Personal identity is a complex and changing process that takes place from the very beginning of life and continues to develop throughout life. Understood in the philosophical disciplines as “soul” it has been redefined as a personal identity from psychology. Her study is extensive and has led to multiple and varied definitions of personal identity as a concept.
In the following Psychology-Online article we are going to define what personal identity is, what its characteristics are, how it is built and what reasons lead a person to suffer a personal identity crisis.
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Index
- What is identity according to psychology
- Characteristics of personal identity
- How to build personal identity
- What is an identity crisis? How do you overcome it?
What is identity according to psychology
The personal identity as psychology involves the process by which the person creates with the passing of the years, an image of herself that answers the question transcendental Who am I? . This would be the definition of personal identity. It is understood as a process because it originates from the very beginning of life and develops throughout it.
A decisive moment in the consolidation of personal identity is adolescence, a moment in which the person re-elaborates everything they experienced during their childhood and integrates it into a personal and particular image of themselves. In this article we explain in depth the psychological changes of adolescence . However, the construction of personal identity does not stop at this moment since it is a living and changing process that is fed by the different experiences that the person has throughout her adult life.
Our personal identity is manifested through different elements such as:
- Gender identity
- Political choice
- Moral values
- Religion
- Popular customs and traditions
- Aesthetic style
- Verbal and behavioral expression
- Leisure
- Profession
- Studies
Characteristics of personal identity
The creation of personal identity is always defined based on two general aspects:
- The relationship of the person with himself.
- The relationship of the person with their environment.
People develop their personal identity and knowledge of their environment from the experience with their own body, from the contact and self-regulation of their emotions, motivations and desires and from the mental elaboration of all these internal experiences .
On the other hand, the relationship with their family, the school, their immediate natural and socio-cultural environment and, thanks to new technologies, with other social contexts, gives them another series of experiences that will also serve to provide new data in the creation and development of the concept of personal identity.
In this way, the human being carries out a complex work of elaborating each and every one of his life experiences in order, based on them, to build a self-concept or image of himself . This personal identity that, as we say, continues to fluctuate throughout life in small or large nuances, will serve as a basis for the person to undertake their life experiences, with respect to themselves and with respect to their environment.
The construction of personal identity is, therefore, a multifactorial process that is constantly fed back , where life experiences are creating this personal identity that, in turn, conditions subsequent experiences being, again, fed by them.
For example, some of the factor elements through which personal identity is constituted are:
- Group of belonging(family, friends, neighborhood, etc.): it defines our beliefs and values.
- Educational system: it offers certain contents that will shape our identity.
- Culture and social system: through them we internalize certain customs and norms.
- Geographical scope and residence: the nature, climate and other physical and meteorological factors of our place of residence also largely determine our identity.
- Language: through language many values, beliefs and customs typical of the linguistic group to which it belongs are transmitted.
How to build personal identity
The process of building personal identity is reflected in a very clear way by observing the evolutionary development of a person .
The baby, since its gestation, is not aware of the existence of itself but it is related to its immediate environment (its mother) and later with its body and its internal sensations to create beliefs and mental schemes that integrate everything that has been experienced. Little by little, the baby begins to become aware of its existence and, with it, of the existence of the other and, from there, it incorporates knowledge around itself in relation to its environment.
During childhood he continues to have experiences of relationship with others (family, school, socio-cultural context, etc.) that will lead him to continue building beliefs around who he is, who others are and how the world works for him. surrounds. Adolescence is the peak point in the construction of personal identity where the person consciously reworks their life experience and ends the process by creating and integrating a defining image of themselves .
The rest of life experiences during adult life will serve to consolidate or jeopardize this personal construction of personal identity.
What is an identity crisis? How do you overcome it?
In the process of personal construction, as we have said, multiple factors intervene: the person creates an image of himself based on his own internal experiences and, also, based on the relationship with his environment. It happens, therefore, that the definition of oneself is conditioned by the experience we have with others and, on many occasions, the image that our family, school or our peers have of us greatly conditions what, finally, we internalize as what we really are.
In the cases in which the perception that we assume from the outside about ourselves is similar to that which arises from our own internal sensations, personal identity tends to be formed as a safe and healthy base on which to build our personal life project. However, when the image that comes to us from the outside does not fit with our internal perception, it usually happens that an internal struggle is created between what the person “thinks they are” (usually based on negative beliefs about oneself based on what is received from the outside ) and what it “feels like” in reality. In these cases, critical life experiences (changes in life cycles, emotional breakdowns, duels, dismissal, etc.) lead these people to suffer unpleasant identity crises .
Overcoming an identity crisis involves reviewing the beliefs, attitudes and values that sustain our personal identity, erasing those that do not correspond to our essential being and reworking our personal image based on more realistic, positive ideas and in accordance with being. In this article you will find more information on how to overcome an existential crisis .
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
