Richard T. Serpe

Identity salience and psychological centrality: Equivalent, overlapping, or complementary concepts?

Social psychologists currently conceptualize self as composed of many parts; often they visualize the parts as organized hierarchically by differences in salience or psychological centrality. We ask whether these concepts are equivalent, overlapping, or independent, and whether one concept «works» better in an identity theory context. Models relating commitment to role relations to salience and centrality, and salience and centrality to time spent in role, are estimated for four roles and identities related to university students. Results show that identity salience and centrality are independent for some roles, but overlap for others. When they are independent, both are predicted by commitment and both predict time in role, although salience «works» somewhat better in these terms

Commitment, Identity Salience, and Role Behavior: Theory and Research Example

The generic, indeed the defining, task of social psychology is to investigate the interrelationships among society, the social person, and social behavior. Every theoretical perspective or framework in social psychology approaches this immense task by narrowing it, by selecting particular dimensions of society, persons, and behavior as especially worthy of attention. While the ultimate goal for social psychology may be a single, unified theoretical framework sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate “all” the “important” aspects, etc., of the defining conceptual variables of social psychology,1 that goal is not in sight. In the meantime, and before the millenium, all social psychological perspectives or frameworks are partial, selective in their approaches to the world they hope to explicate. That assertion is true of symbolic interactionism, the theoretical framework out of which the theory examined in this chapter develops, although perhaps less so than for most contemporary frameworks in social psychology.

Potential Markers for Problematic Internet Use: A Telephone Survey of 2,513 Adults

OBJECTIVE The Internet has positively altered many aspects of life. However, for a subset of users, the medium may have become a consuming problem that exhibits features of impulse control disorders recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. METHOD This is the first large-scale epidemiological study of problematic Internet use through a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 2,513 adults in the United States. Given the lack of validated criteria, survey questions were extrapolated from established diagnostic criteria for impulse control disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance abuse. Four possible diagnostic criteria sets were generated. The least restrictive set required the respondent to report an unsuccessful effort to reduce Internet use or a history of remaining online longer than intended, Internet use interfering with relationships, and a preoccupation with Internet use when offline. RESULTS The response rate was 56.3%. Interviews averaged 11.3 minutes in duration. From 3.7% to 13% of respondents endorsed > or =1 markers consistent with problematic Internet use. The least restrictive proposed diagnostic criteria set yielded a prevalence of problematic Internet use of 0.7%. CONCLUSION Potential markers of problematic Internet use seem present in a sizeable proportion of adults. Future studies should delineate whether problematic Internet use constitutes a pathological behavior that meets criteria for an independent disorder, or represents a symptom of other psychopathologies.

Advances in identity theory and research

Introduction The Editors. Part I: Sources of Identity. 1: The Me and the Not-Me: Positive and Negative Poles of Identity G.J. McCall. 2: Roots of Identity: Family Resemblances and Ascribed Traits K.J. Kiecolt, A. LoMascolo. 3: Identities and Behavior A.D. Cast. Part II: Identities and Social Structure. 4: The Political Self: Identity Resources for Radical Democracy P. Callero. 5: Identity and Inequality: Exploring Links between Self and Stratification Processes M.O. Hunt. 6: The Role of Self-Evaluation in Identity Salience and Commitment T.J. Owens, R. Serpe. Part III: Identities, Emotion, and Health. 7: Justice, Emotion, and Identity Theory J.E. Stets. 8: Feeling Good, Feeling Well: Identity, Emotion, and Health L.E. Francis. 9: Interaction, Emotion, and Collective Identities E.J. Lawler. 10: Using Identity Discrepancy Theory to Predict Psychological Distress K. Marcussen, M.D. Large. Part IV: Multiple Identities. 11: The Self, Multiple Identities and the Production of Mixed Emotions L. Smith-Lovin. 12: Personal Agency in the Accumulation of Multiple Role-Identities P.A. Thoits. 13: Relationships among Multiple Identities P.J. Burke. Final Commentary: A Peek Ahead S. Stryker.

The prevalence of pathologic skin picking in US adults

OBJECTIVE Despite increasing recognition of the potentially severe medical and psychosocial costs of pathologic skin picking (PSP), no large-sample, randomized investigation of its prevalence in a national population has been conducted. METHOD Two thousand five hundred and thirteen US adults were interviewed during the spring and summer of 2004 in a random-sample, national household computer-assisted phone survey of PSP phenomenology and associated functional impairment. Respondents were classified for subsequent analysis according to proposed diagnostic criteria. RESULTS Of all respondents, 16.6% endorsed lifetime PSP with noticeable skin damage; 60.3% of these denied picking secondary to an inflammation or itch from a medical condition. One fifth to one quarter of those with lifetime PSP not related to a medical condition endorsed tension or nervousness before picking, tension or nervousness when attempting to resist picking, and pleasure or relief during or after picking. A total of 1.4% of our entire sample satisfied our criteria of picking with noticeable skin damage not attributable to another condition and with associated distress or psychosocial impairment. Pickers satisfying these latter criteria differed from other respondents in demographics (age, marital status) and both picking phenomenology and frequency.

