Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists

✍ Scribed by Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, Rose McDermott

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 438
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The concept of identity has become increasingly prominent in the social sciences and humanities. Analysis of the development of social identities is an important focus of scholarly research, and scholars using social identities as the building blocks of social, political, and economic life have attempted to account for a number of discrete outcomes by treating identities as causal factors. The dominant implication of the vast literature on identity is that social identities are among the most important social facts of the world in which we live. Abdelal, Herrera, Johnston, and McDermott have brought together leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to consider the conceptual and methodological challenges associated with treating identity as a variable, offer a synthetic theoretical framework, and demonstrate the possibilities offered by various methods of measurement. The book represents a collection of empirically-grounded theoretical discussions of a range of methodological techniques for the study of identities.

✦ Table of Contents

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Contributors......Page 9
Introduction......Page 11
Comparison to Previous Work in Other Fields......Page 12
Identity and Action......Page 13
Surveys......Page 14
Content Analysis......Page 15
Discourse Analysis and Ethnography......Page 16
Cognitive Mapping......Page 17
Experiments......Page 18
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE VOLUME......Page 19
I DEFINITION, CONCEPTUALIZATION, AND MEASUREMENT ALTERNATIVES......Page 25
1 Identity as a Variable......Page 27
ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK FOR IDENTITY AS VARIABLE......Page 28
Constitutive Norms......Page 30
Social Purposes......Page 32
Relational Comparisons......Page 33
Cognitive Models......Page 34
Contestation......Page 37
The Question of Salience and Intensity......Page 40
CONCLUSIONS......Page 41
INTRODUCTION......Page 43
The Seven Features of Group-Based Social Identity......Page 44
FOUR REPUBLICS AND SEVEN NATIONALITIES: DEMOGRAPHY AND HISTORY......Page 46
CONSTRUCTING MEANINGS FOR SOCIAL IDENTITY IN ESTONIA......Page 53
THE INTRODUCTION OF ETHNIC ISSUES......Page 54
Content Analysis of Literary Journals......Page 55
Identity Discourse......Page 57
Media Coverage of Issues......Page 58
The Tone of Reporting......Page 59
TESTING THE FRAMING MODEL USING EVENTS DATA......Page 61
SELF-IDENTIFIED NATIONALITY VERSUS PASSPORT NATIONALITY......Page 63
Estonia......Page 64
Discussion of These Social Separation Measures......Page 66
Media Use......Page 69
Evaluation of Groups......Page 70
All Three Scales Together......Page 71
ASSOCIATION WITH ANOTHER NATIONALITY......Page 72
WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES BEHIND THESE INDICATORS?......Page 73
Three Attributes: Parental Ethnicity, Language Spoken at Home, and Language Knowledge......Page 74
CONCLUSIONS: HOW WELL HAVE WE SUCCEEDED IN MEASURING ETHNIC IDENTITY?......Page 76
APPENDIX 1: LITERARY JOURNALS......Page 78
APPENDIX 2: EVENTS DATA – NEWSPAPERS......Page 79
APPENDIX 3:SURVEY DATA......Page 80
INTRODUCTION......Page 82
Israeli and Palestinian Identities......Page 83
Representing Identity Experimentally......Page 84
Examining Identity with Closed-Ended Survey Methods......Page 89
Identity in Open-Ended Survey or Interview Methodology......Page 93
Content Analysis and Textual Analysis for Studying Identity......Page 95
Discourses as Measures of Identity......Page 100
Reflecting on the Trade-offs......Page 103
Introduction......Page 106
APPENDIX 2: ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE FROM METSKAS, HOROWITZ, AND SYLVAN (2006)......Page 113
The Victimization-Victimhood Continuum (SPSS Variable = ‘‘victim’’)......Page 116
Clarity of the Code (SPSS Variable = ‘‘clarity’’)......Page 118
APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE OF STORY TEMPLATE FROM CHARLICKPALEY AND SYLVAN (2000)......Page 119
II SURVEY METHODS......Page 121
INTRODUCTION......Page 123
THE STRANGE CAREER OF ETHNORACIAL CLASSIFICATION......Page 124
A NEW APPROACH TO ETHNORACIAL SELF-IDENTIFICATION......Page 129
THE 2003 GOLDEN BEAR OMNIBUS SURVEY......Page 138
THE CONTINUITY AND MULTIPLICITY OF ETHNORACIAL SELF-IDENTIFICATION......Page 140
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH......Page 149
INTRODUCTION......Page 155
DEFINING IDENTITY......Page 156
IDENTITY CHOICE: NATION OR ETHNIC GROUP?......Page 159
PREDICTING IDENTITY CHOICE......Page 161
DATA AND MEASURES......Page 163
Self-Categorization......Page 166
A Multivariate Model of Identity Choice......Page 169
Patriotism......Page 172
Strength of Ethnic Attachment......Page 175
Do Strong National and Ethnic Identities Collide?......Page 177
CONCLUSION......Page 181
6 Black and Blue: Black Identity and Black Solidarity in an Era of Conservative Triumph......Page 185
OBJECTIONS......Page 186
Moral and Ethical Considerations......Page 190
LINKED FATE......Page 195
DATA AND ANALYSIS......Page 198
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION......Page 205
