Social Psychology of Identities Author(s): Judith A. Howard Reviewed work(s): Source: Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 26 (2000), pp.

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Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2000. 26:367-93 Copyright( 2000 by AnnualReviews. All rightsreserved

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYOF IDENTITIES JudithA. Howard

98195; Seattle, Washington Departmentof Sociology, Universityof Washington, e-mail:jhoward@u.washington. edu

of of Key Words social construction identity,language,intersections identities, social cognition,symbolicinteraction * Abstract In thischapter reviewthe socialpsychological I of underpinnings idensocialcognitiveandsymbolic interactionist and tity,emphasizing perspectives research, andI turnthento key themesof current workon identity-social psychological,soI ciological,andinterdisciplinary.emphasizethe social bases of identity, particularly identitiesbasedon ethnicity, both race, sexuality,gender,class, age, and (dis)ability, and I basedon space,bothgeographic separately as theyintersect. alsotakeupidentities andvirtual. discussstruggles I overidentities, nationorganized socialinequalities, by alisms, and social movements.I concludeby discussingpostmodernist conceptions of identitiesas fluid,multidimensional, social constructions reflect that personalized sociohistorical consistentwith recentempiricalsocontexts,approaches remarkably cial psychologicalresearch, I argueexplicitlyfor a politicizedsocial psychology and of identitiesthatbringstogetherthe structures everyday of lives andthe sociocultural realitiesin whichthoselives arelived. "Identity... is a concept thatneitherimprisons(as does much in sociology) nor detaches (as does much in philosophy and psychology) persons from their social and symbolic universes, [so] it has over the years retaineda generic force thatfew concepts in our field have."
(Davis 1991:105)

"[I]dentityis never a priori,nor a finishedproduct;it is only ever the problematicprocess of access to an image of totality." (Bhabha1994:51)

INTRODUCTION
"Identity"is a keyword of contemporarysociety and a central focus of social psychological theorizingandresearch.At earlierhistoricalmoments,identitywas not so muchanissue; when societies were morestable,identitywas to a greatextent assigned,ratherthanselected or adopted.In currenttimes, however,the concept of identitycarriesthe full weight of the need for a sense of who one is, togetherwith an often overwhelmingpace of changein surrounding social contexts-changes in the
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groupsand networksin which people and theiridentitiesare embeddedand in the societalstructures practicesin whichthose networksarethemselvesembedded. and Social cognitionand symbolic interaction,two of the prevailingperspectivesin of sociological social psychology,providethe theoreticalunderpinnings traditional of understandings identity.In the past severaldecades, the concept of identityhas been takenup morebroadly,both within sociology andin otherdisciplines. In this essay, I review key questions and recent researchon identity in social cognition and symbolic interaction,then take up key themes of currentsocial psychological work on identity:identityand social inequalitiesparticularly expressedin race as and ethnicity,gender,sexuality,and othersystems of social stratification; research on how these multipleidentitiesintersect;identitiesbased on locationalindicators such as geography,place, cyberspace;questions of the (in)stabilityof identities; and the politicizationof identities.

SOCIALCOGNITION
Social cognition is a theory of how we store and process information(Fiske & Taylor1991, Augoustinos& Walker1995). Social cognitionhas close rootsto psychology and a relianceon experimentallaboratory methodologies.Severalcentral underlie social cognitive theories of identity:that human cognitive assumptions capacitiesare limited;that,therefore,we process informationas cognitive misers, streamlininginformationto manage the demands of everyday interaction;that, following fromthis need for cognitive efficiency,we categorizeinformationabout people, objects, and situationsbefore we engage memoryor inferentialprocesses.

Cognitive Structures
are and Cognitiveschemas,abstract organizedpackagesof information, the cognitive version of identities. Self-schemas include organizedknowledge aboutone's self, the cognitive response to the question of identity:Who am I? These include the characteristics,preferences, goals, and behavior patternswe associate with ourselves. Groupschemas (analogousto stereotypes)include organizedinformation about social positions and stratificationstatuses, such as gender, race, age, or class. Because the social positions we occupy have immediate consequences for our sense of self, group schemas play a major part in processes of identification. Self and group schemas illustrateboth advantagesand disadvantagesof categorizationsystems. They allow us to summarizeand reduce informationto key elements;thus, they also entail losing potentiallyvaluableinformation.And, are categorizations almost always accompaniedby systems of evaluationof some as betteror worse. Schemas are notjust perceptualphenomenona; they categories can serve as explanatorydevices andjustificationsof social relationships(Tajfel 1981). Thus, social identities are embeddedin sociopoliticalcontexts. Social identitytheoryfocuses on the extentto which individualsidentify themselves in termsof groupmemberships(Tajfel& Turner1986). The centraltenet of

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social identity theory is that individuals define their identities along two dimensions: social, defined by membershipin various social groups; and perthat sonal, the idiosyncraticattributes distinguishan individualfrom others.Social and personalidentitiesare thoughtto lie at opposite ends of a continuum,becoming more or less salient dependingon the context. Deaux (1993), however,argues for an interplaybetween the two, suggesting they are not easily separable.Social identitiesprovide statusand enhance(or not) self-esteem. Because people are motivatedto evaluatethemselves positively,they tend to evaluatepositively those groups to which they belong and to discriminateagainst groups they perceive to pose a threatto their social identity. Empirical support has relied heavily on studies using the minimal group paradigm (Tajfel 1970), whereby people are classified into distinct groups on the basis of an arbitrary trivialcriterionunderconditionsfree from otherfacand tors usually associatedwith groupmemberships.Underthese minimalconditions, people do discriminatein favorof in-groupsin allocationof variousrewards.The most sociologically relevantrecent studieshave extendedthis traditionto socially meaningfulgroups and situations.Simon et al (1997), for example, demonstrate that being in a numericalminority (a predictorof identificationin this tradition) does not lead to identificationunless the in-group-out-group categorizationis situationallymeaningful. The more positive, andmorepersonallyimportant, aspectsof the self are likely to be bases on which a person locates her- or himself in terms of collective catethe gories (Simon & Hastedt 1999), demonstrating relationshipbetween categorizationandevaluation.This pointstowardmoresuccessfulattainment a positive of social identityfor those in dominantsocial groups.This process is a challenge for membersof stigmatized,negativelyvaluedgroups,who may attemptto dissociate themselves, to evaluatethe distinguishingdimensions of in-groupsas less negative, to rate their in-groupas more favorableon other dimensions, or to compete directly with the out-groupto producechanges in the statusof the groups.Much of this researchaccordsconsiderableagency,both cognitive andmaterial,to social actors. One relevantline of researchexploresthe psychological consequencesof identifications with ethnic in- and out-groups.Fordham& Ogbu (1986), for example, suggest that academic failure among African-Americanstudentsrepresents a desire to maintain their racial identity and solidarity with their own culture. High-achievingAfrican-Americanchildren develop a "raceless"persona, but at the cost of interpersonal conflictandambivalence; behaviors adoptionof "raceless" and attitudesdo have negativepsychological consequencesfor African-American students (Arroyo & Zigler 1995). Direct impression managementstrategiesintendedto counternegativeevaluationsof theirin-groupalso increase,one of many indicatorsof the interdependence cognition and interaction.The focus on psyof of identificationspeaks also to the interconnectedness chological consequences of cognition and emotion. Thus, for example, individuals'prejudicesmay shape not only their own identificationsbut also theircategorizationsof others.Racially prejudicedindividuals do appearto be more motivatedto make accurateracial

