The Sociological and Psychological Background: Identity and Perceptions of Self

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The Sociological and Psychological Background
Identity and Perceptions of Self

• Douglas Fleming
• University of Ottawa

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• Identity would seem to be the garment with which
  one covers the nakedness of the self in which
  case, it is best that the garment be loose, a
  little like the robes of the desert, through
  which one's nakedness can always be felt, and,
  sometimes, discerned James Baldwin (1976)
• Lynd once observed that, "the search for identity
  has become as strategic in our time as the study
  of sexuality in Freuds" (1958, 14).
• The importance of identity theory has been
  increasingly felt in social science research
  generally (Mathews, 2000), in overall education
  research (Cummins, 1996 Bernstein, 1996), and
  second language education (SLE) more particularly
  (Block, 2007 Davison, 2001).

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• so, what does the word identity mean?
• the word identity was "first used to mean
  personal identity by the empiricist philosophers
  Locke and Hume, who used the word identity to
  cast doubt on the unity of the self" (Langbaum,
  1977 p. 25)
• It is important to note the individual self has
  not always been a significant preoccupation in
  European cultural history
• From the late 12th to the 14th centuries a number
  of dramatic events shifted European outlook
  towards individualism (Tuchman,1978), including
• growth in the number of secular European
  universities
• new challenges to the sanctity of dynastic rule
• and the first elaboration of the modern
  scientific method.

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• Sociological concepts like identity are in great
  contrast to related terms in psychology, such as
  motivation.
• Dilthey the essence of being human can only be
  grasped historically experience is a collection
  of events that have a unity of meaning identity
  is the human quality that which unifies this
  experience across time for individuals.
• Durkheim social control mechanisms are as much
  mental (ritual) as physical these help create
  collective representations and solidarity, shape
  personality, identities and behaviors.

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• George Mead generalized other
• Cooley looking glass self
• Dewey the regulatory function of imagined
  reaction
• Bourdieu cultural capital
• Giddens identity as narrative
• Said the other in political discourse
• Althussar Ideology
• Friere pedagogical tasks and activist critiques
  of civil society
• Foucault governmentality and micro-processes of
  power

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• In contrast, psychology places an emphasis on the
  importance of the integrated and autonomous self.
  Motivation is central to this.
• Motivation is quite clearly a psychological term,
  influenced by Freud's conception of the mind into
  id, ego and superego, Piaget's constructivist
  conception of personality development and
  Maslows hierarchy of needs.
• Motivational psychologists hold that there are
  five sources of motivation
• intrinsic (simply for enjoyment)
• instrumental (for material reward)
• self-concept external (for group status)
• self-concept internal (for empowerment) and
• goal identification (for accomplishment).

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• For teachers, this means that one must remember
  that students have complex attitudes towards
  their own subject positions and identity.