Topic 1: What is Identity?

Let’s begin​

“Identity is the everyday word for people's sense of who they are It is about sameness with others and uniqueness of the self.”

                                                                           Paulin Djite

As social beings, this sense of oneself is formed through our interactions with others; it is not stable and unitary but shifting and multiple. The first text for this module provides a communicative approach to identity. The Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) developed by Michael Hecht and his colleagues is predicated on the notion that identity is a social process. 

Learning Outcome:  After the activity, you should be able to explain the process of identity construction in and through communication.

Read​

Hecht, ML. (2009). Communication Theory of Identity. In SW Littlejohn & KA Foss (eds), Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, pp. 139-141. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 

Think

Answer the following study questions (Questions 2-5 are lifted from “Module 3: Communication and Identity Construction,” n.d., p. 3)

1. What are the core assumptions of CTI?
2. How is identity a social process? 
3. How is identity constructed through communication? What are the processes in identity construction in and through communication?
4. What is the layered or framed perspective on identity? What does each frame encompass? 
5. How do the frames interpenetrate? Can you think of a situation that shows interpenetration between and among identity frames? 

 Dig Deeper

Jung, E & Hecht, ML. (2004). Elaborating the communication theory of identity: Identity gaps and  

              communication outcomes. Communication Quarterly, 52, 265-283.

Andreouli, E. (2010). Identity, positioning and self-other relations. Papers on Social Representations,

               19, 14.1-14.13.