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individuals categorizations,both in-groupand out-group,than do nonprejudiced (Blascovich et al 1997); accuratecategorizationsmaintainclear boundariesbetween groups. Strong identificationwith a group need not, in principle, be correlatedwith out-grouphostility. Only under conditions of intergroupthreatand competition are in-groupidentificationand out-groupdiscriminationcorrelated(Branscombe & Wann1994, Grant& Brown 1995). Social identitytheorymaintainsthatit is ingroup identificationthat causes out-groupbias. Realistic conflict theory (LeVine & Campbell1972), on the otherhand,maintainsthatout-groupthreatandhostility lead to in-groupidentification.In a studyof Black SouthAfricans'ethnic identificationsbefore andafterSouthAfrica'stransitional election in 1994, Black African identificationwas related only to attitudestowardAfrikaansWhites, not whites in generalor English Whites (Duckitt& Mphuthing1998). Longitudinalanalyses suggest that attitudesaffected identifications,more consistent with realistic conflict than social identitytheory,a useful cautionto overly cognitive approachesto identification.

Cognitive Processes
Cognitive processes are also implicated in the construction,maintenance,and change of identities.Attribution processes, thatis, judgmentsof blame, causality, or responsibility,are particularlyrelevant.One key question is whether attributionalpatternsarebiased in accordwith intergroup identifications allegiances. and studies show a patternof in-groupfavoritismsuch thatpositive behaviorsof Many to in-groupmembersare attributed internalfactors and negativebehaviorsto externalfactors;some, but fewer, studies show out-groupdiscrimination, that is, the of attributions aboutthe behaviorof out-groupmembers(Islam opposite patterns & Hewstone 1993, and see Howard1995). Consistentwith social identity theory, when social categorizations salient,these attributional are intensify (Islam patterns & Hewstone 1993). and Cognitivestructures processes come togetherin Moscovici's (1981) theory of social representations. are Accordingto this perspective,knowledge structures shared, originatingand developing via social interactionand comcollectively munication(Augoustinos & Innes 1990). This approachreframesthe concept of schemas,which have generallybeen seen as conservativeand resistantto change. Given an increasingemphasison social processes, one may expect to see continuing recasting of social schemas as more flexible and more groundedin social interaction. tradition been centralto establishingthe tenetsof has Althoughthe experimental these theories,validationof these principlesin sociologically meaningfulcontexts is crucial. Variousof the studies cited here have been conductedin situationsof the real groupmembershipsandreal conflicts,underscoring Spearset al (1997a,b) assertionthatcognitiveperceptionis meaningfullystructured groupsandgroup by life. One emphasisof this review is that cognitive and interactional processes are

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intimatelyintertwined;identity managementstrategiesare often used to manipulate groupcomparisonsfor purposesof social identifications(Doosje & Ellemers 1997).

INTERACTIONISM
The basic premiseof symbolic interactionis thatpeople attachsymbolic meaning to objects, behaviors,themselves,and otherpeople, andthey develop and transmit these meanings throughinteraction.People behave toward objects on the basis not of their concreteproperties,but of the meanings these objects have for them. Because meaningsdevelop throughinteraction,languageplays a centralpart(see discussion below). Identitieslocate a person in social space by virtue of the relationshipsthatthese identitiesimply,andare,themselves,symbolswhose meanings vary across actors and situations. Interactionistapproachesto identity vary in their emphasis on the structure of identity, on the one hand, and the processes and interactionsthroughwhich identities are constructed,on the other. The more structuralapproachrelies on the concept of role identities, the charactersa person develops as an occupantof to particularsocial positions, explicitly linking social structures persons (Stryker on 1980). Role identitiesare organizedhierarchically, the basis of theirsalience to the self and the degree to which we are committedto them, which in turndepends on the extent to which these identitiesare premisedon our ties to particular other people. The second approachemphasizes the processes of identity construction and negotiation.Negotiations about who people are are fundamentalto developor ing mutualdefinitionsof situations;these negotiationsentail self-presentation impression management(Goffman 1959, McCall & Simmons 1978). Identities are thus strategicsocial constructionscreatedthroughinteraction,with social and materialconsequences. This traditionarticulatesspecific interactivemechanismsthroughwhich identities are produced(Cahill 1998). These processes are also always shapedby social hierarchies,as detailed in Goffman's ideas about how externallyrelevant status hierarchiesare gearedto "interactional cogs," for example, in his concept of hierarchicalobservation,the varyingdegrees to which people can controlinformation others have about them. Membersof total institutionsare subject to compulsory visibility, and to "normalizing judgments,"contrastingthem to an ideal of a mentally healthyperson, a law-abidingcitizen, and so forth.Althoughthese processes are most evident in total institutions,Goffman conceives these as more general, occurringin all institutionalsettings, even in informalinteractions. Identity and Language How is identity "done"?The interactionistliteratureon identity articulatesthe construction,negotiation,and communicationof identity throughlanguage,both

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HOWARD and throughvariousformsof media(McAdams directlyin interaction, discursively, At the most basic level, the point is simply that people actively produce 1995). analyzeidentity identitythroughtheirtalk.Many studies (generallyethnographic) work through everyday interaction.Identity talk is organized around two sets of norms, one concerning respect for situated identities and a commitment to basic moralprecepts,and the second concerningways in which people deal with failure to endorse these basic moral precepts, throughdenials of responsibility tactics (Hunt et al 1994). Identity work is a micro-level and other attributional of social (dis)order.Hunt & Miller (1997), for example, examine performance identity constructionthroughinterviews with sororitywomen, focusing on their Theirdatarevealnormativeordersassociatedwith talk aboutpersonalappearance. these women communicate,maintain,and repairidentities dress and appearance; of througha "rhetoric review"thatprovidesgroundrules for critical assessments of appearance.(For other examples, see MacPherson& Fine 1995, Freitas et al 1997.) Many such studies focus on populationsexperiencingidentity struggles, especially managingthe stigma of social inequalities(see Goffman 1963, O'Brien & Howard1998). Andersonet al (1994), for example, identify two distinct types of strategies used by homeless people to avoid stigmatization,many of which rely on language.In-grouptechniquesused among streetpeers include drinking, techniques, hangingout, andpositive identitytalk.Out-group cheapentertainment, which reducethe impact of the stigma on public interactionswith domiciled others, include passing (presentingan appearancethat masks their homelessness), covering (minimizingthe impactof theirstigmatizedstatus),defiance,and, sometimes, collective action, as in recent homelessness movements. Cherry's(1995) and Tewksbury's(1994) studies of people with AIDS also show how their reto spondentsuse languageand identityperformances controland guide the social consequencesof this discreditedstatus. In contrastto this emphasis on normativeorder,identity can be viewed as a more flexible resourcein verbalinteraction.Using conversational analysis,Antaki et al (1996) show how identities change as interactionproceeds, that is, how contextualvariationsshift identity claims. Their examples (drawnfrom tapes of naturalEnglish conversationbetween friendsover drinks)show speakersnot only identitiesbut also invokingboth groupdistinctivenessand avowing contradictory similarity.They argue strongly for working from participants'own orientations to identity,ratherthan analyticallyderived social categories. Verkuyten's(1997) study of how ethnic minorityidentity is presentedin naturaltalk, based on focus suggeststhe fruitfulnessof this approach. groupsof Turksliving in the Netherlands, shows thatpeople constructandcross social identitytheory,Verkuyten Critiquing did bordersof variouscategoriesin definingthemselves;respondents not use fixed were not always oppositional. and differentiations categories, Languagethus links the cognitive and interactivetraditions.Hermans(1996) proposesdevelopmentof a voiced conceptionof identitythat integratesthese traditions, a conceptionthatpoints to collective voices (social dialects, professional

