Research Definition Identity Sameness of essential or generic character in different instances Sameness in all that constitutes the objective

reality of a thing; ONENESS The distinguishing character or personality of an individual The condition of being the same with something described or asserted (establish identity of stolen goods) An equation that is satisfied for all values of the symbols Examples Identity criminal Passport proof identity Mistaken identity (arrested wrong person) As children grow (establish own identities) People who seem to lack individual identity His/her art reflects his/her cultural identity Origin Middle French identite, from late Latin identitat Synonyms: Identicalness, sameness Antonyms Difference, disagreement Individuality Character peculiar/distinguishing individual from other (personality) Archaic: the quality of state of being indivisible Separate or distinct existence Clothing express individuality, materials highlight individuality of each piece in the collection Fact: First known use of individuality in year 1614 Identity Quotes If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? Chuck Palahniuk quotes (American freelance journalist)

Philosophy

In identity philosophy two things that share every attribute are both similar and the same (in accordance with Leibnizs law). The latter concept of sameness gave rise to the concept of identity such as personal identity and social identity. If an entity has a difference then a separate identity is created, identity is whatever qualities differentiate from other entities. Meaning identity is what makes something the same or different. Personal identity has to do with unique identities of people trough time (conditions that make one identical to self through time). Personal continuity has to do with a set of needed conditions for the identity of a person over time. In modern philosophy of mind the concept of identity is based on the question: what features or traits characterize a given person at one time. (Personal Identity) The mind-body problem poses the question of how what is believed to be a nonmaterial mind and a material body influences each other. On the other hand, John Locke considered personal identity to be based on consciousness and not the substance of the soul or body. Identity and Change The problem of change and identity is usually explained with the story of the Ship Theseus. An ancient ship named after its famous owner Theseus had many of its parts replaced over time, after fifty years the ship was mostly made up of new parts. The question then is: is the ship Theseus still the same one it was fifty years ago? You can relate this to someones life where by the end you are not the same person you were as a young adult. Self-Schema The beliefs and ideas people have about themselves. Such beliefs are used to guide and organize information processing, for the most part that information is somehow related to the self. For example if you go to club at night you would have a clubber schema. But during the same person goes to art school, during school the person has an art student schema. Schemas vary depending on cultural background and environmental factors. Once a schema is developed it tends to create a bias that influences what people want to do, what is remembered, and what is recognized as true about who they are. Aschematic is someone who has no schema for a certain attribute because they are not involved or concerned about that attribute. Self-schemas depend on individuals who have gone through different social and cultural life experiences. Such self-schemas include: exciting or dull; quiet or loud; healthy or sickly; athletic or nonathletic; lazy or active; and geek or jock. (Self Schema). Social Identity The portion of an individuals self-concept made possible by membership in a social group. Henri Taifel and John C. Turner formulated social identity during the 1970s and 1980s; the theory hoped to explain intergroup behavior. Social identity is described as a theory of when and why individuals identify with and behave as part of a small or large group. Factors that affect social-identity include; self-categorization theory, social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), intergroup emotion theory, optimal distinctiveness, selfesteem hypothesis, and competition. Self-categorization theory is a concept self based on the comparison of the self to others, thus it is directly related to social interactions. Social identity model of deindividuation effects is based on the idea that self-concept is flexible depending on different situations or contexts. Intergroup emotion theory is when an individual not only categorizes themselves from a certain group, but reacts emotionally

when the in-group is affected. Optimal distinctiveness is when the amount of assimilation and differentiation is balanced and exactly equal. The self-esteem hypothesis is one of the most studied explanations for in-group bias. The latter theory suggests that people are motivated to achieve and maintain a positive social identity because it is connected to both their personal identities and self-concepts. This means that having a high social identity equals to a higher self-esteem. Last but not least another factor that affects social identity is competition; a contest between individuals for limited resources. Competition can explain what causes individuals to perceive others as members of their own group or other groups (compete versus cooperation). Competition can also be a means to maintain a positive social identity and improve ones statues in social hierarchy. (Social Identity Theory) When social groups form there are always consequences; prejudice, in-group bias, scapegoating, relative deprivation, hate group membership, and even in economics. Prejudice: negative assumptions about someone or something before having enough information to prove such judgments. In-Group bias: tendency to give preferential treatment to others who are perceived to be in similar groups according to both arbitrary (coin toss) and non-arbitrary distinctions (culture, gender, first language). Thus out-group members are more likely to be discriminated against then in-group members. Scapegoating: process of blaming or punishing an innocent out-group for the misfortunes of the in-group. Relative deprivation: when people become dissatisfied with their current situation and compare it to their past, similar situations or other people who have resources one does not posses but desires. Hate group membership: organizations whose main principles include hostility toward racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups and represent an extreme situation of social identity. In economics: When agents consider themselves insiders, they maximize their identity within the group by showing more effort. If they feel like outsiders, they expect a higher wage to compensate for their loss. Social media and social networking (twitter, facebook, youtube, wordpress, etc.) Popular Culture and Individuality Popular culture plays a vital role in influencing the way young children develop their respective identities. Values learned at home are contradicted by what children see outside the home. With mass amounts of information available through media, pop culture plays a direct role in either negatively or positively affecting youth identity (more prominent in America than any other outside influence). Pop culture can be described as a contemporary life style that is widely accepted by many people. What is popular varies from region to region but some media such as literature, movies, and music genres know no boundaries. Pop culture can be on someones mind for a brief moment or even a year. a.) To be, or not to be (opening of monologue from Willima Shakespeares play Hamlet (written around 1600), act three, scene one. In the story Hamlet struggles with his internal conflict trying to decide whether or not to kill himself due to recent events that depressed him. But according to eNotes Hamlet is contemplating the meaning of life and death and the notion of being or

