Hall’s three identity categories are similar—personal, relational, and communal.
Personal identitiesare those that set you apart from other people and make you dis-
tinct.Relational identitiesare a product of your relationships with other people, such
as husband/wife, teacher/student, and supervisor/employee.Communal identitiesare
“typically associated with large-scale [social] communities, such as nationality, ethnic-
ity, gender, or religious or political affiliation.”^9Hall’s communal identities are essentially the same as Taylor’s social identities, and
these identities carry importance during intercultural communication interaction,
which is made clear in Gudykunst’s explication of social identity:
Our social identities can be based on our memberships in demographic categories
(e.g., nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, social class), the roles we play
(e.g., student, professor, parent), our memberships in formal or informal
organizations (e.g., political parties, social clubs), our associations or vocations (e.g.,
scientists, artists, gardeners) or our memberships in stigmatized groups (e.g., homeless,
people with AIDS).^10
The objective of this discussion has beento provide a theoretical understanding
of identity and illustrate that you havea variety of identities, which can change
as a result of the social context. Becauseof its great relevance to intercultural
communication interaction and study, we will now look at the influence of
identity.The Influence of Identity
Identity represents an extremely important psychological component for the indi-
vidual. Phinney writes that adolescents who fail to develop a“secure identity are
faced with identity confusion, a lack of clarity about who they are and what their
role is in life.”^11 From this perspective, the need to understand your sense of identity
is obvious.
The 2010 census survey was only the second time that respondents could indicate
belonging to more than a single race. Over 9 million U.S. Americans, 2.7 percent of
the respondents, identified themselves as belonging to two or more races, a 32 percent
increase from the 2000 census.^12 Although not included in the 2010 census survey, a
question on the 2000 census form allowed individuals to write in their“ancestry or
ethnic origin,”which resulted in“about 500 different ancestries”being reported,
with ninety of those categories having U.S. populations exceeding 100,000.^13 These
figures illustrate the ethnic diversity in the United States and the level of awarenessHall’s Identity Categories
Personal Relational Communal
Turner’s Identity Categories
Human Social Personal
246 CHAPTER 7•Culture and Identity: Situating the Individual
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