Action, Motivation, and Identity: A Consideration of Identity as Means and Ends

• In Event: 395 - Regular Session. Explaining Social Action through the Perspectives of Culture and Cognition

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to clarify the links between identity, action and motivation. I present the concepts of “identity as ends” and “identity as means,” and ask the question, “In what kinds of situations does identity obtain as an ends, as a means, or as a motivation?” Through a broad review of identity scholarship, I draw several conclusions: First, identity does not serve as a motivation, but acts as a contingency for motivation. Second, by differentiating between types of situations, problematic and routine, and the temporal orientations found in each, I conclude that identity becomes an end primarily in situations where it is problematized; because identities are multiple, when identities become routinized, they may be used a means of achieving such ends.

Author

• Scott Beck, New School for Social Research