When somatic symptoms and adopting the sick role shape your identity.

Somatic symptoms are a common phenomenon, but for many symptoms, no clear medical explanation can be found. In line with emerging trends in the literature, this distinction between medically explained and unexplained symptoms was omitted with the introduction of somatic symptom disorder in DSM-5 and emphasis was put on illness behaviors and cognitions, such as health anxiety and concerns about the medical severity and negative consequences of symptoms. Many frameworks from different backgrounds have been applied to explain somatic symptoms and illness behaviors and cognitions, with the role of self and identity being implicit in many of these frameworks. However, little systematic research has been done on the role of identity in the genesis and maintenance of somatic symptoms and illness behaviors and cognitions, although the importance of identity is emphasized in literature. Through a series of studies in both community and clinical samples, the present project (1) unravels the link among identity processes, somatic symptoms, and illness behaviors and cognitions in community individuals and patients, and (2) embeds associations in a lifespan developmental perspective. Identity will be assessed with respect to normative-developmental and clinical-psychiatric processes. Hence, a detailed picture can be obtained on how somatic symptoms and illness behaviors and cognitions may have identity-related functions and ultimately play into the adoption of the sick role.