A Holistic Approach To Identities

Modern social science has attached great importance to identity as a psychological construct to reflect the most'micro'aspects of society—the individual. Throughout half a century, the field has flourished with robust theoretical contributions from sociology, psychology, political science, communication studies, and cultural studies. Nevertheless, it is in the opinion of this author that a portion of the western approaches and philosophy underlying them have remained largely unchanged: linear dualism, isolated fragmentation and decontextualization.The present study adopts instead a different, Chinese philosophical approach to re-examine identity. Chinese philosophy represents a dynamic interchange between Yin and Yang and offers a holistic, dialectical and paradoxical outlook on humanity and the cosmos. Chinese people seem to have a similar perception of their multiple identities, and it is questioned whether other populations may also have a similarly complex structure. Therefore an integrated approach to identity may complement the western Platonic paradigm.Further, to ground this philosophically re-oriented theoretical conceptualization in solid research design, the present study proposes a Holistic Identity Ranking Theory (HIR) by drawing upon both the strengths of the western literature and Chinese philosophy. A system of theoretical propositions is posited including a holistic structure of identities, the communicative and non-bipolar nature of identities, a value-oriented identity ranking and a dynamic balance between acontextual and contextual identities.To test the validity of the HIR model, etic quantitative questionnaires and emic qualitative interview data are collected from adult university students in China, the United States and Algeria to seek answers to the research questions on 1) the internal coexistent dichotomies within an identity; 2) the external liaisons among identities; 3) the stratifications of a holistic identity ranking; and 4) the contents of the stable core of an acontextual (situated) and contextual (situational) identity change loop.Finally, the resulting Model of Stratifications in a Holistic Identity Ranking is generated, challenging the previous collectivist/individualist dichotomy prevalent in western approaches by showing identities to be holistic rather than fragmented, layered rather than dualistic, contextual rather than decontextualized, dynamic rather than static.