Self, Identity, and Interaction in an Ecology of Identities

Abstract

In this chapter, the author attempts to break the broad question of how multiple identities operate within situations into a manageable set of more specific issues. This formulation allows us to use some well--formed ideas from other research traditions to link social structure and individuals into an ecology of identities. The author focuses on three basic questions. First, what conditions determine the structure of available identities within a social system, and therefore the likelihood that social actors have relatively complex (multiple identity) selves? Second, when do people occupy two or more identities within the same social situation? Third, how do those simultaneously held identities produce lines of social action and emotional responses? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)