount and type of social support available to us and our wellbeing and resilience under stress.

There is already a lot of literature on how group memberships can be measured, harnessed and used in interventions to boost or protect wellbeing. However, group memberships are not the only social self-perceptions linked to positive outcomes. What about me with my best friend? Me as a teacher?

The project tackles the process of exploring non-group social identities. Using large, observational datasets of self-concept maps, we demonstrate social self-perceptions associated with non-group social contexts (role, relationship, activities) demonstrate a similar association with wellbeing. We also consider the patterning of self-perception types, the aetiology of these different configurations (why is my social self-concept 11 relationships and yours 4 group memberships?) and what happens when the types of self-perception are nested.