Identity Theory Glossary

One's position in society.

The shared expectations that are attached to social positions.

The set of internalized meanings that describe who one is as a person, and in a role, group, and social category, as well as the processes that display and protect those meanings.

The set of meanings that define an individual as unique from others.

The set of meanings tied to roles that individuals take on in society.

The set of meanings that emerge in interaction with other collectivities.

The set of meanings that are attached to the social categories with which people identify.

Where identity meanings are stored. It encompasses the self-meanings associated with person, role, group, and categorical identities. These meanings are held in memory and are specific to the individual holding the identity.

The input side of the identity perceptual control model. They are what people's senses take in, responding to environmental stimuli through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. They are people's sources of information about what is happening around them. Perceptions are what individuals are trying to control when an identity is activated. Rather than trying to control their behavior in the situation on the output side of the identity feedback loop, they are trying to control their perceptions of the identity-relevant meanings in a situation to match the meanings in the identity standard.

This relates the perceptions of self-in-situation meanings with the identity standard meanings and registers the differences between the two sets of meanings.

This ranges from negative (when the perceptual meanings (or self-in-situation meanings) are lower than the identity standard meanings) through zero to positive (when the perceptual meanings are higher than the identity standard meanings). The larger the error signal in absolute value (either negative or positive), the less the identity meaning is verified, and the greater the motivation to respond to the discrepancy to minimize it. A small or diminishing error produces fewer negative emotions or more positive emotions. The error is essentially registering a discrepancy or identity nonverification.

We can use the notation S -> rMs -> R to describe meaning, where meaning (M) is an internal mediating response (r) by a person to a stimulus (S), which then acts as its own internal stimulus (s) for one's response (R) to the original stimulus. Meaning is an interpretation of a stimulus. Meaning achieves consensus when people agree on the interpretation of a stimulus, and agreement (shared meaning) emerges through the process of social interaction.

A perfect or near perfect match between meanings of the self in the situation and identity standard meanings.

A mismatch between meanings of the self in the situation and identity standard meanings.

people's perceptions of others' views of them, or how they think they are coming across in the eyes of others. People's perceptions as to how others see them may be incorrect. However, whether these perceptions are correct or not is less important, and what is more important is the perceptions themselves, because whatever people's perceptions, they serve as the basis for defining a situation and acting on it.

People's own views as to how well they are doing in meeting their identity standard in a situation.

Direct feedback that individuals obtain as to how others see them in a situation. This feedback may be formal, such as receiving a performance evaluation at work, or it may be informal, such as friends and associates letting us know how they see us. Others may selectively communicate positive views over negative views. Even if others are accurate in their communication, individuals may ignore, distort, or reject these views.

A characteristic of an identity that was originally defined as the probability an identity will be invoked. When the probability is applied to time, salience is understood as the proportion of time an identity is activated, and the person is acting to maintain identity relevant meanings in the situation at the level specified in their identity standard.

The rank ordering of the saliences of several identities.

A characteristic of an identity that is the degree of importance an identity is to an individual, how much the person values an identity, or the degree to which the person sees an identity as central. What makes some identities more prominent than others is that their meanings are shared with other identities individuals hold. Identity prominence is a motivator of behavior. The higher the prominence, the more people will try to enact the identity, and when the identity is activated in a situation, the harder people will work to verify it. The prominence of an identity has direct effect on the salience of an identity.

the rank ordering of the prominences of several identities.

A characteristic of an identity that reflects the number and strength of ties one has to others with whom one interacts when an identity is activated in situations. The more ties to others and the stronger those ties, the greater the identity commitment.

Intensive or emotional commitment; the strength of ties in an identity.

Sometimes referred to as extensive or instrumental commitment; the number of people to whom one is tied in an identity.

How meaning is distributed around a single point on a scale measuring an identity.

An identity with many core meanings.

Meanings that are contained in many identities.

The set of all core identities within the self.

A stimulus that is perceived regularly to be associated with something else. The sign and what it indicates naturally occur together, and the two become associated. For example, gray clouds are a sign of impending rain or the turning of leaves as a sign of winter coming.

A special class of signs that have shared meaning. The meaning is determined by social convention and is thus somewhat arbitrary, as seen in the use of a ring to signify marriage or a crown to signify royalty.

Anything that supports individuals and their interactions.

Anything that currently supports individuals and their interactions.

Anything that can support individuals and their interactions in the future.

Processes that afford individuals greater influence in the social structure, and by extensions, interactions, for example, one's occupational status.

Processes that arise out of relationships and that help verify individuals, such as role-taking.

Beliefs about the self along such dimensions as worthiness and competence that facilitate identity verification.

A process in which individuals control perceived self-in-situation meanings to match identity standard meanings.

An interlocking set of individual perceptual control systems at multiple levels of abstraction. Each higher level is more general and abstract than the level below it. Higher-level identities control lower-level identities because the standards of lower-level identities are combination of error outputs of higher-level identities.

"We live in a named and classified world" is one of the significant assumptions of structural symbolic interactionism. When we enter a social action, we define the situation and name ourselves and name others. The identification of the situation and the identification of self and others are based on shared meanings. Individuals and society mutually influence each other using symbols (e.g. language) in interaction. Causal priority is given to society since individuals are born into a society and cannot survive outside of pre-existing organized social relationships. Social structures influence the self and interaction, but equally true, the self emerges in interaction, and within the context of a complex and organized society. Since the relationship between the individual and society is reflexive, as society is differentiated and organized, so too is the self. Simply stated: society shapes the self, the self shapes interaction.

Ties to others based on an identity. The ties can be many or a few, and they can be strong or weak. Thus, identity networks can be large or small, and deep or shallow in intimacy.