Individual Identity as Social Science and Psychology - Essay Example

Individual identity as per social sciences and psychology is a preservation of a notion that consists of self-image and behavior which represents as a whole his/her identity with all the attributes which make them who they are as a person and how the world identifies them. Social psychology weighs identity more on the behavioral side perhaps because it has a lot to do with the concept of behavior functions and identity co-operation. which primarily means, that a person has to co operate with a society as a whole concerning the actual meaning of his/her own identity along with the identification of societal needs according to his/her personal traits which can eventually help the society in identifying a person's singular identity. Whereas, psychology on the contrary explains identity on a more personal measure describing identity as 'personal identity' and the personal traits that makes a person unique if it's by a single one of those traits but sets him/her apart from the person standing next to them. An individual's personal identity is perhaps an image of who he/she really is with all the personal attributes that one possesses to personal preferences which eventually shapes our professional behavior as we step into our professional lives. The beginning to assess how our own identities affect our professional behavior can be done by career assessment which unveils our career preferences and needs with regards to who we are and what we're good at. Our identity provides us with the kind of people we would like to be in the upcoming future which leads us to a self-quest and to analyze what is it that could satisfy us our entire lives professionally. Our personal behavior represents a lot which also includes our personal preferences which makes it a lot easier for us to discover what to take up as our professions. To survive in times like today it is necessary for us to stabilize our personal and business identity which is understandable after learning the deep relationship between our personal identities and professional behavior. For us to strengthen our personal and business identities we need to make sure that we identify ourselves what our needs are and how can they be fulfilled and when they do get fulfilled is the feeling worth all the hard work. It is very important for an individual to know, express, develop and integrate personal and professional lives. Our needs need to be fulfilled because whether we realize it or not they are the driving force behind the entire decision making process and a source of motivation to prosper in the times to come. While maintaining and managing a business or perhaps an individual working under a firm requires the awareness of our personal and professional boundaries. It is highly eminent for an individual to set limits on themselves or clients working under their business in the form of cancellation and renewal of policies, payment, unpunctuality, cynicism and an inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. As a business manager, an individual has to be very confident in setting up boundaries which can shape up people on a professional level and those boundaries should be all about what other people can do and what you can or cannot tolerate. Effective inter-personal skills work wonders for attracting new and better clients or employees. Moreover, limits are about preferences not control for instance, people may disregard boundaries set by you but you would still have the choice who to remove from your environment in order to sustain and provide a healthy professional environment. While setting up boundaries an individual has to know what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in your clients or employees along with which one has to know what to do when an employee or a client climbs up the limit ladder a bit too much and act upon it in a professional manner which will help immensely in setting up a highly professional environment for the prospective clientele and work team. Therefore, management practice involves the understanding of personal identity and how it shapes your professional behavior which can eventually make you identify what your own profession wants from you. To understand the concept of identity in detail we should not look through the theory that has assisted tremendously in building the actual concept of what identity is when we talk of it on a social level. The theory of social identity is the very basis of how the notion of understanding identity emerged and it was formed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner and their aim was to help people develop an understanding the modes of identification and the aspect of uniqueness. The social identity theory consists of four major aspects one of which is Categorization which is based upon the idea of putting people in distinct categories depending on who they are personally. The second aspect is Identification itself describing the sources of identification and the constant reminder of who we are in our own view along with others which is important for the elevation of our self-esteem and confidence level. The third aspect of this theory is Comparison which marks us comparing our group with other groups while pointing towards a favorable prejudice and last but not the least psychological uniqueness which describes the feeling of differentiation when compared with others on a positive level along with the desirability that we're different from one other. This theory over the years has provided people with the most eminent facts which assist immensely in understanding the actual notion of identity and the aspect of uniqueness. Any individual on the basis of each concept and the relationship between each one of them can derive the true meaning of identity while understanding each aspect attached with it. Identity holds the truth for us regarding who we are as people along with our personal traits and inherited physical or behavioral attributes which are the very sources of identification for us. Hence, it is very important to understand what identity is, in order to understand our own identities and its relationship with the way we behave and respond to different situations in life. Professional behavior can also be understood by the notion of identity itself because our identity which also provides us with the uniqueness and differentiation from the other person is responsible for everything from career preference to professional conduct which includes vital factors of professional development such as professional responsibility fulfillment, communication skills, professional intellect and many other factors that fulfill the needs of professionalism. Bibliography: Erik Homburger Erikson, Identity and life cycle, Norton publishers, 1980 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and self-identity, Stanford University press, 1991 Anthony Appiah, the ethics of identity, Princeton university press, 2005 Steph Lawler, Identity: sociological perspectives, Polity, 2008 John Perry, Personal Identity, University of California press, 1975 Christopher John Fards Williams, What is identity, Oxford University press, 1989 Harold W. Noonan, Personal Identity, Routledge, 2003 Raymond Martin, personal identity, Blackwell publishing, 2003 Brian Goldberg, the lake poets and professional identity, Cambridge university press, 2007 Donald H. Blocher, the professional counselor, Macmillan, 1987 Richard Jenkins, Social identity: second edition, routledge, 2004 Julian Dodd, an identity theory of truth, Macmillan press, 2000 Harke Bosma, Identity and development, Sage publications, 1994 Read More