Self-Identity in Marriage and Widowhood

Abstract

Theories of symbolic interaction and ethnomethodology assume that everyone undertakes a complex process of construction of reality, including self‐identity, in interaction with significant others. Utilizing insights into variations in identity reformulation in marriage obtained from a study of American metropolitan women, this paper concentrates on variations of identity reformulation among widows. The major hypothesis guiding the discussion is that the higher the education of the woman, as measured by formal schooling, the more she is likely to experience and undertake identity reformulation in marriage and in widowhood. The less education a woman has, the less she will be consciously affected in her identity formulation by these events.

Loss, Grief, and the Search for Significance: Toward a Model of Meaning Reconstruction in Bereavement

“…In this model, it is assumed that every person holds a core of meaning structures akin to Kelly's (1955) "personal constructs," Janoff-Bulman's (1992) or Parkes's (1996) "assumptive worlds" or Thompson and Janigian's (1998) "life schemes," that inform her or his understanding of the world in six domains: (1) daily activities and priorities (Folkman, 1997;Stroebe & Schut, 2001); (2) their perceptions of themselves and their personal identities (Emmons et al, 1998;Lopata, 1973;Tedeschi et al, 1998); (3) their interpersonal relationships (Bowlby, 1980;Nadeau, 1998); (4) their outlook on the future (Taylor & Armor, 1996;Thompson, 1985); (5) their view of the world, in terms of spiritual or philosophic beliefs (Janoff-Bulman & McPherson, 1997;McIntosh et al, 1993;Pargament & Park, 1995;Richards, 2001); and (6) their meaningful actions in their social communities (Armour, 2003). The model posits that the death of a loved one is an occurrence that may be consistent or inconsistent with one's preloss meaning structures (Neimeyer, 2005).…”

She Is a Widow: The Story of Six Druze Widows in Israel

“…According to Lopata (1973) [21], after the parents' death, the relationships between the widow and her brothers are shaped anew, become more relaxed and based on greater permissibility, mutual respect to privacy and open negotiation regarding mutual ex-pectations. In regard to social networks, it was found that the I.D.F.…”

Gender, justice and work: A distributive approach to perceptions of housework fairness

“…Men undergo a similar process (Doucet 2009;Yeung et al 2001) and, as for women, the associated self-adjustments may lead to new identities and parenting beliefs and by extension changes in evaluations of gender divisions of labor. Similar psychological processes leading to changes in identity, sense of entitlement and comparison referents are likely to take place in relation to relationship transitions and, in turn, be associated with changes in perceptions of housework fairness (Baucom et al 1990;Lopata 1973;Pals 1999).…”