Showing papers on "Identity (social science) published in 1983"

Multiple identities and psychological well-being: a reformulation and test of the social isolation hypothesis

Abstract: Drawing upon symbolic interactionist theory, this paper reconceptualizes social isolation as the possession offew social identities. Social identities (enacted in role relationships) give meaning and guidance to behavior, and thus should prevent anxiety, depression, and disordered conduct. The "identity accumulation hypothesis"-the more identities possessed by an actor, the less psychological distress helshe should exhibit-is tested and supported using panel data from the New Haven community survey (Myers et al., 1971). The interaction between identity accumulation and identity change is also examined, under differing assumptions regarding the structure of multiple identities. Results indicate that integrated individuals benefit more from identity gain and also suffer more from identity loss than isolated individuals. The implications of these results for social isolation theory and for previous conceptions of the effects of multiple roles are discussed.

Identifying Identity: A Semantic History

Abstract: Today we could hardly do without the word identity in talking about immigration and ethnicity. Those who write on these matters use it casually; they assume the reader will know what they mean. And readers seem to feel that they do-at least there has been no clamor for clarification of the term. But if pinned down, most of us would find it difficult to explain just what we do mean by identity. Its very obviousness seems to defy elucidation: identity is what a thing is! How is one supposed to go beyond that in explaining it? But adding a modifier complicates matters, for how are we to understand identity in such expressions as "ethnic identity," "Jewish identity," or "American identity"? This is a question to which the existing writings on ethnicity do not provide a satisfactory answer. There are helpful discussions, to be sure, but none seems altogether adequate, at least not from the historian's viewpoint. The historically minded inquirer who gains familiarity with the literature, however, soon makes an arresting discovery-identity is a new term, as well as being an elusive and ubiquitous one. It came into use as a popular socialscience term only in the 1950s. The contrast between its handling in two standard reference works dramatizes its novelty. The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, published in 1968, carries a substantial article on "Identity, Psychosocial," and another on "Identification, Political." The original Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, published in the early 1930s, carries no entry at all for identity, and the entry headed "Identification" deals with fingerprinting and other techniques of criminal investigation. '

Individuality and connectedness in the family as a context for adolescent identity formation and role-taking skill.

Abstract: Observations of family communication indicate that adolescents who exhibit greater degrees of identity exploration and role-taking skill participate in relationships in which both individuality and connectedness are expressed.

Defining tradition: variations on the Hawaiian identity

Abstract: Both anthropologists and ethnic nationalists use the concept of tradition to define a cultural identity. While both view the rural community as representative of an authentic inheritance, the attempts by nationalists to discover this heritage usually produce cultural creations. The Hawaiian cultural revival advances an eclectic version of tradition, modeled partly on the lifestyle of rural Hawaiians. This paper argues that tradition is inevitably invented because it enters into the construction of social identity. Even for the rural “folk,” tradition is self-conscious and changing. [tradition, ethnicity, nationalism, symbolic anthropology, Polynesia, Hawaii]

The Fish People: Linguistic Exogamy and Tukanoan Identity in Northwest Amazonia

Abstract: The Bara, or Fish People, of the Northwest Amazon form part of an unusual network of intermarrying local communities scattered along the rivers of this region. Each community belongs to one of sixteen different groups that speak sixteen different languages, and marriages must take place between people not only from different communities but with different primary languages. In a network of this sort, which defies the usual label of 'tribe', social identity assumes a distinct and unusual configuration. In this book, Jean Jackson's incisive discussions of Bara marriage, kinship, spatial organization, and other features of the social and geographic landscape show how Tukanoans (as participants in the network are collectively known) conceptualize and tie together their universe of widely scattered communities, and how an individual's identity emerges in terms of relations with others. As theoretically challenging as it is unique, the Tukanoan system bears on a wide range of issues of current anthropological concern, such as how to analyze open-ended regional systems in small-scale societies, ideal versus actual patterns of behaviour, identity as both structure and action, and indigenous use of multiple, even conflicting, models of social structure. Professor Jackson's thoughtful discussions also extend to broader social scientific issues concerning the relation of language to culture, the presence or absence of individualism in pre-state societies, the nature of ethnic boundaries, the interplay between observation of behaviour and its interpretation (on the part of both native and anthropologist), and the achievement of flexibility and self-interested goals while applying seemingly rigid social structural principles.

