Showing papers on "Identity (social science) published in 2009"

Intersectionality and Research in Psychology

Abstract: Feminist and critical race theories offer the concept of intersectionality to describe analytic approaches that simultaneously consider the meaning and consequences of multiple categories of identity, difference, and disadvantage. To understand how these categories depend on one another for meaning and are jointly associated with outcomes, reconceptualization of the meaning and significance of the categories is necessary. To accomplish this, the author presents 3 questions for psychologists to ask: Who is included within this category? What role does inequality play? Where are there similarities? The 1st question involves attending to diversity within social categories. The 2nd conceptualizes social categories as connoting hierarchies of privilege and power that structure social and material life. The 3rd looks for commonalities across categories commonly viewed as deeply different. The author concludes with a discussion of the implications and value of these 3 questions for each stage of the research process.

A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus

Abstract: Preferences over jurisdictional architecture are the product of three irreducible logics: efficiency, distribution and identity. This article substantiates the following claims: (a) European integration has become politicized in elections and referendums; (b) as a result, the preferences of the general public and of national political parties have become decisive for jurisdictional outcomes; (c) identity is critical in shaping contestation on Europe.

Understanding teacher identity: an overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education

Abstract: While literature on teaching emphasizes the importance of identity in teacher development, understanding identity and the issues related to it can be a challenging endeavour. This article provides an overview of the issues revealed in recent discussions of teacher identity: the problem of defining the concept; the place of the self, and related issues of agency, emotion, narrative and discourse; the role of reflection; and the influence of contextual factors. A particular focus is placed on identity in pre‐service teachers and new practitioners. Implications of an understanding of these issues for programmes of teacher education are highlighted.

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media

Abstract: Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networking sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youths' social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings -- at home, in after-school programs, and in online spaces. Integrating twenty-three case studies -- which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music sharing, and online romantic breakups -- in a unique collaborative authorship style, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out is distinctive for its combination of in-depth description of specific group dynamics with conceptual analysis.

Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and Collective Identities as Motivators of Action

Abstract: Who am I? What am I about? What is my place in my social group? What is important to me? What do I value? What do I want to do with my life? These are all questions related to what psychologists call identity. Many theorists have argued that we are driven to answer these questions, particularly during adolescence. In this article, I summarize an expectancy value perspective on identity and identity formation. Within this framework, identity can be conceptualized in terms of two basic sets of self perceptions: (a) perceptions related to skills, characteristics, and competencies, and (b) perceptions related to personal values and goals. Together these two sets of self perceptions inform both individuals’ expectations for success and the importance they attach to becoming involved in a wide range of tasks. Within this perspective, then, I focus on the role personal and collective identities can play on motivated action through their influence on expectations for success and subjective task values. I also discuss briefly how personality and collective identities develop over time.

Testing a Social-Cognitive Model of Moral Behavior: The Interactive Influence of Situations and Moral Identity Centrality

Abstract: This article proposes and tests a social-cognitive framework for examining the joint influence of situational factors and the centrality of moral identity on moral intentions and behaviors. The authors hypothesized that if a situational factor increases the current accessibility of moral identity within the working self-concept, then it strengthens the motivation to act morally. In contrast, if a situational factor decreases the current accessibility of moral identity, then it weakens the motivation to act morally. The authors also expected the influence of situational factors to vary depending on the extent to which moral identity was central to a person's overall self-conception. Hypotheses derived from the framework were tested in 4 studies. The studies used recalling and reading a list of the Ten Commandments (Study 1), writing a story using morally laden terms (Study 4), and the presence of performance-based financial incentives (Studies 2 and 3) as situational factors. Participants' willingness to initiate a cause-related marketing program (Study 1), lie to a job candidate during a salary negotiation (Studies 2 and 3), and contribute to a public good (Study 4) were examined. Results provide strong support for the proposed framework.

Motivation, language identity and the L2 self

Abstract: Due to its theoretical and educational significance within the language learning process, the study of L2 motivation has been an important area of second language acquisition research for several decades. Over the last few years L2 motivation research has taken an exciting new turn by focusing increasingly on the language learner’s situated identity and various self-perceptions. As a result, the concept of L2 motivation is currently in the process of being radically reconceptualised and re-theorised in the context of contemporary notions of self and identity. With contributions by leading European, North American and Asian scholars, this volume brings together the first comprehensive anthology of key conceptual and empirical papers that mark this important paradigmatic shift.

Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity

Abstract: Preface 1. Agency and Identity 2. The Metaphysics of Normativity 3. Formal and Substantive Principles of Reason 4. Practical Reason and the Unity of the Will 5. Autonomy & Efficacy 6. Expulsion from the Garden: The Transition to Humanity 7. The Constitutional Model 8. Defective Action 9. Integrity and Interaction 10. How to be a Person Bibliography Index

The Shifting Middle Ground: Amazonian Indians and Eco-Politics

Abstract: Over the past decade in Brazil, the convergence between international environmentalism and indigenous cultural survival concerns led to an unprecedented internationalization of local A native struggles. The Indian-environmentalist alliance has benefited both parties, but recent events suggest that it may be unstable and may pose political risks for native people. The limitations of transnational symbolic politics as a vehicle for indigenous activism reflect tensions and contradictions in outsiders' symbolic constructions of Indian identity.

Framed Before We Know It: How Gender Shapes Social Relations

Abstract: In this article, I argue that gender is a primary cultural frame for coordinating behavior and organizing social relations. I describe the implications for understanding how gender shapes social behavior and organizational structures. By my analysis, gender typically acts as a background identity that biases, in gendered directions, the performance of behaviors undertaken in the name of organizational roles and identities. I develop an account of how the background effects of the gender frame on behavior vary by the context that different organizational and institutional structures set but can also infuse gendered meanings into organizational practices. Next, I apply this account to two empirical illustrations to demonstrate that we cannot understand the shape that the structure of gender inequality and gender difference takes in particular institutional or societal contexts without taking into account the background effects of the gender frame on behavior in these contexts.

The Role of Identity Salience in the Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Behavior

Abstract: Based on the assumption that consumers will reward firms for their support of social programs, many organizations have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on social identity theory, a model of influence of CSR on loyalty is developed and tested using a sample of real consumers. Results demonstrate that CSR initiatives are linked to stronger loyalty both because the consumer develops a more positive company evaluation, and because one identifies more strongly with the company. Moreover, identity salience is shown to play a crucial role in the influence of CSR initiatives on consumer loyalty when this influence occurs through consumer-company identification. A strong identifier is not necessarily in a constant state of salience, but activating identity salience of a particular consumer social identity (a company) will affect consumer reactions to product stimuli, increasing consumer loyalty.

Identity fusion: the interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior.

Abstract: The authors propose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group-related behaviors of fused persons, the 2 forms of identity may combine synergistically, fostering exceptionally high levels of extreme behavior. Support for these hypotheses came from 5 preliminary studies and 3 experiments. In particular, fused persons were more willing to fight or die for the group than nonfused persons, especially when their personal or social identities had been activated. The authors conclude that among fused persons, both the personal and social self may energize and direct grouprelated behavior. Implications for related theoretical approaches and for conceptualizing the relationship between personal identities, social identities, and group processes are discussed.

Commonality and the Complexity of “We”: Social Attitudes and Social Change:

Abstract: The present article explores the complex role of collective identities in the development of intergroup biases and disparities, in interventions to improve orientations toward members of other groups, and in inhibiting or facilitating social action. The article revolves around the common ingroup identity model, examining general empirical support but also acknowledging potential limitations and emphasizing new insights and extensions. It proposes that the motivations of majority group members to preserve a system that advantages them and the motivations of minority group members to enhance their status have direct implications for preferred group representations and consequent intergroup relations. In particular, the effects of majority group members' preferences for a common, one-group identity and minority group members' preference for a dual identity (in which differences are acknowledged within the context of a superordinate identity) are considered in terms of intergroup attitudes, recognition of unfair disparities, and support for social action.

Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism

Abstract: This article traces the contours of a comparative, global, cross-disciplinary, and multiparadigmatic field that construes ethnicity, race, and nationhood as a single integrated family of forms of cultural understanding, social organization, and political contestation. It then reviews a set of diverse yet related efforts to study the way ethnicity, race, and nation work in social, cultural, and political life without treating ethnic groups, races, or nations as substantial entities, or even taking such groups as units of analysis at all.

