Identity structure analysis

The main task of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework for the operationalisation of identity theory in the arena of racial and ethnic relations. This conceptual framework, known as Identity Structure Analysis (ISA) (Weinreich, 1969, 1977, 1979a, 1979b, 1980, 1983a, 1983b), consists of a synthesis of concepts in part derived from aspects of psychodynamic (Erikson, 1959, 1968; Hauser, 1971, 1972; Marcia, 1966, 1980), personal construct (Kelly, 1955; Bannister and Mair, 1968; Fransella and Bannister, 1977) and symbolic interactionist (Mead, 1934b; Goffman, 1959; Harré, 1979) perspectives on the socio-psychological processes of identity development. It is informed by the social anthropologists' clarification of differences in shared cultural value systems according to actors' membership of specific ethnic and sub-cultural groups (LeVine and Campbell, 1972). It is able to incorporate the distinction made by some sociologists between, on the one hand, internally recognised categorisations of self as being a member of an ethnic group, with an emphasis on ‘ethnic identity’, and, on the other, externally ascribed definitions by others of self as being a member of a general category, with an emphasis on an imposed ‘racial identity’. In part, the conceptual framework of ISA is able to integrate these disparate concerns by being aware of the conceptual distinction between personal and social identity (Tajfel, 1974, 1978; Harré, 1979; Weinreich, 1983b), without divorcing these aspects in an artificial way.