...relationships: with friends, neighbours, workmates and, above all, with our families”. Author and social commentator Hugh Mackay states, “we are defined more by our interdependence than our independence”. Also, “we are individuals with a strong sense of our independent personal identity and we are members of families, groups and communities with an equally strong sense of social identity, fed by our intense desire to belong.” Likewise, Dr Michael Schluter, an important social thinker and founder of Britain’s Relationships Foundation draws attention to the fundamental importance of relationships in our lives and its role in securing our wellbeing. As Ross Gittins also asks, “take away all our relationships and who would have much reason to keep living?” Because we are social animals, we gravitate towards groups that become instrumental in shaping our views and values, our attitudes and behaviour. Frequently, we find ourselves conforming to the dominant views and values of the group to such an extent that we may risk losing our individuality. At such times, it may be necessary to challenge the group’s expectations or assert our individuality. Family relationships are obviously central to an individual’s identity. Parents provide guidance, shape expectations, and nurture talents. In the absence of strong parental role models and family and kinship relationships,...
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...is an author who is endearing in his modest humility, cheerful narrative and superior wisdom and whose style of writing allows him to be as enlightening as he is entertaining. Chiang embraces his identity as a foreigner and begins his book by defining himself as an Oriental, “One of those strange Chinese people who ‘belong to an age gone by’”(ix). He is not embarrassed by his race or ethnicity and does not attempt to hide his background as he travels. Chiang celebrates his Chinese upbringing and the alternative perspective that this experience brings to life in London by disputing the fundamental differences between nations and nationalities. Chiang negates the idea that the peoples of the world are capable of differing greatly from one another given our fundamental sameness; “They may be different superficially, but they eat, drink, sleep, dress, and shelter themselves from wind and rain in the same way”(ix). The strangeness that Chiang feels as an outsider is not a product of human nature since similarities in taste and experience exist far beyond geographical borders; it is instead an opportunity to look at things from a different perspective and to share that perspective with the world. The Silent Traveller in London presents foreign identity or ‘otherness‘ as an opportunity to comment on Western culture by comparing it to home. For Chiang, great joy lies in the formation of this comparison and...
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...You want to be logical about all of this, but reason has taken a back seat to longing. “I’m trying to make a case for people who don’t have the sense of belonging that they should have, that there is something really worthwhile in having a sense of belonging.” An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can limit or enrich their experience of belonging. Belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, groups or community. It is something we all feel whether we mean to or not. This belonging gives us an attachment to other people or things and we can gain other certain feelings such as security, happiness, pride, sense of value and acceptance by others as social human beings. It gives us an awareness of identity and builds our self-confidence and self-esteem as we feel part of something bigger. There are also implications for not belonging, our inability to connect can lead to isolation, alienation, vulnerability and dislocated from society. These universal experiences are explored through the poetry of Peter Skrzynecki’s “Immigrant Chronicle”, in particular, Migrant Hostel where barriers limited the migrant’s experience of belonging and Feliks Skrzynecki which portrays the father and son’s contrasting experiences to belonging in a new land. Sean Penn’s 2007 film Into the Wild also examines a person’s quest for a sense of...
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...What is ”Corporate Image” and “Corporate Identity” – and why do people talk so much about it? Dominique Bouchet Professor, Department of Marketing University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark www.bouchet.dk – dom@sam.sdu.dk – Fax: + (45) 65 33 19 13 Image, identity and culture are concepts occupying the minds of companies and organizations of our time, because things must be connected in a world where every institution’s or person’s role and place are renegotiated almost everyday. Companies’ increasing concern about their image, identity and culture must be seen in relation to a number of changes that influence their roles and opportunities. Today, the information we receive is no longer scarce; actually the amount of information is drowning us. This abundance has created much confusion. Demand and supply for information are disoriented and, thus, become increasingly dependent on the guidelines and criteria for sorting information in order to reduce confusion. Orientation is less and less a matter of gathering information and more and more a matter of sorting and connecting. The company’s consumers, stakeholders and employees are all influenced by this development. Further, more and more people are now concerned about things other than material goods. For example, what we eat and how we should handle waste have become central issues for consumers and employees. The ecological concern and political consumption make the...
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...Erikson’s Stages of Personal and Social Development. As people grow, they face a string of psychosocial crises that shape personality, according to Erik Erikson. Each crisis focuses on a particular aspect of personality and involves the person’s relationship with other people. STAGE I: TRUST VERSUS MISTRUST ( BIRTH TO 18 MONTHS) The goal of in-fancy is to develop a basic trust in the world. Erikson ( 1968, p. 96) defined basic trust as “ an essential trustfulness of others as well as a fundamental sense of one’s own trust-worthiness.” The mother, or maternal figure, is usually the first important person in the child’s world. She is the one who must satisfy the infant’s need for food and affection. If the mother is inconsistent or rejecting, she becomes a source of frustration for the infant rather than a source of pleasure ( Cummings, Braungart- Rieker, & Du Rocher- Schudlich, 2003; Thompson, Easterbrooks, & Padilla- Walker, 2003). The mother’s behavior creates in the infant a sense of mistrust for his or her world that may persist throughout child-hood and into adulthood. STAGE II: AUTONOMY VERSUS DOUBT ( 18 MONTHS TO 3 YEARS) By the age of 2, most babies can walk and have learned enough about language to communicate with other people. Children in the “ terrible twos” no longer want to depend totally on others. Instead, they strive toward autonomy, the ability to do things for themselves. The child’s desires for power and independence often clash with the wishes of...
