Circumventing Ambivalence in Identity: The Importance of Latent and Overt Aspects of Symbolic Meaning

Abstract

Individuals negotiate identity through symbolic communications, expressing their own beliefs in relation to those that exist within the broader cultural context. In this process, individuals may simultaneously address multiple aspects of identity. To do so, individuals may rely upon both overt and latent meanings, sometimes using overt meaning to attend to one aspect of identity and latent meaning to address another. When one of the aspects of identity being negotiated creates ambivalence due to the co-presence of seemingly exclusive meanings about that particular aspect, the ability to make symbolic meaning in these multiple ways becomes particularly important. In this situation, an ambivalence-reducing circumvention of one of the meanings may be necessary, and that it can occur through either the overt or latent level of meaning increases the flexibility of the circumvention process, as well as the identity negotiation as a whole.