Technology, Identity, and Inertia Through the Lens of “The Digital Photography Company”

Abstract: Organizations often experience difficulty when pursuing new technology. Large bodies of research have examined the behavioral, social, and cognitive forces that underlie this phenomenon; however, the role of an organization's identity remains relatively unexplored. Identity comprises insider and outsider perceptions of what is core about an organization. An identity has associated with it a set of norms that represent shared beliefs about legitimate behavior for an organization with that identity. In this paper, technologies that deviate from the expectations associated with an organization's identity are labeled identity-challenging technologies. Based on a comprehensive field-based case study of the entire life history of a company, identity-challenging technologies are found to be difficult to capitalize on for two reasons. First, identity serves as a filter, such that organizational members notice and interpret external stimuli in a manner consistent with the identity. As a result, identity-challengin...

Academic manager or managed academic? Academic identity schisms in higher education

Abstract: The relationship between values and academic identity has received scant attention in the higher education literature with some notable exceptions (Churchman, 2006; Harley, 2002; Henkel, 2005). This paper contends that the perceived need to align all academics around corporate values and goals has given rise to academic identity schisms in higher education. Central to the academic identity schism is the notion of person–organisation values fit and the degree to which the ideologies and values of academics are congruent (the ‘academic manager’) or incongruent (the ‘managed academic’) with the prevailing discourse of corporate managerialism. To reduce the prevalence of academic disengagement and make it easier for academic managers to gain the support of the managed, the paper proposes two inter-related strategies for bridging identity schisms in academe.

Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature

Abstract: Acknowledgments. 1. Introducing the Field of Conservation Psychology. Conservation. Psychology. Human care for nature. The roots of conservation psychology. The potential of conservation psychology. The organization of the book. Conclusion. Part I: Thinking about Nature . 2. Attitudes, Values, and Perceptions. Core Understandings of Nature. Risk Perception. Biases in Information Processing. Language and Discourse. Attributions of Responsibility. Linking Perceptions to Behavior. Conclusion. 3. Moral Psychology and the Environment. Background in Ethical Concepts. A Virtue Ethics of the Environment. The Deontic Tradition and Psychological Research. Contextual Differences in Moral Duties. Consequentialism, Emotion, and Socialization. Psychological Dynamics of Moral Functioning. Pragmatic Ethics. Conclusion. 4. Environment and Identity. The Concept of Identity. Identity Development. Developing an Affiliation with Nature. Environmental Identity. Measuring Environmental Identity. Place Identity. Animals and Identity. Environmental Social Identity. Identity and Behavior. Putting Identity to Work. Conclusion. 5. Theoretical Foundations for the Human Response to Nature. The Heritage of Environmental Psychology. Ecological Perception and Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology and Biological Thinking. Biophilia. Combining Nature and Nurture. Experiential Approaches. Conclusion. Part II: Interactions with Nature . 6. Domestic nature: Cohabiting with Animals and Plants. Animals in the Home. Plants in the Domestic Sphere. Conclusion. 7. Managed Nature: Zoos, Aquariums, and Public Parks. Zoos and Aquariums. Urban Parks and Green Spaces. Conclusion. 8. Wild Nature: Encounters with Wilderness. Defining Wilderness and Wild Nature. Wilderness Use and Wilderness Values. Wilderness Solitude. Natural Forces and Features. The Edge of Control: Wilderness Remoteness and Challenge. Activity in Wild Nature, Connection, and Caring. Wild Nature and Spiritual Experience. Conclusion. Part III: Promoting Conservation . 9. Promoting Sustainable Behavior. Identifying Target Behaviors. Influences on Behavior. Models for Changing Behavior. Collective Behavior. Changing the Ideology of Consumerism. Conclusion. 10. Community Psychology and International Biodiversity Conservation. International Biodiversity Conservation. Common Pool Resources and Models of Governance. Psychology, Culture, and Local Knowledge. Accounting for the Costs and Benefits of Conservation. Conservation and All-too-human Psychology. Conclusion. 11. Environmental Education. Environmental Education. The Need for Environmental Education. Examples of Contemporary Environmental Education. Psychological Foundations of Environmental Education. Lessons for Effective Practice. Conclusion. 12. The Psychology of Hope. Human Response to Threatening Circumstances. Optimism and Pessimism. An Alternative to a Focus on Outcomes: Creating Meaning. Glossary. References. Index

Mirror Neurons, Embodied Simulation, and the Neural Basis of Social Identification

Abstract: The shared intersubjective space in which we live since birth enables and bootstraps the constitution of the sense of identity we normally entertain with others. Social identification incorporates the domains of action, sensations, affect, and emotions and is underpinned by the activation of shared neural circuits. A common underlying functional mechanism—embodied simulation—mediates our capacity to share the meaning of actions, intentions, feelings, and emotions with others, thus grounding our identification with and connectedness to others. Social identification, empathy, and “we-ness” are the basic ground of our development and being. Embodied simulation provides a model of potential interest not only for our understanding of how interpersonal relations work or might be pathologically disturbed but also for psychoanalysis. The hypothesis is that embodied simulation is at work within the psychoanalytic setting between patient and analyst. The notions of projective identification and the interpersonal dy...