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...Definition Concept Name Judgments based on positive and negative perceptions of a social group Prejudice Reacting to a person as though he or she was an indistinguishable member of a particular social group (Biases) Category-based Acting on cognitive expectations and emotional reactions to a person's perceived membership in a particular social group Sterotyping (Comparative fit) Bias affirms the satisfaction of belonging to the right groups; individual autonomy is balanced against group identity. Optimal Distinctiveness Theory Bringing about the behavior in others that a biased perceiver expects Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The degree to which one accepts a hierarchy in which some groups rightfully have a commanding influence over others Social Dominance Hierarchy Similar to fundamental attribution error, as applied to groups Ultimate Attribution Error Attributing negative encounters with others to membership in a stigmatized group or others' biases against the stigmatized group to which one belongs Attribution Ambiguity Biases assigned to a person without intention, awareness, effort, or control, often based on subliminal cues Automatic bias Economic, political, military, or prestige-related threats to ingroup advantage that result in negative intergroup reactions Realistic group conflict theory Applying one’s cognitive expectations and associations about a group to a person Cognitive bias (stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are examples) Prejudice that is...
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...repercussions on his family, and himself. Willys conviction that a man must not only be like, but he must be well liked (Miller, 1250), along with his uninterrupted focus on prominence, reflects on his two sons, Biff and Happy, as he infuses them with values of social status as well as future success. Willy’s sense of self value depends on the response of others. Such gestures of recognition provide signals that society is a comfortable home for him, one where he hopes to make his sons as happily at ease as he (Jacobson, 249). This is doubtlessly a mirage of security for Willy, as he desperately suppresses his inner motions of regret, and refuses to embrace his conscious identity. Ultimately, Willy Lomans self- delusion of success disabled him to obtain his true identity, and influence a displacement of identity in his sons. Most people in today’s society develop a constant necessity to better their lives, as well the quality of life for their family. For many, this necessity stems from their core beliefs of what a comfortable life should contain in our society, along with secure elements for their loved ones in order to flourish as human beings. Whether it is, health, security, education, or freedom, people pursue different values, which they feel lead towards a successful path of living. Most will agree that it is important to instill such values in their children, and perhaps someday their children will thank them for it. After all, children are the extensions of their parents...
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...As human beings, all of us grow up with a fundamental task to search for the answer to the question: “Who am I?” In the teenage years, however, young people are the most aware of their personal identity. This is a crucial time for early adolescents, as they will be experiencing many changes throughout the journey of determining who they are and creating their own sense of self. Identity achievement comes from many years of exploring different roles and personalities. (Santrock 2011 p. 141) Adolescents can change their attitudes and personalities almost daily. When a person is transferring from childhood to adolescence, it is very likely that they will face many challenges and run into a lot of conflicts. Teenage years are, I believe, some of the hardest times of a person’s life. There are many factors involved, which can have a great impact on identity formation. Parents are important figures in the adolescent’s development of identity (Cooper 2011). Although parental influence might not be as strong during the teenage years, it plays a significant role on shaping a person’s characteristic, providing them with a firm life script throughout their childhood. As a mother of two teenagers and of course being a teenager once myself, I absolutely believe a parents can be very influential in the development of an adolescent’s identity. To have supportive, loving parents to help guide you through all the chaos that being a teen brings, to me, is invaluable. My mom was none of that...
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...The definition of a civilization according to Huntington is a cultural entity. It is the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species. It is defined by common elements such as: language, history, religion, customs, institutions and the self identification of people. Civilizations may include a large number of people or a very small number of people. They may include several Nation States or only one. They can blend or overlap and even include sub civilizations. Huntington's definition of a civilization matches up well with what we have learned in class. Civilization's are complex and civilizations are dynamic. They rise and fall, and divide and merge. They have many characteristics which include: urban revolution, distinct religious culture, new political and military structures such as bureaucracy, new social structures based on political power, the development of writing and the development of war complexity in material sense. Huntington divided the world into seven other civilizations, Western, Latin American, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu and Slavic-Orthodox. He said that Africa was only a possible civilization. Huntington said that “people's religious and cultural identities will be the main source of conflict in the post- cold war world” and there will be conflict between Western Civilizations and Islamic Civilizations because of seven main reasons...
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... | |Reacting to a person as though he or she was an indistinguishable| | |member of a particular social group | | |Acting on cognitive expectations and emotional reactions to a | | |person's perceived membership in a particular social group | | |Bias affirms the satisfaction of belonging to the right groups; | | |individual autonomy is balanced against group identity. | | |Bringing about the behavior in others that a biased perceiver | | |expects | | |The degree to which one accepts a hierarchy in which some groups | | |rightfully have a commanding influence over others |...
