This document discusses how communication and identity are related. It defines key terms like gender, which refers to masculine and feminine roles in society, versus sex, which refers to biological characteristics. Gender identity influences how people communicate. The document also discusses social identity theory and how the social groups we identify with can change how we communicate depending on the context. Cultural identity also influences communication styles and expectations. Stereotypes and assumptions about others' identities based on limited aspects like gender or culture can negatively impact self-concept and communication.

1. $15.00 Communications
From Communications: General-Communications
Due on Apr. 22, 2012
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Write an essay that is at least 500 words in length in which you explain what you have
learned from the course text readings about the relationship between communication and
identity. Be sure to include the following as part of your analysis:
Identify how you currently communicate your gender, social, and cultural identities in face-to-
face and in online environments. Explain whether you communicate these identities
differently, and why. Please support your statements about how you communicate these
identities with specific real-life examples.
I try to be assertive when dealing with obdurate male, where I see my male ego gets reflected in
my behavior but, I tend to be more polite and courteous when dealing with females. Masculine
side of mine gets reflected as per the situation and more aptly conforms to the gender with whom
I happen to interact to. In face-to-face communication, the male masculine behavior gets
reflected depending upon the personal behavior of the other person. If other person happens to be
more assertive than myself, I tend to evince feminine side of my by seeking more support. This
happens when the male happens to be assertive and polite without losing his cool. My masculine
side comes out if men start behaving rudely.

2. Social identity is reflected by flaunting more of my status and for this I try to associate
myself with more powerful people. Whatever, little contacts I have, I try to influence others that
I belong to their category. For this, I have joined one particular local club and actively
participated in the social voluntary activity so that my status gets reflected and gets noticed by
others. By doing so, there is a sense of self fulfillment and perhaps it appears that my self-
conception is built around the status which I flaunt by keeping in the company of high profiled
and status people. While communicating with others, I try to impress upon the listener this aspect
of my personality and then convince how I can be of tremendous help to you or anyone of you so
desire. This is then linked to my career goal and how to anchor my career path. In online
transaction, I have established strong network of relationship on “LinkedIn” than “Facebook” or
“Orkut” (social networking sites). I often twitter and try to interact with high profile and might
people to get linked into my network. While interacting on social networking or professional
networking sites, I speak very highly about myself and added few things into my personality
which perhaps is not part of me. This is done to impress the larger audience but, the same is not
possible in face-to-face interaction because the chance of being exposed is very high. Face-to-
face interaction is more instant and you cannot boast of what you are not.
While dealing with people of different race or ethnic group, I am more prompted to
know about their culture and tend to interact to widen my social network group. Due to
inquisitiveness and urge to know, there happens to be more eye contact and feel that center of
power might shift from Europe and America to Asian countries. At one instance, one of Indian
friend told me how the Indian culture is so conservative and how for them relationship is so
important and they do not get intimate with others so easily. On various “online chat” I
discovered that Indian are adopting western norms so quickly and when I interacted with them

3. more often in face-to-face and on “online” my objective was to know the marked differences in
our pronunciations, habits and the way we impose upon each other.
Attachments:
Communication and Identity.docx (20K)
Communication and Identity
In our discussion of the self thus far, we have emphasized communication behaviors that help to
shape our self-concept, such as whether we think of ourselves as smart, honest, funny, or
ambitious, and the degree to which interactions with others support or challenge our views. Our
self-concept is also informed by our identity. Identity refers to the conception of oneself as a
member of a group or category. Figure 2-2, the Identity Wheel, illustrates a few of the common
groups and categories that individuals often recognize as contributing to their identity. Some of
these categories are probably more significant to you than others. As you look at the diagram,
think about the spokes that are most relevant to you. Have the groups and categories that are
most important to you changed over time?
Some aspects of identity are freely chosen, as in the case of the decision to join a group or
participate in a leisure activity. For instance, you might be a member of a commuter student
group, a fraternity or sorority, an outdoor adventure club, a political organization, or a church,
synagogue, or mosque. At other times, membership in a particular group, and therefore certain
aspects of identity, are socially ascribed or assumed by others based on our physical
characteristics, such as race, sex, or physical ability, or our association with other members of a
group. For example, if a heterosexual male participates in a gay pride activity, some individuals
might assume he is gay based on his association with gay men. Identity can even be constructed
around a sense of place. Some residence halls place students together based on special interests,
such as participation in outdoor sports or honors programs. Residents of public housing, by

