CONSTRUCTS, communication, and IDENTITY 36: 383 -- DUCK

Schedule for SPRING 2007

 

Instructor: Steve Duck, 151B-BCSB, 335-0579 steve-duck@uiowa.edu
Class Meets:   TuTh 9.30-10.45 E200AJB

Office Hours: TuTh 11.30-1.00 in 151-BCSB and by arrangement.

Department Office is 105-BCSB; DEO Kristine Fitch, 105B-BCSB Phone 353-2264 kristine-fitch@uiowa.edu

For each semester hour credit in this course, students should expect to spend two hours per week preparing for class sessions (This is a three-credit-hour course, and so standard out-of-class preparation per week is six hours). 

Collegiate Policies: This course is given through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. This means that class policies on matters such as requirements, grading, and sanctions for academic dishonesty are governed by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. Students wishing to drop this course after the official deadline must receive approval of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. Details of the University policy of cross enrollments may be found at http://www.uiowa.edu/~provost/deos/crossenroll.doc

Students with Disabilities: Reasonable accommodations will be made for anyone with a disability that may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements. Students must contact Student Disability Services (3101 Burge Hall, 335-1462) and obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request form (SAAR). The form will specify what course accommodations are judged reasonable for that student. Please contact the instructor after class or during office hours so that appropriate arrangements may be made.  I would like to hear from anyone who has a disability which may require seating modifications or testing accommodations or accommodations of other class requirements, so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Please contact me during my office hours. For more information, please refer to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences policy on students with disabilities, available on the web at: http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/forstudents/faqs_index.shtml#ld

 

This course deals with different approaches to identity as it may be understood in terms of communication.  We will start with an approach based on cognition and psychology, move on through sociology and interaction, and then to views based on a constitutive approach to communication, before looking finally at some interpretations from rhetorical theory.  Basic questions that we encounter are these:  Is identity a feature of persons, an attribution made by other people, a consequence of language needs, or a function of the point of view taken to answer the question?  Do we use notions of identity as a result of perception by others, interaction with others, or as a function of human tendencies to label and to order?  To what extent are concepts of “identity” and “communication” inextricably bound together?  Can one think of identity without communication (for example, as an internally coherent system of thought)?  Are other people necessary for identity?

Part of the course introduces and explores George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (PCT), an approach to “personality” that although a non-traditional psychological approach is nonetheless a psychological approach.  Some of the main concepts in PCT are then compared with those of other theorists, especially George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, and Kenneth Burke.  The centre of this course is on the ways in which the nature of identity assumes meaning in relation to other people.  For example, we shall consider the nature of identities and the inherently transformative nature of their continuation, as persons encounter others and restructure their relational experiences: on this view, people do not have single stamped-in identities that are carried with them through life.  Instead those identities are constantly performed and transacted in the conversations and interactions that are enacted with other people, but, following Kelly, we will explore the extent to which this is determined and the extent to which it is based on choices.  On the other hand, what is the “it” that changes in these understandings of identity?

We shall also tend to take a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of people and attempt to explore the many different levels of influence that affect the actions of people in their dealings with one another.  Starting with a discussion of the nature of individuals, therefore, we shall move on to explore the ways in which communication constructs and continues identities.  We shall think about the issue of identity as it involves some philosophical matters (What is “an individual”?) as well as how one addresses the question of “Who am I?”, the matter of how a person can have “an identity” stolen, the sorts of identity that can be face-managed, the roles that go into an identity, and the importance of identification and group membership in the concept of identity.

The course thus explores some interesting tensions in communication, psychology, and sociology: 1) the issue of how an individual person partakes of society (and its counterpoint: how society "gets into" the individual personality); 2) the matter of the individual as a self-contained unit and as a member of interacting groups; 3) the extent to which a person has any say about the nature of his or her own personhood.  In another sense the course explores the idea that individuality is all about ordering: as individuals we order our worlds in the characteristic ways that represent that individuality.  Thus theories of individuality are about ordering and have to start from the premise that the world "needs" to be ordered, or that individuals prefer order to chaos.  Societies also operate orders to serve a number of purposes (to order the individuals in them; to render communication and sociality possible; even to recognize the nature and motivation of "individuals").  Thus many theories of communication, of social behavior, or of society are also about order at some level.  The notion of identity however also faces us with issues about the way in which an individual is afflicted by or benefits from common human processes, interaction, and association with other human beings, development, and change.  An identity must be presented to others in terms in which they can understand it, so the presentation of self is essentially a task based on the recognition of audiences and community.

 

course assessments

The assessment for the course will be based on:

1.       Regular production of a critique of the reading.  Each of these should be a short (2 pages MAX) report, one for each class.  These are just regular brief reading notes and they should help you look back over this course in the years to come as well as providing summaries of your reading. 