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...The Developmental Psychology of Erik Erikson Erik Erikson was a follower of Sigmund Freud who broke with his teacher over the fundamental point of what motivates or drives human behavior. For Freud it was biology or more specifically the biological instincts of life and aggression. For Erikson, who was not trained in biology and/or the medical sciences (unlike Freud and many of his contemporaries), the most important force driving human behavior and the development of personality was social interaction. Erikson left his native Germany in the 1930's and immigrated to America where he studied Native American traditions of human development and continued his work as a psychoanalyst. His developmental theory of the "Eight Stages of Man" was unique in that it covered the entire lifespan rather than childhood and adolescent development. Erikson's view is that the social environment combined with biological maturation provides each individual with a set of "crises" that must be resolved. The individual is provided with a "sensitive period" in which to successfully resolve each crisis before a new crisis is presented. The results of the resolution, whether successful or not, are carried forward to the next crisis and provide the foundation for its resolution. |Erikson's Theory of Socioemotional Development | |Stage |Age |Expected Resolution ...
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...English we were always wogs and nigs and Pakis and the rest of it”. Write an essay exploring how Kureishi’s novel maps Englishness as a contested terrain of identities, politics and performance. Your discussion should refer to Stuart Hall’s work on ethnicities and on Judith Butler’s writing on performance as identity. Much of the Kureishi’s early work is grounded primarily in racial and cultural conflict between British mainstream culture and ethnic minority communities; the conflict between the cultural claims that the first-generation immigrants were prone to clinging onto and the sense of belonging, which they their children aspired to develop in mainstream British society. To the children of immigrants, particularly those who had migrated from British Commonwealth or ex-colonized countries, any reflection on Britain, or their parents’ homeland, in terms of “home” may differ significantly from that perceived by their parents. As a writer born and bred in Britain of a Pakistani father and an English mother, Kureishi reflects upon his own identity, affirming in an interview his own sense of identity be seeing himself as British: “Critics have written that I’m caught between two cultures. I’m not. I’m British; I’ve made it in England. It’s my father who’s caught. He can’t make it. Elsewhere he proclaims his British identity in a similar way: I’m British, as wrote in The Rainbow Sign. Just like Karim in the Buddha. But being British is a new thing now. It involves people with...
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...article was downloaded by: [Lahore University of Management Sciences] On: 02 May 2015, At: 09:58 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rana20 Understanding the influence of interpersonal relationships on identity and tourism travel Julia F. Hibbert a b a , Janet E. Dickinson & Susanna Curtin a a School of Tourism, Bournemouth University , Fern Barrow, Poole , BH12 5BB , United Kingdom b School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University , Kalmar , Sweden Published online: 25 Jan 2013. To cite this article: Julia F. Hibbert , Janet E. Dickinson & Susanna Curtin (2013) Understanding the influence of interpersonal relationships on identity and tourism travel, Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 24:1, 30-39, DOI: 10.1080/13032917.2012.762313 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2012.762313 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness...
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...SELF CONCEPT The self-concept is the accumulation of knowledge about the self, such as beliefs regarding personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles. Beginning in infancy, children acquire and organize information about themselves as a way to enable them to understand the relation between the self and their social world. This developmental process is a direct consequence of children's emerging cognitive skills and their social relationships with both family and peers. During early childhood, children's self-concepts are less differentiated and are centered on concrete characteristics, such as physical attributes, possessions, and skills. During middle childhood, the self-concept becomes more integrated and differentiated as the child engages in social comparison and more clearly perceives the self as consisting of internal, psychological characteristics. Throughout later childhood and adolescence, the self-concept becomes more abstract, complex, and hierarchically organized into cognitive mental representations or self-schemas, which direct the processing of self-relevant information. Understanding your self-concept It is the understanding and knowledge you have of your own existence. It is how you see yourself in relation to others and to your surroundings. To have a positive or healthy self-concept you must: Know yourself Love yourself Be True to yourself In order to meet the challenges of today's complicated...
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...Intra-and Interpersonal Competencies Written Assignment The main character in the case study, Sammy, showed inability in inter- and intrapersonal communication. He is facing various daily life problems including defining his self-value and identity, getting along with parents and managing personal emotions. The first problem is that Sammy failed to develop self concept (i.e. Who he is, what he wants to do) but blindly follows his parents’ opinion to persuade further study in college. Based on Identity Statuses Theory, Sammy is experiencing identity diffusion (Marcia,1966) in which he failed to attain commitment (occupational belief) and crisis (actively exploring and making conscious decision to understand his own identity). Besides, he has low self-esteem (i.e. the value he placed on himself) as he consider his classmates are more competent in both sports and academic performance than he does. He feels inferior at school. In order to overcome Sammy’s identity crisis, he should try to explore his own identity by constantly questioning himself about his own value, beliefs and academic pursuit to clarify his occupational and social roles. He can join various extra-curricular activities such as sports and music to discover his inborn talent. He might not be good at sports but he might be good at music or arts and crafts. To boost self-esteem, he needs to gain approval from peers to develop sense of belongingness. He could join more class activities and be generous (e.g. share...
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