4. contrast, are often referred to as “living in the projects” and associated with violence and illicit
drug activity owing to stereotypes of public housing perpetuated by the media (Vale 1995).
We draw from identity categories to guide our decisions about what to say and how to respond to
others. Some of the most common categories are gender, social, and cultural identity.
Gender and Identity
Some people suggest that the most significant force in shaping identity and self-concept is an
individual’s sex and the corresponding gender identity associated with being female or male.
Although many people use the terms “sex” and “gender” interchangeably, they do not mean the
same thing.
Sex and Gender.
Most people divide the human sexes into two categories, male or female. Everyone is placed into
one of those categories based on genitalia and secondary sexual characteristics, such as the
amount of facial hair or size of an individual’s breasts. Think about the last time you filled out a
survey or application. One of the first boxes on the form probably asked you to check “male” or
“female.” The public restrooms we use, the school athletic teams we join, and the prices we pay
for haircuts and alterations are often determined by our physical sex.
These physical characteristics guide our assumptions about gender, which refers to the
conception we have about what it means to be female or male, feminine or masculine, in our
society. Perhaps you have noticed the difference between sex and gender in your everyday life,
as when an athletic girl is called a “tomboy” or a man whistles at a long-haired passerby he
assumes to be female. The communication behaviors we choose based on assumptions of gender
are often far more important than the physical sex of an individual. We develop a gender
identity based on our conception of ourselves as male or female. These conceptions about
masculinity and femininity are often culturally specific. For example, displays of affection
between members of the same sex, such as two men holding hands, may be acceptable in one
culture but frowned upon in another. Definitions can also vary within cultures and countries; for
instance, in the United States, one male might see his masculinity defined by how much money
he can earn or how loudly he can shout down an opponent while another might base his self-
concept on his degree of athletic skill or role as a father.
Gender and Communication.
From birth, people around us choose how to talk to us based on our gender. It doesn’t matter if a
baby is male: If he is dressed in pink, North Americans are likely to call him “pretty.” A simple
change of clothes to blue can make others perceive him as masculine and call him “handsome.”
For the rest of his life, others will talk to the boy based on assumptions about his masculinity,
and as he grows up, his gender self-concept is likely to be one of the most important influences
on his own communication style.

