In preparation for our first Context of Practice seminar we were asked to read 10 pages of 'Symbolic interactionist theories of Identity'. This material was quite dense and hard to understand so I think I will find it uses flu to paraphrase the ideas communicated in this piece.
Sheldon Stryker's theory of designations and definitions boils down to the fact that we each categorise and constrain people depending on their social standing and jobs. We constrain them through our expectation of the way they act in a social environment. In turn our awareness that we do this, makes us control our selves depending on our own social standing and the expectations that go with it. So, it becomes a self fulfilling belief in the way that we expect certain behaviour from people and intern we behave the way we are expected to do.
This happens to a greater or lesser degree depending on the social environment i.e. you are a high ranking C.E.O. of some sort talking to a post man; you expect certain things of one another. However, the context of such a meeting would play a pivotal role in the way these people acted.
Stryker goes on to explain his theory of salience hierarchy. This is basically a metaphysical list of personalities or identities that someone may use at different times and in different situations. The hierarchy is formed as the individual gets positive responses from the people that they are interacting with. A validation, if you will, of a certain way of acting. The more validation that occurs the more likely the individual is to use this identity and the higher up in the hierarchy it is. The environment and situation of the social interaction once again plays a massive role in which identity is used. For example, when you first start talking to someone you may not know how to act, but as you get to know them (or in Stryker's language, you get increasing amounts of identity validation) you feel more certain about how to act and talk to them. The more you feel that you need to be a certain person around people to maintain a relationship, the commitment you have to that identity increases and the higher up the salience hierarchy that identity is.
As mentioned earlier the expectations of others also defines the way we behave. The greater the expectations to display a certain personality the higher up the salience hierarchy the personality will be. The more external events change and unsettle these expectations the more likely a person is to use identities lower down on the salience hierarchy.
Emotional reactions can be used a sign posts for the salience hierarchy. When someone receives a positive reaction to an identity they feel positive emotions and the identity is moved up the hierarchy. However, if it receives negative responses the person feels negative emotions and moves the identity down the hierarchy. Emotions can also show where an identity sits in a persons hierarchy; extremely negative emotions towards a negative response shows that the identity displayed was high up in the salience hierarchy and was quite valued by the individual.
The role identity theory by George J. McCall and L.J. Simmons Suggests that peoples identities are at least in part made up of idealised goals of which role they hope to obtain in society.This occurs mostly within the mind, controlling the way one acts according to whether it pertains to a particular role that one wishes to achieve. However, people also need the approval (through both positive responses and expectations) of these role performances. This is however, often a gap between what people feel their role performance is and the approval they get for it. This is known as low role support. Where low role support occurs people often withhold from displaying this role performance too overtly.
In short, interactions are negotiations of the separate salience hierarchies. The ones inside the minds of the participants (shaping the personalities portrayed) and the collective social salience hierarchy of the whole social group present.
They then go on to identify the rewards received from others in this social context in the form of support of an identity. Often there is a gap between what the individual expect and the amount of identity support they actually get. There are coping methods that are used by numerous people to find ways to glean the amount of identity support that they need. These include ignoring aspects of interchange or disregarding words completely. Te ideal self is a goal or a separate aspect of the identity which can shape the prominence of certain identities in the salience Hierarchies.
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