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Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences for an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. This term, though generic, can be specified by the disciplines of psychology and sociology, as well as the two forms of social psychology. In psychology, a psychological identity relates to self-image, self-esteem and individuation. An important part of identity in psychology is gender identity, as this dictates to some degree how a person views him- or herself as a person in relation to other people.
Identity may be contrasted with the notion of self. In cognitive psychology, the term "identity" refers to the capacity for self-reflection and the awareness of self.[1] The psychological idea of identity in humans is related to self image, namely a person's view or mental model of him or herself. Sociology places some explanatory weight on the concept of role-behavior. The notion of identity negotiation may arise from the learning of roles from personal experience. Identity negotiation is a process where a person negotiates the meaning of their identity with society. Psychologists usually use the term "identity" to describe personal identity, or the idiosyncratic things that make a person unique. Meanwhile, sociologists often use the term to describe social identity to describe group membership. However, the uses are not proprietary, and each discipline may use either concept.cbv
The concept that an individual has a unique identity developed relatively late in history. Factors influencing the emphasis on such psychological identity include:
Erik Erikson was one of the earliest psychologists to be explicitly interested in identity. Erikson's work, in the psychodynamic tradition, aimed to investigate the process of identity formation across a lifespan. Progressive strength in the ego identity, for Erikson, can be charted in stages, where identity is formed in response to increasingly sophisticated challenges. The Eriksonian framework rests upon a distinction between the psychological sense of continuity, the ego identity (sometimes called "the self" proper); the personal idiosyncracies which separate one person from the next, known as personal identities; and the social roles that an actor might play, their social identities (or cultural identity). On some readings of Erikson, the development of a strong ego identity, along with the proper integration into a stable society and culture, lead to a stronger sense of identity in general. Accordingly, a deficiency in any of these factors may increase the chance of an identity crisis or confusion. (Cote 2002:17)
Though the self is distinct from identity, the literature of self-psychology can offer some insight into how identity is maintained. (Cote 2002:24) From the vantage point of self-psychology, there are two areas of interest: the processes by which a self is formed (the "I"), and the actual content of the schemas which compose the self-concept (the "Me"). In the latter field, theorists have shown interest in relating the self-concept to self-esteem, the differences between complex and simple ways of organizing self-knowledge, and their links to the processing of information. (Cote 2002:22)
The "Neo-Eriksonian" identity status paradigm emerged in later years, thanks to the work of James Marcia. The paradigm focuses upon the twin concepts of choice and commitment. The central idea is that any given individual's sense of identity is determined in large part by those choices and commitments that they make to certain personal and social traits. It follows that the core of the research in this paradigm is upon the degrees to which a person has made certain choices, and the degree to which they display a commitment to the choices they have made.
A person may display relative weakness in either their choices or their commitments, or relative strengths. When assigned categories, four possible permutations result: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, identity moratorium, and identity achievement. Diffusion is when a person lacks both a sense that they have chosen their place in life, and no interest in committing to even those unchosen roles that they occupy. Foreclosure is when a person has not chosen extensively in the past, but seems willing to commit to some relevant values, goals, or roles in the future. Moratorium is when a person displays a kind of flightiness, ready to make choices but unable to commit to them. Finally, achievement is when a person makes their identity choices and commits to them.
At a general level, self-psychology is compelled to investigate the question of how the "personal self" relates to social environment. To the extent that these theories place themselves in the tradition of "psychological" social psychology, they focus on explaining individual acts in group context in terms of mental events and states. However, some sociological social psychological theories go further by attempting to deal with the issue of identity at both the levels of individual cognition and of collective behavior.
