Self Identity : An Integral Aspect Of Human Beings

The building blocks of personal identities begin at birth. Parents and teachers are a major influence on one’s identity. They teach the individual the basic morals, knowing right from wrong. However, some individuals do not have the benefit of parental or teacher’s guidance, and this results in a stunted personality, which negatively affects these individuals’ sense of identity. In some circumstances, these

Despite the large amount of people that feel confident and comfortable in expressing themselves freely, many adolescents have a deteriorating concept of self because of the belief that they should have to conform to their peer’s ideals. The identities of these children are being dictated by a need of acceptance from prominent social groups in their environment; however, teenagers must realize one’s own individuality as something beneficial and recognizing that conforming can become problematic in certain situations.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

This is a time where there will be an urge to become closer to peers and become more social with people outside of the usual. This is also a time when notable changes in attitude may be seen. Burnett and Blakemore found that teenagers will are more susceptible to peer pressure, but they also become more resilient to it, especially between the ages of 14 and 18. Teens become more self aware of their ability to refuse peer pressure and make decisions for themselves. Through learning to reject certain people and behaviors, there is also a period of learning who enhances one’s personality. This learning stage brings attention to self-identity and group identity. People usually find a difference in the actions that they would do alone when compared to when peers are involved; this is also called Social Psychology, which is the understanding of individuals behavior in social situations (McLeod). Attitudes and emotions may become impacted by who is interacting with a person and there may be a willingness to do things that originally wouldn’t happen. The difference in personality and interactions is to prepare people for when they leave the stage of adolescence- Hopefully, humans emerge capable of socializing with others and communicating emotions- Even as the human brain continues to socially develop (Blakemore

Stereotypes have been around since the beginning and continue to hurt the lives of certain people in society. Due to stereotypes and prejudice made by certain people, the author, Evan Hunter, successfully demonstrated through the story “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” the consequences of stereotyping. The story focuses on a sixteen year old boy named Andy, and his last moments being alive after being stabbed by a rival gang known as the Guardians. Andy was stereotyped because of his purple jacket that identified him as a member of the Royals. While he is reflecting on his life, four people come by but do not take the time to help. The drunk man

Lately my mornings are spent getting up between 5:30am and 6am. I get myself ready, I never look fantastic just passable, and I go to work. Part of my morning routine is getting my dog, Donovan, ready for the early part of his day as well. We go to the yard for his bathroom routine, we go inside where I feed him his diet dog food and inject him with insulin, we go upstairs where I place a new diaper wrap around his mid-section (dogs with diabetes leak, who knew?), and he goes back to bed to sleep beside my husband. After we say our goodbyes I head to work, or school, or whatever adventure life has for me that particular day. Rinse, wash, repeat. I had no idea when I was in my teenage years that my life at 32 years old would be a tattooed, married, full time working, full time schooling, boring, Puerto Rican, animal lover. Well, the animal loving part I knew since I was maybe 2.

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.

1. Any theory of personal identity should be able to solve two problems: first, the problem of individuation; second, the problem of continuity or persistence. How would you in your own words characterize these problems? Also, do these problems matter at all? Are they actually important? Why or why not?

“In the teenage years, young people begin their quests for identity” (Bellows 2). According to Dr. Amy Bellows in her article “Your Teen’s Search for Identity”; our teenage years is the time period when we scour for an identity, although we find a struggle to find our true identity. Status symbols, forbidden behaviors, rebellion, idols, and cliquish exclusion are the most common ways in which us as teenagers struggle with our identity (Bellows 2-7). In other words, peer pressure and self-esteem are some of the factors that can mislead us from the path towards our “ideal” identity. Furthermore, searching for an identity influences one’s future.

The idea behind self-identity is one’s concept of the perceptions and recognitions of individuals one has about abilities, flaws, status and worth in relation to social context. Elements that can influence the difficulties and hardships that young adults face during their self-identity is family, pressure to conform and gender expectations. Usually the family environment plays a large role in shaping the identity of young people as they grow into adolescence and become adults through socialisation, cultural identity and the parental influence. The pressure to conform shapes actions, beliefs to align with opinions and behaviours of other people. Young people mainly feel the pressure to conform during the middle-adolescent years of theirs lives.

It seems that from all corners of the world, as far as the eye can see and beyond, there are small collections of individuals who believe so strongly, so surely in an idea that the connection between man and his principle become infinitely woven into that individual’s character, sense of identity, and will even influence their actions; when this individual’s ideas are challenged, they act without rational in erratic, and sometimes, violent ways. There are examples of this happening all around us, simply turning to the nearest news source corroborates as much, and if this type of behavior is continued to be forgiven through inaction against it, change will not occur and those few individuals will continue to do harm. Perhaps it is easier to

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.

The adolescent stage is often challenging as significant physical, mental, and social changes occur during this time. When those changes are desired by the individual and supported by others, they often result in a stronger sense of self and ability to connect with others. If these changes are unwanted or elicit negative responses by those around them, they can have adverse implications on one’s self. During my adolescent years, I experienced many types of changes that impacted my identity. It all began with my family’s move.

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.

While childhood seemed like a breeze, my adolescent years were anything but that. Adolescence, the transition between childhood and adulthood beginning with puberty, is a time full of physical and psychological changes both positive and negative. During this time individuals are in search of their identity, a task that can yield a lot of confusion. The question of who am I lingers in the back of adolescent minds and the answer anything but simple. This struggle for an identity and one’s place in society can lead to stress. Through exploration and soul searching, however, one might find their identity. For me, this question seemed impossible to answer, however, I always had a strong desire to fit in and be liked by others. Reading through the different developmental theories in the text, I started to compare them to events in my own life and noticed many significant similarities.