Theorizing multidimensional identity negotiation: reflections on the lived experiences of first-generation college students

Drawing from recent research on first-generation college (FGC) students, this chapter advances an interdisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding how these students enact multiple aspects of their personal, cultural, and social identities. I use dialectical and cross-cultural adaptation theories as a foundation to extend examinations of how diverse FGC students negotiate the alien culture of the academy against that of home. In this regard, college is situated as a pivotal point of development, and successful negotiation of identity tensions is represented as a key factor in academic success.     

Functions of personal and vicarious life stories: identity and empathy

The present study investigates functions of personal and vicarious life stories focusing on identity and empathy. Two-hundred-and-forty Danish high school students completed two life story questionnaires: one for their personal life story and one for a close other’s life story. In both questionnaires, they identified up to 10 chapters and self-rated the chapters on valence and valence of causal connections. In addition, they completed measures of identity disturbance and empathy. More positive personal life stories were related to lower identity disturbance and higher empathy. Vicarious life stories showed a similar pattern with respect to identity but surprisingly were unrelated to empathy. In addition, we found positive correlations between personal and vicarious life stories for number of chapters, chapter valence, and valence of causal connections. The study indicates that both personal and vicarious life stories may contribute to identity.     

The adoption of innovation in collective action organizations

This study used a quantitative/qualitative methodology to explore how collective action organizations (CAOs) remain open to organizational change and innovation. It examined the adoption of inclusion—a recent innovation in the field of disabilities—by local chapters of The Arc Michigan (a disabilities CAO). We found considerable variability in the adoption of inclusion by local Arc chapters. This variability was significantly related to the ecology surrounding these chapters. Local Arc chapters that had adopted an inclusion philosophy had significantly different internal and external environments from those that had not adopted inclusion. Our qualitative findings make it clear, however, that innovative Arc chapters were not the passive recipients of these internal and external influences. These chapters were proactive players in defining and shaping the nature of their internal and external environments. Strategies that were related to a chapter's ability to remain open to innovation included (a) a change orientation, (b) a conscious philosophy or vision, (c) a proactive strategy for achieving chapter goals and overcoming barriers to change, (d) the creation of a supportive organizational network, and (e) avoidance of resource dependencies that required them to engage in activities that were inconsistent with the innovation. These findings provide a framework by which CAOs can maintain an openness to innovation and remain on the forefront of social change.     

Critical social psychology and interdisciplinary studies of personal life: Greater than the sum of its parts

Singleness, parenting, sexual practices, sibling rivalries, through to meal times, investigating how intimacies and personal lives are organised have always been a mainstay in critical social psychology. However, in the interdisciplinary field of studies of personal life, sociologists often take the lead. In this article, I discuss three illustrative Examples—family practices, queered studies of personal life, and emerging emotional regimes in “late modernity,” and ask how critical social psychology, with its history of investigating the social processes of subjectivity‐making, could be deployed to resolve debates that have emerged within a sociology of personal life. I suggest that clarifying critical social psychology's position in relation to broader studies of personal and intimate life would showcase the distinctiveness of critical social psychological contributions in understanding relational selves, whilst simultaneously fostering interdisciplinary working.     

Personal goals and well-being: how do young people navigate their lives?

This chapter examines development through different life transitions, such as educational transitions and transition to parenthood during adolescence to adulthood in the context of the life-span model of personal goals. According to the life-span model of motivation, four key mechanisms-channeling, choice, co-regulation, and compensation-play a key role in how young people navigate their life. The aim is to describe how the conceptualized key factors are helpful in understanding the changes from adolescence to emerging adulthood and later in the life course and related well-being.     

Understanding emerging adulthood from a goal-setting perspective

The chapter first introduces the concept of emerging adulthood as a period of life that is characterized by instabilities and fluctuations. Then, the role of goal setting and aspirations in individual development during this stage of life is discussed. Following this, seven chapters of the present special issue are introduced, and the ways in which goal processes affect individual trajectories and outcomes are discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future perspectives in the field, such as the need to investigate the relationships between goals and goal adjustment, the need to carry out cross-cultural comparisons, as well as the need to develop intervention based on goal and aspiration framework.     

