Our mission is to do research that helps people to live happy, healthy and productive lives. We do this by seeking to understand how social connections and memberships in social groups affect all aspects of our lives - in the workplace, at home, in communities, and in the political domain.
The University of Queensland’s Social Identity and Groups Network (SIGN) brings together world-leading researchers who explore how social connection and group membership shape and drive us as human beings. This work focuses on the importance of social identity (a sense of shared group membership, or ‘us-ness’) for all aspects of human functioning.
SIGN’s research has led to significant advances in our understanding of social identity and its application to multiple spheres of human activity. This research spans the breadth of psychology and addresses key topics in:
- social psychology,
- clinical psychology,
- organisational psychology,
- sport psychology
- health psychology, and
- political psychology.
The job of translating theory into practice is undertaken by SIGN’s applied arm — SIGNify. Working with partners in a range of sectors and industries, SIGNify’s work has led to the development of evidence-based tools and award-winning programs that have been shown to have substantial positive impact on health and organisational outcomes.
These tools and programs provide people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to improve their and others’ social connections in ways that have a positive impact on personal and collective functioning. Many have also been specifically designed for contexts in which such connection might be challenging — notably, in workplace and education settings, in communities, and in times of life transition (e.g., retirement).