The Concept Of Identity And Social Identity

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The concept of identity and social locations according to Kirk & Okazawa-Rey's Identities and Social Locations: Who Am I? Who are My People? is that Our identity is a specific marker of how we define ourselves at any particular moment in life. Identity formation is the result of a complex interplay among individual decisions and choices, particular life events, community recognition and expectations, and social categorization, classification, and socialization. (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey). The point where all the features embodied in a person overlap is called social location. Social location is a way of expressing the core of a person’s existence in the social and political world. (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey). With identity, it may seem tangible and fixed at any given …show more content…

With this subject, it is an ongoing process that involves several key questions. Answers to these questions form the core of our existence. (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey). It’s important to ask ourselves questions about what makes our identity, how do we emphasize it, take it for granted, is it positive, negative, how does it need to change? Having introspective thoughts such as these, is much deeper than just thinking that it is an “individual decision” or choice about who we are in the world or how can I be accepted in this society. For me, thinking about the parts of my identity that I emphasize would be my relationship with Christ. Being a Christian is releasing the bonds of sin through the saving knowledge of a God that forgives, not by works that I do. Of course, there can be negative sides of being a Christian. Although we are free from our guilt, we are accountable for our actions and thoughts at all times, we are held to a higher standard, and always subject to persecution. Another negative is being ridiculed and people having the perception of being “so righteous” and “oh you’re just too good” which this isn’t the case at all of being a Christian. There are real consequences to our thoughts and our

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