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jargons, languages of generationsand age groups) and facilitates greaterrecognition of the dynamics of dominance and social power. Rapley (1998) aptly illustratesthis last point in his analysis of AustralianMP Pauline Hanson's first speech to the AustralianParliament(in 1996). Rapley addressesthree questions: how speakers construct themselves as representativeof the audience they wish to influence, how the appearanceof truth/factis constructedin political rhetoric, and how Hanson constructedher case as representativeof and credible for her audience. Rapley shows how Hanson treats identities as discursive resources in her strategicmanipulation identityclaims to membershipcategoryentitlement, of claims thatcontributed the mobilizationnecessaryto herelection. Rapleymakes to the intriguingpoint thatidentitywork and facticity work are mutuallysupporting, and often inseparable,componentsof successful mobilizationdiscourse. Other scholars in this traditionextend the terrainto other forms of discourse, especially visual media. Epstein& Steinberg(1995) analyzethe feministpotential of the OprahWinfreyshow throughdeconstructions the show in relationto two of of and themes, a presumption heterosexuality, the use of a therapydiscourse.They note the show's emphasis on individualpathology (ratherthan social processes). Hollander's(1998) analysis of a datinggame show, "Studs," shows how both verbal andnonverbalgesturesdo the identityworkof gender,most obviously,butalso of heterosexuality, race (in the show's homogeneity), and class. In one of the few studies of discourse about social class, Bettie (1995) analyzes the class empirical of dynamicsof sitcoms. Bettie suggests thata pattern recentshows, in which workand ing class women are cast as lead characters men are eitherabsentor buffoons, reflects demographicshifts towardmore women in poverty. Analyses of media portrayalsacknowledgehow languageworkstogetherwith nonverbalexpressions and interactionalcontexts as partof the interactiveconstructionof identities.

Identities Across Time

Withtheiremphasison conservationof cognitive energy,theoriesof social cognitionhaveunderemphasized identitiesshiftovertime. Interactionist how approaches addressthis questionmore adequately. One model (Cote 1996) links identityshifts to historicalculturalconfigurations, arguingthatcertaincharacter types areencouraged by culturesthroughdifferentialsocializationpractices. Helson et al (1995) addressa more limited temporalrange, contrastingidentities of women raised in the 1950s with those raisedin the 1960s. Theyreportdifferentidentitytypes, which show differingdegrees of stabilityover time. Anotherapproachto the mutability of identities entails studyingidentity shifts duringlife transitions,periods of liminality. Karpet al (1998) reporta great deal of interpretiveeffort by high school seniorspreparing leave home for college, as they anticipateaffirmation some to of creationof new identities,anddiscoveryof unanticipated identities, identities.The authorsalso reportracialsimilaritiesin concernsaboutidentityandindependence, but markeddifferencesby social class, especially in the meaningof independence from family.

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HOWARD Anotherprovocativeapproach the instabilityof identitiesis to focus on what to identitieswe distanceourselvesfrom.Freitaset al (1997) examinewho we say we are not, and whethersuch negative identities are merely an antithesisof identity or point to more complex identity ambivalences.They find complex patternsof identitiesthatcut acrossdimensionssuchas age, temporality, gender,sexuality,and ethnicity,raisingquestionsaboutthe primacyof so-called masterstatuses.Identity instabilitymay also signify multiple,and contradictory, identitygoals. Miles et al (1998) focus on consumerismas a process throughwhich young people attempt to fit in their peer groups, but also to maintainindividuality,buying some goods in orderto "stick out."(The methodology of this study is exemplary,combining focus group interviews, individual questionnaires,and participantobservations over a sustainedtime.)

SOCIALBASESOF IDENTITY
Muchof the workon identityhas emphasizedsingle dimensionsof social identities. In the sections that follow, I discuss the literatureson these separatedimensions, nuancedwork on racialand ethnic identity,and then emphasizingthe particularly I addressthe literature intersectionsamong identities. on

Ethnic Identities
Phinney (1990) reviews more than 70 studies of ethnic identity. The great majority of these articles assume that identity developmentis particularlycomplicated for those belonging to ethnic and racial minoritygroups,owing to negative societal stereotypesand discrimination.Phinney considers the major theoretical frameworksof ethnic identityformation(social identity,acculturation, develand theories), key componentsof ethnic identity (ethnic self-identification, opmental a sense of belonging, attitudestowardone's own ethnic group,social participation and culturalpractices), and empiricalfindings on self-esteem, self-concept, psyethnic identity in relationto the majorityculture,changes chological adjustment, related to generationof immigration,ethnic identity and gender, and contextual factors. She arguesfor constructionof reliable and valid measuresof ethnic identity, for more work on the impactof ethnic identityon attitudestowardboth one's own and other groups and on the role of contextualfactors such as family, community, and social structures.Phinney also notes the lack of attentionto mixed ethnicbackgrounds; decade afterher review has seen markedlymore attention the to multiethnicand mixed-racebackgrounds(see below). Otherreviews emphasize developmentalprocesses and socializationinto ethnic identity (Spencer& Markstrom-Adams 1990). Knightet al (1993) detail specific socializationpractices,includingmothers'teachingaboutthe ethnic culture, parentalgenerationof migration,mothers' culturalknowledge and orientation, such as parents'educationand languagespoken,and demographiccharacteristics

