Cultural And Cultural Identity Change

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In order to understand how identity changes, one must first understand what identity is. Identity is, “the reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization process” (Hou, et al.). Because of this, identity changes as we grow and develop as a person, take on more responsibilities, find our religion, political views, and friends. Even though some may think that a person's identity stays the same, identity actually changes. Identity changes are caused by factors related to personal, social, cultural, and ethnic identity.
Personal identity is created by “components of the self that are primarily intrapersonal and connect to our individual interests and life experiences” …show more content…

The main difference between a person’s cultural and social identity is the historical roots that create and help shape their cultural identities (“Communication in the Real World”). Unlike someone’s personal and social identity, cultural identity is not something that constantly changes. This is due to the fact that a person is born into this type of identity. However, the development of “culture is an ongoing negotiation of learned patterns of beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors” (“Communication in the Real World”). Although others may view this as a way of saying that people cannot change the identity they have, even though their cultural identity does not change as much as the others, the different types of identity that form who they will become and shapes their overall identity will change throughout life. There is more than just a person’s personal, social, and cultural identities, they also develop an ethnic identity that changes as they …show more content…

Ethnic identity includes things relating to “race, religion, language, and lifestyle” (Hou, et al.). Ethnic identity is similar to cultural identity because they do not change as often as personal and social identity does. However, ethnic identity does change depending on the situation a person is in. For example, if a person that has two ethnic backgrounds such as Native American and Hispanic were filling out paperwork and knew that one ethnic identity would benefit them in that situation more than the other the person changes their ethnic identity to the one that will benefit them most. Therefore, ethnic identity changes based upon someone's

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