Muslim businesswomen doing boundary work: The negotiation of Islam, gender and ethnicity within entrepreneurial contexts

Abstract: This article discusses how female entrepreneurs of Moroccan and Turkish origin in the Netherlands construct their ethnic, gender and entrepreneurial identities in relation to their Muslim identity. We contribute to theory development on the interrelationship of work identities with gender, ethnicity and religion through an intersectional analysis of these women's gender and ethnic identities within their entrepreneurial contexts and in relation to their Muslim identity. We draw on four narratives to illustrate how the women interviewed perform creative boundary work at these hitherto under-researched intersections. Islam is employed as a boundary to let religious norms and values prevail over cultural ones and to make space for individualism, honour and entrepreneurship. Moreover, different individual religious identities are crafted to stretch the boundaries of what is allowed for female entrepreneurs in order to resist traditional, dogmatic interpretations of Islam. Our study contributes to studies on e...

Identity Development Theories in Student Affairs: Origins, Current Status, and New Approaches

Abstract: Enhancing the development of students has long been a primary role of student affairs practitioners. Identity development theories help practitioners to understand how students go about discovering their “abilities, aptitude and objectives” while assisting them to achieve their “maximum effectiveness” (American Council on Education, 1937, p. 69). The tasks involved in discovering abilities, goals, and effectiveness are part of creating a sense of identity that allows the student to enter adult life. Identity is shaped by how one organizes experiences within the environment (context) that revolves around oneself (Erikson, 1959/1994). Across academic disciplines, the view of how individuals organize experiences takes on varying definitions. Within the student affairs literature, identity is commonly understood as one’s personally held beliefs about the self in relation to social groups (e.g., race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation) and the ways one expresses that relationship. Identity is also commonly understood to be socially constructed; that is, one’s sense of self and beliefs about one’s own social group as well others are constructed through interactions with the broader social context in which dominant values dictate norms and expectations (see Gergen, 1991; McEwen, 2003). Examples of these broader social contexts include both institutions such as education and work, as well as systems of power and inequality such as race, social class, and gender (Anderson & Collins, 2007). Social construction of identity occurs in different contexts on campus such as in how student organizations are created and which students are drawn to them, or in the social identities among those in leadership positions and those not, as well as in issues of institutional fit within access and retention. One of the components of identity development that arises quickly on most campuses is the process of students learning how to balance their needs with those of others (Kegan, 1982, 1994; Kroger, 2004). In working to create community and mutual respect on campus, student affairs professionals help students to understand this balance between self and others as well as expose students to the varied nature of what is encompassed in the “other.” A common program used to illustrate this process revolves around diversity issues. These programs often focus on exposure to other social groups and an understanding of how history supports society’s view of these groups. This influence of the other contributes to the social construction of identity; in other words, the context and interactions with others—including other people, societal norms, and/or expectations that evolve from culture—influence how one constructs one’s identity (Jones, 1997; McEwen, 2003; Torres, 2003; Weber, 1998). In addition, several researchers embrace a developmental approach to describe the shift that occurs when students

The resurgence of the ‘Region’ and ‘Regional Identity’: theoretical perspectives and empirical observations on regional dynamics in Europe

Abstract: ‘New regionalism’, ‘region’, ‘city-region’, ‘cross-border region’, ‘border’ and ‘identity’ have become important catchphrases on the global geo-economic and geopolitical scene. The resurgence of these terms has been part of the transformation of both political economy and governance at supra-state, state and sub-state scales. Regions have been particularly significant in the EU where both the making of the Union itself and the ‘Europe of regions’ are concrete manifestations of the re-scaling of state spaces and the assignment of new meanings to territory. Such re-scaling has also led to increased competition between regions; a tendency that results from both the neo-liberalisation of the global economy and from a regionalist response. Regional identity, an idea at least implicitly indicating some cohesiveness or social integration in a region, has become a major buzzword. It has been particularly identified in the EU’s cohesion policy as an important element for regional development. In spite of their increasing importance in social life and academic debates, regions, borders and identities are often studied separately, but this paper aims at theorising and illustrating their meanings in an integrated conceptual framework and uses the sub-state regions in Europe, and particularly in Finland, as concrete examples. Regions are conceptualised here as processes that gain their boundaries, symbolisms and institutions in the process of institutionalisation. Through this process a region becomes established, gains its status in the broader regional structure and may become a significant unit for regional identification or for a purported regional identity. This process is based on a division of labour, which accentuates the power of regional elites in the institutionalisation processes.

