Identity Construction Identity Essay

Considering the notion that identity is formed during life by taking into account these experiences with oneself and others, this study deliberately looks into narratives as an important tool of identity construction. This is drawn from Holstein and Gubrium’s (2000, p. 3) proposition that “our lives are storied. Not only is there a story of the self, but it’s been said that the self, itself, is narratively constructed”. Our social self is constructed by the everyday technologies (both discursive practice and discourses-in-practice) through which the self is articulated, constructed, embodied, and mediated.

According to Taylor (2008), the basic principle underlying such narrative-based construction identity is that the self is a story that people tell themselves about themselves, and identity is a story that is told about the self to others. So, constructing identities involves constant ‘story telling’ and narration (as well as dialogue) with oneself and with outsiders. The importance of narrative in identity construction was rooted in the notion of narrative psychology coined by

His notion clearly states that life stories are more than synopses of past events and episodes. Instead, they have defining characters: “our narrative identities are the stories we live by” (McAdams, Josselson, & Lieblich, 2006, p. 4 as cited in Bamberg, 2010). This suggests that we are the stories we tell, meaning that people develop a sense of self through the formation of personal myths. This theory challenges the old-fashioned view that selves and personalities are shaped by fixed characteristics or by predictable stages through which every individual navigates. It allows us to develop and revise our stories and open up new likelihoods for our