Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 2: Communicating Identity: The Social Self
Chapter Outline
I. The Development of Personal Identity:
A. Defining Identity
1. We define identity as the person we think we are and communicate to others.
2. Identity management occurs when we try to influence people’s images of
ourselves.
B. Human Nature and Identity
1. Universal quality regardless of culture is sense of self as being distinct from
others.
2. A sense of identity is a genetic legacy of our species that becomes increasing
focused as we develop.
3. Our identities are largely shaped by culture and communication.
C. Communication and Identity
1. Our identity is shaped in interactions with other people, the image we seek to
project, our anticipated interactions, and the way people respond to and judge us.
2. Expressing identity on public or semi-public social media sites, like Instagram and
Twitter, has a stronger impact on our personal identity than sharing our identity
with a single friend because of the broader audience we reach (Walther et al.).
Larger the perceived audience, the more carefully managed identities are.
3. Social identity theory: how we develop and maintain our identity. Identity does
not exist in a vacuum: it is linked to our membership in social groups as broad as
our ethnic, sexual, or religious affiliation or as narrow as small cliques.
Membership is characterized by in-group behaviors.
4. Several factors influence the impact a group has on identity, including how central
the group is to our self-view (Oakes). Studies have also shown that minority
groups are especially likely to identify with their ethnic backgrounds. African
Americans or Latinos see ethnicity as more central to their identity than do
Caucasians (Jackson).
5. Group identity more salient to minority group members because their lives are
surrounded by reminders that they don’t “fit” into the majority group’s way of
thinking or doing.
6. Communication theory of identity (Hecht): Identity is based on four
interdependent layers or frames that reflect how people see themselves.
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. Personal Identity: the self-concept or individual understanding we have of
ourselves. Enacted Identity: the communication, management, and
performance of our identity. Relational Identity: the way we see ourselves in
relation to others, including how we believe other people view us (perhaps, as
kind, popular, or nerdy), our roles within relationships (such as sister, uncle,
friend, or lover), and the joint identities we share with others (such as couple
or family identities). Communal Identity: the way we see ourselves in
relation to social identities (such as culture, generation, and sexual
orientation) and social discourses (such as social media and popular culture
depictions of people).
b. These work together to affect identity development.
c. Sometimes there are identity gaps between conflicting frames of identity such
as personal and relational frames.
i. Relational identity gaps associated with self-reported stress and
physiological measures of stress.
ii. Larger identity gaps can lead to reduced communication satisfaction.
iii. Different frames of identity may be privileged in certain situations and
cultures.
iv. Communal identity may be strongest under conditions of high
uncertainty where knowing how society or culture functions serves as a
guide to behavior.
7. Interracial or intercultural couples often face special challenges. Each person must
deal with who they are as individuals (personal frame). They must also deal with
how they present themselves to others (enactment frame), what it means to be an
interracial couple (relationship frame), and how to best blend their different
cultural backgrounds (communal frame).
8. Other challenges: differences in language, conflict styles, communication
preferences, and sexual scripts, as well as pressure from family and friends to
dissolve the relationship.
9. Rise of interracial marriage will promote greater racial and ethnic diversity.
10. Strong relational identity key to happiness in many relationships.
D. Cultural and Ethnic Identity
1. Culture and ethnicity central to people’s core identity.
2. Most people, especially minority groups, have some sense of ethnic identity.
E. Sexual Identity
1. Sexual identities hold an important position in individuals’ sense of self in
relationships.
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
2. These expressions are public messages about our relational identity.
3. Decisions to initiate a relationship, hold hands, or display public intimacy are
significant identity issues for gay or lesbian couples.
4. Double trouble of identity in interracial gay and lesbian couples.
5. Individuals in the LGBT community often struggle with identity from an early
age.
F. Talkin’ ’bout My Generation
1. Generational identity reflects common ways that cohorts of people growing up
at certain times see themselves.
2. Generation Z, often defined as those born between 1997 and 2016, is now the
largest generation in the United States. They are digital natives. Value a fast-
paced environment and live in the present.
4. The Silent Generation: Values include being loyal, respectful of rules and
authority, hardworking, and dedicated. They put duty over fun, value family and
tradition, and tend to be patriotic.
5. Generation X: shaped by Cold War and AIDS epidemic. Saw changing gender
roles with more mothers entering the workplace. Values pragmatism, knowledge,
and sees skepticism as healthy.
G. Social Media and Identity
1. Millennials and Generation Z-ers most likely to use social network sites.
2. Extroverts use social networking for social enhancement to improve their images
and to enhance their face-to-face relationships. Introverts, on the other hand, use
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
social networking as social compensation, to make up for what they lack in face-
to-face interaction.
3. Social networking is a complement to face-to-face interaction for most people.
4. Types of Social Media Users
a. Broadcasters use to send one to many messages.
5. The Bright and Dark Sides of Social Networking and Identity
a. Can keep people isolated surrounded by those homophilous to themselves?
b. Communicating with people just like us.
c. Can increase importance of popularity, materialism, good looks.
d. The dark side is addiction, excessive attention seeking, including the use of
profanity, nudity, manipulated images. Can promote depression.
e. Studies have compared frequent users of social media and video games with
infrequent users. Frequent users tend to have low social community
H. The Image: Creating an Identity
1. People know us by the image we create.
2. From a communication perspective, images constitute reality.
I. Identity, Perception, and Self-Esteem
1. Self-esteem and identity part of a person’s theory of self or vision of self.
2. Self-esteem is, to a large degree, a function of the extent to which a person can
J. Expanding Identity
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
1. Self-expansion theory helps explain how identity influences the development of
close relationships after first impressions are made.