2.       A topic survey that reconceptualizes an existing issue in any area by exploring it in terms of an identity question.  The results of this work will be presented to the class.  The work here is to prepare a bibliography, write up a report on it and evaluate and then present your work to the class.

3.       A research proposal or critical essay, based on your work for item (2) but presented in essay format at the end of the course.  The course has the extra pedagogic intention of contributing to your experience and training as Ph.D. students preparing for thesis work and scholarly investigation  -- whatever sorts of methods you prefer to adopt.  If anyone wishes to pursue his or her work in the future on the basis of the project designed here, then we can talk about doing it as an Independent Study in a later semester.

All this will require a fair amount of advance preparation, so plan ahead.  If you do this properly then you should be able to avoid a big crunch at the end of semester.

Policy on deadlines and due dates:   Deadlines are meaningful and I have planned my own timetable for the semester around expectations of receiving things from you when they are due.    Plan ahead.    Things will go wrong this semester from time to time and the unexpected always occurs.    Plan ahead and allow time for delays, burst pipes, broken printers, lost pets, crashed computers, and other possible events that might become unavailing excuses.    If you miss deadlines then you will get a failing grade.  I do not give Incompletes.

 

Other professional matters

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities:

Your responsibilities to this class -- and to your education as a whole -- include attendance and participation. You are also expected to be honest and honorable in your fulfillment of assignments and in test-taking situations (the College's policy on plagiarism and cheating is on-line in the College's Student Academic Handbook, at http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/). You have a responsibility to the rest of the class-and to the instructor-to help create a classroom environment where all may learn. At the most basic level, this means that you will respect the other members of the class and the instructor, and treat them with the courtesy you hope to receive in turn.  Specific rights and responsibilities include the following:

1. All recording of class notes and the timely completions of assignments are the responsibility of the student.

2. Your individual presentation is due on the day that will be arranged for each person.  No assignments will be accepted after the class period for which it was assigned, and a zero score will be entered for all missed assignments.

3. If you are registered with the Office of Student Disability Services (3101 Burge Hall, 335-1462) and need to make special arrangements for any of the assignments or need special seating or other adjustments, please see me as soon in the semester as possible.

4. All students in the College have specific rights and responsibilities. You have the right to adjudication of any complaints you have about classroom activities or instructor actions. Information is available in the College's Student Academic Handbook (http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/). You also have the right to expect a classroom environment that enables you to learn, including modifications if you have a disability.  If you are dissatisfied with any aspects of the course please discuss them with me. If, after we have talked, you feel that your concerns have not been adequately addressed, then contact Kristine Fitch , the Department Executive Officer, in BCSB-105 (353-2255 or 353-2264). If, after meeting with the DEO, you still believe that your grievance has not been handled in a satisfactory manner you should contact the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 120 Schaeffer Hall.

5. If you have questions about a grade you receive, please express those concerns in writing. The written appeal should provide your reasons for why the grade is too high/low. After I have reviewed your appeal and your work, we will meet to discuss your concerns.

 

Academic Fraud, Dishonesty, and Cheating

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences considers academic fraud, dishonesty, and cheating serious academic misconduct. All students suffer when academic misconduct takes place. Academic fraud, dishonesty, and cheating disturb the mutual respect that should exist between instructors and students and among students, and can poison the atmosphere of a classroom. Perhaps most seriously, those who commit academic fraud, dishonesty, or cheating are robbed of the educational experiences that are the primary purpose of course work in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

If you are unclear about the proper use and citation of sources, or the details and guidelines for any assignment, you should discuss the assignment and your questions with me. All forms of plagiarism and any other activities that result in a student presenting work that is not really his or her own are considered academic fraud. Academic fraud includes these and other misrepresentations:

  • presentation of ideas from any sources you do not credit;
  • the use of direct quotations without quotation marks and without credit to the source;
  • paraphrasing information and ideas from sources without credit to the source;
  • failure to provide adequate citations for material obtained through electronic research;
  • downloading and submitting work from electronic databases without citation;
  • participation in a group project which presents plagiarized materials;
  • taking credit as part of a group without participating as required in the work of the group;
  • submitting material created/written by someone else as one's own, including purchased term/research papers.

Cheating on assignments and other work also interferes with your own education as well as the education of others in your classes. If you are unclear about the guidelines for any assignment, you should discuss your questions with me. Academic cheating includes all of the following, and any other activities that give a student an unfair advantage in course work:

  • copying from someone else's homework, or laboratory work;
  • allowing someone to copy or submit your work as his/her own;
  • accepting credit for a group project without doing your share;
  • submitting the same paper in more than one course without the knowledge and approval of the instructors involved;

I am fully aware that there is a growing problem of misuse of electronic data sources and devices; a large number of free and for-profit sites offer term papers and techniques for cheating. You should be aware that the University is licensed to use of the "Turn-It-In" plagiarism-detection service and that I have access to other resources for identifying electronic sources.

