The Importance Of Social And Personal Identity

When people think of the word identity they might think of several factors of identity such as their name, race, sexuality, religion or other things that define the person that they are. The concepts of human identity have been created to not only label ourselves, but to also label the people around us so that we can have an improved sense of structure and order within our lives and society. Labeling people affects how those people are spoken to or interacted with in society. These labels confine individuals to act or think a certain way, which limits creativity. Labeling also affects whether a person is treated positively or negatively by other people. When people label one another, they put them in categories based on several things about

This essay will be looking to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the social identity theory with studies to support.

Our identity is comprised of inner qualities and outer representations of self. It consists of innumerable defining characteristics that make up the whole of who we are in any given moment. These fragments of self include our sexuality, gender, and sense of belonging to a particular culture, nation, religion, family, or some other group. Our identity includes our looks, personality, beliefs and fears. Each individual in society assigns themselves a particular role, whether it be as a mother, brother, retiree, performer, sportsman or as a part of their occupation, a doctor or lawyer. Often one’s entire sense of self is consumed by

Society has a way of making assumptions based on one’s physical characteristics. Often at times we categorize individuals to a particular social group. In regard to society’ perception of an individual this however, contributes to the development of social construction of racism. Most people want to be identified as individuals rather than a member of specific social group. As a result, our social identity contains different categories or components that were influenced or imposed. For example, I identify as a, Jamaican, Puerto Rican and a person of color. I identify racially as a person of color and ethically as Jamaican and Puerto Rican. According to Miller and Garren it’s a natural human response for people to make assumptions solely

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.

Social media is often praised for its ability to connect people worldwide, but in reality, it is forcing us further apart; we are no longer individuals but are instead creating for ourselves a fake social identity. Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” focuses on how reading on the Internet has made it almost impossible for us to do “deep reading.” In “Just Between You, Me, and My 622 BFF’S,” Peggy Orenstein looks at how social media has stolen younger girl’s identities, and formed their sexual identity. Chuck Klosterman in his article “Electric Funeral” sees the Internet as a breeding ground for “villains” who feed off our primitive impulses to draw attention and fame to ourselves. These three authors have powerful

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.

How does Society influence your identity? You are going to be reading three Influences explaining how we feel society influences mine and yours identity and those are gonna be: the Cloths you wear, How once everyone follows someone everyone follows, and also we are gonna be looking through birth order. Influence #1 is from the article which is, “What Your Clothes Say About You” by Learnvest. “Shopping and spending behaviors often come from internal motivation such as emotions, experiences and culture” (Dr. Baumgartner 2).

Our identity can sometimes be shaped by the way others see us. As we have seen, the way in which others view us can have some sort of impact on how we see ourselves. There are also other contributing factors such as our years of adolescence, the basic human need of wanting to belong and maturing; all play an equally important part in the forming of our character and who we are. On balance it appears that there is not only one influence in the shaping of our identity, but there are many.

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.

The current post-industrialized society’s economy could be described as information and service based, with the most profit being awarded to businesses and individuals who can capitalize on the novel needs of a constantly evolving youth population. Some of the most successful businesses are social media powerhouses, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These business are the ones that are able to change as quickly as their target audiences, with tweaks to application functions being pushed through app stores on mobile devices. This paper will focus on the primarily mobile platform, Instagram, and how it has affected the modern concept of a personal identity versus a social identity.

Social identities are a way in which a person’s physical appearance can be presented to others within society. The ability to recognize their own social identities can be seen as a way for an individual to recognize another’s social identities. Through these identities, opportunity for self-reflection within individuals can occur in order to help determine which identities they align with, so that this will help them in being more aware of their own and another individual’s identification. Having an awareness of other’s social identities, recognizing one’s own social group memberships, and evaluating which identities are more identifiable or more challenging in the eyes of another, were themes experienced within this interview. Distinguishing these various classifications of identification help in understanding why and how an individual responds to certain triggers. With Grace McDonald, the interviewee, she identifies as the following: Young adult, Caucasian American, middle class, heterosexual female that is able-bodied and practices Christianity as a religion. Grace’s social identities are important in explaining why she feels oppressed or privileged in certain situations that she encounters. Through reflection after this interview, she has also been able to appreciate the amount of diversity she has.

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.

“Some…memberships are more salient than others; and some may vary in salience in time and as a function of a variety of social situations” (Tajfel, 2-3) Salience of identity, in the way that we need to understand it in the case of perception and decision making, can be operationalized as the likelihood that a particular identity will be invoked within a certain situation that the individual is being faced with (Hogg, Terry, & White, 257). As mentioned previously, everyone holds various identities but salience is the process through which we subconsciously decide which we be used to base our decision making or preferences on. “The salience of a particular social identity for an individual may vary from situation to situation and indeed from

There are multiple social identities a person holds such as race, sex, class and sexual orientation. In each society there is typically a group within each of these categories that benefits from their membership in that group, commonly referred to as the dominant group. Accordingly, there is a group, or groups, that hurt from not being a part of the dominant group. While there are hundreds of cultures and societies around the globe, many of the same groups consistently dominate within an identity. An identity I have that falls under the privileged group within America is being white. The benefits I have received from being apart of this social group have existed since I first entered school at the age of four and I continue to benefit from them, under no fault or good behavior of my own.