When I think of who I am, I view a complex person who has many different roles within their life and contributing factors that combine to form a social identity (Meyers, 2007). I see myself as generally being the same person but one who alters their behaviour slightly to face different social situations. Changes in my behaviour are evident in each social situation because of the social expectation on me by group members and my need to be accepted and viewed as part of the group (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). Numerous factors contained in my social identity also influence my social interactions and are interconnected with my group memberships.   

 Identifying my own social identity is not the easiest thing to do but by breaking down the sum of my parts I can piece together a picture of who I am in social psychological terms. I have used headings to assist in demonstrating this and also provide a concept map to outline the interconnect ability of the identified parts of my social identity to help understand my social self in terms of the four group memberships selected. As well as exploring these factors I will also briefly consider relevant social psychological research and theory to explain my “social self”. 

Group memberships:

Family

To me family consists of my immediate family and my partner’s immediate family. This consists of two married sets of parents, four siblings and two grandmothers. Membership to this group is not only through the right of birth but the degree of importance and relevance these people are in my life. In saying this I hold membership to my family in the highest regard. My behaviour as an individual is at its most honest within this group as they consist of people who have known me the longest and accept me for who I am. 

Friends

My friendship groups are classified on many levels, sorted by the closeness and regularity of meeting and also the number of things in common within each group. Naturally the friends I see most often are closest to me and in whom I most value acceptance. My close friendship group consist of no more than 10 people and comprise of friendships that have endured time, these friends know me quite well, although, perhaps not as well as my family. Of my close group of friends my connection with the members has commenced at different times and parts of my life and the members of my friendship group are only specific to my categorisation of the membership. Obviously, friends from other groups commend less of my time and my need to be accepted by them, and usually only relate to one particular area of my life.  

University Students

As a student at the University of Canberra, I see myself as a person who associates with people I have come to know over the three year period of my degree. I see many of these people as friends; people who are going through the same things as me and can assist me, provide advice and network with. As part of this membership I remain committed to returning the favour and providing advice and help where I can; as I view this as a reciprocal group membership. 

Work Colleagues

My need to work does not necessarily allow me to choose my group membership however, work provides me a sense of purpose and a position of responsisbility; one that promotes competence, self- determination and personal satisfaction. Membership to this group also provides invaluable contacts that assist me in the completion of my work. While I may not be able to choose the people I work with, I clearly identify and associate more regularly with those who have similar work ethics and personal interests.  Given the amount of time I spend at work compared to other areas in my life, I identify myself primarily as my occupational title and recognise that a person’s job description provides an important social identity.  

Membership to these four groups provides me a sense of self, purpose and a place of belonging. It creates a sense of community and an acceptance of my different selves. However, it is not just my membership to these groups that create my social identity and therefore explain my social self.  The components of my social identity have influenced my selection of group memberships and also my social self. This is briefly identified in the following three broad categories.  

 Ethnicity, cultural heritage and religion: 

I was born in Canberra, Australia and proudly call myself an Australian; yet my cultural heritage is influenced by the diversity of the family in my life.

My father was born in Hanover, Germany to my Grandparents who had Eastern European heritage belonging to the Netherlands and the Ukraine. Although being able to speak fluently in several languages my father only spoke to me in English. This was influenced by his parent’s modern views of assimilating with their new country, and the fact that my father was two when he came to live in Australia. This also meant that I was quite detached from my father’s ethnic and cultural heritage and did not learn a second language.  

My mother was born in Australia, of my Grandparents who were of Irish heritage. She, like my father grew up in one of Australia’s cities and experienced a fairly similar upbringing to that of my father. Both my parents made do with what they had during times of shortage, and both retained that mentality when I was growing up. In doing so they influenced my views differently to that of most “Generation Y” on materialism and the necessity of having the latest and greatest of everything. My Grandparents were devout Catholics and strongly influenced my mother’s way of life; in turn she raised me to be Catholic. Not only have my own parents been contributing factors to my ethnicity and cultural heritage but so too have my partner’s parents.  

My partner’s father was born in one of the Greek Islands to parents of Greek decent. He spent his childhood and adolescent years in Greece but left the country to work on cargo ships and immigrated to Australia shortly afterwards. My partner’s mother was born in New Zealand and came to Australia to commence her overseas travels but after meeting her future husband postponed her travels. Although from different countries, they lived the Australia culture and promote the Greek influence in the theme of multiculturalism. My partner was educated in his Greek heritage and speaks Greek fluently, this emphasis on culture has influenced me attempt to learn the language and travel to his father’s homeland. With this exposure I have embraced a strong cultural heritage that was not present in my own parents. 

Social attitudes, beliefs and values:

I endeavour to live my life as a good person, which is based on the way I was raised by my parents, taught by my teachers, influenced by my interactions with people in society, and my personal experiences at work and university. From these contributing areas I have formed my own sense of social attitudes, beliefs and values which slightly vary to each situation but carry the same thread of common courtesy, manners and respect for people.  

Social behaviour and social aspects of your personality:

I am a sociable person, who shows an interest in others, is happy to talk to people, and creates and values bonds with people. This reflects a significant social aspect of my personality and in turn affects the way I interact with others. As I value the need to relate to people I am motivated to achieve this in my interactions with others. In fact my interest in people and the way we interact with other has lead me to study Psychology and in turn provided me an interest in the following social psychological variables which have shaped my social identity and help me understand my social self. 

Social psychological research and theory: 

Social interaction is the key to Social Psychology, with social identity traditionally being used to view group behaviour in Hofstedes’s collectivist terms (Smith et al, 2006), not individual terms (Hogg & Williams, 2000).  Although I have not gone into great detail of my behaviour within the four group memberships listed above, the fact that they were the first things I used to identify my social identity and social self, in itself corresponds with the collectivist view. 

Social identity theory attempts to review the “relationship among cognitive-motivational processes, the collective self-concept, and the social group in inter group context” (Hogg & Williams, 2000 p. 91). This theory is relevant to my motivation as detailed by Deci & Ryan (Deckers, 2005) to be accepted by different group memberships to fulfill my needs of social belonging as explained in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Burger, 2004) and acceptance in various areas of my life and also my self categorization of social comparisons, which helps identify my social self. 

For further reading, other social psychological theories that relate to the identification of the social self include but are not limited to; the self concept, self awareness, self esteem and social comparisons (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). 

References  

Baumeister, R. F. & Bushman, B. J (2008). Social psychology and human nature. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. 

Burger, J. M. (2004).  Personality (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning.  

Deckers, L. (2005). Motivation: Biological, psychological and  environmental. Boston, CA: Pearson education.   

Hogg, M. A. & Williams, K. D. (2000). From I to we: Social identity and the collective self group dynamics: Theory, research, and practice, Vol. 4, No. 1, 81-97.   

Meyers, D. G. (2007). Exploring Social Psychology (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw- Hill.  

Smith, P. B., Bond, M.H. & Kagitcibasi, C. (2006). Understanding social psychology across cultures: Living and working in a changing world. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.