 

Grade posting policy

In order to comply most easily with the legal requirements of FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act), I will NOT be posting individually identifiable grades at any time during this course nor will I release them over email.  If you wish to obtain your grade in advance of its official release by the Registrar’s Office then you may come to see me during office hours.   Don’t blame me. This is your Government in action.

 

Course Sources

There are some basic sources that will be provided but much of this course is about you developing an approach to course material that is identifiably unique, so these are merely starting points for the adventure.

Burkitt, I. (1991) Social selves: theories of the social formation of personality. London; Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991.  Main Reference Collection Z7163 .C87 v.39 1991.  Try Amazon if you want to buy your own copy of this book but SAGE London still has copies available from its website.

Duck, S. W.  (1994)  Meaningful Relationships Thousand Oaks: SAGE, MAIN Library : HM132 .D775 1994 or PSYCHOLOGY Library : HM132 .D775 1994.

Maher, B. (Ed) (1969) Clinical Psychology and Personality: The selected papers of George Kelly  Kreiger: New York.  Note: the library catalogue has this classified under Kelly and not under Maher  --- BF 698.K37 (PSYCH).  See me if you want to own your own copy of this out of print book or try Amazon and other places.

Websites with relevant stuff: http://www.personal-construct.net/  http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/main.html http://www.brint.com/pct.htm; http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/learning/personal.htm; http://www.pcp-net.de/info/books.html; http://www.jshubbs.com/PDFs/wsca%2099%20paper.pdf (Someone who took this course last time!  The paper compares Kelly and postmodern thought); http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/Pilou.html Yep, it exists: A Website on Buddhism and PCT, which actually have remarkable confluences.  http://www.pcp-net.de/info/news.html 

http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/  is an online version of the journal Personal Construct Theory and Practice where you can obtain and download some of the articles on the reading lists for later classes.

Mokros, H. B. (2003) Identity matters: Communication based explorations and explanations.  Hampton Press: Cresskill, NJ.  This has some detailed analyses of identity issues as assessed through discourse and conversation analysis.  It is not a course text but you might like to know that it is available in the world.

I will also provide a Reading Packet for the class to use as it thinks fit.

 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

"A good deal is said these days about being oneself. It is supposed to be healthy to be oneself. While it is a little hard for me to understand how one could be anything else, I suppose what is meant is that one should not strive to become anything other than what one is. This strikes me as a very dull way of living; in fact, I would be inclined to argue that all of us would be better off if we set out to be something other than what we are. Well, I’m not so sure we would all be better off - perhaps it would be more accurate to say life would be a lot more interesting.  There is another meaning that might be attached to this admonition to be oneself; that one should not try to disguise oneself. I suspect this comes nearer to what psychologists mean when they urge people to be themselves. It is presumed that the person who faces the world barefaced is more spontaneous …But this doctrine of psychological nakedness in human affairs, so much talked about today and which allows the self neither make-up nor costume, leaves very little to the imagination. Nor does it invite one to be venturesome.   What I am saying is that it is not so much what a person is that counts as it is what one ventures to make of oneself. To make the leap one must do more than disclose oneself; one must risk a certain amount of confusion. Then, as soon as one does catch a glimpse of a different kind of life, one needs to find some way of overcoming the paralyzing moment of threat, for this is the instant when one wonders who one really is - whether one is what one just was or is what one is about to be. "   George Kelly, 1964.

This of course emphasizes the person as process… which is an interesting starting thought for an identity course.

 

Tuesday 16th January: Course introduction

First meeting and general discussion of objectives, reading, and such.   You are very strongly advised to read the first three weeks’ worth of material in the strict order in which it is listed here.

Reading: Kelly's little essay "Don Juan" from Maher and the Reading Packet.  But do not be fooled that this is just an amusing trifle: it contains some critical insights about the nature of individuality that we will keep coming back to.  Try to read it before or very soon after class.  Note how Kelly points out the relationship of identity to the perspective of the viewer, the knowledge of the observer, the symbolic interaction of person and others, and the manner of language chosen for the description.

Start to think about the topic area you will work on this semester.  You will need to present at least an abstracts of the topic early

 

Thursday January 18th  :  Background to Personal Construct Theory

Kelly's goals and intentions in producing the theory were not typical and need some explanation.  As it happens, his theory is reflexive and attempts to explain its own origins in its own terms, so these readings illuminate some of the processes and principles that shaped his overall thinking.  In particular this material sets the stage for some of the details that come later by introducing you to some of the fundamental conceptualizations of human life that Kelly built into his theory: 1) Constructive alternativism (the notion that anything that can be understood, or "construed", can also be understood in more than one way) as contrasted with 2) Accumulative Fragmentalism (the notion that truth can be gradually acquired piece by piece), and the idea of 3) the Invitational Mood of language, that is to say that even hard and fast descriptions of things are really invitations to view things in that way rather than ... hard and fast descriptions!  These three notions are often submerged in reports of Personal Construct Theory that relate it only to Kelly's metaphor of the person as scientist, going around testing out hypotheses about the world. 

