Identity negotiation

Identity negotiation refers to the processes through which people reach agreements regarding “who is who” in their relationships. Once these agreements are reached, people are expected to remain faithful to the identities they have agreed to assume. The process of identity negotiation thus establishes what people can expect of one another. Identity negotiation thus provides the interpersonal “glue” that holds relationships together.

The idea that identities are negotiated originated in the sociological literature during the middle of the 20th century. A leading figure in this movement was Goffman (1959, 1961), who asserted that the first order of business in social interaction is establishing a “working consensus” or agreement regarding the roles each person will assume in the interaction. Weinstein and Deutschberger (1964), and later McCall and Simmons (1966), built on this work by elaborating the interpersonal processes that unfold after interaction partners reach an initial working consensus. Within psychology, these ideas were elaborated by Secord and Backman (1965) and Schlenker (1985). The actual phrase “identity negotiation” was introduced by Swann (1987), who emphasized the tension between two competing processes in social interaction, behavioral confirmation and self-verification. Behavioral confirmation occurs when one person (the “perceiver”) encourages another person (the “target”) to behave in ways that confirm the expectancies of the perceiver (e.g., Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968; Snyder & Klein, 2005; Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977). Self-verification occurs when the “target” persuades the “perceiver” to behave in a manner that verifies the target’s firmly held self-views or identities (Swann, 1983; 1996).

Psychological view of identity negotiation

When the expectancies of perceivers clash with the self-views of targets, a “battle of wills” may occur (Swann & Ely, 1984). Such “battles” can range from short-lived, mild disagreements that are quickly and easily solved to highly pitched confrontations that are combative and contentious. On such occasions, the identity negotiation process represents the means through which these conflicting tendencies are reconciled.

More often than not, the identity negotiation process seems to favor self-verification, which means that people tend to develop expectancies that are congruent with the self-views of target persons (e.g., Major, Cozzarelli, Testa, & McFarlin, 1988); McNulty & Swann, 1994; Swann, Milton, & Polzer, 2000; Swann & Ely, 1984). Such congruence is personally adaptive for targets because it allows them to maintain stable identities and having stable identities is generally adaptive. That is, stable identities not only tell people how to behave, they also afford people with a sense of psychological coherence that reinforces their conviction that they know what to do and the consequences of doing it.

Groups also benefit when there is congruence among group members. When people maintain stable images of themselves, other members of the organization can count on them to “be” the same person day in and day out and the identity negotiation process can unfold automatically. This may free people to devote their conscious attention to the work at hand, which may explain why researchers have found that groups characterized by high levels of congruence perform better (Swann et al., 2000). Also, just as demographic diversity tends to undermine group performance when congruence is low, diversity improves performance when congruence is high (Polzer, Milton, & Swann, 2003; Swann, Polzer, Seyle, & Ko, 2004).

Some instances of incongruence in relationships are inevitable. Sudden or unanticipated changes of status or role of one person, or even the introduction of a novel person into a group, may produce discrepancies between people’s self-views and the expectancies of others. In work settings, promotions can foment expectancy violations (cf, Burgoon, 1978) if some members of the organization refuse to update their appraisals of the recently promoted person. When incongruence occurs, it will disturb the normal flow of social interaction. Instead of going about their routine tasks, interaction partners will be compelled to shift their conscious attention to the task of accommodating the identity change that is the source of the disruption. Frequent or difficult-to-resolve disruptions could be damaging to the quality of social interactions and ultimately interfere with relationship quality, satisfaction and productivity.

Identity Negotiation according to Dr. Stella Ting-Toomey

Stella Ting-Toomey applied the concept of Identity Negotiation on the field of intercultural communication. Based on her cross-cultural-face-negotiation-theory, Ting-Toomey argued that identity negotiation is the precondition for successful intercultural communication.

Ting-Toomey argues that the effective identity negotiation process depends on various aspects which influence each other and therefore determine the degree to which an individual is able to manage intercultural communication. In her theory Ting-Toomey states that every human being has so called “multiple self identity images” like for instance cultural, social or personal identity images which exert influence both on peoples` communicative motivation and the sense of identity coherence which is also resultant from a low or rather high personal self-esteem. Beside the motivation to communicate and a person’s identity coherence, cognitive, affective as well as behavioural resourcefulness additionally affect the negotiation process: How mindful is a person? To what extent are people able to manage reactive emotions or the self-esteem? According to Ting Toomey all those aspects have impact on the process of identity negotiation. Moreover this process does not only involve interactive identity confirmation but also coordination a well as interactive identity attunment, which can be seen as essential precondition for successful intercultural communication.

Ting-Toomey emphasized that “the effective identity negotiation process between two interactants in a novel communication episode” is an important basis for intercultural communication competence. Therefore, Ting-Toomey postulates eight assumptions:

• Everyone has multiple images concerning a sense of self;
• Cultural variability influences the sense of self;
• Self-identification involves security and vulnerability;
• Identity boundary regulation motivates behavior;
• Identity boundary regulation involves a tension between inclusion and differentiation;
• Individuals try to balance self, other, and group memberships;
• Managing the inclusion-differentiation dialectic influences the coherent sense of self and;
• A coherent sense of self influences individual’s communication resourcefulness (i.e., “the knowledge and ability to apply cognitive, affective, and behavioral resources appropriately, effectively, and creatively in diverse interaction situations”.