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In degree of communityurbanization. bringingtogethersocial interactions,cognitive beliefs and attitudes,and ecological and structural this characteristics, model multilevel analyses of social identities. exemplifies contemporary One key questionconcernsthe implicationsof ethnicidentityfor psychological adjustment.In anotherreview article, Phinney (1991) explores the relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem. Although findings do not add up to a clear picture,Phinney assertsthat a strongethnic identity,when accompaniedby some adaptationto the mainstream,is related to high self-esteem. A related approachpoints to the importanceof possible selves, the future-oriented components of self-schemas. Oysermanet al (1995) find markedlydifferentracial patternsin whatfactorspromotethe constructionof achievement-related possible selves: collectivism predicts these possible selves for African-Americanstudents,whereas for whites, individualismpredictsthe constructionof such possible selves. Anotherissue concernsthe breadthof boundariesof ethnic in- and out-groups. Recent debates about inclusion of the category "Hispanic" an ethnic group on as the US Census, for example, assume this is a single, discrete category.Huddy & Virtanen(1995) show that Latinos differentiatetheir own subgroupsfrom others but are no more likely than Anglos to differentiateamong Latino subgroupsto which theydo notbelong (here,CubanAmericans,MexicanAmericans,andPuerto Ricans). Subgroupidentificationmay be more pervasivethan the developmentof loyalties to the in-groupas a whole. Consistentwith this critique,manycontemporary studiesof ethnicidentitycast as fluid and ethnicboundariesas continuallychanging(thoughnot withethnicity out constraints).In her study of American Indian identifications,Nagel (1996) stresses ethnic identificationas situational,volitional. Nagel characterizesethnic identity as a dialectic between internalidentificationand externalascription, or, as Bhavnani & Phoenix (1994: 6) put it, "[identity]is the site where structure and agency collide." Nagel casts identity also as multilayered,with different identities activatedat differenttimes (e.g., for Native Americans-subtribal, or tribal,supratribal-regional, supratribal-national identities).Similarly,Espiritu's (1994) nuancedanalysisassertsthe constructionof multipleandoverlappingidentities amongFilipina/oAmericans,as they reworkdominantideologies abouttheir place in contemporaryUS society. She maintainsthat ethnic identificationis a dynamic, more complex process than either assimilationist or pluralist models suggest. Populationshifts, especially immigrations,are a majorinstigatorof changes in ethnic identities. One exemplary study examines the effects of relocation to the mainlandUS on Hawaiianstudents.Illustrating situationalethnicity,Ichiyamaet al (1996) show shifts in ethnic identitywith the shift in social context from majority to minority group status. Studentswho moved to the mainlandshowed a steady decline in identificationwith being Hawaiian;still, their affiliativebehaviorwith otherHawaiianswas not affected.Althoughethnicidentitymay decline in intensity in throughexposureto stigmatizedcontexts,the need to participate affirmingsocial situationsbecomes a way of combattingthese negative effects.

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Waters(1994) addresses generationaldifferences in pressurestoward assimilation among black Caribbeanimmigrantsto the United States. She finds three distinctpatterns identification: Americans(presumably of as withoutethnicity?),as ethnic Americanswith some distancingfrom black Americans,or as immigrants unconnectedto Americanracial and ethnic categories. Factors such as parents' class backgrounds,parents'social networks,type of school attended,and family structure influencethese identifications.Waterscontributesto the growing literature on intersectionsamong identities in attendingalso to simultaneousclass and ethnicidentitiesandto genderedcorrelatesof these patterns,notingthatgirls seem to live with greaterrestrictionsand parentalcontrolthanboys, but that girls have more leeway aboutchoosing a racialidentitythando boys. Anthias(1998) argues for more attentionto history and context than such studies offer, maintainingthat For concepts of race andethnicityareoverly deterritorialized. Anthias,"diaspora" is a more useful conceptualizationof the identity implications of transnational migration. Most of these studies assume individualsbelong to a single racial or ethnic category. In contrast,recent work has begun to address a rapidly growing population in the United States: people with multiracialbackgrounds.The number of biracial births in the 1990s is increasing at a rate faster than the numberof monoracialbirths, and the "other"racial category on the 1990 US Census grew more than any other category.Root (1992, 1996; and see Zack 1995) has done a greatdeal of work exploringthe complex racialand ethnicidentitiesof those with mixed backgrounds.The debate over how to representmultiracialindividualson the census itself attests to Root's assertionthat US history repeatedlyshows amseveralpatterns of bivalenceaboutrecognizingmultiracial people. Root articulates some activelyidentifywith both (or more)groups,experiencidentitynegotations: actively by shifting ing multipleperspectivessimultaneously;othersborder-cross among differentidentities as they move among differentsocial contexts; and yet others locate themselves on a border,experiencing"mestiza"consciousness (see discussion below). All of the abovemodels focus on racialandethnicminorities.In the past several years scholarshave begun to pay explicit attentionto the racialand ethnic identity of whites. Rowe et al (1994) point out both that many whites do not have a racial identity and that white identity developmentmay not fit a developmentalstage model (a model used with manyracialminoritygroups).Rowe et al focus on types of white racialconsciousness, rangingfrom an unexaminedracialidentityto four types of achieved racial consciousness, moving from strong ethnocentrismto an (1993) proposes one of the integrative,morally responsible stance. Frankenberg most widely adoptedmodels of white racial consciousness, beginning with "essentialistracism,"emphasizingrace difference as essential, biologically derived, a and hierarchical; discourseof essential sameness,or color-blindness(which she links with power evasiveness); and race cognizance, in which difference signals not autonomyof cultureand values. From this last perspective,social structures, racialinequalities(andsee Helms 1994). In these ascribedcharacteristics, generate

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models, increasingmaturitysignifies increasingawarenessof the conditionsof oppressionassociatedwith race;these arethus explicitly politicized models of racial and ethnic identity,a markedshift from earliersocial psychological approachesto this question.

SexualIdentities
As Epstein (1987) observes, in a historicaljuncture in which group identity in generalhas assumedmuch importance,and where sexualityhas become a central dimension of identity formation,it is not unlikely that gay and lesbian identities would arise. Sexual identitydiffers from racialidentityin that awarenessof one's self as a sexual being, and especially awarenessof one's possible deviationfrom sexual norms, typically occurs later in one's life than awarenessof one's race or ethnicity.Althoughimplicationsof this differencehave not been exploreddirectly, most models of sexual identity are similarto those of racialidentity.Cass (19831984) proposes a six-stage model, beginning with identity confusion, moving to comparison(withnonhomosexualothers),to tolerance,andeventuallyto synthesis, includingpositive relationshipswith nonhomosexuals. Kitzinger & Wilkinson (1995) propose a social constructionistmodel of lesbian identity,suggesting that the process is not one of coming to recognize what one always was, but ratherone of recognizing,negotiating,and interpreting one's experiences.This model is framedin termsof discursivestrategiesandaccounting mechanismsthroughwhich an identitychange is accomplishedand sustained,attestingto the centralrole of languageanddiscursiveprocessesin identityformation and maintenance.D'Augelli (1994) also proposesa social constructionist account but frames his model in a more explicitly sociopolitical context, referringto the social and legal penalties for overt expression of this sexuality. D'Augelli also emphasizesthatpeople develop andchange over the course of theirlife spans,and thus that sexual identity may be fluid at some points, more crystallizedat others. Epstein's (1987) model of gay and lesbian identity is also explicitly sociopolitical, in keeping with his emphasis on gay social activism. Because a considerable stigma remainsassociatedwith this identity,Epsteinobserves, the attemptsto assert its legitimacy and to claim that this is not groundsfor social exclusion have the ironic effect of intensifying this identity. (For a general review of models of sexual identity,see Gonsiorek& Rudolph 1991.) Cain (1991) emphasizes the complexities of the sociopolitical environmentof sexual identities,analyzinghow queerculturesrespondto the behaviorof passing, of hiding stigmatized sexual identities. Cain notes that in recent years, openness about one's sexuality has come in both professional literaturesand subcultural communitiesto be seen as evidence of a healthygay identity,and thuspassing can be seen as problematic.He critiquesthe failure of such approachesto recognize the constraintsof social factors, implying in his analysis that people manage informationabouttheir sexual identity,just as they manageinformationaboutother identities.