Intimacy, identity and status: Measuring dating goals in late adolescence and emerging adulthood

Individuals?? goals can direct their own social behavior and development. We extended and validated a social dating goals measure (SDGS-R) to assess identity, intimacy and status goals, and compared goals by age, gender, sexual orientation and romantic status. Participants were 121 adolescents and 249 emerging adults (age M?=?20.6). The expected 3-factor structure of the SDGS-R was found and confirmed (18 items). Identity, intimacy and status goals had small correlations with each other and analyses validated the meaning and uniqueness of each goal. Participants reported more identity and intimacy goals than status goals. Intimacy goals were more prominent among older compared to teenage participants and those with a partner rather than without one. Females reported more identity dating goals than males. There was no difference in the goals of same-sex and other-sex attracted youth. The availability of the SDGS-R will allow further study of romantic development and relationship functioning.     

Narrative identity in female patients with remitted bipolar disorder: a negative past and a foreshortened future

The present study examined narrative identity and subjective well-being in outpatients with remitted bipolar disorder (BD) and a healthy control group. Fifteen female outpatients with remitted BD and 15 healthy control participants identified past and future chapters in their life stories, gave their age for the beginning and end of each chapter, rated emotional tone as well as positive and negative self-event connections associated with the chapters, and for future chapters rated the probability of the chapter. The BD patients reported less positive emotional tone and self-event connections for past chapters, but not for future chapters. However, the patients did describe fewer future chapters with shorter temporal projection into the future, and reported lower probability of future chapters. These characteristics of chapters were related to lower subjective well-being. The study suggests that a more negative narrative identity with a foreshortened future perspective may contribute to lower subjective well-being in patients with BD.     

Bridging identities and disciplines: advances and challenges in understanding multiple identities

The chapters in this volume address the need for a better understanding of the development of intersecting identities over age and context. The chapters provide valuable insights into the development of identities, particularly group identities. They highlight common processes across identities, such as the role of contrast and comparison and the need for individual effort in identity formation. They suggest the value of studying multiple identities in interaction and using interdisciplinary approaches. However, research across identities and disciplines poses challenges for investigators. These challenges can be met and the field advanced by collaborative studies among scholars who represent different disciplines and have studied different identities.     

Social Identity, Self-categorization, and Work Motivation: Rethinking the Contribution of the Group to Positive and Sustainable Organisational Outcomes

Traditional needs theories centre around hierarchies ranging from 'lower-level' needs for security, existence, or hygiene through to 'higher-level' needs for self-actualisation, achievement, and growth. As applied to the organisational domain, such theories tend to assume that an employee's personal need for challenge and development is the best source of work motivation. Based on social identity and self-categorisation theories, this paper interprets needs hierarchies as reflections of the variable definition of self. It suggests that the motivational impact of different needs changes as a function of the salience of norms and goals associated with self-categories defined at varying levels of abstraction (personal, social, human). As a result, no one level of need is inherently more relevant to employee motivation than any other. This analysis also suggests that group-based needs will play an especially important motivational role in situations where an individual's social identity is salient. Following work by Tyler, data that support this argument are provided by a study in which employees' willingness to engage in citizenship behaviour increased following manipulations of group-based pride and respect. Results point to the productive and sustainable potential of self-actualisation at a collective rather than just a personal level.     

A critical gaze and wistful glance at Handbook histories of social psychology: did the successive accounts by Gordon Allport and successors historiographically succeed?

Gordon Allport's account of the development of social psychology in the 1954 Handbook of Social Psychology became, de facto, a standard or official historical reference for researchers and apprentices. His history also provided the field's ontological center point with a definition of social psychology that would become predominant. The revised and updated chapter appeared posthumously in 1968, was then reprinted (lightly edited) in 1985, but was removed from the 1998 Handbook. In 1966, Allport prepared a parallel evaluation of six decades of the history of social psychology, for a conference on graduate education in social psychology. This paper was critical of "elaborate mendacious experimentation" and ended with a plea for an interdisciplinary cross-cultivation. It was rarely cited. Ironically, it was Allport's "official" history, his justificatory Handbook account, that often was used for graduate mentoring rather than the more critical history, specifically written to address issues of graduate education. Other "official" Handbook historical chapters that succeeded Allport's displayed less breadth of geographical and transdisciplinary coverage and offered a shorter temporal, more presentist, and more selective personalist historical perspective. In contrast to more contextualist accounts, these Handbook chapters are constrained in a number of ways that raise questions about the success, functions, and professional consequences of such "official" histories, and who should write them.     

