KEYS T

O UNDERSTA

NDING

IDENTI

TY

DEFINING IDENTITY

Identity is the reflective self-conception or self-image we derive from family, gender, cultural, ethnic and individual socialization.

THE 4 KEYS

• Family & Gender Socialization

• Cultural-Ethnic Identity Formation

• Group Membership: Boundary Crossing

• Ethnic-Cultural Identity Change Process

SOCIAL IDENTITIES VS. PERSONAL IDENTITYSocial identities = cultural or ethnic

membership identity, gender identity, sexual orientation identity, social class identity, age identity, disability identity or professional identity.

Personal identities = include any unique attributes that we associate with our individual concept of self in comparison to others.

FAMILY SOCIALIZATION

GENDER SOCIALIZATION

Gender identity refers to the meanings and interpretations we hold concerning our self-images and expected other-images of femaleness and maleness.

CULTURAL IDENTITY CONCEPTUALIZATION

Cultural identity is the emotional significance we attach to our sense of belonging or affiliation with the larger culture.

• Value Content refers to the standards or expectations people use to make evaluations

(e.g. individualism/collectivism)

• Cultural identity salience is the strength of the affiliation we fill with our larger culture

ETHNIC IDENTITY

Ethnic identity is “inherently a matter of ancestry, of beliefs about the origins of one’s forebears”

(Alba, 1990, p. 37 as cited in Ting-Toomy & Chung, 2005).

BOUNDARY CROSSING

Enculturation refers to the sustained primary socialization process of strangers in their original culture.

BOUNDARY CROSSING

When we are moving from our culture of origin to the to other cultural groups, we can experience multiple