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HOWARD of Analogousto the recent"discovery" whitenessas an identity,heterosexuality has also begun to receive attention.In 1980 Adrienne Rich published an essay of (laterto become a classic) challengingthe taken-for-grantedness heterosexuality. More thana decade later,Wilkinson& Kitzinger(1993) solicited shortreflections from a numberof well-known feminists, many of them academicpsychologists, about their heterosexuality.The responses indicated that "heterosexual"is not a popular label, and these respondentsdid not claim this as an identity. Most saw heterosexualand lesbian as points on a continuum,ratherthan recognizing their political asymmetry:as Wilkinson & Kitzinger(1993) assert, lesbian is an intrinsicallypoliticized identity and heterosexualityis not. Jackson (1995) too is notes thatheterosexuality rarelythoughtof in termsof identityor self-definition (and see Richardson1996a,b). At the same time, many identities that are widely mother.Jackson embracedarebased in heterosexuality: wife, girlfriend,daughter, to name oneself as heterosexual(as a woman) is to points out the conundrum: problematizeheterosexualityand challenge its privileges, but for women, being heterosexualis not a situationof unproblematic privilege because the institution andmen. Althoughthese discussions relationbeween women entailsa hierarchical do not addressthe heterosexualidentities of men, for whom heterosexualitydoes in bringprivilege,thereis a considerablerecentliterature this arena(see Robinson 1996 for a helpful overview). Herek(1995) connectsheterosexualidentitieswith an accompanyingideology, forms of behavheterosexism,which denigratesand stigmatizesnonheterosexual or community.In his analysisof antigayviolence, Herek ior, identity,relationship, maintainsthatheterosexistpracticesallow people to expressvalues centralto their self-concepts,in this case normsbased on the institutionsof genderand sexuality. Consistentwith principles of social identity theory,Herek suggests that antigay violence may help heterosexistpeople feel more positive aboutbeing heterosexual. And, antigay assaults also provide a means for young men (by far the most to common type of perpetrator) affirmtheir own heterosexualityor masculinity, an ego-defensive function. serving

GenderIdentities
Gender identities have been explored more extensively than other social identities; thus I give less attentionto this topic here and refer the reader to other reviews (Frable 1997, Howard & Alamilla 2001, Howard & Hollander 1997). Gender identities have been conceived either as gender self-schemas (Markus et al 1982), in the cognitive tradition,or as constructedachievements(West & tradition.In eithercase, genderidentities, Zimmerman1987), in the interactionist in the sense of organizing a sense of self aroundthe perceptionone is female or male, and internalizingpre- and proscriptionsof behaviors deemed culturto ally appropriate these self-perceptions,are thoughtto be learnedthroughearly socialization and enacted and reinforced throughoutthe life span. Common to both perspectivesis the assertionthat genderis a social category and thus gender

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identity is about more than personality.Ashmore (1990) details components of genderidentity,and Gurin& Townsend(1986) explore the relationshipof gender identity to gender-related ideologies. Most studies find few differencesin the existence of gender identity.In terms of content, a quasi meta-analysisby Kroger content,developmentalpro(1997) finds genderdifferencesin identity structure, cess, and context. In an empiricalfollow-up, Krogerreportsthat the domains of sexuality and family are somewhat more salient for women than men, but more generally,therearefew differencesin identitycontent(this may be due to reliance on a highly educated upper and upper-middleclass sample). Much recent work emphasizescontextualinfluenceson the relativesalience of genderidentities(Ely 1995, Thorne 1993).

Class Identities
In a recent review Frable (1997: 154) reports:"Withfew exceptions, class as a To meaningful identity is simply absent from the psychological literature." the extent class identitieshave been consideredin the social psychological literature, the emphasistends to be on class identitiesin interactionwith otheridentities(see below), and on contextualeffects on the salience of class identities.Studentsfrom working-class(and ethnic minority)backgroundsnegotiate their marginalstatus at elite academic institutions (Lopez & Hasso 1998, Stewart& Ostrove 1993), and later-generation immigrantsare more likely than first-generation immigrants to have class identities similarto those prevalentin the U.S. (Hurtadoet al 1994). Shockey's (1998) interviews with sex workers show a disjuncturebetween the subjective experience of class and these sex workers' occupationalexperiences and outcomes. Given the lack of attentionto class in any regard,it is not surprising thatthere is virtuallyno researchon class identities of those in privileged socioeconomic circumstances.Suggestiveof the kindof approach would be useful is that Eichstedt's(1998) analysis of the relationshipsbetween white andethnicminority artists in a local art community,as they negotiatedissues of authenticityin the productionof ethnic art and assimilationand culturalintegrityin the production and recognitionof art.

Identities of (Dis)ability
Relatively recently, scholarshave begun to direct attentionto identities based on physical and mental disabilities. Low (1996), for example, explores the experiences of college students with disabilities. Her interviews show these students' while at the same time enduringdilemma, the desire to be perceivedas "normal" to havingto negotiatea disabledidentityto deal with the variousbarriers academic achievement.Many of the tactics they use to accomplish one goal conflict with accomplishmentof the other. Charmaz (1995) explores identity struggles imposed by severe illness and shows, in contrast,how people adapt their identity goals to respond effectively to their physical circumstances.Processes of bodily assessments and subsequent

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HOWARD to identity tradeoffssum to a surrendering an identity as ill. Although Charmaz characterizesthis as relinquishingcontrol to the illness, at least one theoretical model suggests this is a way to exert secondarycontrol,ceasing a fight to achieve an unachievable et identity(Rothbaum al 1982). Consistentwith an increasingemon identitiesas mutableandcontextuallysensitiveis Charmaz'observation phasis that these identity struggles are rarely a single journey; ratherthese individuals experiencemany iterationsof these identity struggles. Only within the past decade has therebeen explicit recognitionof a "disability culture"(Scheer 1994). Scheer usefully outlines featuresthat distinguishpeople with disabilitiesfrom otherminorities;they do not often grow up in families with other members of this group, and they usually become a group member well into their lives, often in isolation, featuresthey sharewith lesbians and gay men. These factors can motivate a search for a disability culture, with its attendant identityimplications.Scheernotes thatit is not clear whetherotherdivisive social characteristics,such as race, gender, and class, have been muted by a common identificationin disabilityculture.Gerschick(1998) speaks directly to this issue, in an analysis of the gendered dynamics of some forms of physical disability. Gerschickmaintains men withphysicaldisabilitiesstrugglewith anhegemonic that orderdefinedby the masculinitiesof those who are able-bodied.Although gender many of his interviewees struggle for acceptance within these standards,some identities. reject hegemonic masculinityand attemptto constructalternative

