Social Psychology of Identities, Pt. 2

Pg 371 – “The basic premise of symbolic interaction is that people attach symbolic meaning to objects, behaviors, themselves, and other people, and they develop and transmit these meanings through interaction.”

~ This goes back to culture and identity, as well as the idea of identity-related possessions. These identity-related possession, be they physical or not, have an influence on culture and identity.

Pg 371 – “Interactionist approaches to identity vary in their emphasis on the structure of identity, on the one hand, and the processes and interactions through which identities are constructed, on the other.”

~ This is another approach I might want to research more.

Pg 371 – “Role identities are organized hierarchically, on the basis of their salience to the self and the degree to which we are committed to them, which in turn depends on the extent to which these identities are premised on our ties to particular other people.”

~ This relates back to the idea of ranking cultures & identities in terms of the global self to determine which one will take precedence over others.

Pg 372 – “At the most basic level, the point is simply that people actively produce identity through their talk.”

~ Identity is a social process!

Pg 372 – “Identity talk is organized around two sets of norms, one concerning respect for situated identities and a commitment to basic moral precepts, and the second concerning ways in which people deal with failure to endorse these basic moral precepts, through denials of responsibility…”

~ These are the bases for most developmental models.

Pg 374 – “Another provocative approach to the instability of identities is to focus on what identities we distance ourselves from. Freitas et al (1997) examine who we say we are not, and whether such negative identities are merely an antithesis of identity or point to more complex identity ambivalences.”

~ Idea of positive and negative identities leads back to the idea of ranking identities in the global self.

Pg 374 – “Identity instability may also signify multiple, and contradictory, identity goals.”

~ This relates back to needing to coordinate identities.

For huge amount of inbetween pages – breakdown of studies on various types of identities. Basically explains major theories in these pages.

Pg 381 – “Analyses of identities based on single social positions, such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, or age, have given way to a chorus of calls for analyses of how identities intersect (see O’Brien & Howard 1998).”

~ Coordinating identities.

Pg 385 – Idea of deconstructing identity/constructing identity from header

~ Maybe instead of dissolution of identities it’s really more of a deconstruction.

Pg 385-6 – “Much of the literature discussed above makes several key assumptions: Identities have an intrinsic, essential content, defined by a common origin or a common structure of experience, and often, both. When identity struggles arise, they generally take the form of redefining negative images as positive, or of deciphering the “authentic” identity.”

~ I pretty much completely agree with these basic assumptions.

Pg 386 – “For Hall, identity moves away from signaling a stable core of self, to becoming a strategic, positional concept: “identities are points of temporary attachments to the subject positions which discursive practices construct for us” (Hall 1996: 6).”

~ Maybe the global self is still made up of a bunch of identities and cultures, but I do like the idea of strategic positioning of cultures and identities…it fits into the idea of identity redistribution.

Pg 386 – “Fragmentation emphasizes the multiplicity of identities and of positions within any identity. Hybridity is also key, evoking images of liminality and border-crossings in which a subaltern identity is defined as different from either of several competing identities. Disapora is another key idea, resonant with the discussion above of geography and identity. Diaspora emphasizes not just transnationality and movement…”

~ Other ideas I might need to incorporate into my theory.

Pg 386 – “Asserting that a category “race” would not exist without racist ideology, Hopkins et al (1997) argue that racialized categories are socially constructed, and they argue for a social psychology that focuses on the social processes through which categories are constructed, including the power relationships and social practices that affect who is able to act on the basis of their category constructions, make them heard, and impose them on others.”

~ Breakdown of the idea of socially constructed culture/identity that is assigned to a person.

Howard, J. A. (2000). Social psychology of identities. Annual Review of Sociology, 26. Retrieved October 17, 2008 from JSTOR database.

Social Psychology of Identities, Pt. 1

Pg 367-8 – “…When societies were more stable, identity was to a great extent assigned, rather than selected or adopted. In current times, however, the concept of identity carries the full weight of the need for a sense of who one is, together with an often overwhelming pace of change in surrounding social contexts-changes in the groups and networks in which people and their identities are embedded and in the societal structures and practices in which those networks are themselves embedded.”

~ I think this kind of carries with it my idea that culture and society is constantly changing, and, as such, one’s identities are constantly changing, as well. While identity is still partially assigned, it also comes from an individual’s understanding of self, which changes quite often.