It is an open question as to what the psychological reasons are for adopting group identities. Many people gain a positive sense of self-esteem from their identity groups, which furthers a sense of community and belonging. Another issue that researchers have attempted to address is the question of why it is that people engage in discrimination, i.e., why they tend to favor those they consider a part of their "in-group" over those considered to be outsiders. Both questions have been given extensive treatment by Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner's social identity theory. The theory focuses in the main upon the role of self-categorization, and attempts to show how a sense of mere distinctiveness can lead people to act in a discriminating way. Moreover, social identity theory shows that the crafting of a mere cognitive distinction between in- and out- groups can lead to subtle effects on their evaluations of others. (Cote 2002:24; Universiteit Twente 2004)
Another issue in social psychology surrounds the notion that there are certain identity formation strategies which an actor may use to adapt to the social world. Cote and Levine (2002:3-5) developed a typology which investigated the different manners of behavior that individuals may have. (3) Their typology includes:
Kenneth Gergen formulated additional strategies, which include the "strategic manipulator", the "pastiche personality", and the "relational self". The "strategic manipulator", for Gergen, is a person who begins to regard all senses of identity as merely role-playing exercises, and who gradually becomes alienated from their social "selves". The "pastiche personality" abandons all aspirations toward a true or "essential" identity, instead viewing social interactions as opportunities to play out, and hence become, the roles they play. Finally, the "relational self" is a perspective where persons abandon all sense of exclusive self, and view all sense of identity as mere social engagement with others. For Gergen, these strategies follow one another in phases, and they are linked to the increase in popularity of postmodern culture and the rise of telecommunications technology.
In sociology and political science, the notion of social identity is individuals' labelling of themselves as members of particular groups (i.e., nation, social class, subculture, ethnicity, gender, etc.) It is in this sense which sociologists and historians speak of a national identity of a particular country, and feminist and queer theorists speak of gender identity. Symbolic interactionists (SI) attempt to show how identity can influence, and be influenced by, social reality at large. SI is influenced largely from the work of the American pragmatists, such as Charles Peirce and William James. (Cote 2002:32)
SI has two schools: the Iowa School and the Chicago School. SI researchers in the Chicago School argue that social reality is emergent and constructed out of personal, "situated" interaction, i.e., from the process of impression management. To observe identity scientifically, the Chicago school opts for ethnomethodology and qualitative observation techniques. Iowa School researchers attempt to show that personal and social identities are connected to, or representations of, social structures, and tend to use quantitative surveys. For example, McCall and Simmons make use of the notion of role-identity, and Sheldon Stryker's theory of structural interactionism explains identity in terms of interaction density and interaction opportunities. (Cote 2002:35-36) Of particular concern to the Durkheimian sociologist is how social phenomena, like mass anomie, relate to the identity formation strategies.
Identity has played a functional role in social movements. By emphasizing a group identity, social movements have sought to strengthen politically oppressed groups both by improving members' sense of confidence and by familiarizing the external society with the existing social group. However, national or ethnic identity is sometimes also tied to demagoguery, ethnic, and religious conflicts.
Based on identity theory as rooted in the work of George Herbert Mead (1934) and expanded by Sheldon Stryker (1968), the process of the individual interacting with others in order to create an identity is called identity negotiation. The purpose of identity negotiation is to develop a consistent set of behaviors that reinforce the identity of the person. In general, a person will have to negotiate separately on each identity they possess by interacting with those who are affected by the role in question. For example, the identity of an "office worker" would be negotiated separately from the identity of a "mother", because the collectively established role of the worker involves negotiation with their coworkers, and not (directly) with one's children. See Stryker and Burke (2000). A related notion is that of identity capital, developed by Cote & Levine (2002).
In sociology, social identity can also be examined from the point of view of social and historical change. Postmodern views of identity understand identity to be a function of historical and cultural circumstances. Some works, like that of Berger and Luckmann, argue that all aspects of social reality are actually social constructions created by historical facts. Nevertheless, they emphasize that constructs have real consequences upon the lives and behaviors of human beings. (Cote 2002:37)
In the same vein, Kenneth Gergen and Anthony Giddens have both attempted to place theories of identity formation in a historical context. Gergen argues that changes in popular types of identity have run parallel to a change in broader culture: a sense of robust ego identity was present in the romantic period, followed by a sense of self as rational actor during the modernist period, and the sense of a "relational self" as typical of the postmodern period. By contrast, Giddens accepts that there is a historical change in identity styles, but attributes it to aberrations in socio-economic conditions which are unique to the "high modern" period. (Cote 2002:42-43)
Self: Self-concept, Self (psychology), Self (philosophy), Self psychology
Identity: Social identity, Spoiled identity, personal identity (philosophy)
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