These three notions themselves contain much that postmodernists take for granted, but the implications for communication and for the conceptualization of identity are very profound, as are the implications for the conduct of scientific inquiry.  Make sure that you fully understand the terms and are ready to discuss their implications.  If you don't get these ideas the rest of the course will make no sense.  Think about these issues and we'll debate them in class. 

Reading:   Make sure you have read the Don Juan paper first.  Read also Kelly's (1970) "A brief introduction to Personal Construct Theory", but read only the introductory pages 1-8 and save the rest for a later assignment.  I want you to get the principles first before you get hung up on the details. Also read Kelly's "The language of hypothesis"  and also “Man’s construction of his alternatives” in the reading packet or in Maher.

Come to class with:   one or two pages of comment on the reading, especially your thoughts about the basic idea that Kelly is proposing.  List a couple of standard topics that you know (from whatever discipline you come) that could be reinterpreted using these basic ideas, as well as a couple of ideas from that background which are consistent with his approach.  Also list any difficulties that you see with the approach.

 

Tuesday January 23rd :  Ontological acceleration

By now you will be seeing the principles of Kelly's approach as ones that lead to an approach to identity as epistemic - that is, identity is represented as a result of an active attempt to know the world rather than as a byproduct of previous experiences.  Our continued exploration of this idea takes us into the discussion of where identity develops and continues - ontology or the consideration of the nature and development of being a person.  If you know Burke, you will recognize some emphases in Permanence and Change that echo Kelly’s thinking here and are things to bear in mind for later.

Reading:   1) "Ontological acceleration" 2) "The strategy of psychological research" both of which are in Maher and in the reading packet.

Come to class with:  one side of notes about the ways in which this topic relates to any psychological, rhetorical or interpersonal topic.  For example, how does it relate to studies of social memory? or to the nature of definition or concepts of persons? or to the nature of everyday human discourse?  or to social action? Or to any issues dear to your heart?

 

Thursday January 25th no class meeting

Basic Theory and Resource collection

Now that you have grasped the fundamentals and the philosophical/humanistic underpinnings of the theory that Kelly espouses it is time to go more deeply into the theory itself, starting with an overview and then working through each of its elements one or two at a time.  I’m going to leave you to organize this reading at your own pace over the next few days.  In the background don't forget that you will need to be thinking and doing some research on your chosen topic as noted in the first part of the syllabus. 

Reading: First revisit the Kelly piece in Bannister 1970 ("A brief introduction to PCT") but this time reading pages 9-29 where he lays out the theory in skeleton.  Once you have, then read about some more corollaries, some of which are important and others only tangential to our purposes. 

Next, follow this up in more detail from the following list.  Read Adams-Webber's ["Actual structure and potential chaos: Relational aspects of progressive variations within a personal construct system" (in Bannister, D. [Ed] (1970) Perspectives in personal construct theory. London: Academic Press --- BF698.B3146 (PSYCH LIBRARY) pp 31-45)], the discussion of the Construction Corollary (Nystedt & Magnusson "Construction of experience: The construction corollary”, in Mancuso, J. & Adams-Webber, J. (1982) The construing person  New York: Praeger --- BF 698.C615 (PSYCH LIBRARY), pp. 33-44).  You can skim Individuality (Gara "Back to basics in personality study - the individual person's own organization of experience" in Mancuso & Adams Webber, pp 45-61); and Organization (Crockett " The organization of construct systems:  The organization corollary" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp 62-95); and Dichotomy (Adams-Webber "Assimilation and contrast in personal judgment: The dichotomy corollary" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp 96-112), but do note that Kelly himself focused not on dichotomy in any simple sense but on a more complex notion of triangulation.

Third, focus on the Experience Corollary but be aware of the issues in Range, Modulation and Fragmentation, by quickly skimming those readings.  You will see from the subtitles in these readings that there is a close interconnection between these corollaries, all of which are to do with the organization of experience in some way or another. Experience (Morrison & Cometa "Variations in developing construct systems" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 152-169); Range (Mancuso & Eimer "Fittings things into sorts" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 130-151)  Modulation (Hayden "Experience -- A case for possible change"  in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 170-197) Fragmentation (Landfield "A constructions of fragmentation and unity" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 198-221)

Those of you intending to submit a panel for NCA should use this class time to Prepare for NCA submission

 

Tuesday Jan 30th :  Autobiography of a theory

Now that you have got some idea of the fundamental principles of the theory, let us explore the major assumptions in more detail, again taking it slowly and absorbing the approach, but also moving on to consideration of the basic idea as formally stated in the theory itself.

