How Does Identity Affect Families

Identity can be influenced by many factors, and one includes family. Within families, there is a lot of reminiscing and storytelling, including intergenerational stories, between members. Intergenerational stories include those that are told by older family members, like parents and grandparents, to younger children. An idea mentioned in the dissertation by Colbridge is the idea that identity is made by the stories individuals tell. Reminiscing, the act of recalling past experiences, allows parents and children to share memories. Autobiographical memory, “the recollection of personal life events and experiences” helps individuals “locate themselves within a continuous life narrative” (13-14). Reminisced events in families help children understand

The way in which people live affects how they identify themselves. Because not everybody is in the same group or has the same “social, political and economic power,” they will not create the same identity. Instead, they will form an identity based on the status and standards of the group they are a part of. People want to “understand how [they] fit in (or don’t) with other groups of people” in their environment (“Who Are You?”). Some groups may experience “potential obstacles, discrimination and oppression,” and these can affect how people practice power to establish an

Two are social and personal identity. Identities are “socially constructed” of our views and ideas that are formed throughout our lives from “family, peers, role models, organizations, government, etc.” Social identities are based around other people, and can “shape our life experiences, how we’re treated, whom we meet and become friends with, what kind of education and jobs we get, where we live, what opportunities we’re afforded, and what kind of inequities we may face” (“Who Are You?”). Also, the environment can shape social identity, and someone can “acquire a social identity based on their membership in various groups—familial, ethnic, occupational, and others. These group identities, in addition to satisfying the need for affiliation, help people define themselves in the eyes of both others and themselves” (“Identity/Identity Formation”). Having a social identity is important to be able to live in a world surrounded by others.
Personal identity is also important and is the one most people are familiar with. This identity is mainly formed by looking at external and physiological features, including “how we are born,” like our gender and physical traits, but it also is formed by our “ideas and ideologies” (“Who Are You?”). People want “a sense of personal continuity and of uniqueness from other people” to make their identity more personalized to themselves (“Identity/Identity Formation”). It includes characteristics