We all have
one, but, like intelligence and consciousness, it appears that we aren't
necessarily all that good at defining what one is.
For me, my
identity is not just about how I think of myself (although I try to
restrict it to that) but also about how others view me. Part of my
identity, for instance, is defined by whether a bank considers me a good
credit risk or not. Another part is defined by whether the
'authorities' think I am a security risk. Still another is defined
by whether a young lady considers me as a suitable 'date'.
Whilst these
things are not totally beyond my capacity to change (except maybe the
last example), they are certainly things which I cannot directly
influence. My identity is formed as much by the 2nd hand 3rd party
chit-chat which pre-introduces me to this years freshers at university as
it is by my direct interaction with them when they get here.
My identity is
formed of more than my role in society, however. Whilst it may well
be informed by the history of my experience to date, my identity has, to
some extent, reliance on my own will. Not only can I choose to
change my identity (perhaps subconsciously?) but to some small extent I
do so every time I decide what to wear in the morning, where to go for
coffee, and how to have my hair (ahem) styled.
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Creating yourself
Every day, we get to make choices. Some of these are
observable by others, some only by ourselves. Who we are informs
the decisions we make, but by the same token, the decisions we make
defines who we are. The whole body of experience we have built up
from the first time we gain awareness of our environment goes towards
defining who we are, because it is all experience which we assimilate
into internal models of how our environment works. If we fail to
take in the things around us and create internalised models of it, then
pre-industrial revolution, at least, we would be unlikely to survive for
long.
Of course, now if we fail to take some things into account
in our own internalised models, we will still die earlier than we might
otherwise expect - modelling the behavious of cars and their drivers is
something every motor cyclist, cyclist and most pedestrians must learn to
do very rapidly.
But we also have to learn about the behaviours of others -
of the creatures which look more or less like us, but which have
different identities. We are lucky, in general, because the ones we
experience early on are the easy ones (although in some ways with higher
levels of expectation) - because our families have similar genetic material
to us, and our siblings have similar experiences to us. And, of
course, we all fully
understand siblings and parents!
How much harder is it for us to understand those from other
cultures, then?
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Identity Theory
Identity theory deals with the relationships between
internal models (relationships giving information meaning in context) and
behaviours. It fits well with my theories on identity, to the
extent I might almost think I had read about it before, and my ideas on
experiential filtering as we try to adapt to consensual reality.
Identity is tightly bound with roles, and the self is the aggregation of
the multiple strands of roles we adopt.
The fascinating thing, to me, is that the obvious
extrapolation is that groups can be defined in the same way. And if
this is the case, we would expect them to have behaviours similar to
those individuals exhibit. In many ways this is where the idea of
the wisdom of crowds
gains its strength, of course. The individual will seek to find the
best solution for its own welfare, and the group can be expected to do
the same. Although the group will suffer from 'poisoning' by some
individuals, the same can be seen to occur in most individuals minds,
where we feel 'urged' to take actions which are not, truly, in our own
best interests. Where a group, or an individual, lacks the
experiential filters to get rid of these inputs, the behaviour can be
self destructive, and potential damaging to others.
But, in common with most individuals, most groups have those
filters in place. The scientific community, for instance, uses peer
review to perform this role, and it might be argued that in some cases
this filter is less well adapted to its role than it should be.
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