8. The Self as a Fuzzy Set of Roles, Role Theory as a Fuzzy System

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Abstract
This paper shows how the socialization process (viewed by role theorists as a “role-person merger”) can be represented and analyzed as a fuzzy (dynamical) system. Given a self-concept (a fuzzy set of roles) and social norms (logical implications from roles to actions), an individual infers actions (through approximate reasoning). Given these actions, alters make biased attributions (about the roles in the individual's self-concept) that are gradually internalized by the individual. This feedback loop creates a fuzzy system (a role-space vectorfield) that generates a set of stable long-run selves (role-space attractors). I illustrate this general “endogenous-self” framework with a model based loosely on Tally's Corner; the analysis examines how the individual's long-run self-concept is influenced by a constraint on employment opportunity.

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