Conceiving selves: a case study of changing identities during the transition to motherhood

Smith, Jonathan A. (1991) Conceiving selves: a case study of changing identities during the transition to motherhood. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 10 (4), pp. 225-243. ISSN 0261-927X.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X91104001

Abstract

This qualitative study follows one woman through her pregnancy and transition to motherhood, and is concerned with the changes which occur in her accounts of identity. The study has a dual focus: on the changing identity of the woman herself as she becomes a mother, and on the simultaneous construction of an identity for the growing foetus. The complex and ambiguous nature of the process is highlighted, for example, in the woman's move towards self-containment as well as engagement with key others. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, the woman's account is prioritised in the study. Only after a close reading of her account is the material theorised in relation to the existing literature, particularly Mead's notion of a symbiotic or relational self. Finally a deconstructionist reading of some of the material in the case is provided.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
School:	Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
Depositing User:	Sarah Hall
Date Deposited:	10 Mar 2020 14:23
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 17:58
URI:	https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/31251

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