What makes up your identity and why Quiz4 - Admission/Application Essay Example

What makes up your identity and why? Identity is a person’s view of who they are, how they relate to other people, how one takes general life occurrences and how such occurrences affect them. It may also be how other people describe someone; based on race, tribe, religion, and cultural practices that define one. There are various factors that affect ones identity including; interests and hobbies, ones physical location (country/city/town/village), media, family, friends and peers, gender and many others.

In the search of finding out what ones identity is, one may ask him/ herself all or some of the following questions;Why do I like doing what I enjoy doing?What do I look like?What design of clothes do I like to wear?What type of music do I mostly enjoy listening to?What extracurricular activity (hobbies) do I enjoy doing? Who is my role model?When I am mostly active (am I a morning person or a night person)?When was I born?Where was I born? The above questions help one find out their personal identity, that is, what makes them unique or outstanding from the other person.

Personal identity unlike physical identity is not permanent. It is subject to change depending on nature, past life experiences, and the various psychological stages one is going through in life On natural aspect ones identity are in most cases genetically determined. Nature can be defined generally as the physical world that occurs in existence with the other forms of life. Personality development is generally an outcome of the interaction of one’s genetic makeup and the environment. This occurs also before conception has taken place.

This eventually determines individuals’ unique features like fingerprints, mitochondrial m RNA, blood groups that are heritable and unique to each individual. The effect of past life experiences on ones identity, all depends on an individuals’ perspective to the issues they went through. As much as it is said that whatever happened in the past should be left in the past, it plays a major and important role in what one is today, through giving one experience from mistakes done in the past, an giving one the lesson not to repeat the mistake.

One also can learn from the good things done in the past and be a better person. Negativity towards ones past is detrimental to ones character, and thus should not be the case. One should focus on the positive side of life and live on despite discouraging experiences. Each developmental stage of an individual has unique features that come with it, abnormalities, which could result into frustrations, educational problems that creep into affecting ones general character. There are generally seven stages of personality development, that is; infancy, toddlerhood stage, preschool stage, school age stage, adolescence stage, young adulthood stage, and finally adulthood stage of development.

Nurture is the support given to an individual’s growth and maturity, including encouragement, care, and love concern to contribute to health upbringing. The behavior of the people around a person, be it towards them, or not, greatly affects the personality of an individual. For instance, a person in a constantly discouraging, disturbing environment grows to have either self-esteem issues, or even being a rebellious individual, unlike the other who is in an environment filled with love and care.

In conclusion, a person’s identity is inclusive of the thoughts, experiences feelings and behaviors that make a person stand out from the rest of the crowd. It is not permanent, but is subject o change depending on the environmental surroundings an individual is subjected to.Work CitedBurke, Peter. Identity Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.