The Long Run: 50 Years of Identity Theory Development, Refinement, and Future Directions

The Cooley-Mead Address presented an overview of the development of identity theory over the past five decades. This development of identity theory has followed the scientific pathway of replication, refinement, and advancement of new ideas to inform the study of roles, persons, and group identities in everyday life. This paper outlines the concepts that are foundational to identity theory, the measurement of identity, the theoretical refinements that highlight the organic nature of the theory that have led to greater specification and the addition of conceptual measures of the theory, the empirical research and methodological development in the concepts of identity theory, and suggestions for future research.