Patching the Pipeline Reducing Educational Disparities in the Sciences Through Minority Training Programs

For more than 40 years, there has been a concerted national effort to promote diversity among the scientific research community. Yet given the persistent national-level disparity in educational achievements of students from various ethnic and racial groups, the efficacy of these programs has come into question. The current study reports results from a longitudinal study of students supported by a national National Institutes of Health–funded minority training program, and a propensity score matched control. Growth curve analyses using Hierarchical Linear Modeling show that students supported by Research Initiative for Science Excellence were more likely to persist in their intentions to pursue a scientific research career. In addition, growth curve analyses indicate that undergraduate research experience, but not having a mentor, predicted student persistence in science.

Structural Precursors to Identity Processes The Role of Proximate Social Structures

This research investigates how participation in college-based science-training programs increases student intention to pursue a scientific career. Using identity theory, we delineate three levels of social structure and conceptualize science-training programs as proximate social structures. Results from a sample of 892 undergraduate science students are supportive of identity theory and indicate that participation in proximate social structures leads to increased commitment to a science identity, increased salience of a science identity, and increased intention to pursue a scientific career. This study contributes to the literature on identity theory by demonstrating how participation in proximate social structures can lead to subsequent identity processes, thus refining the understanding of how society shapes the self and clarifying how social positioning affects choices for behavior. Additionally, the conceptualization of proximate social structures provides an avenue for applications of identity theory to investigations of other social interventions as well as mechanisms leading to social inequality.

Initiation and response: The dynamics of sexual interaction

This study examines the extent to which men and women feel comfortable exercising two traditional forms of sexual power, proactive and reactive power. “Proactive power” is defined here as the ability to initiate sexual intercourse and maintain sexual autonomy and has traditionally been possessed and exercised by men. “Reactive power,” or the ability to resist or refuse sexual advances, has traditionally been possessed and exercised by women. Several studies suggest that as men and womens sexual behavior and attitudes become more permissive, a single sexual standard is more likely to exist. This study finds that men feel more comfortable than women initiating sexual intercourse and remaining sexually autonomous, while women feel more comfortable than men refusing such sexual advances. Apparently, a single sexual standard does not yet exist. This study also considers factors that affect men and womens comfortableness in using either reactive or proactive power. The implications of these findings for understanding aspects of men and womens psychological well-being and intimate relationships are discussed.

The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective and Identity Theory

Symbolic interactionist perspectives or frames underlie most sociological interest in identity. We focus first on the presentation of these perspectives, beginning with the eighteenth-century Scottish moral philosophers and the later work of the philosopher-psychologist George Herbert Mead, tracing their influence on current sociological thinking about social psychology and identity. Two important variants in symbolic interactionist thinking, “traditional symbolic interactionism” and “structural symbolic interactionism,” share fundamentals but exhibit significant variation making for differences in utilities. The essay then focuses on a structural interactionist frame and issues of identity emergent from that frame. The evaluation of a frame rests traditionally on its capacity to serve as supplier of images, assumptions, and concepts used to develop testable theories. That structural symbolic interactionism has this capacity is evidenced in discussions of identity theory, affect control theory, and identity control theory incorporating empirical tests. A second criterion for judging the utility of a frame rests on its capacity to bridge to alternative frames. Discussions of the reciprocal relation of structural symbolic interaction and frames and theories in cognitive social psychology, personality psychology, self-esteem theory, and the social psychology of organizations illustrate that value.

The Causal Ordering of Prominence and Salience in Identity Theory An Empirical Examination

Identity theory invokes two distinct but related concepts, identity salience and prominence, to explain how the organization of identities that make up the self impacts the probability that a given identity is situationally enacted. However, much extant research has failed to clearly distinguish between salience and prominence, and their empirical relationship has not been adequately investigated, impeding a solid understanding of the significance and role of each in a general theory of the self. This study examines their causal ordering using three waves of panel data from 48 universities focusing on respondents’ identities as science students. Analyses strongly support a causal ordering from prominence to salience. We provide theoretical and empirical grounds to justify this ordering while acknowledging potential variation in its strength across identities. Finally, we offer recommendations about the use of prominence and salience when measures of one or both are available or when analyses use cross-sectional data.