Ideal Selves as Resources for the Situated Practice of Identity

Identity construction is often emphasized as an active process that results in the development of a distinctive, coherent self. This study considers what it means to frame identity construction as a situated communicative practice that draws on ideal selves, normative expectations about whom one should be. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this study demonstrates how participants drew on two ideal selves—one who delivers and one who practices wellbeing—in their identity constructions and leveraged the value of moderation to construct identities that achieved both ideals. This study suggests that a communicative perspective focused on the situated practice of identity enables scholars to attend to how socially constructed ideals of whom one should be shape identity construction.