5. Deborah Tannen (1982), a scholar of language and communication, argued that men tend to
perceive social relations as hierarchical and to use talk that is competitive and task oriented. In
other words, their conversations establish “who’s on top” and how things will get done. Through
conversation, men negotiate their status, assert their competence, and preserve their
independence because of their perceived identity as masculine males. Women who see
themselves as feminine often perceive the social world as based on support and social
connections and use conversation as a way to share feelings and achieve intimacy. According to
Tannen, these different identities affect both the way women and men express themselves and
how they perceive communication. Women are more likely to phrase preferences as questions, as
in “Would you like to see a movie?” whereas men use statements such as “Let’s see a movie.” If
someone offers a woman help with a task, the woman is likely to see the assistance as a gesture
of support. The man, Tannen wrote, is more likely to see the offer as a possible insult to his
competence.
Tannen claimed that these differences are consistent between the sexes. Whether you agree with
Tannen or not, gender is certainly an important part of a person’s identity that contributes to
one’s self-concept and worldview, and that exerts considerable influence on how people
communicate.
Social Identity
Some aspects of our identity are more “salient,” or more important and meaningful to us at
certain times than at others. The notion that we have many identities, some of which are more
important to our self-concept than others, is addressed by social identity theory (Abrams and
Hogg 1990). This theory states that our identification with social groups is important for our self-
concept, and the relative salience of a given identity depends on the social context or setting we
are in at a given time. We perceive different parts of our identity as more or less important based
on the status (e.g., distinctiveness or prestige) that our identification with a particular group will
bring us in a given social situation. For example, when there is only one woman in a group of
men, her sex and gender become especially noticeable. If, on the other hand, there are many
other women in the group, her gender is less likely to be important to her identity, and gender is
less likely to have an influence on how others perceive her. Women in male-dominated work-
places who perceive themselves to be of a lower social status than men are likely to downplay
their femininity (e.g., speak assertively and wear masculine clothes) and view themselves in
terms of identities other than “female” (Swan and Wyer 1997). Or, consider the identity of a
male construction worker who is also a wine connoisseur. When he goes to a party, he might
choose to emphasize either his line of work or his passion for and knowledge of wine, depending
on how he thinks others in the group will evaluate his social status.
These examples illustrate social identity theory, which suggests that social contexts help to
dictate which features of one’s identity a person will choose to express. Think about the choices
you make when talking to others about your age, family, career goals, or religion. You might be
more inclined to mention your membership in an honor society to a potential employee than to a
new friend. Your social identity, like your gender identity, makes up part of your self-concept
that is both influenced by and helps to guide your interactions with others.

6. Cultural Identity
In addition to our gender and social identities, our culture is another source of influence on our
identity, self-concept, and communication patterns. It gives us a set of beliefs and assumptions
that guide how we view the world. Culture includes everything that makes up our way of life,
including shared values, knowledge, behaviors, and symbolic expression [p.23]. We build
cultures around both the social groups to which we choose to belong, such as religious
organizations, and around physical characteristics, such as race. Consider the experience of Pam,
an athletic, Chinese-American premed student. In college she is uncomfortable around some of
her Asian friends, who she feels could perceive her as either “too Americanized” based on her
direct manner and desire to be casual, independent, and creative, or “too traditional” due to her
awe of college instructors and her acceptance of parental authority. Pam is not entirely
comfortable with some of her Caucasian peers, either. When she sees them skip class to watch
soap operas and consume alcohol instead of studying, their behaviors reinforce her impressions
that they lack discipline, self-control, and respect for authority. Pam will have to negotiate
between two cultures and the conflicting identities that each fosters (Ly-Phin Pan 1998).
Our self-concept, identities, and cultural values all influence how we interact with others. We
often see the world from the perspective of our cultures, and each culture has different
expectations about communication behaviors. As Pam communicates with her friends and
family, she is likely to use less eye contact and more formal, polite forms of talk with members
of Asian communities than with her Caucasian peers. Pam’s own sense of self will be guided by
the culture with which she identifies the most. For example, in the United States, people tend to
value personal independence and direct talk, while in many Asian countries, personal identity is
based on relationships with families and communities, and the way people talk is guided by the
expectations of others.
Our culture and identity enable us to see some things while not noticing others. When people talk
to others who share their culture, they usually don’t notice regional pronunciations or word
choices (do you say “soda” or “pop”?) that would stand out to others. When watching television,
young and middle-aged viewers rarely notice the underrepresentation of elderly people (or
women, most minorities, and disabled people) on the programs they watch (Norell 1999). Like
gender and social identity, our cultural identity is apparent to us in some social contexts rather
than others and influences both how we talk to others and how they respond to us. Figure 2-3
shows how gender, social, and cultural identities are interrelated.
Communicating Assumptions about Identity
Our assumptions about gender, social, and cultural identity guide our communication choices,
which in turn can influence the ways others see themselves. Consider the identities that others
have, in effect, created for you, from the first insult you might have heard on a playground to the
label a friend might use when introducing you to someone new. For example, Sharika might
introduce her friend Laura as a new mother or as the manager of a software company; the choice
Sharika makes helps to define Laura and influence the impressions others have of her. The
assumptions others make about Laura’s identity will guide how they communicate with her.

