My Self And Self Identity

My identity has been formed over the course of my life, especially throughout my pre-teen years, in 2012, when my parents decided to split, and my mother went off to live with in Bristol. I have become a completely different person from when I was ten years old, because of the people in my life, such as my teachers, my parents, and my friends. I feel as though I have become a more well-rounded person, because of my experiences.

A person’s identity is influenced by how you view yourself and how society views you. In Jonathan Lykes poem This is a Siren, and the short story The Bear that Wasn’t by Frank Tashlin, both authors shine a light on how great of an impact society can have on an individual’s identity. Society has already established different stereotypes for each individual which causes everyone to perceive others in a certain way without truly getting to know them. This can cause an individual to change the way they perceive themselves in order to be accepted by society and to fit in it’s expectations of that individual. “This thing called perception, that gives people the opportunity for acceptation, or on the flip side, to be a circle of rejection…” (Lykes 2010) Here, Lykes talks about how we perceive each other can either make us accept one another or reject one another. However, in the end, it is up to the individual to decided if they are going

There are many factors that shape us into who we are, and who we will become. Some of these factors we can control, while others we cannot. While we are born into many traits of our identities, much of our other behavior is learned. My identity, for example, is “based not only on responses to the question ‘Who am I?’ but also on responses to the question ‘Who am I in relation to others?’” (Allen, 2011, p. 11). My identity and the question of who I am, are both influenced by many aspects of my life, including my hometown, my family, my friends, and my beliefs and moral values.

When the world we live in is viewed from an anonymous, unbiased standpoint the individuality of ‘I’ has a tendency to diminish away and be replaced by a society of eyes. Who view one’s identity differently then what the individual can see. Life moves on whether we like it or not and how individuals view themselves verses how others perceive them can leave a lasting impression. Everyone has a unique identity and perspective of the world they live in. The way individuals see themselves may appear to be different than what others see in them because of different values, morals and characteristics that shape’s ones identity.

As far as identity and experiences go, I can easily follow how their effects mold my values and perception of the world. Many aspects of my education and childhood, for example, correspond pretty directly with general areas of privilege. I am White, able-bodied, and have always lived in relative safety. These are traits that I, and others like me, often take for granted, paying little attention to the societal structures that arbitrate them as advantages. Even among the places where my identity does deviate from dominant culture, many seem trivial within a bigger picture: born while my mother was in college, only one parent with a degree, a young childhood with much less money than I remember having in my later years. These, and many others, of course, had their impacts, but not on a scale that prepares me for bigger issues. In many ways, I have led a privileged life, and truthfully, this has made me apprehensive about whether I actually have any qualification that legitimizes me as an authority over countless students whose stories I can barely even fathom in the abstract.

The public self is often times not the true self. This indication of a difference between the public and true self leads to the idea that the self and identity of an individual are different concepts. The self, is a person’s essential being that makes each individual unique compared to others; whereas the identity, is a person’s character that is essentially created to help the individual fit into society. These two concepts begin to form early in life through influences from society, family, and culture. However, as the individual beings to assimilate the world around them, their sense of identity transforms in order to adapt to the new environment, while their sense of self remains the same.

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

“Discovering and claiming our unique identity is a process of growth, change, renewal, and regeneration throughout our lifetime.” (51) Determining whom we are as a person sounds like an easy thing to do, doesn’t it? But it’s easier said than done. There are multiple factors that play a role on who we are as a person. Some if these factors include the way we were raised, sex, our roots, the people we surround us with, where we were born, etc. Although we can somewhat control what factors molds us into we are, something that is uncontrollable is the perception others have of us. The authors talk about the micro level. This is the level were, “Individuals usually feel the most comfortable as themselves. At this level we define ourselves and structure

A sense of self is a general conscious awareness of your own identity. I have come to understand the term as it is what defines me and makes me one of a kind. It could be a certain look, attitude or personality trait. It could also be the way I view a certain person, thing or subject. My sense of self could even be my purpose in life, perhaps? If it is, then I would say that my sense of self is something that has changed over time and will continue to develop as I get older and my life is influenced by events, places and people. Developing my sense of self is key to living a satisfying and healthy life.

When you have a clear understanding of your identity, then you’re able to appreciate other’s uniqueness. People that esteem

My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. This is for others including myself, to see and to remind us that our identity is very complex.

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.

Throughout history one of the primary ways that people express their identity is through music. Many components of my identity are important to me, however I have chosen three songs to represent my class background, my sexual orientation, and my nationality. These three facets of my identity are perhaps the most important in defining my sense of self.

What is your identity? People think they know someone’s identity by the external factors, but there are internal factors that they don’t know about the person. For example, people might think people are happy, but deep down they might be sad and they don’t want nobody to find out. I define myself as a catholic heterosexual 15 year old Latina. My identity is very different than what others think of me. I think my real identity is awesome, some people think that because I am a teenager I’m into parties,relationships,drugs and also how I’m a teenager, I don’t like kid shows or playing with my little cousins also they think I don’t do “kid stuff” anymore.

Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.