What if I told you you can be whoever you want to be? That's correct. You can be
whoever you want to be. There are no set rules or laws that govern your identity
because our identities, the very essence of who we are, are not set in stone.
They're crafted from the myriad of experiences, interactions, and cultural
influences we absorb throughout our lives. But what happens when these
elements change? How does our identity shift and evolve in response?
Welcome to Life Unscripted where we delve deep into the fluid nature of
identity and the roles we play in life. I'm Alan Stafford, your host and guide
on this journey into understanding how our identities shape and are shaped by
the world around us. In today's episode we're exploring the construct of
identity, how it forms, changes, and impacts every facet of our lives.
So why is it important to understand the dynamics of identity? I mean we're always
asked for identity card or some form of identity to identify us, but that's not
really, is that really us? But why is it important to understand the dynamics of
it, of that identity? Well let's look at it this way. Consider navigating life
as a play where you can alter your character and our sense of self is our
script which is directing our actions and our interactions. So by examining how
our identities evolve we can better understand ourselves and others which
leads to more meaningful relationships and a more authentic life. And again
authenticity in your life comes down to your own subjectivity in how you want to
present your life, who you want to be. So to begin with our discussion on
identity I'm gonna lay down some groundwork and define identity but also
define roles and labels so that we better understand the difference and
nuances between them because identity roles and labels are often used
interchangeably but are not exactly the same. And I think it's important to
understand this because again this is all a construct of our thinking of our
behavior of our past experiences and all the influences in our life. We can
change that and alter any of these at any point. Should we choose to? Some of us
choose not to at all which is perfectly fine with me. So identity refers to
this broad it's a broad encompassing concept of who a person is, of who you
are. So the identity look at it as an umbrella term for encompassing who you
are as a person and then it includes you know an individual's self conception
and self perception and it's basically comprised of personal characteristics,
your beliefs, values and emotional responses. I mean because you know you
can be labeled a cry baby and if you can consistently cry or emotional your
identity or that that behavior shapes your identity and identity is shaped by
both internal factors like your personal experiences like I said and
psychological makeup and also external influences such as your social
interactions and cultural background because cultures have their own identity,
their own behavior. You ever think about that? How a culture, a culture there's
nothing mandating how a culture should be other than the people in that culture
who have grown up with their set of beliefs that can be broken at any time
but they seem to be mesmerized by that and kind of controlled by that home
ideology of how to behave and how to think and believe and what they should
and should not do and which identify which creates their identity and then
that comes out of you the individual who comes out of that cultural still
retaining some of that identity. So I'll give you an example if you're from India
for example and you are rooted in that culture but yet you come to the United
States or you go into Europe somewhere where the culture is different you can
do one or two things you can assimilate or you can retain your cultural
identity as an Indian and just survive in a different cultural land. A lot of
people try to come and assimilate into the host country's culture taken on a
whole new identity or creating a new hybrid identity between their culture
and the new culture and key aspects of identity is that it's fluid and
multifaceted. Fluid what I mean by fluid is that it's constantly changing and
it's a dynamic interaction of personal history your ongoing experiences in
your in social contexts. It encompasses various elements including gender
identity which is a hot topic nowadays cultural identity which I mentioned and
personal achievement and a lot more than that. And just real quickly folks gender
identity is not the same thing as sexual orientation or biological sex what
you're born with the sex organs you're born with. Gender identity is how you
identify in what gender. We're not gonna get too deep into this here but we'll
touch on a little bit of gender identity. And then we have labels I am not a fan
of labels because I think what happens is when you label somebody most weak-minded
people will live to that label. They'll use that as an excuse or as a source of
empowerment depending on their perspective. As an example if you label a
child slow or weak that child will grow up thinking he's slow or weak. And the
opposite is true you can name a slow or weak child intelligent and they'll grow
up thinking they're intelligent. So labels are very powerful terms and
categories applied to you know individuals or groups based on specific
characteristics and going back to if you perceive someone as slow or weak or not
as intelligent and you identify that characteristic in them you might label
them that way which may or may not be true. And labels can also be self-assigned
but are often assigned by others. So you can label yourself I'm a vegan. You know
I'm a carnivore I like meat I like those those are my fun labels. I'm a vegan no
you're not you're a human you just don't like to eat meat okay. Let's call it
what it is. And I think labels are also it's not even I think labels are also
used to simplify complex identities and to basically easy to understand terms. And
we just talked about you know like I'm a vegan or you say I'm a conservative I'm
an introvert I'm an athlete I'm I'm diabetic. These are all labels folks.