7. Allness.
There are several ways that the words others use to describe us can influence our identity and
self-concept. Sometimes, people resort to a practice called allness, which is the use of a single
aspect of someone else’s identity to describe that person without regard to her or his other
qualities. Perhaps you have heard Linda Cohen, a talented and respected journalist, described as
a female sportscaster. Although Cohen is certainly female, that particular feature of her identity
probably has little bearing on her performance as a journalist. Allness is also an increasingly
popular way to insult others, as in the banter of sports commentators who label each other based
on how much hair the other has. Insults hurt, and the name-calling strategies we learn as children
become refined in adulthood. Indeed, the most damaging names are those based on
characteristics that we cannot easily change, such as race or physical peculiarities; such name-
calling can do substantial damage to a person’s sense of self (Farb 1994).
Stereotypes.
Like allness, the use of stereotypes limits our understanding of other people’s identities. Whereas
allness marks people based on a single feature of their identity, a stereotype is an unreliable
generalization about a person based on a simplified image of a group to which the person
belongs. Those who rely on stereotypes assume that individuals in a group are like everyone else
in that group, be they blondes, lawyers, or Chicanos. Even so-called positive stereotypes have
negative consequences. Sarriet, an Asian-American, provides an example: “nice, quiet, polite,
subservient, traditional, good student, good girl—Asian women stereotypes …. I do fit some of
the stereotypes. I have to distinguish which things are really inherent to my personal being and
those I have because that’s what people expect me to have.” A racial epithet, often rooted in
stereotypes, conveys images that can be internalized by those to whom it is directed and
reinforces negative behavior among those who overhear the slur (Calvert 1997). Ultimately,
when we treat people to doubt themselves based on one feature of their identity or label them in
damaging ways, they can incorporate those perceptions into their self-concept and become less
likely to succeed and reach their potential. Finally, stereotypes can be contagious. People who
are surrounded by or exposed to denigrating stereotypes of others are likely to treat the victims of
those stereotypes with less understanding and respect.
Identity Tags.
Another way that people are identified based on group membership is through identity tags, or
labels used by advertisers who seek to target a particular population or market for their product.
You may be tagged instantaneously when you access websites on the Internet. When you visit
many websites, you are automatically marked as a member of a group or class. As you shop on
popular music websites, check scores on ESPN, or download software from PC World,
advertisers are constructing an identity for you that may include your geographical location,
browser type, Internet service provider, economic class, age, sex, and interests. From this kind of
information, marketers develop lifestyle identities for you (which may be largely inaccurate) and
may send you related e-mail promoting products or sites related to this profile.

8. The use of identity tags raises considerable questions about privacy and the ethics of acquiring
and selling personal information. The identity tags that advertisers use are getting increasingly
sophisticated. Consider technological advancements that have changed the ways ads are
delivered. For instance, in one advertising campaign, women who visited the iVillage diet and
fitness channel three times in a 45-day period saw a Snapple-a-Day (a meal replacement product)
ad the next time they visited iVillage. Once the women were tagged as interested in diet and
fitness, they were served Snapple-a-Day ads whether they read their horoscope or researched
allergy medications (Oser 2004). Similarly, Google plans to scan confidential email to target
users for specialized ads (Rupley 2004).
As with allness and other forms of stereotyping, identity tags tend to blend self-concept, identity,
and culture into one feature or characteristic of a person. Although they may appear to be
efficient ways to communicate, they can limit the knowledge and understanding that the best
communication requires because they reduce people to simplified images or sets of
characteristics. As you read the box, “Communicating with the Elderly in Health Care Settings,”
think about the assumptions many caregivers make about their elderly clients.
Reference:
Dobkin, B. A., & Pace, R. C., (2006). Communication in a changing world (2nd ed.). Boston:
McGraw-Hill.