Self-Identity

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionists view individuals' selves and identities as produced in relation to their social encounters. These interactions include individuals' relationships with significant others, as well as their contacts with acquaintances and strangers. Additionally, individuals have interactions with nonpersonal entities, such as schools, governments, and other institutions. Each of these types of social exchanges is thought to provide people with information about how they are perceived.

For instance, if a mother continues to work after childbirth, she is likely to receive feedback about her decision from her friends and family, coworkers, and employer. She is also likely to receive information regarding working mothers from the government, which can be perceived as approval or disapproval through its daycare and family leave social policies. All of these varied interactions are indicative of the types of feedback that mothers encounter. Symbolic interactionists suggest that individuals' self-concepts are shaped by such encounters; thus, mothers' understandings of their selves are affected by the feedback that they receive.

Moreover, symbolic interactionists propose that individuals' social identities are largely transformable. As women become mothers, other people and social institutions comprehend them differently. New mothers are no longer considered childless, and they develop a social identity as a mother. Interactionists propose that women's motherhood identities will continue to shift and transform as women enter into new or altered social arenas and as their children age. Self-concept and identity malleability are key to symbolic interactionists' vision of motherhood.

Life Course Theory

Life course theory, similarly to interactionism, views self-concept and identity as socially impacted. Life course theory additionally emphasizes the roles of life stage and time period in shaping selves and identities. More specifically, four aspects are thought to affect individuals' life understandings and, in correspondence, women's orientation to their mothering identities. First, geographic location, social location, and time period shape individuals' lives and their development. Thus, mothers' selves and identities are affected by their particular temporal and spatial locations. Second, social timing affects the impact of life events. That is, the developmental impact of motherhood is dependent upon when it occurs in a woman's life. Women who have children during their teens are likely to understand their mothering selves and identities differently from women who had children during their 40s. Third, individuals' lives are interdependent, and both social and temporal norms alter interpersonal relationships.

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