Intentional and identity processes: A social constructionist investigation using student journals

In contrast to traditional theories of career development that focus on decision-making processes in relation to market work, [Richardson, M. S. (2004). The emergence of new intentions in subjective experience: A social/personal constructionist and relational understanding. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, 485-498], informed by social constructionism and considering both work and relationships, suggests that the process of emerging intentional states or intentional process is central to the broader task of constructing a life. This study was designed to investigate this process. The research situation consisted of three structured group discussions with students in a graduate class. Journals written after the group discussions constituted the data for the study. Based on the first stage of data analysis, the scope of investigation was expanded to include emerging identity states or identity process and the emotional experience of the group discussions. In the second phase of data analysis, intentional process and identity process data were analyzed for themes and the emotional experience data were coded. Results of both phases of data analysis are discussed in relation to future research and implications for practice.     

Social Support and Personal Mastery as Protective Resources During Emerging Adulthood

During emerging adulthood, lesbian and gay (LG) adults must develop an identity within the social context of heterosexist discrimination. Our specific aims were to examine differences by sexual orientation in depressive symptomatology and self-esteem and explore the role of personal resources in explaining these aspects of psychological well-being. Data were analyzed on 306 participants in emerging adulthood who completed an online survey. LG individuals experienced higher depressive symptomatology and lower self-esteem than heterosexuals, and variations in well-being were explained by personal mastery and social support. The instability which characterizes emerging adulthood is likely compounded by the developmental challenges posed by heterosexism. The formation of social relationships, coupled with personal mastery, appear to serve as protective resources during emerging adulthood.     

Antecedents of consumers' citizenship behaviour towards organic foods

Within the consumer behaviour literature, there has been little research on factors that influence customers' choices for organic foods. This study investigates three aspects of the Taiwanese organic food market. The first aspect considers how argument quality, source credibility, and social comparison affect consumer‐social venture identification. The second aspect examines how identity attractiveness, social media engagement, and self‐determination affect personal relevance. The third and final aspect investigates how consumer‐social venture identification and personal relevance influence customer citizenship behaviour. The results show that consumer‐social venture identification and personal relevance have significant and positive effects on customer citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, argument quality, source credibility, and social comparison all have significant and positive effects on consumer‐social venture identification. Finally, identity attractiveness, social media engagement, and self‐determination have significant and positive effects on personal relevance. This study makes three contributions regarding consumers' behaviour of purchasing organic foods. First, it explores whether consumer‐social venture identification and personal relevance are antecedents of customer citizenship behaviour. Second, it investigates whether argument quality, source credibility, and social comparison are antecedents of consumer‐social venture identification. Last, it examines whether identity attractiveness, social media engagement, and self‐determination are antecedents of personal relevance. The practical implications of this study indicate that firms must pay more attention to consumers' information search/sharing and perceptions of a credible environment for sharing information and their awareness about healthy items and personal images on social networking sites.     

Borderline personality disorder,complex trauma,and problems with self and identity: A social-communicative approach

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a relatively highly prevalent psychiatric disorder that is associated with very high personal and socioeconomic costs. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of the relationship between complex trauma and key features of BPD, with a focus on problems with self-coherence and self-continuity. We first review evidence for the high prevalence of complex trauma in BPD patients. This is followed by a discussion of emerging knowledge concerning the biobehavioral mechanisms involved in problems related to self and identity in BPD. We emphasize three biobehavioral systems that are affected by complex trauma and are centrally implicated in identify diffusion in BPD: the attachment system, mentalizing or social cognition, and the capacity for epistemic trust—that is, an openness to the reception of social communication that is personally relevant and of generalizable significance. We formulate a new approach to personality and severe personality disorders, and to problems with self and identity in these disorders, rooted in a social-communicative understanding of the foundations of selfhood. We also discuss how extant evidence-based treatments address the above-mentioned biobehavioral systems involved in identity diffusion in BPD and related disorders, and the supporting evidence. We close the paper with recommendations for future research.     

