The non-smoking smoker : negotiating conflictual perceptions of self in the construction of a non-smoker identity

• Main Author: Shi, Nengzheng
• Other Authors: Tan Joo Ean
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69980
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To seek out the reasons behind why smokers might find it difficult to accomplish successful cessation or even attempt it, this study explores the identity work of smokers who had previously attempted cessation, whether in success or failure. While similar studies have mostly studied smokers in cessation support group settings, this study focuses on smokers who have tried to achieve cessation independently. Through mostly one-to-one qualitative interviews with 10 Singaporean adult male smokers, the findings reveal the liminality of identity formation that smokers undergo during cessation and point towards potential links between symbolic power and successful cessation, which can be further tested by quantitative research methods. Cessation, when recognized as an identity issue, highlights the existential difficulties that smokers face in the context of late modernity and suggests how a greater tolerance to a both/and smoker-non-smoker identity may contribute towards the successful accomplishment of a stable and dominant non-smoker self.