identity negotiation theory definition

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Identity negotiation theory and mindfulness practice.

• Stella Ting-Toomey Stella Ting-Toomey Department of Human Communications, California State University, Fullerton
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.489
• Published online: 26 September 2017

Identity negotiation theory concerns the importance of negotiating sociocultural membership identity, sociorelational role identity, and unique personal identity issues in intercultural–intergroup boundary-crossing journeys. Here, primary cultural socialization and sustained culture contact experience is conceptualized as the primary regulator in terms of how individuals assign meanings, redefine identities, and draw boundaries in constructing their own and others’ social and personal selves. The theory emphasizes the importance of validating both salient sociocultural membership identity and personal identity features in promoting quality intergroup–interpersonal encounters. Identity-attuning individuals can promote competent intergroup communication via the intentional integration of identity-sensitive knowledge on both group-based and individualized identity responsiveness levels. They can also integrate a focused sense of mindfulness practice and promote conjoint identity understanding, respect, and meaning-centered engagement. Mindfulness practice means cultivating the capacity to see through our own internal assumptions, arising emotions, and intentions and, simultaneously, attending to the other person’s underlying assumptions, arising emotional reactions, and intentions without reactive judgment. It includes developing the ability to practice being in-the-moment orientation, to heighten meta-cognitive awareness, and to engage in responsive affective attunement and transparent resonance. It also includes communicating with cultural strangers appropriately, effectively, elastically, and with a keen sense of microsituational perceptiveness and macro-systems discernment.

• bicultural and multicultural identity
• communication competence
• identity transformation
• immigrants’ acculturation
• intercultural adjustment
• mindfulness
• social identity
• intergroup communication
• identity negotiation theory

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Psychology Faculty Publications

Identity negotiation: a theory of self and social interaction.

William B. Swann Jr. , University of Texas Jennifer K. Bosson , The University of South Florida Follow

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identity negotiation, self, self-presentation processes, social interaction, personality theory

The process of identity negotiation has several components, one of which includes those self-presentation processes people perform in the service of establishing who they are. Identity negotiation cannot be equated with self-presentation, however. Self-presentational activity represents a collection of behavioral tactics designed to achieve various interaction goals (e.g., Jones & Pittman, 1982). In contrast, the process of identity negotiation refers to a much broader set of processes through which people strike a balance between achieving their interaction goals and satisfying their identity-related goals, such as the needs for agency, communion, and psychological coherence. To this end, people generally conform to various principles of identity negotiation (discussed later in this chapter) that not only facilitate smooth interpersonal interactions but also promote intrapersonal harmony. Furthermore, the motivational forces that regulate identity negotiation processes remain operative well beyond the cessation of self-presentational activity. When, for example, people encounter identity-discrepant evaluations or are compelled to behave in identity-discrepant ways, they may "see" the experience as offering more support for their identity than it actually does. In this way, biases in people's modes of thinking can ensure the survival of identities that have been challenged. As a result, these identities may guide behavior once again.

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Identity Negotiation: A Theory of Self and Social Interaction, in O. P. John, R. W. Robins & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (3 rd Ed.) , Guilford Press, p. 448-471

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Swann, William B. Jr. and Bosson, Jennifer K., "Identity Negotiation: A Theory of Self and Social Interaction" (2008). Psychology Faculty Publications . 1180. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1180

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A Narrative Literature Review of the Identity Negotiation of Bilingual Students Who are Labelled ESL

• Published: 18 November 2019
• Volume 51 , pages 361–383, ( 2020 )

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• Shana Sanam Khan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3623-0441 1  

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English as a second language or ESL instruction is said to be for students who have moved to the United States (or Canada) from another country and temporarily need assistance in learning the English language. However, statistically, a vast majority of ESL students in the United States were born in the US and are US citizens. When students are labelled as ESL and placed in this tract of alternative education, there is an othering process going on. This narrative literature review questions how do these ESL students negotiate their own identity. It is shown that ESL students are socialized into a deficit model, placed in classrooms where the discourse is hegemonic and are placed in location of constant power play where the system is set up against them.

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Khan, S.S. A Narrative Literature Review of the Identity Negotiation of Bilingual Students Who are Labelled ESL. Interchange 51 , 361–383 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-019-09381-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-019-09381-1

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