Welcome to
Week 3
SOAD9102
Janine Harrison
Acknowledgement -
AASW
We are meeting on the traditional country of the Kaurna
people of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their
cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We
acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the
Kaurna people living today.
The AASW acknowledges that the historical actions of non-
indigenous social workers as government agents &
instruments of government policy, regarding justice, welfare &
health have contributed to the destabilisation &
disempowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
families and communities.
Content of
Lecture 3
• Who are we and what is identity?
• Factors that shape our identity
• Concepts: identity, the self, the
multiple self, intersectional selves
• Our “multiple selves”
• Service participants’ complex
identities and multiple selves
• Reflecting on our own identity
• Guest lecture – Associate Professor
Lorna Hallahan – “It’s not normal”
IDENTITY: WHO ARE WE
AND WHAT IS IDENTITY?
Concept of “identity”
– Roots in Psychology
• Individual’s sense of self defined by:
• A set of physical, psychological, and
interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly
shared with any other person
• A range of affiliations (e.g. ethnicity) and social
roles.
• Identity involves a sense of continuity, or the feeling
that we are the same person today that we were
yesterday or last year (despite physical or other
changes).
• Derived from our body sensations, our body image
and the feeling that our memories, goals, values,
expectations, and beliefs belong to ourselves - also
called ”personal identity”.
American Psychological Association, 2022
Concept of the “self” – Roots in
Psychology
• Totality of the individual, consisting of all characteristic attributes, conscious and
unconscious, mental and physical.
• The essence of the individual, consisting of a gradually developing body sense,
identity, self-estimate, and set of personal values, attitudes and intentions
(Gordon W. Allport).
• The sense of a coherent, stable (yet dynamic) experience of one’s individuality,
continuity in time and space, autonomy, efficacy, motivation, values, and desires
(Heinz Kohut)
American Psychological Association, 2022
Who are you?
• Identity characteristics: age, dis/ability,
gender, sexual identity, cultural identity,
class, socioeconomic status, other
characteristics
• Is your identity ‘innate’ or socially
constructed?
• Your historical, economic and material
contexts (Marx)
Personal
identity
• We as individuals within society
• Our uniqueness
• Shifts over time
• Emerges through social interactions
• Socio-cultural and historical influences
• Agency/choice
• How our identities are related to power,
privileges and oppressions
• Impact of labels on shaping our identity and
self-concept – examples?
The “multiple
self”
• Different ways of understanding “the
self”
• Criticism of concept of self as
separate and autonomous
• Our core identity made up of various
things that shape society and our
experience within it.
• We have multiple, sometimes
conflicting mental and emotional
experiences
Powell, 2012
The “intersectional self”
• Concept of “intersectional self” arose from feminist perspective -
sees “self” as fluid and fragmented by intersections of social
categories, e.g. gender and race.
• Identity includes many intersecting traits that cannot simply be
added together
• The self is relational, constructed, multiple and context-dependent
• Defined by intersections of oppression and how this impacts on
people’s ability to make choices (agency)
• Look at interdependence of privilege and oppression
• Criticises idea that people can easily be put into categories, like
gender or race
• Our efforts to address oppression must focus on the privileged and
the oppressed
Mattsson, 2014
The Social Work Self:
Your Social Work Identity
• Events/experiences that have influenced your interest in SW?
• In what ways is SW part of your personal identity, e.g.
• Desire to work in the helping professions
• Empathy for other people
• Commitment to human rights and social justice
• Importance of engaging in self exploration – fears, biases,
resistances, personal needs, etc.
• Ethical framework needs to be congruent with your world-view and
conduct in your everyday life (Dunk-West and Verity, 2016)
• Social workers have an ethical and professional responsibility to
understand ourselves and society (AASW Code of Ethics, 2020)
Dunk-West and Verity, 2016
How does our
personal and
professional
identity impact on
our clients/service
participants?
THE ARTS AS TOOLS FOR
EXPLORING INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
How do the Arts help us to
understand people’s
experiences/stories/voices?
Sculpture by Park Ki Kyung, South Korean
– sculpts figures describing the “condition
of emptiness”.
“The scream” – Edvard Munch – depicts
the anguish and pain of life
M Butterfly – play by David
Henry Hwang, 1988 - real-life
story of a French diplomat who
maintained a sexual relationship
with a male Peking opera singer
for years, all the while remaining
oblivious to the performer's
gender. Hwang wanted to
explore racial and sexual
stereotypes.
Novel – Harper Lee, 1960 –
racism and bigotry
Painting - Tim Okamura – portraits of women
exploring human relationship to identity, to
spotlight people who are often underrepresented
in art.
Novel –
Canadian
author,
Margaret
Atwood
• American Psychological Association (2022)
https://www.apa.org/.
• Dunk-West, P. and Verity, F. (2016) The social work self
(Chapter 3) in Sociological Social Work. Routledge.
• Mattsson, T. (2014) Intersectionality as a useful tool: Anti-
oppressive social work practice and critical
reflection. Journal of Women and Social Work. 29 (1): 8 -
References 17.
• Pease, B. (2010) Ableist Relations and the Embodiment of
Privilege (Chapter 8) in Undoing Privilege: Unearned
Advantage in a Divided World. Zed Books.
• Powell, J.A. (2012) The multiple self: implications for law
and social justice (Chapter 7) in Racing to Justice:
Transforming our Conceptions of Self and Others to Build
an Inclusive Society. Indiana University Press.
Thank you
Questions and
Comments?
