An Intervention for Identity Shift: Unpacking the Challenges and Discrepancies of a CMC Theory and its Future

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The concept of identity shift proposes an individual’s selective self-presentation—particularly salient and apropos in computer-mediated communication—affects subsequent self-perception. Building on work by Tice’s (1992) concept of public self-presentation, Gonzales and Hancock (2009) initially demonstrated an individual’s self-presentation can result in perceptual changes, even when such presentation occurs privately. Research has since continued to explore identity shift in relation to personality variables, often alongside concurrent communicative processes (e.g., relational closeness, feedback channel: Carr & Foreman, 2016; feedback provider and publicness, Walther et al., 2011). Yet new tensions in our understanding of identity shift processes and effects have emerged parallel to burgeoning research in the area: Questions about the assumptions and processes underlying the concept, theoretical boundaries (and overlaps) with related psychological and communication concepts, applicable outcome variables, and methodological artifacts have fostered tensions within the literature and among scholars at the fore of this area. In short, there seems sufficient evidence to generally support the identity shift process; but now may be an important time in this line of research to stage a scholarly intervention, taking stock of what is known and where potential pitfalls may lie, in research into identity shift.

Like interventions for addicts, this panel brings together friends of the troubled entity. Scholars who have been working in the area identity shift will engage in a roundtable format to discuss and debate—with each other and with audience members—the tensions, challenges, and disparate views that have emerged around identity shift. Addressing theoretical and methodological concerns that have manifested (including from unpublished research findings), explicating and delineating identity shift and related communicative processes, and discussing the future of identity shift work, panelists will provide an intervention for future identity shift work and scholars, and for CMC theory and work more broadly. Though the focus of this panel is identity shift, scholars in allied and tangential interest areas (including self-presentation, identity, empirical methods and measurement, behavioral confirmation, and public commitment) can find value in attending and engaging in this intervention.

Through these voices, and the participation of and engagement with audience members, attendees will better-understand the state of its scholarship and the issues and challenges currently facing identity shift scholars, as well as use identity shift as a lens to discuss broader issues of scholarship in CMC studies.

Sub Unit

• Communication and Technology

Chair

• Caleb T. Carr, Illinois State U

Individual Presentations

• Intervening in the Outcomes of Identity Shift - Caleb T. Carr, Illinois State U

• Intervening in Implications of Identity Shift for Youth and Development - Dian de Vries, Utrecht Universtiy

• Intervening in the Technologies Underlying Identity Shift - Megan French, Stanford University

• Intervening in Identity Shift’s Place in CMC - Amy L Gonzales, Indiana U

• Intervening in the Processes and Methods Underlying Identity Shift - Jeff Hancock

• Intervening in the Audience Effects of Identity Shift - Penny Trieu, U of Michigan

• Intervening in the Social Spaces of Identity Shift - Sophie F Waterloo, University of Amsterdam/ Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)