Modern societies are highly differentiated, with relatively uncorrelated socially salient dimensions and a preponderance of weak, unidimensional (as opposed to strong, multiplex) ties. What are the implications of a society with fewer strong ties and more weak ties for the self? What do these changes mean for our emotional experience in everyday life? I outline a structural view of self, situated identity, and emotion. It is an ecological theory in which interpersonal encounters are the link between the macro-level community structure and the micro-level experience of self-conception, identity performance, and emotion. In this ecology of encounters, multiple-identity enactments (especially of salient self-identities) are quite rare. But where they occur, they are important indicators of potential social change.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AverettChristine P.HeiseDavid R.1987. “Modified Social Identities: Amalgamations, Attributions, and Emotions.”Journal of Mathematical Sociology13: 103–132
2.
BarkerRoger G.1968. Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behavior.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
3.
BarkerRoger. G.WrightHerbert F.1951. One Boy's Day.New York: Harper & Row
4.
BarkerRoger G.WrightHerbert F.1959. Midwest and Its Children: The Psychological Ecology of an American Town.Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson and Co
5.
BergerJoseph M.HamitFisekNormanRobert Z.ZelditchMorrisJr.1972. Status Characteristics and Social Interaction.: An Expectation States Approach.New York: Elsevier
6.
BlauPeter M.1977Inequality and Heterogeneity.New York: Free Press
7.
BreigerRonald L.1974. “The Duality of Persons and Groups.”Social Forces53: 181–89
8.
BurkePeter J.OwensTimothy J.SerpeRichard T.ThoitsPeggy A., eds. 2003. Advances in Identity Theory and Research.New York: Kluwer/Plenum
9.
CastAlicia D.CantwellAllison M. Forthcoming. “Identity Change: Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback.”Social Psychology Quarterly.
10.
ChavesMark2004. Congregations in America.Boston, MA: Harvard University Press
11.
GoffmanErving1963. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings.Glencoe, IL: Free Press of Glencoe
12.
GranovetterMark S.1973“The Strength of Weak Ties.”American Journal of Sociology78: 1360–80
13.
HeiseDavid R.1979. Understanding Events: Affect and the Construction of Social Action.New York: Cambridge University Press
14.
HeiseDavid. R.1998. “Conditions for Empathic Solidarity.” Pp. 197–211 in The Problem of Solidarity: Theories and Models, edited byDoreianPatrickThomasFararoAmsterdam: Gordon and Breach
15.
HeiseDavid R.2007. Expressive Order: Confirming Sentiments in Social Actions.New York: Springer
16.
HeiseDavid R.LoriBritt2000. “From Shame to Pride in Identity Politics.” Pp. 252–270 in Identity, Self and Social Movements, edited bySheldonStrykerOwensTimothy J.WhiteRoger W.Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press
17.
HeiseDavid R.LisaThomas1989. “Predicting Impressions Created by Combinations of Emotion and Social Identity.”Social Psychology Quarterly52: 141–148
18.
HoggMichael A.AbramsD.1988. Social Identifications: A Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations and Group Processes.New York: Routledge
19.
KashimaYoshihisaMargaretFoddyPlatowM., eds. 2001. Self and Identity: Personal, Social and Symbolic.New York: Erlbaum
20.
KeetonShirley1999. To Thine Own Self (And One's Associates) Be True: The Strategic Management of Competing Identities Among Academic Women. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
21.
LinNan2001. Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action.New York: Cambridge University Press
22.
MacKinnonNeil J.1994. Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
23.
MacKinnonNeil J.HeiseDavid R. Forthcoming. Identities, Selves, and Social Institutions. Unpublished manuscript
24.
MacKinnonNeil J.GoulbourneMichelle M.2006. “The Affect Control Theory of Emotions: The Case of Depression.” Pp. 237–266 in Purpose, Meaning, and Action: Control Systems Theories in Sociology, edited byMcClellandKent A.FararoThomas J.New York: Palgrave Macmillan
25.
MacKinnonNeil J.AlisonLuke2002. “Changes in Identity Attitudes as Reflections of Social and Cultural Change.”Canadian Journal of Sociology27: 299–337
26.
MarkNoah P.1998. “Birds of a Feather Sing Together.”Social Forces77: 455–85
27.
