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Identity

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Cross Cultural, Deconstructionist and Social Constructionist. How does ... Makeover' and the construction of identity. Construction of the Inner/Outer self? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Identity


1
Identity
  • Lesley Southern
  • and
  • Amy Hogan

2
Presentation Outline
  • Traditional/Dominant Views of the Self
  • 6 Critiques
  • Cross Cultural, Deconstructionist and Social
    Constructionist
  • How does language shape identity?
  • Summary of Social Constructionist view

3
Activity No. 1
  • Attributions of Personhood
  • What constitutes the self?
  • What is identity?

4
Traditional View
  • Western concept of self
  • separate
  • individual
  • self contained
  • unique
  • distinct
  • private
  • Encompassed in many psychological theories

5
Traditional View
  • Summary
  • 1) Self contained mind, unique, separate
  • 2) One set of fixed traits
  • 3) Private, self generated thoughts expressed
    through language
  • 4) The individual is the source of experience

6
Traditional View
  • the western conception of the person is as a
    bounded, unique dynamic centre of awareness,
    emotion, judgement and action organised into a
    distinctive whole and set contrastively against
    other such wholes and against a social and
    natural background.
  • (Geertz 1973 229)

7
Critique
  • Critique of the traditional view not recent
  • James, Cooley, Mead
  • Six Critiques
  • Feminist
  • System Theorists
  • Critical Theory
  • Cross Cultural
  • Deconstructionists
  • Social Constructionists

8
Cross Cultural
  • Selfhood is less individuated
  • Identity is created, disseminated and understood
    within culture
  • There is no universal concept of self
  • Balinese - do not refer to inner states
  • Proffers culturally heterogeneous views of the
    self

9
Deconstructionism
  • Challenges the centrality and sovereignty of the
    individual
  • Derrida (1974)
  • Social practices are not merely mediated
    through language but are constituted by it.
  • Derridas critique of logo- phonocentrism

10
Derrida
  • Logo/Phonocentrism Speech provides privileged
    access to the mind. Writing is secondary.
  • Spoken words .. are the symbols of mental
    experience and written words the symbols of
    spoken words
  • (Derrida 197411)

11
Derrida
  • Writing already inhabits speech through memory -
    Trace
  • Present is always mediated by the Trace
  • Self is not direct and unmediated experience
  • Permits key role for socio-historical traces to
    structure the self
  • Proffers non-centred, dynamic, multidimensional
    selves that supplement each other

12
Activity No. 2
  • D. Kondo (1990) Crafting Selves Power, Gender
    and Discourses of Identity
  • Q What does this tell us about the social
    construction of identity?

13
Social Constructionism
  • Selves are socio-historical constructions
  • Focuses on how language is used to construct and
    reify the world
  • Identities are open to change because they
    originate in communal interchange

14
Language and Identity
  • Language as Grammar
  • Language as Discursive Action
  • Narratives
  • Identity used in talk
  • the truth of an identification is never
    sufficient to explain its use
  • (Moerman 1974 61 in Antaki 1998 2).

15
Activity No. 3
What are the narratives? What are the identities
being constructed? Participants/Audience/Trisha Wh
at is gained by presenting self in a certain
way? How hard is it to change the ascribed
identity once formulated?
16
Identity Categories
  • Sacks (1973) Identity Categories
  • Identity is being cast into a category with
    associated features
  • Such casting is indexical and occasioned
  • The identity is functional
  • Having an identity is in the consequence of the
    interaction
  • Present in the structures of conversation

17
Identity as Functional
  • the functioning of the social self concept is
    situation specific particular self concepts
    tend to be activated in specific situations
    producing specific self images .. as a function
    of an interaction between the characteristics of
    the perceiver and the situation
  • (Turner et al 1987 44 in Antaki 1998 17).

18
Summary
  • Language plays a fundamental role in constructing
    identity
  • Identity is constructed in discourse
  • Identities proffered are functional
  • There is no self - an entity to be discovered.
    We can only investigate how it is constructed

19
Critique and Implications
  • Failure to replace individuated self concept with
    relational theories
  • What does it mean for identity?
  • Need synthesis of two extreme opposing views of
    individualism and collectivism.
  • Individual
  • Society

20
Activity No. 4
Discussion Makeover and the construction of
identity. Construction of the Inner/Outer self?
21
Useful References
  • Shotter, J., Gergen, KJ (1989) Texts of Identity,
    Sage Publ. London.
  • Sampson in Shotter, J., Gergen, KJ (1989) Texts
    of Identity, Sage Publ. London.
  • Antaki, C., Widdicombe, S. (1998) Identities in
    Talk, Sage Publ. London.
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