Voices of resurgent Islam

Abstract: Essays discuss Islamic identity, influential Islamic leaders, and reasons for the revitalization of Islam in the Middle East.

Political Anthropology: An Introduction

Abstract: Foreword to the First Edition by Victor Turner Preface The Development of Political Anthropology Types of Preindustrial Political Systems The Evolution of the State Religion and Ritual in Politics From Structure to Process The Individual in the Political Arena: Action Theory and Game Theory The Power of the People: Resistance and Rebellion Gender and Power The Politics of Identity From Modernism to Postmodernism From Modernization to Globalization Glossary Bibliography Index

Some Directions for the Investigation of Ego Development in Early Adolescence

Abstract: Early adolescence is discussed as a period in the life cycle marked by two important events in ego development: the formation of an ego ideal and the synthesis of an ego identity, both established by means of exploration and experimentation It is suggested that our society, as contrasted with those offering structured rites of passage, provides the prolonged period of adolescence necessary for this development to take place Three important precursors at early adolescence to an achieved identity at late adolescence are proposed: confidence in parental support; a sense of industry; and a self-reflective approach to one's future These three variables have theoretical links, respectively, to psychoanalytic theory, ego developmental (psychosocial) theory, and cognitive structural developmental theory It is hypothesized that the three variables relate to each other and to the identity statuses at late adolescence in a hierarchical manner

Indelible Shadows : Film and the Holocaust

Abstract: Part I. Finding an Appropriate Language: 1. The Hollywood version of the Holocaust 2. Meaningful montage 3. Styles of tension 4. Black humor Part II. Narrative Strategies: 5. The Jew as child 6. In hiding/onstage 7. Beautiful evasions? 8. The condemned and doomed Part III. Responses to Nazi Atrocity: 9. Political resistance 10. The ambiguity of identity 11. The new German guilt Part IV. Shaping Reality: 12. The personal documentary 13. From judgment to illumination Part V. Third Edition Update: 14. The Holocaust as genre 15. Rediscoveries 16. Rescuers in fiction films 17. The ironic touch 18. Dysfunction as distortion: the Holocaust survivor on screen and stage 19. Documentaries of return.

The Mirror Dance: Identity in a Women's Community

Abstract: "A day draws to a close. Helen worries about when her children will get home; Gloria considers her day at work and, again, thoughts cross her mind about telling them at church that she is a lesbian; Gayle prepares for a meeting at the Women's Shelter...; Ellen gets ready for a class. Chip and Jessica plan another party at their house; Diana paces her kitchen, troubled that Meg still intends to see Bronwyn..." These are some of the people who come to life in this unique book about a lesbian community. It is an experiment, both in women's language and in social science method, and is composed of an interplay of voices that echo, again and again, themes of self and community, sameness and difference, merger and separation, loss and change. Although the method of presentation is unusual, the book is based on solid research. The author lived for a year with the community and then spent two intensive months interviewing 78 women who were either members of the community or importantly associated with it. The author began by addressing several basic questions about privacy that quickly led her to explore dilemmas of identity. In time an even more compelling problem emerged: the loss of sense of self, how it occurs and how it may be dealt with in a social setting. The nature of the community itself raised this issue because it was a community of likeness, intimacy, and ideology. It was also a stigmatized or deviant community - and of women, individuals with life experiences that tended to encourage the giving up of the self to others. The book is organized around particular kinds of situations and relationships in the community where conflicts concerning control over identity are especially prominent. It concludes with an essay on the author's method, "Fiction and Social Science." Author note: Susan Krieger is Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, Stanford University.

A Preliminary Examination of Ethnic Identification among Whites.

Abstract: The issue of ethnic identity has received little attention in the empirical literature on ethnicity, despite its importance in the light of the currently high rates of intermarriage and mixed ancestry. In a preliminary way, we examine the variation of a skeletal form of ethnic identity: namely, ethnic identification, the individual's self-placement in terms of ethnic categories. We concentrate on the distinction between those who identify with a single group and others who do not and analyze its association among native-born whites with such variables as education and generation in the U.S. A key finding is the rising number of individuals who have mixed ethnic ancestry but identity themselves in terms of one group. This occurrence appears to corroborate assertions of a "resurgence of ethnicity" but points as well to a fundamental change in the nature of ethnicity, as ethnic identifiers are increasingly individuals with mixed ethnic ancestry, who are likely to have a muted ethnic identity.

