Determining of Identity

Determining of identity is a philosophical issue that has always caused the special interest during the entire history of a mankind. A necessity to identify oneself is the attempt to understand one’s life position using one’s principles and values. Every aspect of human life has an impact on how a person perceives himself/herself. To this category one may refer such elements as career, political views and culture.  All of them shape the individual’s identity and create his/her unique vision of life.  In order to understand better how these aspects impact the individual’s identity, one should analyze them according to their meaning and importance in the individual’s life.

For majority of people career is the way to introduce themselves to others. One of the first questions that people ask when they become acquainted is where a person works and how he/she makes his/her living (Petriglieri, 2011). However, this issue is as well important for the individual as for the other people. One of the primary tasks for each individual is to find himself/herself in this life; as a rule it includes finding of job or hobby that will satisfy this demand. The career path is the demonstration that a person has achieved something in his/her life. In this case, the individual may state that he/she belongs to a certain sphere. For instant, a manager, a teacher or a bus driver identify themselves as the representatives of the particular social class.

The second issue is political views. Political views may tell about the individual more than other aspects. They predetermine the individual’s position and his/her attitude to the various situations in the world. Despite the fact that some people prefer not to be involved in the political discussions and do not have any strong opinion concerning the particular cases, they cannot ignore the fact that even this apolitical attitude also demonstrates their political views. In other words, high or low interest shows the individual’s involvement and attitude to the political issues.

The third issue is culture; it is probably the strongest means of self-identification. When the individual states that he/she is the representative of a particular culture, he/she tries to announce about the wide variety of views that include this culture. Hence, culture may predetermine political views, life position, moral principles and beliefs. In fact, every individual needs to identify the culture to which he/she wants to belong (Meister, Jehn, & Thatcher, 2014). The absence of culture complicates the solving of ethical issues because the individual does not have any strict position concerning such cases.

When I think about my identity, I take into consideration all these aspects. My career is an attempt to demonstrate my strong sides and my goals in this life. Career is the result of my personal choice that was made in order to find the work that I like and want to do. My political views show my principles in this life, my positions and attitude to the situations in the world.  In this way, I differentiate myself from other people, demonstrating my life position. The culture I belong to is the necessity of the inner world which is partly hidden from the people who surround me. My culture helps me to make a right decision in complex situations; it motivates me to act according to my principles. In a challengeable situation culture helps to act without wondering whether I act right or wrong. In other words, the identified culture is my personal world that exists in the outside world, too.

I believe that all these aspects have a great contribution to my life. However, I should admit that culture is the strongest and most important for me. Culture has the priority position because all the other aspects depend on culture. For example, political views are hardly impacted by the individual’s culture. Culture is the paradigm of life principles, stereotypes, believes, social norms, ethical behavior and other principles. In other words, the individual’s culture presents the individual’s character, views and behavior.

My inner world predetermined by the culture that I belong to  is the result of searching for myself. I as well as any individual have the demand to be referred to a certain culture. My culture is more than the complex of principles and values; it is the way I perceive this world and perceive myself through this world. According to this fact, culture becomes the sense of life because it shapes the borders of my world. Without these borders that are created by my personal culture, I will lose my personal sense in this world.

To sum up, it may be said that each individual has a necessity to determine his/her position in this life. In order to achieve this goal people use various aspects that help them to reveal the inner potential. To this category one usually refers such aspects as career, political views and culture. These three elements become the background of the individual’s personality identity. Every person is the only one who decides which of these elements plays more crucial role in his/her life. As for me, culture is the supreme aspect that predetermines all other priorities. Hence, I believe that the first thing that individual should do is to analyze his/her own cultural preferences in order to understand who he/she is.

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