Collective Psychological Empowerment as a Model of Social Change: Researching Crowds and Power

Abstract: The issue of psychological empowerment in crowd events has important implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, the issue throws light on both intergroup conflict and the nature and functions of social identity. Practically, empowerment in collective events can feed into societal change. The study of empowerment therefore tells us something about how the forces pressing for such change might succeed or fail. The present article first outlines some limitations in the conceptualization of both identity and empowerment in previous research on crowd events, before delineating the elaborated social identity model of crowds and power. We then describe recent empirical contributions to the field. These divide into two areas of research: (1) empowerment variables and (2) the dynamics of such empowerment. We finally suggest how psychological empowerment and social change are connected through crowd action. We conclude with some recommendations for practice following from the research described.

Working identities? Antagonistic discursive resources and managerial identity:

Abstract: In this article, we analyse the principal antagonistic discourses on which managers in a large UK-based engineering company drew in their efforts to construct versions of their selves. Predicated on an understanding that subjectively construed discursive identities are available to individuals as in-progress narratives that are contingent and fragile, the research contribution we make is threefold. First, we argue that managers may draw on mutually antagonistic discursive resources in authoring conceptions of their selves. Second, we contend that rather than being relatively coherent or completely fluid and fragmented managers' identity narratives may incorporate contrasting positions or antagonisms. Third, we show that managers' identity work constituted a continuing quest to (re)-author their selves as moral beings. Antagonisms in managers' identities, we suggest, may appropriately be analysed as the complex and ambiguous effects of organizationally based disciplinary practices and individuals' discursi...

A social theory of learning

Abstract: A social theory of learning integrate the components necessary to characterize social participation as a process of learning and of knowing. These components include the following: meaning, practice, community, and identity. There are many different kinds of learning theory. Each emphasizes different aspects of learning, and each is therefore useful for different purposes. To some extent these differences in emphasis reflect a deliberate focus on a slice of the multidimensional problem of learning, and to some extent they reflect more fundamental differences in assumptions about the nature of knowledge, knowing, and knowers, and consequently about what matters in learning. The primary focus of this theory is on learning as social participation. Participation refers not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but to a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities.

An Interpretive Scheme for Analyzing the Identities That Students Develop in Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract: Our primary purpose in this article is to propose an interpretive scheme for analyzing the identities that students develop in mathematics classrooms that can inform instructional design and teaching. We first introduce the key constructs of normative identity and personal identity, and then illustrate how they can be used to conduct empirical analyses. The case on which the sample analysis focuses concerns a single group of middle school students who were members of two contrasting classrooms in which what it meant to know and do mathematics differed significantly. The resulting analyses document the forms of agency that students can legitimately exercise in particular classrooms, together with how authority is distributed and thus to whom students are accountable, and what they are accountable for mathematically. In the final section of the article, we clarify the relation of the interpretive scheme to other current work on the identities that students are developing in mathematics classrooms.

The Cerebral Subject and the Challenge of Neurodiversity

Abstract: The neurodiversity movement has so far been dominated by autistic people who believe their condition is not a disease to be treated and, if possible, cured, but rather a human specificity (like sex or race) that must be equally respected. Autistic self-advocates largely oppose groups of parents of autistic children and professionals searching for a cure for autism. This article discusses the positions of the pro-cure and anti-cure groups. It also addresses the emergence of autistic cultures and various issues concerning autistic identities. It shows how identity issues are frequently linked to a ‘neurological self-awareness’ and a rejection of psychological interpretations. It argues that the preference for cerebral explanations cannot be reduced to an aversion to psychoanalysis or psychological culture. Instead, such preference must be understood within the context of the diffusion of neuroscientific claims beyond the laboratory and their penetration in different domains of life in contemporary biomedicalized societies. Within this framework, neuroscientific theories, practices, technologies and therapies are influencing the ways we think about ourselves and relate to others, favoring forms of neurological or cerebral subjectivation. The article shows how neuroscientific claims are taken up in the formation of identities, as well as social and community networks.