Social Identity Essay

Institutions and their influence in the self and social identity Social institutions, like educational and religious groups, enhance rule obedience and contribute to the formation of identity and sense of belonging to certain groups. People possess a set of beliefs that condition their everyday behavior, like one can think that education is the most important four our future, while other people might believe that staying at home and raising their children is their reality. However, our beliefs are influenced by the groups that we interact. For instance, if we join a feminist movement, we might start reflecting a positive attitude towards gender equality. This illustrates how our social interaction can influence or beliefs related to race, and gender. Similarly, religious institutions and

This perspective takes one step forward or outward, meaning not only takes into consideration what is real for the individual (subjective point of view), but what the individual tries to demonstrate, or how he performs in public (an objective point of view). In the case of recreational religious institutions, to understand Goffman 's (1959) point of view, one will need to look beyond the individual 's ideas (that in this case are obtained with the interview), but to look at the ways that people engage in activities inside the facility, the roles they play. Hence, we should look at the big picture, and observe the roles that not only an individual performs by belonging to a religious institution, but also the role of the institution in our society. We then, could observe general patterns of behavior, like "all Christians go to Church on Sunday" and or "Christians donate hours of work for other people". This are general roles that identify the members of a religious institution in society, their social