SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION

Social And Psychological Construction

Social And Psychological Construction

Introduction

There are numerous theories that describe and try to explain identity construction; this issue is made more complex by the fact that different disciplines have their own definitions of identity and their own terms for discussing it. Even within disciplines, the discussion of identity and its components may be contested. For example, within the psychological literature alone, the discussion of identity formation might be divided into five categories of thought: psychodynamic theories (such as Freud's psychoanalysis) that focus on unconscious conflicts and motivation, inferiority feelings, defense mechanisms and psychosocial crisis; cognitive theories that focus on how self-relevant information is stored, structured and retrieved (Leary & Tangney, 2003); social learning theories that focus on agency, self-efficacy, locus of control and self-regulation; humanistic/existential theories that focus on self-actualization, personal constructs, meaning, responsibility and personal myths (McMartin, 1995); and interpersonal theories that focus on social and cultural influences on our self-perceptions (Leary & Tangney, 2003). Communication scholars tend to rely upon the latter category to explain the construction of identity (Imahori & Capacach, 1993, 2005; Ting-Toomey, 1988, 1993, 2005; Collier, 2005).It should be noted that the borders between these broad categories are vague and that there are many common features among them.

Discussion

Major developments in modern symbolic interactionism represent ongoing efforts to translate Mead's ground-breaking yet vague ideas about self and society into testable claims. Central to some of these noteworthy efforts is the concept of identity, which refers to the components of the self containing the specific meanings that individuals assign to themselves because of the roles they occupy in society. Modern theories of identity fall under two distinct (though not competing) approaches. The structural approach, represented by the pioneering work of Sheldon Stryker and his colleagues, focuses on how social structures shape identities that, in turn, influence social behavior. Cognitive approaches, represented by Peter Burke's identity control theory and David Heise's affect control theory, focus on the psychological mechanisms that affect how individuals express identities in social interaction. One important similarity between Burke's theory and Heise's theory is that both offer a “control systems” view of the relationship between identities and behavior. In other words, identity meanings work like a temperature setting in a thermostat. When a room gets too cool, the thermostat tells the furnace to turn on and heat the room to the desired temperature. Similarly, if a person receives feedback from the environment (i.e., from others) that is not consistent with meanings associated with an identity, then the person will change her or his behavior to try to bring feedback into line with the identity.

An important difference between Burke's identity control theory and Heise's affect control theory, however, concerns the assumptions each makes about what people strive to control. Burke's view is more individualistic: People behave in ways that confirm their own self meanings. For example, a person who thinks of herself or himself as a bright student will behave in ways ...