Reading:  "The autobiography of a theory". Also read the Mancuso and Adams-Webber discussion of the Fundamental Postulate ("Anticipation as a constructive process: The fundamental postulate") in Mancuso, J. C. & Adams-Webber, J. R. The construing person.  Praeger: New York. --- BF 698.C615 (PSYCH LIBRARY

Come to class with: a list of things that puzzle you about this basic idea or the notions that would need to be added before you could apply it to your favorite topic(s).

 

 

Thursday February 1st:  Discussion of PCT details read last week

In this class we will come to grips with the detailed elements of the formal theory.  We will go over the things that you have been reading about it, looking for the main threads that relate to identity issues.

Come to class with:   AN EXAMPLE FROM FILM, LITERATURE OR REAL LIFE TO WHICH YOU HAVE APPLIED THE COROLLARIES.  YOU NEED TO HAVE SOME WORKED OUT INSTANCES OF HOW EACH COROLLARY APPLIES TO YOUR EXAMPLE.  YOUR WRITTEN NOTES FOR THIS WEEK SHOULD WORK THROUGH THE EXAMPLE.

 

Tuesday Feb 6th:  Fundamental issues in making Choices

We will now begin working with a crucial element of the theory that connects it to Speech Act Theory and other aspects of communication.  Since by now you  should have a broad understanding of the approach, the fact that this particular reading is extremely complex should cause you no concern!

Reading: Choice (Boxer "The flow of choice" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 113-129) in the reading packet.

Come to class with:   some notes mostly on the Choice corollary but perhaps connecting it to the previous reading on the Dichotomy and Individuality.  In particular consider the differences between dichotomy and a dialectic.  Despite what you have read, is Kelly really talking about dialectics or dichotomies or triangulations?  What parallels are you seeing between Kelly's discussion of choice and other considerations of the topic (e.g., Burke)?

 

Thursday Feb 8th: Memory and the sense of self

We have looked closely at Kelly's theory and its view of the nature of the self (or rather the sense of self).  We can also build into that some consideration of the role played by memory in identity, especially as we reflect on Kelly's fundamental postulate.  Some have wanted to see identities and persons as story-telling or narrative systems.  How do memory and accounting play into the things that we have learned so far?

Reading:  Lots of short pieces, for the most part.  Bannister "The experience of self" in Epting & Landfield   pp. 39-45; also Mair "The community of self" in Bannister (1977) pp. 125-149; Mair IJPCP 1988, 1, 125-137 "Psychology as story-telling"; Mair IJPCP 1989, 2, 1-14 "Kelly, Bannister, and story-telling psychology;  Barclay & Smith, 1993, IJPCP, 6, 231-251 "Autobiographical remembering and self-composing".

Come to class with: some thoughts about the role of memory and narrative in identity.

 

Tuesday Feb 13th: Self in relation to Others Part I: Understanding Others

We will now start to explore some of the relationship between an individual identity and Others.  So far we have read material that has dealt with the individual largely as a self contained unit, but now we start to explore what the theory has to say about the self in relation to others.  One preliminary requirement for connection to other people is some basis for understanding them.  We can contrast ourselves with others, see ourselves in terms of others, describe ourselves using commonly accepted social language, build other people’s ways of doing things into our own ways of thinking, see ourselves by reflecting on what we are doing (the “attitude of reflection” noted by Mead), or see ourselves as a set of roles.  We’ll go further with these distinctions in the next few classes. 

Reading: Schmittdiel "Self and other construal processes: A theoretical integration" in Epting, F. & Landfield, A. (1985) Anticipating Personal Construct Theory Lincoln: UNebraska Press. --- BF698.P47A58 (PSYCH), pp 46-57; Guthrie IJPCP 1991 "Intuiting the processes of others..."

Come to class with: some thoughts about the issue of attribution and how Kelly's approach might be used to extend it.  We will return to this discussion when we have had a look at some Burke later on also.

 

Thursday Feb 15th: Self in relation to Others Part II: Construing Others as objects and as minds

Other people can be understood or construed as moving objects in the visual scheme or as minds, and it is in this distinction that Kelly's work begins to move us towards Burke and Mead.  But we start with the notion of perception of other people, and self as a target of one's own perceptions.  This is an important starting point and we need to think about it before looking at how identity might be related to language and social interaction.

Reading:  Commonality (Duck "Two individuals in search of agreement" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp 222-234)   Sociality (Tschudi & Rommetveit "Sociality, intersubjectivity and social processes" in Mancuso & Adams-Webber, pp. 235-261). 

Come to class with:  some consideration of the ways in which two minds intersect with one another.  The theory offers a couple of different levels at which a person could understand another and you should begin to contemplate them for yourself before reading next week's reading.

