S3 Identities and intercultural communication

Question 1

Def “identity”

Answer 1

1a : the distinguishing character or personality of an individual : individuality
b : the relation established by psychological identification
2: the condition of being the same with something described or asserted establish the identity of stolen goods
3a: sameness of essential or generic character in different instances
b : sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing : oneness

Question 2

Psychologist Erik Erikson, 1960s

Answer 2

Erikson’s theory centered on psychosocial development as he distinguished “ego identity”, “personal identity” and “social identity”.
- Ego identity constantly changes due to new experiences and information in the daily interactions with other individuals.
- Identity: how people answer the question “ Who are you?” Many possible answers. “Identity”: person’s sense of who they are and the self-descriptions to which they attribute significance and value. Most people use a diversity of identities in order to describe themselves (wide range of identities that make one individual)
- Personal and social nature of identity provides insight into the relationship between the individual and society. People often draw on different identities in different situations.

Question 3

CTI (communication theory of identity), Michael Hecht 1996

Answer 3

Developed by communication scholar Michael Hecht based on the conceptualization of identity as experienced at multiple levels or layers.
PERSONAL / ENACTED
RELATIONAL / COMMUNAL
One’s identity formation and management is as an ongoing process of communication with the self and with others

Question 4

Amin Malouf’s (2001) In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong.

Answer 4

“How many times, since I left Lebanon in 1976 to establish myself in France, have I been asked, with the best intentions in the world, if I felt more French or more Lebanese? And I always give the same answer: ‘Both!’ Not in an attempt to be fair or balanced but because if I gave another answer I would be lying. This is why I am myself and not another, at the edge of two countries, two or three languages and several cultural traditions. This is precisely what determines my identity. Would I be more authentic if I cut off a part of myself? “

Question 5

Development of CTI

Answer 5

Identity is based on roles, social constructions and performances.
Identity = result of social categorization and shared group memberships. Explanation of the relationship between society and individuals.
Identity = social construct that refers to self-meaning narratives and self-referential modes and from which narratives about otherness are also derived.
Identity is also a form of classification (of self and “others”) and a way of ordering both the inner and outer worlds

Question 6

Definitions of identity (Hecht)

Answer 6

1. Identities have individual, social, and communal properties.
2. Identities are both enduring and changing.
3. Identities are affective, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual.
4. Identities have both content and relationship levels of interpretation.
5. Identities involve both subjective and ascribed meaning.
6. Identities are codes that are expressed in conversations and define membership in communities.
7. Identities have semantic properties that are expressed in core symbols, meanings, and labels.
8. Identities prescribe modes of appropriate and effective communication.
9. Identities are a source of expectations and motivations.
10. Identities are emergent.

Question 7

Social identity

Answer 7

Social not because of its content but because it emanates from social interactions and cultural discourse between people, rather than within what is specific to each own individual. 2 types of group identity:
1. Ascribed identity which is the set of demographic and role descriptions that others in an interaction assume to hold true for you (Ascribed identity is often a function of one’s physical appearance, ethnic connotations of one’s name, or other stereotypical associations)
2. Avowed identity: it is comprised of the group affiliations that one feels most intensely. Ex: if an individual is assimilated into a new culture, then the values and practices of that destination culture will figure importantly in her avowed culture.
Reference group: social entity from which one draws one’s avowed identity. It is a group in which one feels competent and at ease

Question 8

Cultural identities (personal layers)

Answer 8

Identities which people construct on the basis of their membership of cultural groups, particular type of social identity. There are formed by different social layers:
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Class identity
4. National and regional identity

Question 9

1. Age (cultural identity)

Answer 9

Age is a factor that has an impact on intercultural communication, the ways members of different age groups interact differently in comparison to the members of other age groups.
Age identification refers to how old people feel (subjective age) compared to their chronological age. This concept highlights that while people may be biologically a certain age, they may perceive themselves as younger or older based on societal and psychological factors.

Question 10

Study “Cultural and gender influences on age identification”

Answer 10

Age identification: significant role in young adults’ mass, interpersonal, intergenerational, and intercultural communication. It examined cultural and gender influences on young people’s age identity by measuring the social age identity of male and female young adult members of five cultures varying in individualism/collectivism.
The conclusion: cultural influences on age identity were both unexpected in nature and modest in effect.

Question 11

2. Gender

Answer 11

One of the components of self-concept. It is defined as the awareness of belonging to a gender in a given society and is influenced by many biological, social and cultural elements.

