Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity
Abstract
This article presents a tripartite model of identity that integrates cognitive, social, and cultural levels of analysis in a multimethod framework. With a focus on content, structure, and process, identity is defined as ideology cognized through the individual engagement with discourse, made manifest in a personal narrative constructed and reconstructed across the life course, and scripted in and through social interaction and social practice. This approach to the study of identity challenges personality and social psychologists to consider a cultural psychology framework that focuses on the relationship between master narratives and personal narratives of identity, recognizes the value of a developmental perspective, and uses ethnographic and idiographic methods. Research in personality and social psychology that either explicitly or implicitly relies on the model is reviewed.
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Research on the cultural shaping of narrative identity reveals important individual differences in how marginalized groups navigate identity development, a process inextricably tied to social/cultural factors that often reflect inequities in power, privilege, and social status.
“Research on the cultural shaping of narrative identity reveals important individual differences in how marginalized groups navigate identity development, revealing how this process is inextricably tied to social/cultural factors that often reflect inequities in power, privilege, and social status (Hammack, 2008).”
From Self and identity in personality psychology (2021) · cites this paper as Hammack, 2008
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- Authors
- Hammack, P. L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hammack, Phillip L.
- ORCID
- Hammack, Phillip L.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-08
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 222-247
- ISSN
- 1088-8683 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7957
- OpenAlex
- W2101232229
- Cited by
- 923
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 61 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 69 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 69 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 45.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Keywords
- identity, personal narrative, metanarrative, cultural psychology, ideology, discourse, life course, social interaction, social practices, identity construction, ethnographic methods
- MeSH terms
- Anthropology, Cultural, Conflict, Psychological, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Humans, Israel, Jews, Social Identification, Social Values, Stereotyping, Cultural Diversity, Arabs, Narration
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