Who Am I ? Evaluating our Identity on Many Levels

I am sure you have often heard the expressions in people’s speech… “I identify with…” “My identity is…” It is how we feel we belong to a certain group or how our belief system is connected with members of a certain group. Our identity forms a bridge between ourselves and culture and communication. Some say we convey our identity when we speak, we do but I also contend that we convey our personal metaphors which can be an identifier as well as unspoken intentions and desires. The metaphoric speech within cultures can lead to periods of confusion and unclear messaging as those metaphors are often subliminal communications. We know that someone has said something that perhaps warrants further investigation but it can also be more overt. For example, we know when a person identifies various groups simply by the way they speak, react to members of different groups, or even gain membership into groups. They can be inclusive or exclusive and you and I may not meet the criteria to be a select member for many reasons.

It is important to understand how we form our personal identities. We need to understand who we are and where we come from. Without that personal depth and insight, we may have difficulty understanding where we belong. We have personal identities and social identities. There is our private side and social side. I am sure you have heard that people never really know who you are completely-that is simply because we have to constantly merge within groups on a daily basis. Perhaps people are more open in an office setting, but they go home and are very compartmentalized in their thinking. Stereotypes develop. We have stereotypes of ourselves and stereotypes given to us by others. But stereotypes seem to develop when communication is not clear.

We need to evaluate our cultural identity, our individual identity, our spiritual identity, and our familial identity. Those are important foundational aspects, and the rest of the identities we possess originate from them.

Please answer the following:

• 1. Evaluate or dissect your identities that are most prominent and dominant in your thinking.
• 2. Tell us how you got there.
• 3. Evaluate your American Individual Identity and what it means to you.
• 4. Do you find yourself comparing your own identity belief systems to that of your co-workers?
• 5. Do you talk about it?
• 6. How does it impact your relationship building with others?

Instructions: please answer all 6 questions accordingly. Each answer should have the question re-typed following the answer. A minimum of 500 words in all excluding the re-typed questions. No reference is needed.