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Personal Agency in the Accumulation of Multiple Role-Identities

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Advances in Identity Theory and Research

Abstract

Identity theory and its parent theory, symbolic interactionism, are based on the fundamental premise that society and self mutually shape and influence each other. In this chapter, I focus especially on the self-affects-society side of this interdependent relationship, because it has been neglected both theoretically and empirically. My goal is to foster greater appreciation of the degree to which individuals are active agents in their own lives and to spell out some of the implications of this observation for the further expansion of identity theory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235

    Peggy A. Thoits

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  1. Peggy A. Thoits
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California

    Peter J. Burke

  2. Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

    Timothy J. Owens

  3. California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, California

    Richard T. Serpe

  4. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

    Peggy A. Thoits

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© 2003 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

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Thoits, P.A. (2003). Personal Agency in the Accumulation of Multiple Role-Identities. In: Burke, P.J., Owens, T.J., Serpe, R.T., Thoits, P.A. (eds) Advances in Identity Theory and Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9188-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9188-1_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47741-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9188-1

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