IDENTITY

Prasad Rathnayaka
MA(THM) HUC China, BA.Sp.(Hons) (Socialogy) UOR

19 December 2022
What is
Identity
“Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance,
and/or expressions that characterize a person or group”
Burke, Peter (2020) -

According to Peter Burke,

"Identities tell us who we are
and they announce to others
who we are."
MULTIDIMENSION OF IDENTITIES

• Psychologists most commonly use the term "identity" to describe

PERSONAL IDENTITY.
• Sociologists often use the term to describe SOCIAL IDENTITY or the
collection of group memberships that define the individual.
Identity is a dynamic concept

Each individual is seen to have a collection of identities open to them

(social and personal), each identity informing the individual of who he
is and what this identity entails.
There are four types of Identities

• Personal identity
• Role identity
• Social identity
• Collective identity
Personal identity

Personal identity is what makes every person unique,

defining them through their specific
• biographies (name, birthplace)
• unique characteristics (intelligent, athletic)
• role identities (daughter, employee)
• particular combination of private and public experiences
Role identity
Role identity is defined as the role (or character) people play when
holding specific social positions in groups. It is relational, since people
interact with each other via their own role identities.
Collective identity
Collective identity also pioneered by European social psychologists,
especially Alberto Melucci.
He explain that Collective identities are especially important to social
movement participants, political activists, and others banding
together to fight for or against social change by working on shared
goals and action plans.
In short, it is a process by which a set of individuals interacts to create
a shared sense of identity or group consciousness.
Social identity
European social psychologists emphasizes, how a person’s cognition,
and personality traits affect immediate person-to-person social
interactions. It is the part of an individual’s self-concept formed
through the knowledge of his or her membership in meaningful social
groups and organizations (e.g., Lions Club, the Cleveland City Club) and
categories (e.g., Native American, northerner).

In short, it is through our public selves that we are able to simplify

the world around us by using categorizations to infer our similarities
and differences to other people.
Identity is linked to socialization in
more than one way
Examples of social identities
• Race/ethnicity
• Gender
• Social class/socioeconomic status
• Sexual orientation
• Abilities / disabilities
• Religion/religious beliefs
Summary

• What is Identity & why we need it?

• It is a dynamic concept
• Four types of Identities
• Socialization & Identity
• Examples of social identities