Age Identities
Being aged is unique as a social category;essentially everyone moves from not being in this group to being in it. Yet identities based on age have received little explicit attentionfrom social psychologists. In one exception, Gatz & Cotton (1994) speakto the identitydynamicsof aging:Age identitiesarebothascribedand achieved;the boundariesof groupmembershipare permeable,but defined developmentally;and an influx of new membersinto the aged categoryis certain,with numbersincreasingmuch more rapidlythan those of other minoritygroups with permeableboundaries.The definitionof "aged"is itself flexible, both culturally and personally. The ubiquitouspatternis thatthe olderpeople are,the less closely theirsubjective age identity matches their chronologicalage. The proportionof people who say they feel youngerthantheirchronologicalage increasedfrom 54%when they were in their forties, for example, to 86% when in their eighties (Goldsmith& Heiens 1992). Similarly,as people grow older, their definition of when old age begins becomes older and older (Logan et al 1992). Older adults even engage in greaterstereotypingof all age groupsthan do youngerpeople (Rothbaum1983). One might conclude that greaterself-esteem is associated with feeling younger; data suggest that life satisfactionis lower and stress is higher for those who see themselves as old (Logan et al 1992), but congruencybetween subjectiveand actual age leads to greaterlife satisfactionfor older women (Montepare& Lachman

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1989). Evolving morepositive conceptionsof aging shouldlead moreolderpeople to identify as old and to have more positive self-evaluations.

INTERSECTING IDENTITIES
Analyses of identities based on single social positions, such as gender,race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, or age, have given way to a chorus of calls for analyses of how identities intersect (see O'Brien & Howard 1998). Most of the empirical identities. (Most of studies focus on two co-existing, typically both subordinated, these essays elide the question of whether models of two identities can be extendedunproblematically multipleintersections.)Most are ethnographic, to qualitative studies. Many of these articles focus on race-ethnicityand gender (Reid & Comas-Diaz 1990). Shorter-Gooden& Washington(1996), for example, exwomen, assessing the salience of plore identitiesof adolescentAfrican-American various identity domains-race, gender, sexuality,relationships,career,religion, political beliefs. Racial identities were markedly strongly than other identities. these women's racial identities were quite positive, one of many indicaFurther, tors thatthe societal context of racismdoes not necessarilytranslateinto negative racial identities. Relationships,primarilywith other women, were also a strong part of their identities. Woollett et al (1994) reveal fluid conceptions of ethnic identities operatingacross gender, among young mothersof Asian origin or descent, and speakalso to developmentalchangesin these identities,associatedwith motherhood. Takagi(1994) explores intersectionsbetween sexual and ethnic identities,here lesbian and gay Asian Americans. She offers a theoreticalcontext for thinking aboutthese intersectionsas, for example,in her analysisof how silence operatesin both Asian Americanand queerhistoryand experiences.Greene's(1998) parallel analysis of lesbian and gay African Americans points to culturalcontradictions and the negotiationsenactmentof these identities entails; she stresses themes of family and ethnic group loyalty, the importanceof parenting,a culturalhistory of sexual objectifications,the importanceof community,and a culturallegacy of homophobia.Rust (1996) also addressesintersectionsbetween sexual and ethnic identities, focusing on bisexuality.She cautionsthat while developing an identity as bisexual might be positive for some racialor ethnic backgrounds, may not be it so for others, and she focuses on how bisexuals in marginalizedracial and ethnic groupsmanage these interactingoppressions. Beckwith (1998) also addressesconflicts between two identities,here between class and gender as experiencedby working class women strikingagainst a coal firmin Virginia.In this case, the collective identityof women was subsumedin the contextof a widerworking-classcollective identity.Exceptfor an initialall-women strike,no otherall-womeneventswere organized,owing to the UWMA'scontrolof strikeactivity,a reminderof structural constraints identityenactment.Beckwith on moves towardtheorizationof how multipleidentificationsmightintersect,and she

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argues that collective identity generally emerges in response to specific social contexts and struggles. Indeed, several different theories of intersectionalitysuggest that politically motivatedidentity work generates attentionto intersectingidentities. Crenshaw (1997) too arguesthatpoliticalinvestmentsandcommitmentsmotivateanalysesof as She intersectionality. sees intersectionality orientedtowardrecognitionof political coalitionsamonggroups,explicit attemptsto resist all formsof subordination, ratherthanrelying on particular positions of advantageto resist only the subordination that directly affects a particular group.This emphasison political realities musttakeinto acthatanalysesof intersectionality a underscores prominent theme, At andthe recognitionof multiple(dis)advantages. the count structural inequalities much of the same time, and in tension with an emphasison structural inequalities, shows the influenceof a weak form of postemergingtheoryof intersectionalities modernism,in its recognitionof multiple, fluid identities (see discussion below). The studyby Freitaset al (1997) of negativeidentities,for example,problematizes the notion of a unified, rationalself and argues for the need to negotiate border spaces, to conceptualizeidentities and identity work as tenuous, fragile, elastic, thanas fixedanddichotomous.The empiricalworkpointsto a lack of closure rather between one masterstatusand another,between previousand futureidentities.

IDENTITIES AND SPACE

Space, both geographicand virtual,is anotherrecent basis of identities, a direccharacterof recent researchon identities. tion that attests to the interdisciplinary Some studies focus on literal space; Cuba & Hummon (1993a, 1993b) consider "placeidentities,"thatis, identitiesbased on a sense of being at home. Key questions concernthe effects of mobility on place affiliationandintersectionsbetween place identities and transitionsin the life course. Their empiricalstudy of immigrants'place identitiespoints to generationaldifferencesin people's relationships to place. Lindstrom(1997) adds a structural element, consideringintersectionsof and stratification place identity.One's home address,he argues,is a marker place of values and socioeconomic position. Espin (1995) connects questions of spatial identity and spatial dislocations to intersectionswith national, gender, and sexual identities, exploring how struggles about acculturationcenter on immigrant women's sexual behaviorsand genderperformances.She suggests thatthe crossing of bordersthroughmigrationsmay provide women the space to cross other boundaries,here boundariesof sexuality and gender.These essays addressthose those who have some degreeof choice aboutwherethey live. Althoughpresumably or those who do not have homes, undoubtedlyhave a place who have less choice, identity,how these dynamicsdiffer when this identityis chosen or not remainsto be explained. Moving to a less literal conception of space, Ruddick's (1996) analysis of reactions to a public crime suggests that public space is not simply a passive

