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PLACE, SPACE, AND THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: THE PHYSICAL WORLD AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract Details

2019, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology.
Within identity theory, researchers distinguish between large, intermediate, and proximate social structures which have been shown to impact individuals' self-structures by shaping interactional probabilities. To date, scholars have paid the least attention to intermediate social structure despite its important role in facilitating and/or constraining individuals’ abilities to reach the physical locations where they can regularly enact a given identity. In order to address this gap, this research seeks to examine how the physical layout of the social world impacts the identity process. Specifically, I examine how the effort required to traverse space to reach a given place is an element of intermediate social structure that shapes how regularly one comes into contact with identity related others at that place. Simultaneous, I will also examine the degree to which the place an individual lives in facilitates/constrains the likelihood of them coming into contact with identity related others through the presence of specific identity-interaction sites that serve as opportunities for expressing one’s various identities. Using the religious identity as the identity of interest, I examine these relationships using survey data collected from approximately 1000 individuals in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The findings support the propositions that the easier it is to reach a place, the more frequently that place will be visited and thereby the greater the proportion of one’s regular social contacts who share the religious identity. These findings also support the proposition that when there are more opportunities in the place the individual lives to enact a given identity due to a greater number of identity-interaction sites the individual is aware of, that individual will more frequently come into contact with identity related others. These findings represents a potential path forward for both expanding a structural symbolic interactionist understanding of how society shapes self shapes behavior, but also for integrating considerations of social inequality and stratification in the layout of the physical world into identity theory.
Richard Serpe, Dr. (Committee Member)
Richard Adams, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Carla Goar, Dr. (Committee Member)
Philip Brenner, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jeffery Ciesla, Dr. (Committee Member)
121 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rose, T. R. (2019). PLACE, SPACE, AND THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: THE PHYSICAL WORLD AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1574194915213381

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rose, Timothy. PLACE, SPACE, AND THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: THE PHYSICAL WORLD AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. 2019. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1574194915213381.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rose, Timothy. "PLACE, SPACE, AND THE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: THE PHYSICAL WORLD AS SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1574194915213381

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)