Quality of Life and Autonomy in Emerging Adults with Early-Onset Neuromuscular Disorders

Emerging adulthood is an important period in the development of one's identity and autonomy. The ways in which identity and autonomy are viewed by emerging adults and how they impact quality of life (QoL) in individuals with early-onset neuromuscular conditions is not yet known. This study focused on understanding and exploring relationships between self-perceptions of emerging adulthood, autonomy, and QoL. Five previously validated measures were incorporated into an online survey and distributed to young adults with early-onset neuromuscular conditions and unaffected controls. Topics explored included individuals' views regarding their overall QoL, disease-specific QoL, components of emerging adulthood, and autonomy. We found that a sense of higher disease impact was associated with a lower Overall General QoL. Additionally, perceptions of key autonomy factors "negativity" and "instability" were uniquely associated with Overall General QoL in the case group as compared to controls, whereas "attitudinal autonomy" (attaining the ability to plan and follow through with goals) was important to this age group regardless of health status. The specific factors of emerging adulthood and autonomy that were significantly correlated with Overall General QoL can be used for developing targeted counseling and interventions to improve QoL for individuals and their families.     

Self-presentation and gender on MySpace

Within the cultural context of MySpace, this study explores the ways emerging adults experience social networking. Through focus group methodology, the role of virtual peer interaction in the development of personal, social, and gender identities was investigated. Findings suggest that college students utilize MySpace for identity exploration, engaging in social comparison and expressing idealized aspects of the selves they wish to become. The public nature of self and relationship displays introduce feedback mechanisms by which emerging adults can legitimize images as associated with the self. Also, male–female differences in self-presentation parallel, and possibly intensify, gender norms offline. Our study suggests that social networking sites provide valuable opportunities for emerging adults to realize possible selves; however, increased pressure for female sexual objectification and intensified social comparison may also negatively impact identity development. A balanced view, presenting both opportunities and drawbacks, should be encouraged in policies regarding youth participation in social networking sites.     

From peers to policy: how broader social contexts influence the adaptation of children and youth in immigrant families

This chapter provides an overview of non family contexts that shape the development and adjustment of children and youth from immigrant families. It also describes the four chapters in this special issue that focus on peer, network, legal, and institutional contexts that influence the lives of immigrant parents and their children. Directions for future research on the social contexts of development in immigrant families are discussed.     

Pregnancy and motherhood in elite sport: The longitudinal experiences of two elite athletes

Since the end of the 20th century, the elite athlete mother has been a growing social phenomenon, with increasing numbers of female athletes returning to elite level sport postpartum. Allyson Felix and Serena Williams are two recent elite athletes who successfully transitioned into their new identity of elite athlete mother. However, there is no guarantee that all transitional journeys will be as successful. The purpose of the present study was to enhance current knowledge of the experiences during pregnancy and motherhood in elite sport by exploring how becoming a mother impacted on the perceived personal and physical identity of elite athletes. Two elite athletes who had recently given birth to their first child were interviewed at two-months, six-months, and 15–16 months post-birth. Interviews were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis to explore how identity may have changed over the initial 15–16 months of motherhood. Three themes were developed, comprising: athlete identity; mother identity; and athlete mother identity. The sub-themes of identity, physical identity, shifting of goals, juggling athlete and mother identity, dual identity, priorities, and lifestyle were generated and demonstrated both similarities and nuances in the experiences of the two athletes. This study is the first to provide longitudinal insights into the experiences of both para and non-para elite athlete mothers during the initial stages of motherhood. Findings highlight the individual nature of such an experience and illuminate some of the negotiations of the personal, athlete, and mother identity that an athlete mother may experience.