Personal and social identity

Who I am? This question is frequent but the answer is so unusual that it could be considered a rhetorical question. It is a question that we usually ask ourselves regularly when we feel insecure or do not know how to take charge of our life.

However, this article does not pretend to be an existential philosophical essay on being, nor does it pretend to give a transcendental answer that will make you reinvent yourself. Simply I'll show what psychology has to say about identity and how it largely determines our behavior.

Identity: something that defines us

With a simple glance at different profiles in the social media we can see the little descriptions we make of ourselves. There are those who define themselves as a student, a soccer player, a reporter, a movie buff; while others will define themselves as a happy, friendly, funny, curious, passionate person, etc.

As can be seen, these two types of definitions are the most common and present a fundamental difference between them. Some people are defined by the groups they are part of, while others are defined by their personal traits. Psychology defines the 

selfconcept, the self or "self" as the same construct formed by two different identities: The personal identity and the social identity.

Social identity

The social identity defines the self (the self-concept) in terms of the groups of belonging. We have as many social identities as groups that we feel we belong to. Therefore, the groups of belonging determine the group an important aspect of self-concept, for some people the most important.

Take as an example a famous Latin singer. Ricky Martin is part of numerous roles, and he could define himself as a man, an artist, a brunette, a singer, a homosexual, a millionaire, a son, a Latin American, a father, etc. He could define himself with any of them, but select to identify with those adjectives that you feel differentiate you the most and provide a differential value to the rest.

Another representative example can be seen in the small biographies that each of us have in the social network Twitter. Defining yourself based on the groups you belong to is as humane as judging other people based on their attire and non-verbal behavior.

By forming such a large part of our self-concept, irremediably, groups determine our self-esteem. Remember that self-esteem is an emotional-affective assessment that we make of our own self-concept. For this reason, defining oneself on the basis of groups of high social status will imply high self-esteem, while those who are part of groups socially little valued, they will have to use support strategies in personal identity to deal with the decrease in their assessment.

In this way we see the high impact that the different groups to which we belong have on our self-esteem and self-concept.

Effects of social identity

In the article we talked about stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination, we mention the social identity theory of Tajfel in which the effects of social categorization in intergroup relationships in the form of prejudices, stereotypes and discriminatory behavior were revealed.

Tajfel showed that the mere fact of identifying oneself to a group and considering oneself different from others gave rise to a differentiated treatment since it affects the cognitive process of perception, increasing the magnitude of the similarities with those of the same group and the differences with those who are not part of our group of belonging. This perceptual effect is known in Social psychology like the effect of double accentuation.

As we have pointed out before, social identity and self-esteem are closely related. Part of our self-esteem depends on the valuation of the groups we belong to. If we like the group we belong to, we like each other. "Shine with the reflection of the glory" of others. We identify with the achievements of the group or one of its individuals and this is reflected in a positive state of mind and self-esteem. This effect can be widely seen in soccer fans.

When the winning team is ours, we proudly take to the streets identified with the success of our team and we attribute it to ourselves, since They are part of our identity. Did you see someone who was not very emotional about feeling Spanish when Iniesta gave us the victory in that wonderful summer of 2010?

Personal identity

Social identity defines the self (and self-concept) in terms of social relationships and idiosyncratic traits (I am different from others). We have as many "I's" as relationships in which we are involved and idiosyncratic characteristics that we believe we possess.

But what is it that differentiates us from others when we are part of the same group? Here our traits, attitudes, abilities and other characteristics that we self-attribute come into plays. Those who are defined by their sympathy, solidarity, tranquility or courage; they have a personal identity of greater dimension than the social one. This may be because their membership groups do not make them feel good about their low social status, or simply the individuality of these people is better reflected by their attributes and than by their roles social.

I'm sure that as you read this article, you were trying to know with what identity you make yourself known to others when you introduce yourself. You can go further, you know that the basis of promoting self-image is maintaining high levels of self-esteem. So take care of and cultivate those groups or traits with which you define yourself and with which you want the world to know you, since if you define yourself with them it means that they have a high emotional value for you. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing yourself.