MarkNoah P.1999. “Beyond Individual Differences: Social Differentiation from First Principles”American Sociological Review63: 309–30
28.
MarkNoah P.CeciliaRidgewayLynnSmith-Lovin Unpublished manuscript. “The Formation of Consensual Status Beliefs.”
29.
MayhewBruce H.1974. “Baseline Models of Social Structure.”American Sociological Review39: 137–43
30.
MayhewBruce H.LevingerRoger L.McPhersonJ. MillerJamesT.F.1972. “System Size and Structural Differentiation in Formal Organizations: A Baseline Generator for Two Major Theoretical Propositions.”American Sociological Review37: 629–633
31.
McClellandKentThomasFararo2006. Purpose, Meaning, and Action: Control Systems Theories in Sociology.New York: Palgrave-MacMillan
32.
McPhersonMiller1983. “An Ecology of Affiliation.”American Sociological Review48: 519–532
33.
McPhersonMiller2000. “Modeling Change in Fields of Organizations: Some Simulation Results.” Pp. 134–44 in Computational Modeling of Behavioral Processes in Organizations, edited byIlgenDanielCharlesHulinWashington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Press
34.
McPhersonMiller2004. “A Blau Space Primer: Prolegomenon to an Ecology of Affiliation,”Industrial and Corporate Change13: 263–280
35.
McPhersonMillerPopielarzPamela A.SonjaDrobnic1992. “Social Networks and Organizational Dynamics.”American Sociological Review57: 153–170
36.
McPhersonMillerJamesRanger-Moore1991. “Evolution on a Dancing Landscape: Organizations and Networks in Dynamic Blau Space.”Social Forces70: 19–42
37.
McPhersonMillerTomasRotolo1996. “Testing a Dynamic Model of Social Composition: Diversity and Change in Voluntary Groups.”American Sociological Review61: 179–202
38.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-Lovin1981“Women and Weak Ties: Sex Differences in the Size of Voluntary Associations”American Journal of Sociology87: 883–904
39.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-Lovin1986. “Sex Segregation in Voluntary Associations.”American Sociological Review51: 61–79
40.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-Lovin1987. “Homophily in Voluntary Organizations: Status Distance and the Composition of Face-to-Face Groups.”American Sociological Review52: 370–79
41.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-Lovin2002. “Cohesion and Membership Duration: Linking Groups, Relations, and Individuals in an Ecology of Affiliation.”Advances in Group Processes19: 1–35
42.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-LovinMatthewBrashears2006. “Social Isolation in America: Changes in Discussion Networks over Twenty Years.”American Sociological Review71: 353–75
43.
McPhersonMillerLynnSmith-LovinCookJames M.2001. “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.”Annual Review of Sociology27: 415–444
44.
MertonRobert K.1957. “The Role-set: Problems in Sociological Theory.”British Journal of Sociology8: 106–120
45.
PescosolidoBernice A.RubinBeth A.2000. “The Web of Group Affiliations Revisited: Social Life, Postmodernism and Sociology.”American Sociological Review65: 52–76
46.
RobinsonDawn T.KeetonShirley A.ChristabelRogalin2002. “Network Density and the Organization of Social Identities.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the International Network for Social Network Analysis in New Orleans, LA
47.
RobinsonDawn T.RogalinChristabel L.LynnSmith-Lovin2004. “Physiological Measures of Theoretical Concepts: Some Ideas for Linking Deflection and Emotion to Physical Responses During Interaction.”Advances in Group Processes21: 77–115
48.
RobinsonDawn T.LynnSmith-Lovin1992. “Selective Interaction as a Strategy for Identity Maintenance: An Affect Control Model.”Social Psychology Quarterly55: 12–28
49.
RobinsonDawn T.LynnSmith-Lovin2006. “Affect Control Theory.” Pp. 137–64 in Contemporary Social Psychological Theories, edited byBurkePeter J.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
50.
RotoloThomasMillerMcPherson2001. “The System of Occupations: Modeling Occupations in Sociodemographic Space.”Social Forces79: 1095–1130
51.
SerpeRichard T.1987. “Stability and Change in Self: A Structural Symbolic Interaction Explanation.”Social Psychology Quarterly50: 44–55
52.
SerpeRichard T.SheldonStryker1987. “The Construction of Self and the Reconstruction of Social Relationships.”Advances in Group Processes4: 41–82
53.
