Institutional Construction of Identity

Working in the spirit of Goffman's (2003) study of the psychiatric clinic and the resulting description of how a social identity is constructed as an evolutionary process dependent in large measure upon the socializing environment in which the individual is positioned, two discrete interviews and observations were conducted. The first interview and observation focused upon a secondary school administrator (i.e., vice-principal) while the second interview and observation focused on an attending physician in a local trauma center's emergency room.

Bourdieu and Passeron (2000) have pointed out that most areas of specialization tend to be accompanied by specific cultural capital which shapes and informs the ways in which participants in the culture identify themselves. Bourdieu and Passeron (2000) also claim (as does Goffman [2003]) that the very processes by means of which individuals are educated for their life's work also function as socializing factors. Given that both the school administrator and the attending physician interviewed for this report each experienced a prolonged period of professional education and preparation for practice, it was anticipated that both subjects would present strong identity affiliations with the values of their individual professions.

The specific paradigms of social psychology formation around which this discussion is organized are cognitive and behavioral learning, symbolic inter

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ht, and social behavior are closely related. This is an interrelationship that occurs both internally as a dialogue within the individual and in interactions with others. Both the educator and the physician observed for this report indicated directly through verbalization that they had learned much about their profession and the demeanor expected of them from teachers while the educator was doing student teaching and the physician was an intern and then a resident. Similarly, in observing both of these individuals at work, it became clear that they were modeling the symbolic meanings and linguistic formulas of their profession. Charon (2001) argues that the human acts within a world of social objects or a world that is defined by others through symbolic communication. This is certainly true in medicine and education both as professions and as a source of identity. Charon (2001) states that groups have histories and a long history means that a very large corpus of knowledge exists and that the process of acquiring sufficient mastery of this corpus is likely to be both difficult and prolonged. Indeed, in the case of the physician observed herein, an emphasis on the process of acquiring identity as "a doctor" could be see

Category: Psychology - I