Why Are Identities Relevant?

Identity - Characteristics and interests that somebody recognises as belonging uniquely to them and makes up their individual personality for life.

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

(Merriam-Webster.com). In other words, identity consists of the various collection of ideas and morals that humankind hold themselves dear to, whether it be related to religion, ethnicity, ideology, politics, or any other general factor. Indeed, one could suggest that it shapes the formation of a country, as identity creates people and people create the basis of nations. The United States of America, for instance, provides a prominent example of this theme. Built on a foundation of

The meaning of identity is not easily defined. Identity generally refers to the stable defining characteristics of a person that makes them an individual.

Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.

“the identity or feeling of belonging to, as part of the self-conception and self-perception to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality and any kind of social group that have its own distinct culture,”. (1)

Identity refers to the way people see themselves--the groups they feel a part of, the significant aspects of themselves that they use to describe themselves to others. Some theorists distinguish between collective identity, social identity, and personal identity. However, they are

National identity is the transmission of each generation’s legacy to the next and the enabling of the nation citizen to take pride and identification of the country (Stephan, 2009). A nation positive unique identity breeds patriotism which consequently

Identity is the set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group. Each people have their own personality, being different and unique from other people. Even though it’s different, each people have some similarity with others that connected them together as a community or a group. However, these groups is not open for all people, some people have to sacrifice their aspects of identity in order to belong to the group that they want to join.

According to the author, national identity is inherently social and is centered on people’s strong bond and sense of community with their fellow group members. People are placed into national groups either by choice or by default. The strength of the person’s membership depends on the level of commitment they feel towards the national group. The level of commitment divides group members into strong and weak identifiers.

1. Identity is people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how

Identity is a word that is used very commonly and regularly by people in their daily life. Identity formation is a process of developing distinct, separate identity. “A person’s identity has many attributes. It is a representation of one’s unique personal experience, memory, ethnicity, culture, religious orientation, gender, occupational role, amongst various other factors. Erikson refers to identity as “some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image.”Identity may be defined as one’s consciousness of one self and others’ perception of one’s individuality”, (Yamin, 2008).

As the European Union (EU) has changed from an economic entity to also a political one, so has the public opinion towards the EU. While support for the EU used to prevail among its citizens, Euroskepticism has spread across Europe nowadays. This change in public attitude became most apparent when the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe failed in the Netherlands and in France in 2005. Many studies have been conducted to understand the attitude formation towards the EU. Basically, there exist two different approaches: economy- and identity-based theories. In general, the economic position takes a cost-benefit perspective, in which people who benefit from the EU you are more supportive. Some

Identity is what forms the core of humanity as it is “claimed and sustained in reciprocal role relationships” (Thoits, 175). People are constantly defining themselves to fit into a group, ethnicity, or regional identity. It is crucial because humans need the community and culture as “the greater the number of identities held, the stronger one’s sense of meaningful, guided existence” (Thoits, 175). Hence, by having a regional identity and a larger sense of unity as an “imagined community” gives a sense of security to humans as stated that “people’s awareness of being part of the global space of flows seems to have generated a search for new points of orientation, efforts to strengthen old boundaries and to create new ones, often based on identities of resistance” (Paasi, 475). Humans are partially threatened by globalization as they struggle to maintain identities of what they had in the past; this is demonstrated not just in individuals, but also amongst countries, as with Brexit. In the UK, Scotland has had many struggles to sustain their own heritage and regional identity as a separate entity from England. From the basic necessities, like currency, the conflict between Scotland and England can be seen; as the sterling pound in England is different from the sterling pound in Scotland.

According to Morgan (1997) the national identity can be defined by simply as how a country think about them in reality. The literature review of the Paper gives the reader an idea of the peoples national identity as the sense of belonging to, and identification with, the nation; it is an incarnation of