The families of origin of social workers

Abstract: This paper deals with patterns of family experience that precede the social worker's entrance into the profession. The family role of good, parentified child is shown to have been commonly assigned or chosen, with some parallels in later professional functioning. The parentification/infantilization continuum serves as a useful dimension through which to explore overresponsibility and irresponsibility. Self-esteem, a sense of self-sufficiency/insufficiency, and dilemmas of personal/professional individuation are also included, with implications for professional education and professional identity. The role of good-enough social worker is defined and explored.

Ego Identity and Intimacy Status: Replication and Extension

Abstract: Previous research has supported Erikson's theoretical proposition that advanced identity formation is associated with greater interpersonal intimacy. However, some writers have criticized existing studies for using cross-sectional methods and/or male subjects exclusively. Therefore, 78 college undergraduates, 28 males and 50 females, were randomly selected as participants in a larger 1-year longitudinal project to assess the identity-intimacy relationship. The Marcia (1966) Ego-Identity Interview and the Orlofsky, Marcia, and Lesser (1973) Intimacy Interview were administered to measure subjects' statuses on the two psychosocial constructs. The longitudinal data in this study indicate that identity formation maintains a trend for time-lagged and concurrent associations with intimacy development. Furthermore, occupational identity for male subjects and religious identity for female subjects were the most salient factors that contributed to advanced intimacy status. The importance of sex differences is discussed in determining the specificity of the identity-intimacy relationship.

A Sociopsychological Investigation of Adult Adoptees' Search for Birth Parents.

Abstract: Adult adoptees, engaged in various aspects of searching for their birth parents, from no involvement to reunion, participated in a questionnaire study of factors that predicted degree of searching activity. Increased searching was found to be related to a traumatic adoption revelation, knowledge of circumstances of birth and adoption, strained adoptive family relationships, poor self-concept, the experiencing of stressful life events and a belief that having been adopted made one feel different and incomplete. Reasons offered by searchers for their involvement included a desire to know their geneological history, to increase their sense of identity and to establish a relationship with birth parents. Non-searchers stated that they did not search because of fear of hurting either adoptive or birth parents, and satisfaction with identity as children of adoptive parents. Methodological and clinical issues raised in view of these results were discussed.

Identity in Early Adolescence: A Developmental Perspective

Abstract: Ego identity status definitions with examples are elaborated upon with particular reference to early adolescents Patterns of potential identity status change for this age group are discussed withi

History of olive cultivars based on their genetic distances

Abstract: SummaryTwenty-five cultivars of Olea europaea were compared with respect to electro- phoretically detectable differences at 15 enzyme systems. The genetic distances between all pairs of cultivars (based on the identity of proteins) have been calculated. A ‘phylogeny’ is derived from these data and discussed in the light of new archaeological findings concerning olive cultivation and other historical evidence.

Answering as Authoring: Mikhail Bakhtin's Trans-Linguistics

Abstract: All of Mikhail Bakhtin's work stands under the sign of plurality, the mystery of the one and the many. Unlike the third eye of Tibetan Buddhism, which gives those who possess it a visiori of the secret unity holding creation together, Bakhtin seems to have had a third ear that permitted him to hear differences where others perceived only sameness, especially in the apparent wholeness of the human voice. The obsessive question at the heart of Bakhtin's thought is always "Who is talking?" It was his sense of the world's overwhelming multiplicity that impelled Bakhtin to rethink strategies by which heterogeneity had traditionally been disguised as a unity. In his several attempts to find a single name for the teeming forces which jostled each other within the combat zone of the wordwhether the term was "polyphony," "heteroglossia," or "speech communion"-Bakhtin was at great pains never to sacrifice the tension between identity and difference that fueled his enterprise. He always sought the minimum degree of homogenization necessary to any conceptual scheme, feeling it was better to preserve the heterogeneity which less patient thinkers found intolerable-and to which they therefore hurried to assign a unitizing label. Bakhtin's metaphysical contrariness has the effect of making him at times appear to be indiscriminate, as when he refused to recognize the

The Contribution of the Family to the Facilitation of Identity Formation in Early Adolescence

Abstract: This paper explores the family's role in the facilitation of identity formation in early adolescence. First, studies that focus on the family's style of adapting to the transition from childhood into early adolescence are reviewed. Second, research on the relation between identity formation and family processes in late adolescence is reviewed in order to suggest directions for future research with early adolescents. Finally, three issues warranting further investigation are outlined: gender differences, domain-specific studies of identity, and longitudinal studies of developmental sequences of identity formation.