 

 

TUESDAY FEB 20TH NO CLASS MEETING

Your task for this class period is to prepare your topics for the end of the semester.  Start to sketch out a survey for your topic.  Begin a bibliography in outline, listing sources and general frameworks for your ultimate review.  Be ready to hand it in on Thursday 22nd.

 

 

Thursday  February 22ndMotives in others and self

We can now follow up the preceding approach by developing some of the underpinnings of Burke and exploring the ways in which  language as a common communal tool shapes the manner in which we think about motivation, whether the motives of other individuals or of ourselves.  Be aware through this of the centrality of the concept of motivation (intention) in the way in which we circumscribe identity (and of course also recall that Kelly argued against the notion).

Reading:  Dixson & Duck (1993) "Understanding relationship processes: Uncovering the human search for meaning,"  In S. W. Duck (ed) Understanding relationship processes 1: Individuals in relationships, SAGE: Newbury Park. MAIN Library : HM132 .U56 1993 v.1 Try also Butt (2004) Understanding, explanation and personal constructs. Personal Construct Theory and Practice 1, 21-27 [This is the online journal listed earlier]

Come to class with: A few ideas about motives or motive descriptions, and the linguistic (rather than psychological) basis of motives.  Does it make sense to discuss the nature of motives, or to see individuals as driven by motives?  Consider the role of language in describing and defining the experience of individuals and the (dis)advantages of seeing motives not drives but as based in descriptive language

 

Tuesday February 27th : Community and a sense of shared meaning

We can now look at how two persons from the same community, who start out a little bit the same and a little bit different, can generate a sense of commonality from processes of identity and communication, based on common notions within a society concerning “motive”.  While all this sinks in, here is a way of looking at it.  This approach is based on Kelly and attempts to relate Mead and Burke to the principles that we have picked up from Kelly.

Reading:  Duck (1994) Meaningful Relationships Chapter 4; Duck & Condra "To be or not to be: Anticipation, persuasion, and retrospection in personal relationships" from G. J. Neimeyer & R. A. Neimeyer (Eds.) Advances in Personal Construct Theory, vol 1, 1990, pp. 187-202

Come to class with:  some thoughts about the origins of sociality.  To what extent is it necessary for others to exist before we can be aware of ourselves?  How might children absorb awareness of self-hood?

 

Thursday March 1st: Is the self alone? 

The earlier materials have looked at the self as a person making sense of the world in various ways and have looked at the “individuality” that lies behind that.  However the recent readings have indicated ways in which the individual, however skilled at making meaning, must do that in a way that makes sense within a context provided by others.  We start to look some more at that here, not so much as a socially constructed entity but as something that leaches over into other connections with other people.  Any identity connects to other identities and we will begin to explore the ways in which that happens. Following on an earlier distinction, we can now look at the sense in which an individual partakes of the broader social experience through membership of groups and communities of knowledge.  Since an individual inevitably draws on knowledge that is shared in any community to which he or she belongs, we run across the interesting issue of how individuals coalesce and whether information and knowledge are personal or communal.  In what sense, then, is identity as individual characteristic?

Reading: Duck Meaningful Ch 1 & Ch 2; Solas, J. (1992) IJPCP "The ideological dimension implicit in Kelly's theory of personal constructs";

Come to class with: some thoughts about the ways in which identity is located in the community of others.  Does the notion of identity pre-require some notion of sociality?

 

Tuesday March 6th: Identity as social discourse

There are some important issues that have arisen now that take us outside of the head of the person away from solipsist mechanics and towards the influential roles of expectations held by other people.  We will now consider some of the important demands on performance that affect the social life of individuals and affect our senses of identity.

Reading Burkitt first three chapters. Skim Chapter One, noting the errors he makes in representing Kelly!  Focus on the discussion of Mead (Chapter 2), the ethogenic approach to social being (Chap 3) and the distinction between “self as character” and “self as performer”.  Consider also the importance of linguistic competence in social performance.  In the on-line Journal Personal Construct Theory and Practice, read Spencer McWilliams (2004) “On further reflection” (1,1), 1-7 and Norton (2006) A depth psychology for our times: integrating discourse and personal construct approaches PCT&P 3, 16-27.

Come to class with some ideas about the ways in which the embeddedness of individuals in a broader society operates through symbolic discourse (i.e., discourse based on symbols) as well as through the management of accepted norms.

 

Thursday March 8th: Common ways of looking,

We have looked at some ways in which our social existence pre-requires some notions of “personality” as well as a suggestion that society is made up of collectivities of individuals.  We need to look at this another way now, and consider how the nature of human life depends on the ability to differentiate ourselves from others – or in other words, the ways in which individuality (at least as conceived in modern life) derives from a previous assumption of specific comprehension of the world derived from social membership.

