The scene of urban desolation and social despair captured by the cover picture of 63rd Street, one of the ghostly thoroughfares transecting Chicago's collapsing black ghetto at century's close, invites everyone to reflect on the link between the built environment, social structure, and collective psychology. More precisely, it points to the need…

Modern societies are highly differentiated, with relatively uncorrelated socially salient dimensions and a preponderance of weak, unidimensional (as opposed to strong, multiplex) ties. What are the implications of a society with fewer strong ties and more weak ties for the self? What do these changes mean for our emotional experience in everyday…

Drawing upon identity theory, expectation states theory, and legitimation theory, we examine how the task leader identity in task-oriented groups is more likely to be verified for persons with high status characteristics. We hypothesize that identity verification will be accomplished more readily for male group members and legitimated task leaders…

The present paper examines existing links between identities and the social structure in the context of identity control theory. I point out that, whether social structure is conceived as positions (roles and group memberships) to which identities are tied, or as the human organization of resource flows and transfers that are controlled by the…

Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of mothers, we specify the conditions under which the neighborhood context shapes the experience of mastery. In so doing, we extend the work of others who have shown that neighborhood perceptions influence one's sense of personal control over and above the effects of sociodemographic…

We explore how the external social structure influences internal self-processes by examining whether one's status in the social structure influences one's ability to self-verify across multiple identities. We also examine whether greater verification is related to positive self-feelings (higher self-esteem and mastery) in a stable manner, across…