The Development of Occupational Identity in Undergraduate Music Education Majors

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of occupational identity in undergraduate music education majors using a Symbolic Interactionist theoretical framework. Three research problems were formulated: (1) The identification of occupational norms and values of undergraduate music education majors; (2) The determination of the commitment of under graduate music education majors to specific skills and knowledge of music education; (3) The determination of career commitment to music education by undergraduate majors. The sample consisted of undergraduate music education majors enrolled in North Texas State University; Denton, Texas, during 1981 and 1982. A questionnaire and interview schedule, which had been developed in a pilot study, were used to gather data. Questionnaire responses from 165 students were analyzed by comparing selected variables by area and by class year. These data were further clarified by information from thirty-eight interviews conducted by this researcher.

The relative importance of identity status interview components.

Abstract: Eighty college males were given an expanded identity status interview which included two new interpersonal-sexual areas, "attitudes towards sexual expression" and "sex-role beliefs." The relative contribution of the new content areas as well as of the standard three areas (occupation, religion, and politics) to overall identity status was assessed by noting the extent of correspondence. Identity status in each content area was also compared with performance on the dependent variable of cognitive complexity. Ideology contributed more than occupation both to overall status rating, as well as to discrimination on the dependent variable. Results on the two new areas supported the view that interpersonal-sexual concerns are important for men's identity development as well as for women's. The finding that all interview areas corresponded well with overall identity status and discriminated significantly on the dependent measure leads to the suggestion that the process variables of crisis and commitment may so overshadow a particular content area that any content of personal relevance for the late adolescent might be used in investigating ego identity development.

Identity and Security in Adoption and Long-Term Fostering:

Abstract: †This article first appeared in “Adoption and Fostering”, Vol. 7, No. 1. 1983— the quarterly journal of British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (B.A.A.F.). Their permission to reprint this article is gratefully acknowledged.

Marcia and erikson: The relationships among ego identity status, neuroticism, dogmatism, and purpose in life.

Abstract: Implicit in James Marcia's writings and in the many studies that have employed his measure of ego identity is the assumption that his four ego identity statuses are developmentally ordered along a continuum from "being identity diffused" to "achieving" an ego identity. In order to assess the validity of this assumption, hypotheses were generated and tested concerning the relationship between the above ordering and Erikson's writings regarding the role played in the process of identity formation by the following three variables: neuroticism, dogmatism, and a sense of purpose in life. If one assumes that Erikson's perspective is valid, then the results of this study fail to support Marcia's continuum assumption. While some of the identity statuses appear to classify persons in a manner consistent with Erikson's writings, not one instance of the postulated ordering of Marcia's four statuses is observed. It is concluded that Marcia's measure is not an adequate operationalization of Erikson's perspective on identity formation.

Plural Languages, Plural Cultures: Communication, Identity, and Sociopolitical Change in Contemporary India

Abstract: "An East-West Center book from the East-West Culture Learning Institute" For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/

Myocarditis--a case of mistaken identity?

Abstract: The first St Cyres lecture, delivered by Strickland Goodall in 1927 was devoted to the topic of myocarditis and was a brilliant, and at that time an up to date, account of the subject.' The list of previous topics is impressive but apart from 1939, when DrW T Ritchie discussed rheumatic carditis and in 1942 when Dr T F Cotton gave his views on carditis in general, inflammatory changes of the myocardium have not appeared in the tide of this lecture. In view of the interest in myocarditis that has been aroused recently, I considered it pertinent to consider this topic for the fiftieth St Cyres lecture. Often, on occasions such as this, one is informed that a person of note, hitherto believed to have succumbed to a certain disease, has in fact died as a result of a totally different disease, which is of course the subject of this lecture. Alas, I could not find such a person who had retrospectively been credited of having died as a result of myocarditis. Why then should this be so? Surely myocarditis is not a new disease. I think the explanation will be found in the historical review.