[Xmca-l] Re: Identity and personality

Wed Jul 8 13:21:20 PDT 2020

Hi Andrew,

I would be happy to receive a copy of these articles. In the name of fair use, would you please post them to the list?

Kind regards,

Annalisa
________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Coppens, Andrew <Andrew.Coppens@unh.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 11:35 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Identity and personality

  [EXTERNAL]

Hi Hans,

I agree with Andy that this is a complex question. Some of the complexity comes from around 40 years of identity research in psychological/personality traditions, that significantly departs from Erikson’s (1964) writings in Identity: Youth and Crisis to develop a relatively strong individualistic and ahistorical view. In the wake of this tradition, technical terms for Erikson such as “identity,” “self,” “ego,” etc. have vernacular connotations rooted in individualistic (American) psychological paradigms. Erikson explicitly and preemptively rejected much of the Marcia “identity status” tradition, despite its later and continued prominence. For example:

“In emphasizing once more the complementarity of life history and history, I must register a certain impatience with the faddish equation, never suggested by me, of the term identity with the question ‘Who am I?’ This question nobody would ask himself except in a more or less transient morbid state, in a creative self-confrontation, or in an adolescent state sometimes combining both… The pertinent question, if it can be put into the first person at all, would be, ‘What do I want to make of myself, and what do I have to work with?’” (Erikson, 1964, p. 314)

In the broader arc of Erikson’s writing in this book, “who am I?” is recast as a historical and cultural question for particular communities and not a question inherent to identity work for everyone. See Matusov & Smith (2012) below on this point, and Arnett and many others on the historical and cultural specificity of adolescence as understood by many middle-class Western communities.

In the rise of narrative (especially not autobiographical) approaches to identity research, some are returning to Erik Erikson’s writings with questions that many CHAT researchers would share. See this special issue from a couple of years ago: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hidn20/18/4__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6Xns1w01IEw$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hidn20/18/4__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bjVofvBwg$>. Erikson was trying to unite sociology and clinical psychology, a means to an end aimed at historicizing the self in ways that are often compatible with CHAT’s efforts to historicize the mind. Colleagues and I are currently writing a paper that reads Erikson’s project as developing “identity” not as an individual process or property, but as this sort of a historical unit of analysis, constituted in dialectically related personal biography and cultural history. Regretfully, we don’t yet have a draft that can be shared.

I also suggest the following, and I am certainly overlooking many other relevant works:

Matusov, E., & Smith, M. P. (2012). The middle-class nature of identity and its implications for education: A genealogical analysis and reevaluation of a culturally and historically bounded concept. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 46(3), 274–295. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-012-9192-0__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6XntOFo_U_A$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-012-9192-0__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bhS7ENipQ$>

Nasir, N. S., & Cooks, J. (2009). Becoming a Hurdler: How Learning Settings Afford Identities. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 40(1), 41–61. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2009.01027.x__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6XntZMXMnIA$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2009.01027.x__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bjO6TaY3A$>

Stetsenko, A. (2013). The Challenge of Individuality in Cultural Historical Activity Theory: “Collectividual” Dialectics from a Transformative Activist Stance. Outlines: Critical Practice Studies, 14(2), 7–28.

Stetsenko, A., & Arievitch, I. M. (2004). The self in cultural-historical activity theory: Reclaiming the unity of social and individual dimensions of human development. Theory & Psychology, 14(4), 475–503. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354304044921__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6XnvuDSJ59A$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354304044921__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bhiBPcg5w$>

Vågan, A. (2011). Towards a Sociocultural Perspective on Identity Formation in Education. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 18(1), 43–57. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1080/10749031003605839__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6Xnv6gYOZRg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1080/10749031003605839__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bh-Y2SwbA$>

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Happy to share these readings if you are behind a paywall, Hans.

/ Andrew

---

Andrew D. Coppens

UNH Education Dept., 302 Morrill Hall

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Schedule a meeting: calendly.com/acoppens<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://calendly.com/acoppens__;!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bgkNxtMBA$>

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org>
Reply-To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at 9:22 AM
To: "xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Identity and personality

I hope others will chime in with more answers for you, Hans, because this is actually a very complex question.