Question 12

Gender identity

Answer 12

Gender that person identifies with. It may be different from the gender/ sex assigned at birth (sometimes mistakenly called “biological sex.”) Many do not accept gender theory and this field of study provokes a lively debate with people‘s positions being poles apart.
3 levels are present in individuals in the conceptualization of their gender identity.
First is biological sex, relating to the birth of a person (on birth certificate because of genital attributes, makes the person man or a woman in a dichotomous view, excluding intersex people, but rare cases of Human hermaphroditism)

Question 13

1930s, Margaret Mead

Answer 13

Sex is not always enough to differentiate temperaments and that gender roles should also be considered. (Details of the development of gender studies)
The study of gender = approach based on an analysis characterizing the masculine and the feminine as the result of social constructions.

Question 14

1980s historian Joan W. Scott’s article “Gender: a useful category of historical analysis”

Answer 14

Gender should be seen not just as a biological difference, but as a fundamental category for understanding social, political, and economic structures throughout history.
Approach in France since a decade (US 4 decades): the term gender comes from the English term which means both the biological sex and the masculine or feminine or protean gender.

Question 15

Difference gender expression VS gender identity

Answer 15

Gender expression: the way of using various social (clothing, attitude, language, etc.) and bodily codes attributed to a particular gender. Ex: dressing in feminine clothes is a gender expression that can be considered feminine.
Gender expression does not necessarily correlate with gender identity. You can very well be a woman who identifies as a woman and have a very masculine appearance, that does not call into question her gender identity.

Question 16

3. Class identity

Answer 16

Social class = multifaceted construct: our social class identity influences how we behave and communicate towards other people.

Question 17

SES: socioeconomic status

Answer 17

Major indicator of social class, based on one’s family income, educational attainment and/or occupation level.
Society is stratified into a hierarchical arrangement of social classes.
General agreement among social scientists on the characteristics of the principal social classes in modern societies:
- Upper class
- Middle class
- Working or lower class
In some countries: social class depends more upon race/ethnicity, position at birth, religious affiliation. UK: class position connected to family lineage (nobility belonging to aristocracy)

Question 18

Markus and Fiske about social class

Answer 18

Class is not a fixed set of inherent attributes: “Neither is it simply a rank or position in the social hierarchy, a marker of prestige or status, or an index of access to or control over material resources. It is all of these, but it is also a form of doing that can pervade thought and action, […] and as such it can have a broad and diverse influence on one’s way of being a person (that is, an agent, a self, an identity) in the world”

Question 19

Social class identity

Answer 19

Current scholars consider that social class identity is also fundamental in shaping individuals’ feelings about themselves and interactions with their environments

Question 20

Locate individuals in the class hierarchy

Answer 20

Lack of familiarity with certain types of leisure, certain food or drinks, or the reading of certain newspapers and magazines may reveal sthg aobut one’s class background, awa language and communication styles

Question 21

Lack of overt recognition of social class in Western societies

Answer 21

Several consequences: “mobility myth” (with hard work and persistence any individual can improve class status). Result = when poverty persists, the poor are blamed: they are poor because of something they did or didn’t do, or were lazy, or didn’t try hard enough, or were unlucky – a classic case of “blaming the victim.”

Question 22

Race, class and gender identities interrelated

Answer 22

Being born African American, poor, and female increases one’s chance of remaining in poverty.
These multiple identities as interrelated, they are not quite identical: in the U.S. today, there are many poor Whites and increasing numbers of wealthy African Americans.
Lack of understanding about class differences and the stereotypes perpetuated in the media often make meaningful communication between classes difficult.

Question 23

4. National identity

Answer 23

Should not be confused with racial or ethnic identity.
National identity (or nationality): one’s legal status in relation to a nation. What does it mean to be a French, an American? When asked this question, people respond in many ways, mentioning either positive things or bad one as well. Yet, almost everyone is proud of his or her national identity.
National identity certainly influences how we look at the world and communicate with people of other nationalities. It is also often influenced by how one’s country is perceived on the world stage.

Question 24

4. Regional identity

Answer 24

Many regions of the world have separate but thriving cultural identities (Catalonia, Corsica).
A federal State structure such(Germany or U.S.) is likely to improve regional identities: for instance Texas advertises itself as “a whole other country.”
Some regional identities can lead to national independence movements, but more often they are cultural identities that affirm distinctive dress, cuisines, manners, and sometimes language.
In turn, these identities may become important in intercultural communication situations (ex: different dialects)