Cognitive and Behavioral Responses to the Identity Verification Process

Micro, Meso, and Macro Processes in Identity Change: The 2020 Cooley-Mead Award Address

“…Identity change is about a change in identity meanings, or how people define themselves. The meanings of identities can change in terms of their strength, such as changing from a more dominant to less dominant identity (Stets et al 2020). Identities also can change meaning dimensions, such as a leader identity changing from meanings of being socioemotional or sociable to task-oriented or goal-driven (Burke 2003).…”

“…Briefly, if people think that the meanings that others attribute to them are different from their own, this nonverification will generate negative feelings. To respond to the nonverification, people may either work harder if the nonverifying meanings of others fall short of their identity meanings or work less hard if nonverifying meanings of others exceed their identity meanings (Burke 2006; Savage et al 2017; Stets and Burke 2005; Stets et al 2020). Essentially, individuals behave opposite the discrepant meanings to counteract them.…”

“…Essentially, individuals behave opposite the discrepant meanings to counteract them. 17 Even when people are counteracting discrepant meanings in the identity, simultaneously, they slowly shift their identity meanings in the direction of the views of others (Cast and Cantwell 2007; Cast, Stets, and Burke 1999; Stets et al 2020).…”

“…Responding to others in a seemingly contradictory manner, with both resistance and acceptance of their views, reflects the different ways in which people struggle to return their identity to a verifying state (Stets et al 2020). Nonverification is a distressful state, thus multiple strategies may be employed to remove the distress.…”

The Influence of Actual Appraisals of Peers on the Self-Appraisals of Personality Traits for Chinese Late Adolescents: The Mediating Effect of Reflected Appraisals

“…Reflected appraisals, which are the perception of an individual of how others view them, are the core of studying how the social interaction affects the self in the theory of symbolic interaction (Gecas and Burke, 1995;Srivastava, 2012). The reflected appraisals model holds that when others make judgments about us (i.e., actual appraisals of others), we will perceive appraisals of others on us (i.e., reflected appraisals), and then, we will internalize the perceived appraisals into our own view on ourselves (i.e., self-appraisals; Kinch, 1963;Stets et al, 2020). Some studies have proved the mediating role of reflected appraisals in different fields, such as the influence of parents, teachers, and classmates on the academic ability of middleschool students (Bouchey and Harter, 2005;Nurra and Pansu, 2009;Tomasetto et al, 2015); the influence of classmates on the teaching ability of normal University students (Hu et al, 2014); and the influence of parents, coaches, and teammates on the sports ability of teenagers (Amorose, 2002(Amorose, , 2003Bois et al, 2005); the influence of parents or peers on criminal behavior (Brownfield and Thompson, 2005;Walters, 2016); the influence of social environment on racial identity (Khanna, 2010;Sims, 2016); and the influence of parents on the self-concept of adolescents (Silva et al, 2020).…”