Introduction

Introduction to Identity Structure Analysis

Assessing day-to-day problematic issues of people in the community

Identity Structure Analysis (ISA) is a conceptual framework of well-defined psychological concepts and explicit postulates about psychological processes that have a fundamental significance for the person's processing of day-to-day experiences that vary according to the context in which one is engaged. These processes have to do with the person's sense of identity. Community enterprises and organisations depend on the interactions of several, maybe hundreds of, people with various types of skills and at different levels within informal or formal structures. Each person approaches the day with a sense of identity, long-term aspirations and short-term expectations, a desire to be recognised for oneself, a desire to contribute to various enterprises, which may be facilitated or frustrated by others with whom one interacts during the day, or by one's own skills or deficiencies. These others in various contexts might include such people as managers, immediate colleagues, subordinates, and members of the public, with whom one may have good facilitative kinds of relationships or detrimental and undermining ones. One's own propensities may be productive and supportive of the work of others, or they could be subtly, even overtly, antagonistic and undermining of others.

Different cultures and alternative moral imperatives

Given these issues of differing people's identity processes, it may be thought that, with the best of intentions by all concerned, harmonious and productive interactions in the community would be fraught with all manner of problems over the simple everyday activities involving others. This is indeed largely people's experience in the real world, to some extent held in check by people's skills in presenting acceptable personas in the public space. When individuals whose cultural backgrounds are very different and who act according to moral imperatives and expectations that are at odds with each other, the propensity for problematic interactions increases a great deal, partly as the result of misunderstandings but partly as the result of genuine disagreements over the acceptability of differing moral imperatives. The resolution of dilemmas arising from alternative expectations and interpretations requires the effective assessment of such dilemmas as can be achieved using ISA.

Complexities of community interactions inaccessible to traditional psychometric assessment

Contemporary agencies need to be able to better comprehend the complexities of interactions within the community, to understand how such complexities relate to the differing cultural norms as might be pursued by these agencies, and to be aware of differing moral imperatives when interacting with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds or negotiating with them in global contexts. While traditional psychometric procedures are effectively able to assess a wide range of personality traits, competencies and social skills, they are unable to effectively ascertain the kinds of issues mentioned above that have to do with everyday kinds of problematic interactions, maybe exacerbated by differing cultural expectations and moral imperatives.

The ISA conceptual tools and associated dedicated computer software

ISA provides the conceptual tools for assessing these issues, fully incorporating the differing cultural propensities of individuals, and a fully developed methodology for applying these tools in practice by way of dedicated computer software. ISA is both very sensitive to individual differences and robust in its applicability to 'difficult' circumstances as when only partial awareness of the issues at stake is forthcoming. Instead of proffering off-the-shelf products, ISA provides a means of precisely customising a comprehensive assessment of people's identity structures and processes that are of immediate relevance to the interests of the investigator, facilitated by the dedicated computer software. Investigators incorporate their own expert knowledge and focal organisational concerns when generating customised identity instruments, which follow well-established computer-aided procedures. (For example, in a business context, customisation would be according to such matters as corporate cultures, differing levels of organisational management, recruitment and training requirements, and varying ethnic and cultural propensities at any level from Board Room to any employee position.)