not being. In Hamlets view to be is a passive state and not being is the action of opposing the passive state such as suffering. Thus living is attributed to a kind of slow death and submission to external power and fortunes. At the same death is initiated by a life of action. a.) Captain America Rescales American Identity Visual representations of American landscape in Captain America helped construct geopolitical realities. According to Jason Dittmer from the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University, a reading of post-9/11 issues of Captain America comic investigates post-9/11 extending territory. Identity in Information Society (Historical Individual) Turning real lives into writing is no longer done for heroization (historical figures, kings/Queens, leaders), the gathering of information now functions as new ways to examine individuals. Such information is gathered through the accumulation of documents. The accumulation of data is not new, but the way data is used today is quite revolutionary. French philosopher Michael Foucault argues that in the past scientific data was entered in general categories and did not describe a singular individual. Today ceaseless inspection, permanent registration, and innovations in disciplinary writing have created a historical individual. The latter history has taken form of a file or individual case. Human beings are now linked to a unique series of events; medical, military, educational, penal events that have made everyone into historical individuals. According to Manuel DeLanda in The Archive Before and after Foucalt, data is extracted from us by a variety of examinations. The latter gives us a real identity (not subjective to feeling or ideological experience). Thus such data is useful to your insurance company or any other organization because it has been collected without bias. Different kinds of archives that construct individuals include: biological individuality (genetic archives), electronic accounts (amazon, facebook, twitter, bank account, Pandora, etc.), and networked electronic databases. Other forms of biological individuality archives include; family tree, family health history, photo albums, birth certificate, etc. Archive (Personal File) a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved; also : the material preserved often used in plural a repository or collection especially of information Origin French & Latin; French, from Latin archivum, from Greek archeion government house (in plural, official documents), from arch rule, government more at archFirst Known Use: 1603 Analysis After conducting research for the second time on the word identity I concluded that there are many forms of identity, which are all somehow interconnected. Identity is the fact of

being or what a person or thing is, thus encompassing a wide spectrum on the concept of identity. I chose to focus on the identity of the individual and what kind of factors people associate themselves with when coming up with similarities and differentiations they may share with certain in or out groups. I chose to steer my research towards identity in an information society. I never knew there were so many components to the word identity; at first I focused on identity philosophy, which led to many concepts and theories on identity. Those theories then branched out to the factors and consequences of different kinds of identities. I found the whys and hows of identify intriguing, especially the consequences of social identity. Social media and networking play a vital role in contemporary society, while facebook launches new applications and redesigns its user interface other social media are for the most part forgotten such as myspace. Twitter continues to be a great social platform where people can connect with groups they identify with. Avatars are the norm these days in social games and even email accounts. Ideas are readily exchanged and groups are formed, identity and self image are more susceptible to change because of vast amounts of information available to us. Popular culture trough mass media is all around us and we cant help but associate or differentiate ourselves with other individuals or representations of groups.

Bibliography

Merriam-Webster Dictionary <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity> Identity (Philosophy) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28philosophy%29> Personal Identity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_%28philosophy%29> Identity and Change <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_and_change> Self Schema <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Schema> Popular Culture's Influence on Children's Identity, written by Jenn Nixon http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/35092/popular_cultures_influence_on_childrens.html? cat=25 To be or not to be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_be,_or_not_to_be Enotes: Shakespreares Quotes http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/not-that-question Jason Dittmer, Captain Americas Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics www.jeffreylash.com/courses/4135/captain%20america.pdf Social Identity Theory < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_identity_theory#Factors_affecting_social_identity> Images Ship of Theseus and Software Engineering < http://geekswithblogs.net/starr/archive/2007/12/07/117489.aspx> John Locke image from Wikipedia < http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Locke-John-LOC.jpg>