III CONTENT ANALYSIS AND COGNITIVE MAPPING......Page 211
First, We Conceptualize......Page 213
Previous Research......Page 214
Human Preset Coding......Page 216
Computer (CATA) Preset Coding......Page 217
The Pragmatics of Content Analysis......Page 218
Individual versus Aggregate Messages......Page 219
A MODEL OF CONTENT ANALYSIS OPTIONS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY......Page 221
Option 1: Human Preset Coding, Response-Based Messages......Page 222
Option 2: Computer (CATA) Preset Coding of Response-Based Messages......Page 225
Option 3: Computer (CATA) Emergent Coding of Response-Based Messages......Page 226
Option 4: Human Preset Coding of ‘‘Assumed’’ Identity Messages......Page 229
Option 5: Computer (CATA) Preset Coding of ‘‘Assumed’’ Identity Messages......Page 230
Option 6: Computer (CATA) Emergent Coding of ‘‘Assumed’’ Identity Messages......Page 233
Option 7: Human Preset Coding of ‘‘Extracted’’ Identity Messages......Page 235
Option 8: Computer (CATA) Preset Coding of ‘‘Extracted’’ Identity Messages......Page 236
DEVELOPING CONTENT ANALYSIS MEASURES FROM EXISTING SURVEY OR OTHER MEASURES OF COLLECTIVE IDENTITY......Page 239
LIMITATIONS AND POTENTIALITIES OF CONTENT ANALYSIS AS A TOOL TO MEASURE IDENTITY......Page 240
II. Macro Variables......Page 243
IV. Additional Constructs from Ashmore, Deaux, and McLaughlin (2004)......Page 244
National Identity Pilot Coding Scheme Coding Form......Page 245
INTRODUCTION......Page 247
Belief Extraction......Page 249
Sentence Data Structure......Page 250
Manipulation of Tokens......Page 251
Representation of Beliefs......Page 252
Extract and Measure Identity......Page 253
DATA AND EXPECTATIONS......Page 256
RESULTS......Page 257
CONCLUSION......Page 259
9 A Constructivist Dataset on Ethnicity and Institutions......Page 260
CONSTRUCTIVIST DATASET ON ETHNICITY AND INSTITUTIONS (CDEI)......Page 261
Seventeen Variables on the Explicit Mobilization of Ethnic Identities by Political Parties......Page 264
Seventeen Variables on the Implicit Mobilization of Ethnic Identities by Political Parties......Page 265
EVOTE: THE AGGREGATE PERCENTAGE OF VOTES WON BY ETHNIC PARTIES......Page 266
WHAT MAKES CDEI AND EVOTE CONSTRUCTIVIST?......Page 270
Do the Data and ELF Measure Refer to Ethnic ‘‘Structure’’ or ‘‘Practice’’?......Page 271
If ‘‘Structure,’’ Then How Do We Address the Multidimensionality and Level of Aggregation in Datasets and Measures?......Page 272
If Practice, Then How Do We Account for the Overlap and Incompleteness in Our Datasets and Measures?......Page 276
Whether Structure or Practice, What Time Period and Context Do the Data Refer To?......Page 277
USING THESE DATA TO INVESTIGATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHNIC PARTIES AND DEMOCRATIC STABILITY......Page 279
USING THE DATA TO ASK OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCE QUESTIONS......Page 282
CONCLUSION: OTHER ROUTES TO ‘‘CONSTRUCTIVIST’’ DATA COLLECTION......Page 284
IV DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND ETHNOGRAPHY......Page 287
10 Identity Relations and the Sino-Soviet Split......Page 289
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY AND THE LOGIC OF HABIT......Page 290
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: A NOVEL APPROACH TO THE TAKEN FOR GRANTED......Page 294
Sampling Texts......Page 295
Finding the Taken for Granted......Page 297
Finding Identities......Page 298
Contextualizing Identities......Page 299
Intertextualizing Identities......Page 300
From Intertextualization to Discourses of Identity......Page 301
Case Selection......Page 302
EXPLAINING THE SINO-SOVIET SPLIT......Page 303
IDENTITY RELATIONS AND THE SINO-SOVIET SPLIT......Page 309
Soviet Identity......Page 311
Soviet-Chinese Identity Relations......Page 314
Identity Relations and Policy Outcomes......Page 319
CONCLUSIONS......Page 323
Newspapers......Page 324
Archives......Page 325
IDENTITY IN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH......Page 326
APPROACHES TO MEASURING IDENTITY IN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES......Page 329
METHODOLOGICAL CONCERNS IN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH......Page 334
Validity and Reliability......Page 335
Sampling......Page 336
Gaining Access and Establishing Rapport......Page 337
Data Collection and Analysis......Page 338
Writing Up the Research......Page 339
Theorizing......Page 340
DOING ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ON NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POST-SOVIET UZBEKISTAN......Page 342
SCHEMAS OF NATIONAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY IN POST-SOVIET UZBEKISTAN......Page 346
V EXPERIMENTS......Page 353
12 Psychological Approaches to Identity: Experimentation and Application......Page 355
Experimentation......Page 356
In-Group Identification......Page 357
Self-Esteem and Motivation......Page 358
Out-Group Denigration......Page 359
Experimental Tests of Mediating Factors......Page 361
Tests of Conflict Resolution: ‘‘Us’’ versus ‘‘Them’’ into ‘‘We’’......Page 368
Race and Ethnic Conflict......Page 370
HOW TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS......Page 372
EXPANDING EXPERIMENTAL PARADIGMS......Page 375
Bibliography......Page 379
Index......Page 419