Donald C. Reitzes

An Identity Theory Approach to Commitment

Commitment highlights one of the ways in which individuals infuse roles and social structure with self-motivated behaviors, thereby linking the self to social structure. Past theoretical formulations of commitment, including work by Becker, Stryker, and Kanter, tended to focus on commitment as a tie between an individual and either 1) a line of activity, 2) particular role partners, or 3) an organization. An approach based on identity theory or affect control theory (each of which uses a cybernetic model of identity processes) suggests that commitment connects an individual to an identity. In this view, commitment does not link a person to consistent lines of activity, other role partners, or organizations, but to a stable set of self-meanings. These stable self-meanings, in turn, produce consistent lines of activities. This idea is borne out in an analysis of data from the college student role, in which there exist multiple, independent bases of commitment containing cognitive and socioemotional components. Commitment moderates the relationship between student identity and role performance such that the relationship is stronger for persons with higher commitment.

Symbolic Interactionism and Family Studies

Symbolic interactionism occupies a unique and important position in family studies. The principal theoretical orientation of the 1920s and 1930s (when family studies was endeavoring to establish itself as a science) and one of the most popular family perspectives today, symbolic interactionism probably has had more of an impact on the study of families than almost any other theoretical perspective (Hays, 1977; Howard, 1981).

Intergenerational Support Activities and Well-Being among the Elderly: A Convergence of Exchange and Symbolic Interaction Perspectives.

Exchange and symbolic interaction perspectives recognize that individuals actively appraise and assess situations; that expectations and benefits derive their meanings from definitions of the situation and past experiences; and that interactions are not fixed and predetermined but open to negotiation and change. The application of this shared orientation to the intergenerational family role suggests that social background and related roles, subjective meanings and self-feelings, as well as exchange processes influence the interaction of adult children and their elderly parents. Data are derived from a national sample of elderly widows and married persons. Findings include: (I) marital status creates differences in the character and importance of the intergenerational role; (2) the subjective significance attributed to adult children is a major factor which influences patterns of intergenerational interaction; and (3) exchange patterns appear to be more important in influencing the self-feelings of widows than married persons.

The Transition to Retirement: Stages and Factors That Influence Retirement Adjustment:

A set of older workers from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina metropolitan area were followed from pre-retirement to 24 months post-retirement in order to explore stages in retirement and the impact of social psychological, social background, and gender factors on the retirement adjustment. First, we found general support for Atchleys model of retirement adjustment (1976). Second, the factors that influence retirement adjustment in the data analysis revealed that: 1) pre-retirement self-esteem and friend identity meanings, as well as pension eligibility, increased positive attitudes toward retirement at six months, 12 months, and 24 months post-retirement; 2) retirement planning and voluntary retirement increased positive attitudes toward retirement earlier, but not later, in the first two years of retirement; 3) poor health decreased positive attitudes toward retirement later rather than earlier in the first two years of retirement; and 4) there were only limited gender effects.

Multiple Roles and Identities: Factors Influencing Self-Esteem among Middle-Aged Working Men and Women*

include the following: 1) neither role accumulation nor specific combinations of the roles influence self-esteem; 2) commitment to the worker, spouse, and parental roles increases self-esteem; and 3) the influence of identity meanings on self-esteem varies by role and gender. Roles are key units of social structure. They link individuals with the social and material resources of social groups and institutions, and thereby provide individuals with an external source of rewards and opportunities. Roles also provide individuals with an internal framework on which to develop a sense of meaning, purpose, and

SELF‐CONCEPT AS THE ORGANIZATION OF ROLES: Importance, Centrality, and Balance

Data from a set of middle-aged working men and women from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area are used to explore three different ways that individuals organize their self-concepts and infuse personal significance into their roles. Five sets of findings include the following: (1) both men and women identify many of their roles as personally significant, especially work and family roles; (2) men tend to attribute more importance and centrality to the role of worker than do women, while women tend to assign greater importance and centrality to most other roles; (3) different combinations of importance, centrality, and balance influence worker, spouse, and parent role satisfaction and identity meanings; (4) worker role centrality tends to have negative effects on spouse and parent role satisfaction and identity meanings; and (5) worker role importance and spouse centrality have a positive influence on self-esteem while worker centrality has a negative impact on self-esteem. The findings suggest that importance, centrality, and balance appear to be independent dimensions of personal significance that individuals ascribe to their roles.

Factors that Influence Attitudes Toward Retirement

A set of older workers 58 to 64 years of age from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area were followed for two years to explore their attitudes toward retirement. Findings include (1) workers who retired by 1994 were more positive about retirement than those who continued to work; (2) attitudes toward retirement in 1992 were influenced by social background, expectations of a pension, having an anticipated time for retirement, worker identity, and self-concept factors; and (3)attitudes toward retirement in 1994 were bolstered by expectations of a pension at retirement, participation in retirement planning activities, earlier attitudes toward retirement, and self-esteem. Further, the pension expectations, retirement planning, earlier retirement attitudes, and identity as a confident worker increased and depression decreased attitudes toward retirement for retirees, while retirement planning, earlier retirement attitudes, and self-esteem improved attitudes toward retirement for those who continued to work.

The Importance of Racial-Ethnic Identity and Social Setting for Blacks, Whites, and Multiracials

We explore racial-ethnic identity in three ways: (1) by assessing the importance of racial-ethnic identity for self-concept; (2) by comparing the importance of racial-ethnic identity in different settings (at home, in ones neighborhood, in public, at work); and (3) by contrasting the importance of racial-ethnic identity with other identities (gender, age, occupation, marital status, and social class). Data were gathered in a random national telephone survey. Results indicate that for blacks racial-ethnic identity is a more important component of self-concept than it is for multiracials and whites (both of whom say they place little importance on it). Other findings show that the importance of racial-ethnic identity varies across settings (e.g., it is most important for blacks at work and least important at home) and that in general the multiracials are not highly distinguishable from both blacks and whites. Moreover, an interesting and unexpected finding is that for all three groups, the single most important identity is sex/gender.

Activities and Self-Esteem: Continuing the Development of Activity Theory

Data derived from in-depth telephone interviews with full-time working men and women aged 58 to 64 years old who reside in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area are used to explore the influence of activities on self-esteem. Findings include that: (a) among the traditional measures, only leisure activities exert a positive effect on self-esteem; (b) among the new measures, activities with relatives and activities with work friends have a positive effect on self-esteem for women but not for men; (c) activities performed alone exert a positive effect on the self-esteem for men, but not for women; and (d) for women, but not for men, three of the four sets of activities have a more positive effect on self-esteem when role commitment is high.

The role of religious identity in the mental health of older working and retired adults.

This study investigates whether religious identity explains unique variance of the self esteem and depressive symptoms of older working and retired adults. Data were collected from a larger, five-year project begun in 1992 that compared the well-being of older workers and with that of new retirees living in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina metropolitan area. Data are from the third and final wave, collected between March and June, 1997, during which 242 of the eligible 255 people participated. Net of religious attendance, religiosity, and various control variables, religious identity predicted both mental health outcomes. As predicted, self esteem increased and depressive symptoms decreased as religious identity increased (i.e., viewing oneself as more competent, confident, and sociable as a religious person). Though there was a trend towards religious identity being more strongly predictive of mental health among retirees than among the working adults, these interactions did not reach statistical significance.