 

Reading: Miller, D. L. "Introduction" In D. L. Miller (ed) Mead: The individual and the social self (1914/ 1980 edn). Duck (1994)  Meaningful Relationships Thousand Oaks: SAGE, Chapter 2  MAIN Library : HM132 .D775 1994 or PSYCHOLOGY Library : HM132 .D775 1994

Come to class with some thoughts on the ways in which we derive our sense of self from interaction with others that does not arise only from attempts to understand other people but from a desire to be a part of the social enterprise. 

 

 

Tuesday March 13th, Thursday March 15th NO CLASS MEETINGS: SPRING BREAK

 

Tuesday March 20th: Self in relation to Others Part III: Dependencies on others

The way we look at and understand others is not the whole picture of our interconnection to them, obviously, and Kelly, as a clinical psychologist, was all too aware of other aspects of the interaction of self and others.  First Kelly was interested in the issue of dependency but also in the nature of some of the disturbed connections between people.  Thus we will look at his writing on dependency and also on three negative sort of interactive style: hostility (for which he offered an entirely novel interpretation), threat, and aggression.  Since these items are apparent in social interaction and community they should be considered in attempts to understand individuality and society, as well as in understanding one person's range of possible relationships with another.

Reading:  1) Kelly "In whom confide, on whom depend for what?" in Maher, B. (Ed) (1969) Clinical Psychology and Personality: The selected papers of George Kelly  Kreiger: New York. 2) Kelly "Hostility" in Maher, pp. 267-280. 3) “The threat of aggression”   (Maher pp. 281-288)

Come to class with: some thoughts about the ways in which we relate to others that are based on something other than understanding.  Can you connect this thinking to anything you have read about attachment?

 

Thursday March 22nd: NO CLASS MEETING

Your task for this class period is to flesh out your topic survey and produce a more extended bibliography. By this point you should have an argument developed and the line of supporting evidence that you will be using should be quite well worked out.  Be ready to hand it in on Tuesday.

 

Tuesday March 27th  The self in social relations of dependency

We have looked at the roles of language in organizing and structuring social life and the assumption therefore that discourse is synonymous with the social domain.  However there are two locations for the roots of discourse: the local and the general.  We have looked here (and will look again) at the local.  We need to look at the general also insofar as it affects identity.  Of course, it is important to tie together language, power and social interdependence, and this reading does that for us.

Reading: Burkitt Ch4, Ch 5 (can be skimmed) and Ch 6.  Also Warren (2004) Construing constructionism: Some reflections on the tension between PCP and social constuctionism.  PCP&T 1, 34-44.

Come to class with some thoughts about the connections between language and power.  Are we dependent on others because of language in any sense at all?  How do realities of communal living create the identities that we use in speech?

 

Thursday March 29th:  Community as membership: Self as a referent

If the main challenge of living is sense making, it is crucial to ask where people find both their motivations and the needed resources to construct a narrative of identity.  These can be found in a number of places, from social directives to spiritual imperatives.  In this class we will consider the role of story telling about self as a factor that ties together social forces and individual needs.  We need also to consider how identity works as an accomplishment, as a process to which we refer in considering social interaction.

Reading: Burkitt Ch7, Ch 8; Eisenberg, E. M. (2001). “Building a mystery: Toward a new theory of communication and identity.” Journal of Communication (September): 534-552.  Try also from PCT&P Mills (2005) Darkness in the theatre: The perception of embodied self in action. 2, 1-9, and Giliberto (2004) The “body” in jail: experiences, meaning and identity PCT&P, 1, 45-52.

Come to class with: some consideration of how tobacco and other psychoactive drugs might influence the sense of self.

 

Tuesday April 3rd:   Identity as a way of living

In a sense we begin to look at identity as a moral action, that is to say, identity as a way of living, based on the choices made between the alternative modes of action that a person sees as being available, relevant, and acceptable to others.  We shall therefore contact the notions of culture, dialogue, and rhetoric (as a strategy for influencing events and other people's views of them).  If there are such things as identities then they are founded in the accounts and judgements that people offer for actions of individuals.  Some buzz words and phrases are: Multiple levels of meaning;  Rhetoric as a universal motive (the affecting of situations); talk as a strategy for situations; dialectic as a process transforming situations and meanings for persons' identities).

Reading: Shotter, J.  (1992) What is a "personal relationship?  A rhetorical-responsive account of "unfinished business".  In J. H. Harvey, T. L. Orbuch & A. L. Weber (Eds) Attributions, accounts and close relationships. (pp. 19-39). Springer-Verlag: New York;  Browse in Billig, M.  (1991).  Ideology and opinions: Studies in rhetorical psychology.  Newbury Park: Sage; or browse in Billig, M., Condor, S., Edwards, D., Gane, M., Middleton, D. & Radley, A. (1988) Ideological dilemmas: A social psychology of everyday thinking. SAGE: London.

