Part II - So what? Applying and extending identity theory, and back to society

Summary

True to the strategy of pragmatic social constructionist identity theory, we carry the project another step along the way from generic theory to the turf of empirical grounding. Objectivated social reality, although largely formed and continually re-formed through patterned and/or meaningful human action, takes on the characteristics of “things.” As such, objectivated social reality ought to be interrogated with whatever methods and data the questions informing the investigation require. The crux, as we mentioned, is knowing how to interpret the methods, the data, and the links among them and the original reality under investigation. Part II presents two examples of such interrogation – namely, the formulation of a middle-range theory, and a speculative extension of identity theory. These efforts are not full-fledged articulations of, or rigorously deducted propositions from, identity theory. Rather, they are in the order of feasibility studies and suggestive extensions. They begin to show what identity as a sensitizing concept and our generic theory may offer to sociological psychologists.

Chapter 3 selects propositions from the incipient theory and applies them to the substantive area linking identities and bodies – namely, gender identity. After discussing gender as a socially constructed identity, the chapter further specifies the issue by moving toward a more limited empirical domain, the link between a specific gender identity and occupation. At this point, the discussion moves out of the social constructionist stance and into standard theory-building tactics. Focusing on persons with a homosexual identity, middle-range testable propositions linking homosexuality and occupational characteristics are formulated and interrelated.