Pg 368 – “Social cognition and symbolic interaction, two of the prevailing perspectives in sociological social psychology, provide the theoretical underpinnings of traditional understandings of identity.”

~ This is basically what I am thinking of for a theory, a lot of social cognition and symbolic interaction.

Pg 368 – “Social cognition is a theory of how we store and process information (Fiske & Taylor 1991, Augoustinos & Walker 1995).”

~ This is a good definition of social cognition.

Pg 368 – “Several central assumptions underlie social cognitive theories of identity: that human cognitive capacities are limited; that, therefore, we process information as cognitive misers, streamlining information to manage the demands of everyday interaction; that, following from this need for cognitive efficiency, we categorize information about people, objects, and situations before we engage memory or inferential processes.”

~ I like this explanation of social cognition between it brings up the point of categorization. It basically explains why most development theory categorize people, because it is how we process information. It is impossible to create a theory that relates to everyone because we need to categorize to understand and remember. Kind of like the best way to understand development is to sit and listen to someone’s personal history from birth to present, but we cannot process all that information, so we categorize and simplify.

Pg 368 – “Cognitive schemas, abstract and organized packages of information, are the cognitive version of identities. Self-schemas include organized knowledge about one’s self, the cognitive response to the question of identity: Who am I? These include the characteristics, preferences, goals, and behavior patterns we associate with ourselves. Group schemas (analogous to stereotypes) include organized information about social positions and stratification statuses, such as gender, race, age, or class.”

~ So, from my theory’s standpoint, cognitive schemas = identity; self-schemas = personal history/heritage; group schemas = culture. These are just another way of phrasing what I am saying. Although using the phrase group schema might make the theory more understandable than saying culture all the time.

Pg 368 – “…Group schemas play a major part in processes of identification. Self and group schemas illustrate both advantages and disadvantages of categorization systems. They allow us to summarize and reduce information to key elements; thus, they also entail losing potentially valuable information. And, categorizations are almost always accompanied by systems of evaluation of some categories as better or worse. Schemas are not just perceptual phenomenona; they can serve as explanatory devices and justifications of social relationships (Tajfel 1981). Thus, social identities are embedded in sociopolitical contexts.”

~ Talks about categorizing, both helpful and harmful. Helpful because it helps us to process and understand the world around us. Hurtful because it puts people into systems of evaluation based on category. Also talks about culture and identity in terms of schemas.

Pg 368-9 – “Social identity theory focuses on the extent to which individuals identify themselves in terms of group memberships (Tajfel & Turner 1986). The central tenet of social identity theory is that individuals define their identities along two dimensions: social, defined by membership in various social groups; and personal, the idiosyncratic attributes that distinguish an individual from others. Social and personal identities are thought to lie at opposite ends of a continuum, becoming more or less salient depending on the context.”

~ Interesting idea that social and personal identities (culture and identity) lie on different ends of a continuum. At least in that manner they are linked, but I do not think they are at separate ends. I think they are bound together and influence each other more like a weaving. Although, I do like the idea that individuals define their selves by both social and personal characteristics.

Pg 369 – “Social identities provide status and enhance (or not) self-esteem.”

~ So this basically says that culture is what provides status and influences self-esteem. Individual identities do not do this, only the cultures’ identities.

Pg 369 – “The more positive, and more personally important, aspects of the self are likely to be bases on which a person locates her- or himself in terms of collective categories (Simon & Hastedt 1999), demonstrating the relationship between categorization and evaluation.”

~ So the higher ranking the culture in terms of the person’s thought processes, the more positive that culture will be. So if a culture loses status, than a person will redistribute their cultural identities in order to make another culture be the one they relate to the most in order to gain back some self-esteem.

Pg 370 – “Cognitive processes are also implicated in the construction, maintenance, and change of identities.”

~ To form, continue to form, or redistribute/dissolve an identity a cognitive process must be gone through.

Pg 370 – “Cognitive structures and processes come together in Moscovici’s (1981) theory of social representations. According to this perspective, knowledge structures are collectively shared, originating and developing via social interaction and communication (Augoustinos & Innes 1990).”

~ Knowledge comes through collective processes and is developed and communicated through social processes. So, what people know about themselves and others in terms of culture and identity comes through other people’s knowledge. Culture and identity are formed through collective processes and communicated through social networks.

Howard, J. A. (2000). Social psychology of identities. Annual Review of Sociology, 26. Retrieved October 17, 2008 from JSTOR database.