For Week 3, you’ll continue your exploration of self and identity, specifically through the lens of social identity and relationships with your broader community.
Below, you’ll find a selection of curated resources on this topic, including books, articles, and podcasts.
Identity is a set of traits that distinguishes you from others and includes your core values and beliefs.
A strong sense of identity is important since it affects your motivations and relationships. Understanding your identity is important for creating self-awareness, provide direction in your life, keep you grounded, improve decision making, and enable us to get more involved with communities. It also enables healthy relationships with others.
Factors that contribute to your identity can include physical appearance, emotional traits, values, social community, family and more.
Our identity also develops with us throughout our life. In childhood, our identity is shaped primarily by our family since we interact with them the most. This is the time when we learn values that our family and communities find important. In adolescence, identity formation begins and we intentionally start building our sense of self and learning more about ourselves. In adulthood, we begin building our professional identities and build a deeper understanding of identity and relationships. It is important to note that these stages are flexible and our identities evolve with us. (Very Well Mind)
Each of us has a sense of who we are, where we come from, and what we believe. But is identity assigned at birth? Shaped by circumstance? Or is it something we choose, that changes over time? In this hour, TED speakers describe their journeys to answer the question: who am I?
As part of the BBC World Service Season on Identity, The Why Factor examines one simple question: Who are you? Did you choose your identity or was it given to you? Mike Williams asks how our identities are created and if that shapes the way we see the world, and the way the world sees us.
For thousands of years, we've searched to answer the question: Who are we? Today, science has brought us closer than ever to the answer. This hour, TED speakers share ideas on what makes us ... us.
What happens when a cornerstone of your identity is an identity that makes the people around you anxious? And when the greatest markers of your identity are invisible to the outside world? The poet, writer, and creator of the amazing Brown Girls series Fatimah Asghar shared with us on the pod.
We help our listeners understand how race and and its evil play cousin, racism, affect our friendships.
This article from Psychology Today defines and explores the concepts of identity and authenticity.
This is a short term longitudinal study that examines identity exploration and interactions with peers. A main finding is that mutual affirmation from peers and the process of going back and forth is a key process in identity exploration.
This article focuses on the exploration aspect of identity formation. They include twelve exploration domains for identity formation including physical appearance, free time, family, work, boyfriend-girlfriend relationships, own opinion formation, perception of own place in the life cycle, self-reflection, future, future family, outlook on life, and attitude toward rules.
This article defines identity and explains the importance of identity. It also provides tips on ways to reflect on your identity.
This article explores the relationship between social identification and identity integration with their impact on psychological well-being. They utilized a person center approach in this study which means they focus on individuals and not variables for a better understanding of multiple identifications.
This article provides helpful thought exercises that have the potential to boost your problem solving skills and creativity by utilizing your multiple identities. It explores the concept of "identity accessibility."
This article focuses on the connection between identity and well-being. They focus on how to align your identity and sense of self with other tips for strengthening your sense of self.
Infographic created by Trans Student Educational Resources.