Identity Salience

Identity salience is defined by the
University of Pennsylvania as the degree to which your idea of your self is in harmony with the
role you are preforming; the corresponding degree to which you invest effort in the role; and
the ultimate degree to which you then succeed in that role:

Important in identity theory because the salience we attach to our identities
influences how much effort we put into each role and how well we perform in each role.
(Desrochers & Thompson)

This is related to the idea
of integrity as it relates to being whole, entire and undiminished. What the definition of
identity salience means is that if we feel a role we perform is out of harmony with our vision
of our self-description (identity) or, worse yet, opposed to our vision of self or, even worse,
antithetical to our self-vision, then we will not invest effort, inspiration, energy in the
role. Thus success in the role will be impeded to varying degrees, to the degree to which we
feel the absence, or lack, of identity salience.

An example may be taken from
the play The Glass Menagerie. Tom's vision of self was that he was a
writer. His role was as bread winner and factory worker. Tom felt no identity salience with his
job role, where they called him "Shakespeare" for his propensity to write. Tom's
investment of effort at the factory was minimal and he failed utterly by abandoning his role
altogether and running away. Tom felt no identity salience. There are degrees of identity
salience. Tom's example is virtually zero identity salience.