Resources and Identity Verification from an Identity Theory Perspective

Abstract

The authors examine how personal, interpersonal, and structural resources are used in interaction to facilitate social actors' goal of self-verification. As the control of resources fosters self-verification, self-verification is expected to influence the availability of additional resources for actors to use to sustain themselves in future interactions. The authors employ a principal theory in sociology on the self, identity theory, to theoretically frame this research, and they use a representative sample of individuals in newly forged relationships to examine the reciprocal relationship between resources and the verification of a person identity and role identity. The findings reveal that the relationship between resource use and identity verification is mutually reinforcing: resource use facilitates identity verification and identity verification increases the resources available for future use. This reciprocal relationship occurs across identities and over time. The results provide insights on the idea that resources at the macro-, meso-, and microlevels are mobilized among social actors to support the self and each other, help maintain a system of interaction, and reproduce culture and social structure.

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