Although questionnaires routinely ask people to check boxes indicating if they are, for example, male or female, black or white, Hispanic or American, many people do not fit neatly into one category or another. Identity is increasingly organized multiply and may encompass additional categories beyond those that appear on demographic questionnaires. In addition, identities are often fluid and context-dependent, depending on the external social factors that invite their emergence. Identity is constantly evolving in light of changing environments, but people are often uncomfortably fixed with societal labels that they must include or resist in their individual identity definition.
In our increasingly complex, globalized world, many people carry conflicting psychosocial identities. They live at the edges of more than one communal affiliation, with the challenge of bridging different loyalties and identifications. Navigating Multiple Identities considers those who are navigating across racial minority or majority status, various cultural expectations and values, gender identities, and roles. The chapters collected here by Josselson and Harway explore the ways in which individuals attain or maintain personal integration in the face of often shifting personal or social locations, and how they navigate the complexity of their multiple identities.
Industry Reviews
"The questions of 'Who am I?', 'Who am I to be?', and 'How do I fit in?' can occupy a lifetime as a person inhabits different environments and an ever-changing body, and confronts shifting social contexts throughout the lifespan. The task of integrating multiple, and sometimes contradictory, self-representations is a greater challenge for some persons than for others. This book furnishes lively portrayals of individuals struggling to fashion wholes out of often
mismatching parts. Because mere societal categorization is usually based upon a 'lowest common denominator' approach - one is either this or that (male or female, white or black) - it is left to the
individual to struggle to fashion a sense of self that assimilates and accommodates to disparate possibilities. This book illustrates how this synthetic process can be growth-producing, despair-inducing, and self-renewing, as each new integration presents its own challenges." -- James Marcia, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Simon Fras
"Ruthellen Josselson and Michele Harway have made a very significant contribution to our understanding of multiple identities through this book. They bring together international scholars to advance multicultural studies and a deeper appreciation and celebration of human diversity in our ever changing, multicultural world." -- James M. O'Neil, Professor of Educational Psychology and Family Studies, University of Connecticut
"This volume breaks entirely new ground in the understanding of how individuals with a diversity of identity elements may come to hold, and at times integrate, these dimensions into a coherent sense of self. Engaging, reflective, and, insightful, this book presents a powerful array of chapters that should serve as a foundation for researchers and practitioners alike who are attempting to chart and respond to diversity in identity development."-- Jane Kroger,
Professor Emeritus, University of Tromsø, and Research Associate, Western Washington University
"This book provides superb insights into the phenomenon of multiple identities. It shows in a convincing way how multiplicity has the potential to contribute to self-richness and self-integration. I strongly recommend it to any psychologist or social scientist who is interested in how people organize their selves and identities as part of a globalizing society." -- Hubert Hermans, Scientific Director of the International Institute for the Dialogical Self
"An exciting new book on the intersectionality of multiple identities, this edited volume challenges the old assumptions of psychology and society that tend to categorize identity singularly or dichotomously. This book explores the more realistic process of how persons navigate a variety of socially-constructed, intersecting identities in a myriad of settings and circumstances. It focuses on theoretical frameworks, rich narrative examples, and applications in
discussing ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race, and other variables. This book is a must-read for students, clinicians, and researchers." -- Roberta L. Nutt, Visiting Professor and Training
Director, Counseling Psychology Program, University of Houston
