Professional Socialization

Professional socialization is an important construct that must be considered in the effort to create an interprofessional collaborative health care team. This process of socialization begins early in training and results from attitudes demonstrated by educators, and the unique cultural norms and language used by each profession (Lindeke & Block, 2001). According to Molyneux (2006), this socialization process leads to the development of a uni-professional as opposed to an interprofessional identity. Whereas this is a normal, and in many cases, desirable function of professional education it also may lead to a situation whereby members of each professional group view themselves as distinct and perhaps better than other professional groups as …show more content…
Indeed its effectiveness as a method to improve intergroup relations has become the most widely used (Oskamp & Jones, 2000). According to Allport, contact between members of groups leads to a reduction in intergroup bias when four conditions are met (equal group status within the situation; common goals; intergroup cooperation; and the support of authorities, law, or custom). A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that the theory holds up to reduce intergroup conflict various groups and contexts, even when the four originally proposed conditions are not present. (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006) or when the contact is simply imagined
Together these two theories describe how individuals with uni-professional identities tend to cognitively segregate themselves into like categories creating a potential for inter-group bias and a mitigating strategy that can be used to reduce this inter-group bias. For professional to function in a truly collaborative team it is important to counteract the effects of a uni-professional identity development by devising educational interventions that lead to a dual or interprofessional