Religion Values, and Culture Identity Development Essay

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

2. The concept that different cultural groups can and should maintain their unique cultural identities while participating equally in the dominant culture is

Introduction： It can be agreed that culture and identity have inseparable and intense connections. Culture means the way of life or the characteristics of a group of people, it can be defined from various aspects, such as religion, language, food, music, arts and and so on. Also culture is all the mental phenomena which condenses in the human production and life activities, including a variety of intangible values and physical creation. Moreover, Identity can be understood that who you are, what makes you different with others. The conception of national identity refers to the way that a country or a nationality define themselves with culture, language and traditions as a whole.

Subverting the traditional perspective of how ethnicity forms, Barth suggests the opposite of what one would expect; he argues that ethnic identities are based on the social distinctions that result from social interaction. While the common perception is that geographical isolation defines different cultures, Barth argues that it is social interactions within and outside of a negotiated group that strengthens its boundaries. However, these boundaries are far from static; they are constantly being shifted and renegotiated due to the way an individual interacts with other people. As the individual grows, their participation and inclusion in ethnic groups may vary, causing their ethnicity to develop over the course of a lifetime. EMERGE??

If an ethnic group retains its formal ethnic identify but loses its core cultural practices, or the knowledge, resources or the ability to continue them, then that culture may not be able to survive. (Cultural practice, 2014). Individuals who become socialized to the norms of the larger society do not necessary give up their own original culture values and behaviors in the process of learning new ones. Because values and behaviors are largely related to context, the individual who embraces both is able to develop bicultural adaptation skills, bicultural competency and bicultural identity. This individual is culturally

In addition to evaluating ethnic identity from a variety of psychological or behavioral perspectives, the article also discusses a number theoretical models for defining ethnic identity. As Phinney & Ong (2007) state, “a clear theoretical model, therefore, is a necessary foundation for all

Along with culture shock come the challenges of acculturation, the process by which continuous firsthand contact of individuals of different cultural groups lead to changes in the cultural patterns of one or both of the groups (p.

“Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group.” Cultural identity is everywhere from whites to blacks, to Christians or Catholics. Everybody has a different cultural identity. However, there are stereotypes that are made against a lot of cultures due to society. For example, black females are being misunderstood by stereotypes which is causing diversity.

We learned that there are 3 stages before cultural identity is formed. First stage is unexamined cultural identity which is when people lack awareness of cultural

Although some ethnic identities were founded on “inherent biological, cultural, or racial traits” dividing lines have mostly changed. On the contrary, the characteristics of ethnic groups are enormously personal and have undertaken a “presumed identity” . As much as ethnicity is distinguished by a mutual identity inside a specific group, it is concurrently explained by its differences with other groups. While constituents of an ethnic group take part in an identity founded on a mutual characteristic or opinion, their ethnic attributes (such as language, race, religion) are normally not all the same, and if they are, these characteristics independently are not distinct to that group. The difference in the amalgamation of characteristics that shapes an “ethnic identity” signifies that a person normally shares mutuality with more than one ethnic group. Moreover, what are the fixed dividing lines that determine an ethnic group when its constituents have mutual characteristics with one other, but as well with other groups? “The ethnic label subsumes a number of simultaneous characteristics which no doubt cluster statistically, but which are not absolutely interdependent and connected” .

The first stage of a typology of cultural identity is cultural psychological captivity. This is when a person begins to take in the negative views about his or her cultural group believed within the society. They begin to have a negative cultural image and low self-esteem. They reject their culture during this stage and want nothing to do with it because they are ashamed. Therefore, they begin to try to assimilate with the dominate culture. People who belong to certain cultural groups that have experienced cultural discrimination, such as African Americans, the deaf, and gays, are more likely to have experienced cultural psychological captivity.

One of the first definitions of acculturation can be found in the work of Redfield, Linton and Herskovits, which is widely used nowadays because of the works of Berry (1990; 1997). This definition says that “acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups” (by Berry 1997).

Tajfel & Turner, (1979) the proponents of social identity theory helped in the understanding of intergroup relations. Their focus was on the complex “interweaving of an individual or interpersonal behavior with contextual social processes of intergroup conflict” (p.276). social identity theory, therefore emphasizes intergroup relations (relationship of an individual has with his group and between an outgroup) and categorical distinction (what sets an individual apart from another outgroup) . Korostelina describes this as “the processes of identification with other group members” (p.23). Personal identities are consequently reflected in an individual’s social identity. For instance, an individual with an Islamic conviction cannot be found in a church on a Sunday. Social identity theory holds that individuals establish who they are and the group they belong, basically because there is one form of similarity or another hence, by “categorization,

Ethnicity has its origin and has been used variously in addressing and classifying groups of people, constituting a term of identification. Ethnicity as a word evolved from the late Middle English (distinguishing a person not of the Christian or Jewish faith) via latin ethnnicus, Greek ethnikos (from the word ethnos (nation) (Spencer, 2014). Coupled with, Richard Jenkins relates ethnicity to the Greek word ethnos, as it refers to the social interaction of humans (Orji, 2008). A breakdown of the definition of ethnicity will provide an insight to the different perspectives on the conceptualization of ethnicity.