Identity formation

What Makes Identity?

Identity helps to identify individuals. “Who are you?” We will answer our name in order to identify ourselves. Everyone has their special characteristics, such as personality, name and mind. We need these characteristics because help us to understand our responsibility subjectively. The identity can be changed along with the world and the world changes because of us. Our identities are made by agents of socialization, places, experiences and the history.

The identity is controlled by places. “Identity is objectively defined as location in a certain world and can be subjectively appropriated only along with what world.” (Berger and Luckmann) Our nationality is objectively decided because it is according to which nation we are born and the nationality of our family. We generalized the roles and the attitudes of the others in socialization. In the process of socialization, our identities are changing. When we are learning at school, our identities are student and classmate. When we are at home, our identities are daughter, son, brother or sister. The identity is being changed along the world and we have to take different responsibility. We have to attend the lectures on time. We have to look after our brothers or sisters or help to do the housework. These realities also give identities to us.

The identity is determined by the agents of socialization. Apart from being changed by the locations, children’ identities are determined through learning. “Children pick up ways of behavior characteristic of their parents or others in their neighborhood or community.” (Giddens, Duneier and Appelbaum) Wherever we were born, we learned the behavior of the adults around us. Chinese children will learn how to use the chopstick from their adults. When the others know that you know how to use chopstick, people can identify you as Chinese. Besides, Chinese will learn how to speak Mandarin. Learning the cultures by socialization can determine the identity for us. Therefore, the identity is clarified by the agents of socialization, the living environments, and the people around us.

In addition, the identity is made through experiences and communications. “This characteristic [of an object to itself] is represented in the word ‘self’, which is a reflexive, and indicates that which can be both subject and object.” (Mead) “Self” means identity. We cannot see our whole body by our eyes so that we have to see ourselves through individuals’. “Self” can be found in other’s minds and eyes. We can find out how we behave through communications and experiences. When we communicate with the others, they will give responses and gestures. They are the mirror of us. They can reflect how they think and feel about you. When we were young, our parents will be angry and blame us if we get wrong. We will learn how to do well next time because we have experienced the consequences. We are going to change ourselves with their thinking. In short, the identity is made through experiences and communications as we are changing our behaviors and minds.

At last, the identity can be formed by knowing the history and the things around us. “Sociological imagination…[grasps] what is going on in the world, and to understand what is happening in themselves as minutes points of the intersections of biography and history within society.” (Mills) The identity is changed according to what we learn in the history. For examples, I know that I am a Chinese due to knowing my parents and grandparents are Chinese. Therefore, I can inherit to be a Chinese. Moreover, the identity can be determined through individuals’ experiences. We usually change our minds and views by knowing the life story and the history of the others. For example, they will generalize the attitudes or personality of the others because they aspire to have the same life with them.  Besides, we learn how to mend the ways when we got wrong. Then, a new “self” is formed. In short, the history and the things around us affect our minds.

Identity clarifies our responsibilities. Identity is formed by ourselves and the things outside us. It is made through locations, the process of socialization, agents of socialization, experiences, and the history. We change ourselves without end because “socialization is never total and never finished.”(Berger and Luckmann) The world is changing as well as humans. 




Reflection


This topic promotes me to learn and think more about the formations of identity. After reading and thinking, I know more about how identity is formed. The study of the behavior and the history of the individuals promotes me to learn about identity can be changed subjectively due to the changing of the surroundings. We have to be response differently in different environments because identity is changing. Once, we can have more than one identity. Moreover, I learned more sociological terms and concepts throughout reading the materials. This enriches my sociological knowledge as I have never studied sociology before.

      As I was a reader, a writer, or a critical thinker, I learned more about the relationship between “self” and “society”. I learned how to summarize the reading, and then analyze what I read and choose the suitable materials to do my in-class essay. The topic was “What Makes Identity?”. In the materials, there were many unrelated sources, such as what sociological imagination or socialization is. I had to think broader and try to connect these terms and concept to identity.