2. One reason people enter into relationships is the opportunity to expand their
identities.
3. Expansion of self through inclusion of others characterizes close relationships.
6. Falling in love is an instance of motivation for self-expansion.
K. Identity and Hierarchical Structure
1. Identities provide us with hierarchical structure of who we are.
2. Our identity helps organize these various facets into a structure that fluctuates
according to context.
L. Identity and the Looking-Glass Self
1. Feedback we receive from others helps shape our identities.
2. Charles Horton Cooley (1922) first developed the notion of the looking-glass self,
M. Identity and the Interpretation of Feedback
1. Identities help us interpret feedback from others.
2. We usually interpret feedback from others as consistent with our identity.
N. Identity, Expectations, and Behavior
1. Identity incorporates expectations and guides behavior.
O. Identity and Self-Evaluation
1. Identities and the identities presented by others influence our evaluations of self.
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
2. Identity suffers when people compare themselves to idealized images. Social
comparison of one’s identity is alive and well on social networking sites.
P. Identity and Goal Achievement
1. Identity influences the likelihood of goal achievement. Achieving goals is
facilitated by the presence of qualities that are consistent with a goal.
Q. Identity and Relationships
1. Identity influences what social relationships to pursue, create, and maintain.
2. Ego and identity development are essential prerequisites to relational
development.
II. Communicating Identity to Others
A. General Issues in Self-Presentation
1. Concealing or minimizing potential faults while maximizing strengths.
2. Is Self-Presentation Hypocritical, Manipulative, or Deceptive?
a. People fabricate identities.
b. Attractiveness deception: A common form of online identity enhancement:
Men are likely to lie about their height and women about their weight.
3. How Is Self-Presentation Related to Communication Competence?
a. Competent communicators usually have more successful lives and
relationships.
b. Display different aspects of ourselves to friends than strangers.
c. Using different self-presentation strategies with different audiences.
4. To What Extent Is Self-Presentation a Deliberate, Conscious Activity?
a. Self-presentation is so commonplace that it becomes routine, habitual
behavior that is encoded unconsciously.
B. “Life Is a Stage”: The Dramaturgical Perspective: We are concerned about
appearances and work to ensure that others view us favorably.
1. Goffman used metaphor of theater to describe our everyday interactions.
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
3. Conditions of impression management:
a. Condition 1: The Behavior Reflects Highly Valued, Core Aspects of the Self.
i. People are more concerned about successful impression management of
central features of their identity than peripheral ones.
b. Condition 2: Successful Performance Is Tied to Vital Positive or Negative
Consequences.
c. Condition 3: The Behavior Reflects Directly on Valued Rules of Conduct.
i. Certain rules of conduct are especially important.
4. Front Versus Back Stage
a. The frontstage is where our performances are enacted, where our behaviors
are observed by an audience, and where impression management is
particularly important.
b. Conversely, the backstage is where we can let our guard down and do not
have to think about staying in character.
5. Role, Audience, and Context
a. Occurrence of behaviors in the frontstage or backstage depends on role
enacted, the audience being targeted, and the context in which the activities
are performed.
C. Politeness Theory and Facework
1. Positive and Negative Face
a. Positive face: favorable image that people portray to others and hope to have
validated by others.
b. Two types of positive face:
i. Competence face: refers to presenting oneself as having positive
characteristics such as intelligence, sensitivity, and honesty.
c. Negative face: reflects our desire to “be free from imposition and restraint
and to have control over (our) own territory, possessions, time, space, and
resources.”
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
d. Managing positive and negative face is an inherent part of social interaction.
2. Actions as Validating or Threatening to Face
a. Facework: involves both our attempts to maintain our own face, as well as
our attempts to help others maintain face.
d. Factors affecting degree to which face-threatening act is perceived to be
severe.
i. The more important the rule that is violated, the more severe the face–
threatening act.
ii. The more harm the behavior produces, the more severe the face-
threatening act.
iii. The more the actor is directly responsible for the behavior, the more
severe the face-threatening act.
3. Strategies for Engaging in Face-Threatening Acts
a. Bald on-record strategy: characterized by primary attention to task and little
attention to helping the partner save face.
b. Positive politeness strategy: intended to address the receiver’s positive face
while still accomplishing the task.
4. People can decide not to engage in the face-threatening. Brown and Levinson
noted that individuals often choose to forgo face-threatening tasks completely in
favor of preserving face.
5. Corrective Facework
a. When face-threatening acts occur, however, these acts trigger responses
designed to save face called corrective facework.
Guerrero, Close Encounters, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. General corrective strategies for repairing a damaged face.
i. Avoidance: The common thread underlying avoidance behaviors is the
goal of distancing oneself or one’s partner from the act.
ii. Humor: When the consequences of the face-threatening act are relatively
small, people often use humor as a way to deal with the threat, a strategy
that shows poise and competences in repairing their damaged faces.
iii. Apologies: Apologies are “admissions of responsibility and regret for
undesirable events.” In that sense, they may help repair some of the
damage to face by emphasizing the actor’s nature as a moral individual
who intends to take responsibility for the action.
iv. Accounts: Accounts, or attempts to explain the face-threatening act,
come in the form of excuses or justifications. Excuses are explanations