Identity

Identity is a term widely used in various disciplines in the social sciences, including gender and media studies. Broadly speaking, identity refers to our sense of who we are and our relationship to the world. It describes a person's conception of “self” and the expression of her or his individuality or group affiliations, such as national, ethnic, and cultural identities.

Specifically, the term identity can be conceptualized with respect to two different aspects, namely, personal identity and social identity. Personal identity refers to the idiosyncrasies that make a person unique, including personality traits, personal values, opinions, physical characteristics, and career and lifestyle choices. On the other hand, social identity refers to the collection of group memberships that define the individual, including one's social roles, such as gender, racial, religious, political, ideological, and national. In general, these social roles involve establishing ways that a person's identity is similar to others, such as sharing a physical characteristic, speaking the same language or dialect, enjoying a similar social class, and practicing the same religion. However, the two uses of the term identity are not mutually exclusive, and some disciplines may combine both concepts when discussing one's identity. Also, in some cases, subjectivity and identity are used interchangeably by some researchers, whereby the former refers to the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, including one's sense of self.

An important concept related to identity is identity construction, which is an ongoing process of negotiation between the individual and the social context and environment, particularly cultural and power relations. It is believed that through communications and interactions with others, people negotiate and co-construct their conceptions of themselves and the world around them. In particular, the activities and contexts are imbued with and represent certain values and ideologies that privilege particular practices over others, and these activities constantly shape the dynamics of the interactions through which people display who they are to one another. Despite the dynamic nature of interactions, identity construction involves the development of a sense of sameness, continuity, and unity. In philosophical terms, personal identity refers to the extent to which an individual's characteristics remain unchanged over time. In other words, identity is seen as establishing a set of conditions that define a person's stable uniqueness. As such, most social science researchers accept that identity is something that develops over time, necessitates certain levels of organization and integration, and is achieved through the resolution of certain personal or social conflicts. On the other hand, the inability to accomplish some degree of identity coherence is thought to be an indication of psychological, social, or cultural problems.

Identity construction is also thought to involve an individual's commitment to a set of values and goals associated with specific characteristics. For instance, much of personal identity entails identifying one's [Page 174]unique features and establishing the value of those features. Social identity, on the other hand, presumes an awareness of one's group memberships, as well as a certain degree of commitment and emotional attachment to those groups. Indeed, people can either claim or resist membership of certain social groups. They can also choose to define who they are by deciding whether or not to construct themselves as credible members of a particular social group. In short, identity development is closely tied up with how people think about themselves and how they determine which aspects of their lived experiences are most significant as they define themselves.

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