SerpeRichard T.SheldonStryker1993. “Prior Social Ties and Movement into New Relationships.”Advances in Group Processes10: 283–304
54.
SimonRobin W.1995. “Gender, Multiple Roles, Role Meaning, and Mental Health.”Journal of Health and Social Behavior36: 182–94
55.
SimonRobin W.1998. “Assessing Sex Differences in Vulnerability Among Employed Parents: The Importance of Marital Status.”Journal of Health and Social Behavior39: 38–54
56.
Smith-LovinLynn1979. “Behavioral Settings and Impressions Formed from Social Scenarios.”Social Psychology Quarterly42: 31–42
57.
Smith-LovinLynn1987a. “Impressions from Events.”Journal of Mathematical Sociology13: 35–70
58.
Smith-LovinLynn1987b. “The Affective Control of Events within Settings.”Journal of Mathematical Sociology13: 71–101
59.
Smith-LovinLynn1990. “Emotion as the Confirmation and Disconfirmation of Identity: An Affect Control Model. Pp. 238–70 in Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions, edited byKemperTheodore D.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
60.
Smith-LovinLynn1995. “The Sociology of Affect and Emotion.” Pp. 118–48 in Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology, edited byCookKaren S.FineGary A.HouseJames S.Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon
61.
Smith-LovinLynn2001. “Role-identities, Action and Emotion: Parallel Processing and the Production of Mixed Emotions.” Pp. 125–44 in Self and Identity: Personal, Social, and Symbolic, edited byYoshihisaKashimaMargaretFoddyPlatowMichael J.New York: Erlbaum
62.
Smith-LovinLynn2003. “Self, Identity and Interaction in an Ecology of Identities.” Pp. 167–178 in Advances in Identity Theory and Research, edited byBurkePeter J.OwensTimothy J.SerpeRichard T.ThoitsPeggy A.New York: Kluwer/Plenum
63.
Smith-LovinLynnHeiseDavid. R.1988. Analyzing Social Interaction: Advances in Affect Control Theory.New York: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers
64.
Smith-LovinLynnMillerMcPherson1993 “You Are Who You Know: A Network Perspective on Gender.” Pp. 223–41 in Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory, edited byPaulaEnglandNew York: Aldine de Gruyter
65.
Smith-LovinLynnRobinsonDawn T.2006. “Control Theories of Identity, Action, and Emotion: In Search of Testable Differences between Affect Control Theory and Identity Control Theory.” Pp. 163–188 in Purpose, Meaning, and Action: Control System Theories in Sociology, edited byMcClellandKentThomasFararoNew York: Palgrave MacMillan Press
66.
StrykerSheldon1980. Symbolic Interactionism: A Social Structural Version.Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings
67.
StrykerSheldon2000. “Identity competition: Key to Differential Social Movement Involvement.” Pp. 21–40 in Identity, Self, and Social Movement, edited bySheldonStrykerOwensTimothy J.WhiteR.Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press
68.
StrykerSheldon2003. “A Peek Back–- and Then Ahead.” Pp. 217–23 in Advances in Identity Theory and Research, edited byBurkePeter J.OwensTimothy J.SerpeRichard T.ThoitsPeggy A.New York: Kluwer/Plenum
69.
StrykerSheldonBurkePeter J.2000. “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory.”Social Psychology Quarterly63: 284–97
70.
StrykerSheldonSerpeRichard T.1982. “Commitment, Identity Salience and Role Behavior: A Theory and Research Example.” Pp. 199–218 in Personality, Roles, and Social Behavior, edited byIckesW.KnowlesE.S.New York: Spring-Verlag
71.
StrykerSheldonSerpeRichard T.HuntMatthew O.2005. “Making Good on a Promise: The Impact of Larger Social Structures on Committments.”Advances in Group Processes22: 93–123
72.
ThoitsPeggy A.2003. “Personal Agency in the Accumulation of Multiple Role-identities.” Pp. 179–194 in Advances in Identity Theory and Research, edited byBurkePeter J.OwensTimothy J.SerpeRichard T.ThoitsPeggy A.New York: Kluwer/Plenum
73.
TurnerRalph H.1976. “The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse.”American Journal of Sociology84: 1–23
