диссертация (Трансформация культурной идентичности иранской женщины), страница 6

In the second stage, we assume the identity of a group in orderto behave properly according to the norms. In the final stage, having categorizedand identified ourselves with a group, we compare our group to other groups tomaintain our self-esteem. Therefore, through our group membership we identifyourselves with in-groups that discriminates us from out-groups76.Role identity is a dimension of social identity. This concept developedmainly by Styker (1980), refers to the social roles we play. "The self is seen asembracing multiple identities linked to the roles and role relationships thatconstitute significant elements of social structures"77. The way one is sociallyexpected to behave when he or she holds a specific social position is related to herrole identity.Cultural Notion of IdentityWhile membership in a social group defines one's social identity, theparticular culture that one belongs designates his or her cultural identity.

The termculture is a broad concept with multiple meanings and diversified dimensions. Itincludes language, customs, values, beliefs, religion, traditions, art, literature, andeven visible material or physical features shared by a group. It is "the sum total ofthe material and spiritual activities and products of a given social group which75Turner J.C. Oakes, P. The Significance of the Social Identity Concept for Social Psychology with Reference toIndividualism. Interactionism and social influence, Vol.

25, Issue3, 1986, pp. 237-252.76Stephen Worchel. S.J., Francisco Morales. J.F., Páez. D., Deschamps. J.C. Social Identity: InternationalPerspectives. London: Sage. 1998. p. 105.77Stryker S. The profession: comments from an interactionism's perspective. Social. Focus, No. 12, 1979, pp.17586.25distinguishes it from other similar groups"78. Culture is also defined as "ahistorically created system of meaning and significance […], a system of beliefsand practices in terms of which a group of human beings understand, regulate andstructure their individual and collective lives"79.One's differentiation from others and identification with some people isinseparable from one's culture.

"Culture shapes identity through giving meaning toexperiences, making it possible to opt for one mode of subjectivity amongothers"80. To be identified with a culture, one accepts the beliefs, norms, valuesand social practices of the culture as a part of her self-concept.Lustig and Koester (1999) explain cultural identity as "one’s sense ofbelonging to a particular culture or ethnic group”81. It displays "familial andcultural dimensions of a person’s identity, and how others perceive him or her, i.e.,factors that are salient to a person’s identity both as perceived by the individualand how others perceive the person’s identity"82.Cultural identity is formed in a process that results from membership in aparticular culture, and it involves learning about and accepting the traditions,heritage, language, religion, ancestry, aesthetics, thinking patterns and socialstructures of culture"83.Cultural identity is the outward expression of one's culture. Culturallystructured society, or even a group of at least two people, gives meaning andsignificance to the lives of people who are born and grown up in that culture.

Themembers' knowledge of their shared heritage, tradition, custom, norms andlanguage provides them an affiliation with that cultural group with which they78Tavani C. Collective Rights and the Cultural Identity of the Roma: A Case Study of Italy Martinus NijhoffPublishers, 2012. p.11.79Parekh B.C. Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. Harvard University Press,2002. p.

143.80Woodward K. Identity and Difference. London: Sage in association with the Open University, 1997. p.15.81Lustig M., Koester J. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures (6th Edition).Allyn & Bacon. Longman, 2009. p. 142.82Ibrahim F.A., Heuer J.R. Cultural and Social Justice Counseling: Client-Specific Interventions. USA: Springe,2015. p.15.83Lustig M.W., Koester J. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures. UK:Longman, 1999.

p. 138.26identify themselves. While the behavior of members might seem meaningless orstrange for out-groups, they are significant for in-group members. Culturalidentity, though, is constructed socially, influences one' personal behaviors andindividual identity. One observes cultural expectations of the group because ofeither deep belonging sense, a biased feeling to it, or simply because of hermembership in the group. The negligent members might be marked or evenabjected.Indeed, all bases of identity act in the same way to achieve identitystandards.

Therefore, "individuals act to control perceptions of who they are in asituation to match the feedback they receive in the situation"84. According to Hall,"identities can function as point of identification and attachment only because oftheir capacity to exclude, to leave out, to render outside abjected"85.When individuals receive negative feelings, they change their act andperceptions and mainly their identity standards to reduce negative feedbacks. Theychange their actions so that their perceptions would match a reference.Alternatively, when the individual's identity standards correspond to feedbacks,that identity sustains. At the same time, here, we do not reject the agency of theindividual to change the standard norms through violated repetition of actions.The fact that any culture and the identity that it determines is a historicalheritage doesn't imply that it is permanently stable and fixed to past.

Rather it isopen to change through members' intercultural communication. Myron andKoester (1993) describe intercultural communication as "a symbolic, transactional,contextual process in which people create shared meanings"86.That is, people ofdifferent cultures are engaged in communication with each other and permeatingthe cultural borders, they meet different cultures. The cultural interactions,conscious and unconscious, contribute to growth of cultures.

Therefore, cultures84Burke P.J., Stets J.E. Identity Theory. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009. P. 112.Hall S., Gay P.D. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996. p. 5.86Lustig M.W., Koester J. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures. UK:Longman, 1999. p.13. .8527"are at least partially multicultural in their origins and constitution. Each carries abit of the other"87.In our highly mediatized world, intercultural communication proves to becommon and indispensable.

New media, having passed the wired and wirelesselectronic stages, provide us a digital communication. Such a drastic change ofcommunication mode has a significant influence not only on the form and contentof the communicated message, but also on the communicators' most aspects of life,mainly their perceptions, values and lifestyles. This pervasive opportunity ofintercultural communication "is shaking the roots of cultural identity by weakeningor strengthening the intensity of the relationship between people andcommunity"88. In the universal cyberspace, the meeting point of different cultures,new cultural identities emerge.

The new cultural identity challenges the traditionalcultural identity that has its roots in one's socio-historical context. Today, theindividual's sense of belonging to a culture to define her cultural identity is notnecessarily confined to her historical heritage or geographical space. The shatteredsense of belonging to one's socio-cultural group leads to a kind of identity crisis.The term identity crisis is defined at Collins Dictionary as "the condition of beinguncertain of one's feelings about oneself, esp. with regard to character, goals, andorigins, occurring esp.

in adolescence as a result of growing up under disruptive,fast-changing conditions"89."A cultural identity crisis happens when the codesoftheculturalhistory with which individual identified himself clash with the codes of thenewly-adopted culture. When an individual, with an already collective formedidentity tries to absorb metropolis culture, he confronts a lack"90. This sense87Parekh B. Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory.

Harvard University Press, 2002.p. 337.88Chen G.M. The Impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication in Global Context. China Media Research,8(2), 2012, pp. 1-10.89Definitionof'identitycrisis'.CollinsOnlineDictionary.—Modeofaccess:https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/identity-crisis90Kaul V. Globalization and crisis of cultural identity. Journal of Research in International Business andManagement. Vol. 2(13), 2012, pp.

341-349.28of lack occurs at the upheaval of challenge between one's ethnic culture and theglobalized culture. Ozdemir acknowledges identity as one of the prominent"causes of identity crisis". He maintains that the main reason is that globalizationblurs the boundaries between "image" and "identity". While identity representsself-image, the concept of image refers to outsiders' perception of the culture andthe way they represent it. As a result of media and intercultural communicationimage and identity mingle. When a nation receives negative images of theirculture, they seek a distance from their culture to compensate the discrepancy. Themore negative images the more identity clashes will be, leading to more identitycrisis. Shaping new identities, they try to be detached from old identity, which isassociated by negative images to be identified with positive images." Most of thetime the image tends to be more negative because it is used as a material foridentity formation in other cultures.