Ting-Toomey included 20 propositions in the identity negotiation theory:

• The more secure individuals’ self-identifications are, the more they are open to interacting with members of other cultures. (P1)
• The more vulnerable individuals feel, the more anxiety they experience in these interactions. (P2)
• Individuals’ vulnerability is affected by their needs for security. (P3)
• The more individuals need inclusion, the more they value ingroup and relational boundaries. (P4)
• The more individuals need differentiation, the more distance they place between the self and others. (P5)
• Individuals’ resourcefulness in negotiating identities is affected by effectively managing the security-vulnerability (P6)
• and inclusion-differentiation dialectics. (P7)
• The more secure individuals`self-identifications, the greater their identity coherence (P8) and global self-esteem. (P9)
• The greater individuals’ self-esteem (P10) and the greater their membership collective esteem (P11), the more resourceful they are when interacting with strangers.
• Individuals's motivation to communicate with strangers influences the degree to which they seek out communication resources (P12)
• The greater individuals`cognitive (P13), affective (P14), and behavioural resourcefulness (P15), the more effective they are in identity negotioation.
• The more diverse individuals` communication resources are, the more effective they are in interactive identity confirmation (P16), coordination (P17), and attunement (P18).
• Finally, the more diverse individuals` communication resources, the more flexible they are in “co-creating interactive goals”(P19) and “in developing mutual identity meanings and comprehensibility”(P20) (Ting Toomey, 1993, p. 110)

See also

• Face Negotiation Theory

• Erving Goffman

• Symbolic interactionism

• William Swann

• Self-verification theory

References

• Burgoon, J. K. (1978). A communication model of personal space violation: Explication and an initial test. Human Communication Research, 4, 129-142.

• Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday – Anchor.

• Goffman, E. (1961). Encounters. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

• Major, B., Cozzarelli, C., Testa, M., & McFarlin, D. B. (1988). Self-verification versus expectancy confirmation in social interaction: The impact of self-focus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 346-359.

• McCall, G. J., & Simmons, J. L. (1966). Identities and interactions. New York: Free Press.

• McNulty, S. E., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (1994). Identity negotiation in roommate relationships: The self as architect and consequence of social reality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1012-1023.

• Polzer, J. T., Milton, L. P., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (2002). Capitalizing on diversity: Interpersonal congruence in small work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 296-324.

• Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectations and pupils’ intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

• Schlenker, B. R. (1985). Identity and self-identification. In B. R. Schlenker (Ed.), The self and social life (pp. 65–99). New York: McGraw-Hill.

• Secord, P. E, & Backman, C. W. (1965). An interpersonal approach to personality. In B. Maher (Ed.), Progress in experimental personality research (Vol. 2, pp. 91–125). New York: Academic Press.

• Snyder, M., & Klein, O. (2005). Construing and constructing others: On the reality and the generality of the behavioral confirmation scenario. Interaction Studies, 6, 53-67.

• Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656-666.

• Swann, W. B., Jr. (1983). Self-verification: Bringing social reality into harmony with the self. In J. Suls & A. G. Greenwald (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. II, pp. 33–66). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.

• Swann, W. B., Jr. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1038-1051.

• Swann, W. B., Jr. (1999). Resilient identities: Self, relationships, and the construction of social reality. New York: Basic Books.

• Swann, W.B., Jr. & Bosson, J. (2008). Identity negotiation: A Theory of Self and Social Interaction. In O. John, R. Robins, & L. Pervin (Eds.) Handbook of Personality Psychology: Theory and Research I (pp. 448–471). New York: Guilford.

• Swann, W.B., Jr., Johnson, R.E., & Bosson, J. (in press). Identity negotiation in the workplace. Chapter prepared for B. Staw & A. Brief (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier

• Swann, W. B., Jr., & Ely, R. J. (1984). A battle of wills: Self-verification versus behavioral confirmation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1287-1302.

• Swann, W. B., Jr., Milton, L. P., & Polzer, J. T. (2000). Should we create a niche or fall in line? Identity negotiation and small group effectiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 238-250.

• Swann, W. B., Jr., Polzer, J. T., Seyle, D. C., & Ko, S. J. (2004). Finding value in diversity: Verification of personal and social self-views in diverse groups. Academy of Management Review, 29, 9-27.

• Ting-Toomey, S. (1993). Communication resourcefulness: An identity-negotiation perspective. In R. Wiseman & J. Koester (Eds.), Intercultural communication competence (pp. 72–111). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

• Weinstein, E. A., & Deutschberger, P. (1964). Tasks, bargains, and identities in social interaction. Social Forces, 42, 451-455.