Essay On Identity Formation

Social processes are those in which we interact with people and all the ways in which we interact with our environment, while introspective processes are those in which we use cognitive thought to assess ourselves. Identity formation is the development of the distinct personality of a person regarded as their continuous or known personality which is reached at at particular stage in life, when these individual characteristics are reached a person is thought to be known or have formed their full identity. Distinct aspects of the person's identity include a sense of continuity, a sense of uniqueness from others, and a sense of affiliation. Identity formation regards both the creation of a person’s personal identity and the identity they hold as part of certain groups such as friends, family and colleagues. Identity is usually considered to be finite and consisting of separate and distinct parts (family, cultural, personal, professional, etc.), although according to Parker J. Palmer, it is a continuously evolving part of our being in which our genetics ,culture, family, friends, those who have harmed us and vice versa, our actions, experiences, and choices made, come together to form who we are at a certain moment in time.

The two main theories which deal with identity and the formation of it are Erik Erikson’s of psychosocial development and James Marcia’s identity status theory. Erikson’s beliefs that throughout a person's life, they experience different crises/conflicts. His theory is that there are eight main stages in a person’s life in which they form their identity, he states that when a conflict arises it must be dealt with properly as if it is not overcome a person will fail to progress to the next stage. The stage regarde...

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...a person identifies i.e., whether a Person perceives themselves to be a man, a woman, or describes oneself in some less conventional way, but can also be used to refer to the gender that other people attribute to the individual on the basis of what they know from gender role indications

(social behaviour, clothing, hair style, etc.). Gender identity may be affected by a variety of social structures, including the person's ethnic group, employment status, religion or irreligion, and family.

Thus it goes to show that although we all have our own personal opinions of ourselves based on our religion, gender, job etc these have all been influenced greatly by society whether from the viewpoint of many of these traits being predetermined or based on the fact that we feel the need to conform in order to fit in with society thus basing our identities on social norms.