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arena for predeterminedsocial behaviors but rather an active medium for the constructionof objective and subjective identities. McCorkel (1998) analyzes a markedlyless literal conception, "criticalspace."Analyzing women's responses to the intense social control of a drug treatmentprogramfor women in prison, McCorkelpointsto the construction criticalspace,resident-initiated of subversions of formal structure,based centrally in interactionsamong residents. McCorkel suggests thatmost people constructcriticalspaces in theirlives in orderto distance themselves from the constraintssome identities pose for their personal sense of self. Cyberspaceis anotherspatial arena in which questions of identity arise. Explorationsof these issues in cyberspaceask whetherpeople play with identities, adoptingvirtual,online identities differentfrom their offline identities, when interactingin virtual,thereforeinvisible, space. That is, do people try to "pass"in new identitieswhen they cannotbe monitored?Kendall(1998a,b, and see O'Brien observationin a multi1999) suggests the answeris no. In two years of participant userdomain,Kendallshows thatpeople persistin seekingessentializedgroundings for the selves they encounterand the selves they offer. Wherepassing does occur, it is most prominentwith gender,buteven "gender-switchers" distancethemselves from their online experiencesof differentlygenderedidentities. McKenna & Bargh (1998) take an opposite tack but come up with a similar answer. While Kendall's informantsare mostly young white men, McKenna & offers opportunities those with culturfor Barghask whetherInteret participation ally stigmatizedidentities, here people with marginalizedsexual and ideological orientations. Internetnewsgroupsallow these people to interactanonymouslywith similarothers;membership thesenewsgroupsbecomes animportant of idenin part most frequentlyexperiencegreaterself-acceptanceand tity.Those who participate are more likely to come out abouttheir identity to family and friends. Both studies attestto a close correspondence between online and offline identities and to a persistentpreferencefor stable identities.

IDENTITY STRUGGLES Nationalisms

Recent years have seen increasingattentionto strugglesover nationaland ethnic identities, mirroringthe real world identity-basedethnic conflicts that have had a resurgencein the 1990s. Comas-Diaz et al (1998) offer a comparativeanalysis of ethnic identity and conflict in three Latin Americannations, Guatemala,Peru, and Puerto Rico. Arguing that ethnic conflicts are intimately related to ethnic identities,they link an explicit social psychology of liberationto indigenoussocial psychologies. Rouhana& Bar-Tal(1998) ask why some ethnonationalconflicts are more entrenchedthan others, using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to argue that societies in particularlyintractableconflicts form societal beliefs that help them cope with, but also perpetuate,these conflicts. They also speak to ways in

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HOWARD which social psychological work on social identitiescan change such beliefs, thus to contributing immediatesocietal concerns. The influence of sociopolitical forces is centralto nationaland ethnic identity struggles.Perera& Pugliese (1998) chroniclethe activeattemptsby the Australian Governmentand majorityculture to impose particularethnic definitions on the Aboriginalpopulation,and Aboriginalresponses,claiming theirown conceptions of theirethnicidentities.These havebeen bothculturalandmaterialcampaigns,the latterprimarilybattles over land ownership.The authorsarguepersuasivelythat is Australia'sstated policy of multiculturalism intelligible only within a monoculturalframeworkthat imposes the democraticConstitutionalgovernmentand a nationallanguage. These struggles, of course, are analogous to those between AmericanIndiansand the US Government(Nagel 1996). Not all debates about nationaland ethnic identitieshave been as conflicted as cases. The formationof the Euroor the Australian-Aboriginal Israeli-Palestinian a real-worldcontext in which to study identities and pean Communityprovides social change. Breakwell & Lyons' (1996) edited collection addressesprocesses and expressionsof nationalidentifications,and their significancefor understanding sociopoliticalactions in variousEuropeancontexts. These articlesrangefrom explorationsof currenttrendsin Spanishnationalismwithinthe contextof the historicalconnectionbetween Spain and its Americancolonies (Torregrosa 1996), to of how the Scottish NationalPartyhas attemptedto make the concept of analysis the Scottishnessrelevantto Scots while undermining relevanceof Britishness(sucof witness the establishment a nationalScottishParliament) (Hopkins& cessfully, Reicher 1996), to Ruzza's (1996) discussionof the attemptsof the Lega Lombarda movementto promotecultural,economic, and political self-determination among NorthernItalians.The tendencyto adopta Europeanidentityvaries with the prior power of the nation:BritishrespondentsperceiveEuropeanintegrationas a threat and show almost no evidence of a sense of Europeanidentity, whereas Italian respondentsshow a strongerEuropeanidentitythanan Italianidentity(Cinnirella 1997).

Social Movements
theIdentitystrugglesmay also generateexplicit social movements.One influential ory of social movementshypothesizes a collective identity that motivatesgroup action (Taylor& Whittier 1992). This identity requiresa perceptionof membership in a boundedgroup, consciousness aboutthat group'sideologies, and direct opposition to a dominantorder.Simon et al (1998) used an identity approachin studying a movement of the elderly in Germanyand the gay movement in the United States. Both showed two differentpathwaysto willingness to participate in collective action, one based on cost-benefit calculations,the other on collective identificationas an activist. Bernstein(1997) reveals a strategicdimensionto the use of identitiesin collective action,in her analysisof when andhow identities that celebrate or suppress difference from the mainstreamare used in strategic collective action aboutgay rights.

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Epstein (1987) also explores identity issues in gay activism; he equates his model of gay and lesbian identity (discussed above) with an ethnic identity.Both combine affective ties to a group with the pursuit of sociopolitical goals; both groups direct activity towardthe terrainof the state; both are progressive, with a goal of advancing the group position; lacking structuralpower, both groups press demandsby appealingto and manipulating hegemonic ideologies; and both tend towarda local character arounda specific geographicspace groups organized or community.This is an excellent summaryof the parametersof contemporary identitymore generally,especially in intersectionwith society.

POLITICIZING A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF IDENTITIES

Severalrecentarticleshave made significanttheoreticalcontributions an explicto social psychology of identityandprovidedanalysis of how identity itly politicized of processes intersectwith the (re)production social inequalities(see Bhavnani& Phoenix 1994). Langman(1998) analyzes how identityconstructionsserve hegemonic ends; legitimating ideologies construct identities that obscure an awareness of injustice. She asserts,accurately,thatrelativelylittle scholarshiphas been devoted to understanding ideological constitutionof the self, the social prothe duction of identities, and the legitimationof inequalities.Langmanidentifieskey moments of child developmentas sites of colonization, a more politicized underdesires as key forces in shaping standingof socialization.She identifiesparticular to seek attachmentsto others; the pursuit of recognition and dignity; identity: feelings of agency and empowerment;avoiding fear and anxiety. While each of these motivationshas been an importantlocus of social psychological research, Langmantheorizeshow each is harnessedthroughsocializationto ensuredependable citizens. At the same time, she is carefulnot to portrayindividualsas passive robots. Collective identities generallydo provide social and emotionalcompensations for subordinatestatuses that sustain systems of inequality.Wolf (1994) explores this theme, theorizingthatpeople in subordinate social positions attemptin a sort of reality-construction process to translatecoercive relationshipsinto dependency relationships,throughmaneuveringtheiroppressorsinto acceptingobligationstowardthem. Herempiricalanalysesof responsesof JapaneseAmericansduringthe Relocation,African-Americanslaves, andnineteenthcenturyEuropean-American women, show that the more successful they are, ironically,the more entrenched they become in these dependentrelationships.

DECONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES
Much of the literaturediscussed above makes several key assumptions:Identities have an intrinsic, essential content, defined by a common origin or a common structureof experience, and often, both. When identity struggles arise, they

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generally take the form of redefining negative images as positive, or of deciidentity.An alternativeapproachemphasizes the impospheringthe "authentic" of authenticidentities based on a universallysharedexperience or origin sibility (Grossberg1996); identitiesarerelational,definedby theirdifferencefrom something, processual,and multiple. Hall (1996, Hall & Du Gay 1996) notes that this deconstructivecritiquedoes not supplantinadequateconcepts with "truer" ones, and thus thatthere is no way to avoid thinking about the former concepts. He argues that identity is such a concept-something that cannot be thought about in the "old way" but without which certain key questions cannot be thought about at all. For Hall, identity moves awayfrom signalinga stablecore of self, to becominga strategic,positional concept: "identitiesare points of temporaryattachmentsto the subjectpositions which discursivepracticesconstructfor us" (Hall 1996: 6). contrastto muchof the standin marked Key principlesunderlyingthis approach the multiplicityof identities and traditionalliterature. Fragmentation emphasizes of positionswithinany identity.Hybridityis also key, evokingimages of liminality in and border-crossings which a subalternidentityis definedas differentfrom eitherof severalcompetingidentities.Disaporais another idea, resonantwith the key discussion above of geographyandidentity.Diasporaemphasizesnotjust transnationalityandmovement,but also political strugglesto "definethe local... as a distinctive community,in historicalcontexts of displacement" (Clifford 1994: 308). Frontera Anzaldua's(1987) early discussion of these ideas in Borderlands/La has been especially influential;she emphasizesthe constructionof a mestiza consciousness, a destabilizationof a unified identity, espressed in the language of fluidity,migration,postcolonialism, and displacement.Bauman(1996) connects this conception of identity directly to the conditions of postmodernity.Bauman paintsa dismal picture,askingwhat chance of moralityor of engaged citizenship, such a world allows. Hall, Bauman, and Grossbergall seek ways to articulatea notionof democraticcitizenshipthatcan be effective in a postmodernworld.They focus on questions of agency and possibilities for action, and they argue for a conception of identity based in people's existence in specific communities and contexts. Identitiesbecome the problemof citizenship. As an example of what sorts of questions this more explicitly policitized approachmight point toward,one consistentcritiqueof social cognition takes issue with the seemingly naturalcharacterof categorizationand with the seeming obviousness of which dimensions become bases for categorization.Asserting that a category "race"would not exist without racist ideology, Hopkins et al (1997) arguethat racializedcategories are socially constructed,and they arguefor a social psychology thatfocuses on the social processes throughwhich categoriesare constructed,includingthe powerrelationshipsand social practicesthataffect who is able to act on the basis of their category constructions,make them heard,and impose them on others.As empiricalsupport,they analyze the speech of a police officer accused of expressingracist views in a public school, using this linguistic analysis to reveal the social constructionof racializedcategories.

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Regardless of where one aligns one's self in terms of these models of idenresearchreveals and analyzes various tity, there is no question thatcontemporary crises of confidence. One response to these crises is an increasedinterest in authenticity,as a commitmentto self-values.Erickson(1995) arguesthatauthenticity has capturedboth culturaland sociological imaginations,partlydue to the power of images and mass media. Maintainingthat postmodernismdoes not do away with selves and identitiesbut ratherdirects attentionto how they are constructed, Ericksonemphasizesmeanings-what it means,for example,to be white, female, or gay-and the challenge of achieving authenticityand meaningwhen most human actors experience simultaneouslya multiplicityof relationshipsand identities. She also arguesthatmembersof oppressedgroupsaremore likely to confront "problems"of authenticity,being more often faced with dilemmas that require them to choose between acting in accord with their self values or in accord with the expectationsof powerfulothers.Ericksonarguesfor a conceptionof self thatis both multidimensionaland unified,both emotionaland cognitive, both individual and social-a notion not so far afield from traditional conceptionsof identity.The element is that authenticityis no longer a question of being true to postmoder self for all time, but ratherof being trueto self in context or self in relationship.

IDENTITIES TO COME
Attemptingto derive an overall picturefrom these many and diverse approaches to understanding identities is impossible. These are several strong traditionsof theoryand researchon identities,traditionsthatco-exist but rarelycome together. The more traditionalsocial psychological literature reflects a modernistapproach to identities,casting them as specifiable,measurable,ordered,and, in some sense, rational.Whetherfroma cognitive or an interactionist perspective,orperhapsmost fruitfully,from some synthesis of the two, this approachsees identities as generally stable, although sensitive to social context, as relevantboth for individuals and for social groups, as having both cognitive and affective components,as cognitive structures also resourcesavailablefor interactional but negotiations,and as motivatorsfor social action. The deconstructionistliteraturereflects a postmodernistapproachto identities, casting them as multiple, processual,relational,unstable,possibly political. Although this identity is elusive, Hall's (1996) comment that certain questions cannotbe thoughtaboutwithoutthe concept of identity is well taken.Whatthose questionsaddressis the possibility of agency and social action,questionsthathave not been centralin social psychology.In anticipating futuredirections,it is difficult not to arguefor some degree of interchangeamong these seemingly unconnected literatures.There is room, indeed need, for studies of social identities that are both theoreticallyand methodologicallyrigorous,in touch with the contemporary world, and directedtowardadvancingboth theory and progressivesocial action. Frable(1997) concludes her review of researchon social identitieswith a call for

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HOWARD "seeing people as whole," referring to the need to address gender, racial, ethnic, sexual, and class identities as multiple identities of whole people. In the same vein, seeing people as whole means recognizing that both our everyday lives and the larger cultures in which we operate shape our senses of who we are and what we could become. For most social actors, the details of our everyday lives are relatively predictable and orderly. The details of our larger cultural environments may be markedly more unsettled and shifting. Both contexts are part of our experiences of identities. In anticipating the next century's approaches to identities, then, we might look to analyses that bring together both the structures of everyday lives and the sociocultural and sociopolitical realities in which those lives are lived, but without imposing a false coherence on that synthesis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to express deep gratitude to Ramira Alamilla for her invaluable assistance in procuring, summarizing, and being so enthusiastic about hundreds of references on identity, only some of which are represented in this review, as well as for her insightful comments on this essay. Many thanks as well to Jodi O'Brien for her ever-incisive comments, and to Carolyn Allen for always reminding me that social psychologists don't corer the market on the concept of identity. Visit the Annual Reviews home page at www.AnnualReviews.org

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