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.amazon.com.au/Identity-Agency-Cultural-Dorothy-Holland/dp/0674005627__;!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6XnsRTMnOIw$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Furldefense.com*2Fv3*2F__https*3A*2F*2Fwww.amazon.com.au*2FIdentity-Agency-Cultural-Dorothy-Holland*2Fdp*2F0674005627__*3B!!Mih3wA!XIQO3yYLAB1Akq-BjMwXNNcW2pGv4KGlt9xwLTRfoW-Pl-kqrneI2RnHjjp__h7E-nxZuQ*24&data=02*7C01*7Candrew.coppens*40unh.edu*7Cc63b78f13f254cd678b408d82341ce20*7Cd6241893512d46dc8d2bbe47e25f5666*7C0*7C0*7C637298113401681190&sdata=jVjJHUI0zMnWNAcrr9rGeALN7znTG40xwj7*2B5i4xm5E*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bhXkB2VDg$> "Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds" will have a lot helpful material for you. As I recall, in this book, Dorothy Holland explains that there are two basic answers to asking what is the "self." For some people it is a kind of inner core, for others it is something that grows and matures in interaction with the world, layers rather than an inner core. CHAT writers tend to answer for the second approach rather than the first.

Add to this the difficulty in translating the word "personality" between Russian and English. There are not perfect matches. Even the Kantian "I" is a construct of development for CHAT and not some transcendental entity. Vygotsky and Leontyev are more like Hegel and Marx than Kant and Nietzsche.

The following article of mine  https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/Leontyev*20and*20Social*20Theory.pdf__;JSUl!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6Xnu-FZPp9Q$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Furldefense.com*2Fv3*2F__https*3A*2F*2Fwww.ethicalpolitics.org*2Fablunden*2Fpdfs*2FLeontyev*20and*20Social*20Theory.pdf__*3BJSUl!!Mih3wA!XIQO3yYLAB1Akq-BjMwXNNcW2pGv4KGlt9xwLTRfoW-Pl-kqrneI2RnHjjp__h7ubZU7cA*24&data=02*7C01*7Candrew.coppens*40unh.edu*7Cc63b78f13f254cd678b408d82341ce20*7Cd6241893512d46dc8d2bbe47e25f5666*7C0*7C0*7C637298113401691187&sdata=0bZwlQkK3fHLuaTOFluPWr37tbTRIPnScOOzQ9MSMvI*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUqKiolJSUlJSUlJSUlJQ!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bhQMWfKKQ$> looks at Leontyev's ideas, including his idea of "personality," and https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/pdfs/Fedor*20Vasilyuk.pdf__;JQ!!Mih3wA!UBD_6u0cEPDhA713zXRe5V0PHeBAmVlPJZ8dV1oYF3ifo-WH0u5wJun0DCB6Xnv_nxsSQQ$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Furldefense.com*2Fv3*2F__https*3A*2F*2Fwww.ethicalpolitics.org*2Fablunden*2Fpdfs*2FFedor*20Vasilyuk.pdf__*3BJQ!!Mih3wA!XIQO3yYLAB1Akq-BjMwXNNcW2pGv4KGlt9xwLTRfoW-Pl-kqrneI2RnHjjp__h5_RkHW3Q*24&data=02*7C01*7Candrew.coppens*40unh.edu*7Cc63b78f13f254cd678b408d82341ce20*7Cd6241893512d46dc8d2bbe47e25f5666*7C0*7C0*7C637298113401691187&sdata=fORACmYdUnkibyUSKEa7ous14RPiH3OtXRnCIbsMCrg*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUqJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!Mih3wA!T1GxBRQD_InEjt5BrLAZkztiECqq0FnCOYfSz5dd9drWq3fYdv-M9NWbcQ_w2bgqicSQCQ$> looks at Vasilyuk's Psychology which may also help shed light on Soviet approaches.

Hope that helps.
Andy

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Andy Blunden
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On 8/07/2020 6:23 pm, Hans Knutagård wrote:

Dear xmca,

I am struggling between the notion of personality and identity in the framework of Chat. My understanding is that we cannot talk about identity only personality since it os required in relation to other people and environment. Can somebody help me with some reading or references I can dig into?

Yours Hans

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