Personal Identity

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

Personal identity is unique to each person. Depending on influences that occurred during one’s lifetime, no one is exactly the same. Identity can be based off but, is not limited to; culture and language. This the reason why there are so many classifications in the way people behave.

What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind.

Identity is defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Oxford University Press). Personal identity deals with questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people. Some of these questions are familiar that happen to all of us every once in a while: What am I? When did I begin? What will happen to me when I die? There are many different categories that define us as people (Olson). Our Race, Class, and Culture define who we are so much that it affects how we should live our life.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

Weirob argues that the brain doesn't determine personal identity the body does and that she could not continue surviving within another body with her own brain. She believes, in the Julia North and Mary Beaudine case, that Beaudine had two brains not that North has two bodies. Based on these ideas she decides to disagree with the thought of getting the procedure done by the doctor to transfer her brain. I agree that the body determines the identity of the individual and that survival would be difficult for someone in a new body. I agree with her because she states "If the hospital kept careless records, or the surgeon thought it was of no great importance to keep track of who got the original and who got the duplicate, she might never […] the ease with which I can determine who I am not less but more mysterious than my theory."

Along with relationships, especially personal ones, adoptees can find themselves trying to figure out this question: Have you ever heard the saying, “you have to love yourself before you can love someone else?” Theres one caveat to that; who are you? Discovering personal identity is something that can start as young as 18 to 30 month old toddlers. (Oswalt) Recognizing personal attributes about yourself, hair color, name, age, eye color, gender, etc are all forms of “self conception,” or labels children use to describe themselves. (Oswalt) Though this shows the physical identification this doesn't show emotional development in finding personal identity. I myself, had my name changed when I was adopted. Your name is one of the biggest forms of

Personal identity is the idea and ideas that you develop about yourself through your whole life and eventually become the way you identify yourself in that life. This includes factors that you have no control over, such as environmental circumstances and your ethnicity, as well as the choices you make in life. These choices can be in what you believe and how you spend your time. We demonstrate portions of our personal identity outwardly through how we interact with other people and even what we wear. Nevertheless, their are many ways of forming this sense of identity and often times these various methods can be controversial in their effectiveness be it from a numerical or strict sense.

“People are like clubs” is a difficult standpoint for many people. In order to get a full comprehension, the analysis will proceed in two aspects. They are the analysis of the “club” and “Am I about to die?” (Parfit, 1984) Based on the analysis, we can know Parfit’s opinion about personal identity and the meaning of “people are like clubs”.

In general we differentiate between two “kinds” of identity. On the one hand there is the so called social identity, which stresses self-interpretation as a member of a certain social group and on the other hand there is the personal identity, which puts it´s emphasis on individuality and distinctiveness. This distinction is widely known as “patchwork-identity”. Both identities are only a subgroup of many different subjectively interpreted identities that everyone of us has innate.

My purpose is to show my individuality and to express myself. This is for others including myself, to see and to remind us that our identity is very complex.

One’s identity is who or what a person is and how they are perceived by themselves and others. Your identity defines who you are and where you fit in. It is a self-representation of your interests, relationship, social activity and much more. Some believe our sense of identity and belonging is shaped by various factors, including our experiences, relationships, and our environments. Conversely, others believe that personality is shaped by nature, and that one is defined by their biological characteristics and hereditary traits passed down from previous generations. Nevertheless a combination of both nature and nurture shapes us throughout life. For a majority of the population their journey to find their identity and belonging can often

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.