Come to class with: some evaluation of the rhetorical dialectical, dialogical approach to identity.

Thursday April 5th:   The self as a construct: Identity as role (management)

If identity is an accomplishment, a discourse, a narrative, a root of moral action and the other things that we have looked at so far, then it will be subject to management (or those aspects of “it” will be subject to management) as discourse unfolds in interaction.  In this class we will consider where face management fits in with other thinking about identity. 

Reading: Metts, S. (2000). Face and facework: Implications for the study of personal relationships. Communication and personal relationships. K. Dindia and S. W. Duck. Chichester, Wiley: 72-94; You might also want to take a look at Cockett, L. S. in Mokros. Cockett, L. S.: Authority matters: An examination of a chair’s participation in a group decision making meeting.

Come to class with: some thoughts about frameworks of Identity within which “an identity” can be managed in localized interactions.  Are we talking about the same thing when identity is equated with “face” as we are when it is equated with “being”?

 

Tuesday April 10th : Self as a rhetorical being

Our consideration of identity issues has been long and winding.  Way back in January we considered a piece by Kelly that spoke of the “invitational mood” of language and we have variously referred to Burke, consubstantiality and identification.  We have also mentioned the sermonic force of language.  Let’s look at identity as a rhetorical construct.

Reading: You could take a look at the Mokros introduction or  Rumsey in Mokros; but make sure you revisit the Kelly piece on the invitational nature of language and also revisit the Boxer piece on Choice.

Come to class with:  some thoughts about  whether identity is rhetorical.

 

Thursday April 12th: The answers!!

In this seminar we will solve all the problems of the preceding semester HAHAHAHAHA, just to set you up right for the presentations that you will be giving yourselves in the rest of the course.

Reading: Antaki, C., Condor, S.,  & Levine, M. (1996) Social identities in talk: Speakers’ own orientations. Brit J Soc Psych. 35, 473-492.

 

 

Tuesday April 17th through Thursday May 3rd

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At this point the style of the course changes.  Instead of general class discussion on the topics that you have all read and written notes about, individuals (if we have decided they exist) will come to the class prepared to lead the discussion by presenting a survey of a topic and an evaluation of the literature.  Each “person” will provide ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE, a prep-sheet for the rest of the class (and for me!) outlining key points and providing ONE reading to give us the flavor of the chosen topic.  The rest of you will be expected to have read the prep-sheet and the reading provided in advance by this person, but you are not required to have read as much on the topic as usual .... partly because you will undoubtedly be working on your own detailed presentation to the class.

The leader's assignment here is to write the short (2 page) prep-sheet about a topic and to come to class ready to reconceptualize it in terms of any approach to identity issues.  You should provide a representative discussion of the topic and offer some new ways of thinking about it.  Include a reference section so that we can all benefit from your review.  Be prepared to lead a discussion of the reviewed topic and ensure that we all receive your prep-sheet (and the reading) the week before we all are due to discuss it.  The written prep-sheet need not be the same as the report presented in class, and the review presented to the class could be a condensed version of the one you hand in for grading (but does not have to be).

For these classes each of you will present your review of your chosen area, as indicated above.  The schedule for doing this will be worked out in an early class and you are responsible for doing the work and being prepared to present it at the due time.  In each case, your review should be ready for giving out to the class ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE of your scheduled presentation.

The final assignment (brief research proposal) is due in to me by 5.00 on May 4th.  It may be submitted on email and in that case feedback will be returned on email.

 

PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY

from G. A. Kelly "A Brief Introduction to Personal Construct Theory" (p. 9-29)  in Bannister, D. [Ed] (1970) Perspectives in personal construct theory. London: Academic Press

Basic Postulate

A person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which s/he anticipates events

 

 

Construction Corollary
A person anticipates events by construing their replications.

 

Individuality Corollary
Persons differ from each other in their constructions of events.

 

Organization Corollary
Each person characteristically evolves, for his or her convenience in anticipating events, a construction system embracing ordinal relationships between constructs.

 

Dichotomy Corollary
A person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs.

 

Choice Corollary
A person chooses for himself or herself that alternative in a dichotomized construct through which s/he anticipates the greater possibility for the elaboration of his or her system.

 

Range Corollary
A construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only.

 

Experience Corollary
A person's construction system varies as s/he successively construes the replication of events.

 

Modulation Corollary
The variation in a person's construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within whose ranges of convenience the variants lie.

 

Fragmentation Corollary
A person may successively employ a variety of construction subsystems which are inferentially incompatible with each other.

 

Commonality Corollary
To the extent that one person employs a construction of experience which is similar to that employed by another, the person’s processes are psychologically similar to those of the other person.

 

Sociality Corollary
To the extent that one person construes the construction process of another, s/he may play a role in a social process involving the other person.