These are labels that you give yourself or someone else gives you gives you and
you might be you might have been labeled something where you didn't even think
you've met that label. Like someone might have said oh you're ultra
conservative you're like no I'm not I'm actually kind of middle of the road. You
know or you're a vegan you know and like not really I mean I do eat a lot of
vegetables but you know I do eat meat too. So people may miss assign a label and
that can be dangerous because they can stick to that and form their own
belief systems all around the label they gave you which is not even true. And I
think the danger of labels which is a key aspect is that it reduces your full
identity to one or a few dimensions. It doesn't take in the account your entire
identity of who you are. It focuses on probably the most visible or prominent
traits that you exhibit. It doesn't do a deep dive it's like a heuristic a
shortcut to identifying someone we just give them a label. So on the on on one
hand labels can help facilitate social understanding and communication you
know because they're simplified but they can also be very limiting and
misleading or even stigmatizing if they create that over a simplistic
view of of a person you know. Like I said if if someone labels you ignorant for
example and you're not ignorant but they label that because you might have
misquoted something or they just they just don't like you and they might give
you that label. And that can become a problem because if they're an influencer
within a group they can convince others that you are that label and you're not.
And finally folks roles so we've had identity labels and roles which refer to
expected behaviors you know expected responsibilities and norms associated
with very specific social positions or status and you can have multiple roles
if you have multiple identities and I'm a little concerned but I mean you can
have multiple roles for example you know like mother teacher daughters you know
son dad construction worker you know airline pilot leader student all these
are all roles you play multiple roles you might play a role as a office worker
during the day come home you play the role as a husband or wife at night a
mom you might be a caregiver you might have a second job and be a police officer
at night you know an office worker during the day I mean I don't know if they
do that but I'm just saying that you can have those multiple roles and each role
is nicely packaged with it comes with very specific expectations from society
about how you should behave in these roles. So take for example if I say a
police officer what are some thoughts that come to mind right now about how a
police officer should behave then I say a sailor you know cargo ship deckhand
how would how should they behave or if I say a restaurant chef or a military
leader these all have these preconceived ideas in your mind these pictures of how
these roles of how people should behave because they're pre-programmed into your
thinking and then sometimes when someone in a certain role like a teacher for
example we think teachers should be respected or respectful of students they
should be educated and smart and they should they should hold a at least a
higher moral ground not that they always do but let's say one of them goes
astray and does something completely opposite out of character for that role
what happens then everyone just starts going oh my god this teacher did this
they start talking about it because it's so it's such a departure from that
pre-packaged role expect expectations and we see that in churches we see that
with Catholic churches and some of the priests that have basically been found
guilty of I would say sexual abuse of children you know that's and that's not
a good thing you would expect that a man of the cloth would be respected and
hold a higher moral ground but when that changes it changes your whole
perspective of religion of the priesthood and so it really damages the
concept of that role so now the stigma which might be just a few that have done
that but it the entire priesthood gets punished you know has this negative
stigma okay so now that we understand generally what roles play labels and then
an overview of identity let's get into the crux of identity and understanding
identity in you know our modern world and it is quite a modern world oh boy I
crack myself up sometimes I don't even know why I crack myself up maybe it's
out of the little people in my head talking to me so take in a look at
identity in our modern context it's a very complex idea very multifaceted
construct that goes beyond as we said earlier traditional labels of race
gender and nationality and anything else it encompasses various roles that we
play and we talked about the roles parent worker friend doctor whatever the
profession you are and it's influenced by personal choices our social
interactions and societal expectations and let's not forget today's digital age
virtual identities on social media and online platforms also play a crucial role
in shaping our self-concept I mean how many of you have created a whole
different identity and persona for yourself online that is a departure from
what you are in reality I should say physical reality and I'm sure quite a
few people have done so they be they pretend to be somebody different and I
shouldn't say pretend because pretend is assuming that identity and who you are
as a locked-in concept it's set in stone and it's not you can be who you want to
be online offline but people take on a whole different identity when they're
online and this is probably a direct result of the fact that identity is
dynamic it allows for changes you know and growth over time and you may not
like how you live your life you know in a physical world so therefore you get
into the social the social digital realm and you want to be somebody different
you want to act different you want to present yourself in a very different
light you know you want to you want to be looked at maybe a little differently
than what other people have assigned other roles of people have assigned you
in the physical world which also identity being dynamic is influenced by new
experiences and insights and that takes into account this whole new digital realm
which we're all a part of unless you live in the woods somewhere and you don't
have any technology which is you know all the power to you I envy you if you if
you're that person but then again you wouldn't be listening to me because you
wouldn't have the technology so scratch that and culture profoundly shapes our
identity and again we talked about by setting norms values and the behaviors
that are adopted from an early age you know you're you're influenced from an
early age from your cultural background or your parents cultural background they
they bestow upon you their belief system now it doesn't mean that you can't grow
up and change that a lot of a lot of kids do especially a lot of immigrant kids
who come to the United States or come to Europe and they they change their
identity to adapt to the the new society the new culture they want to be fit in
they want to fit in they want to be part of that society but culture still plays
an important role in a person's identity because it basically dictates
expectations around certain milestones in life you know for example your
education career family and the Hispanic culture they do the quinceanera the
the young girl coming up of age at 15 in Judaism they have the bat mitzvah and
the bar mitzvah for boys and girls and basically these rights of passage
miles cultural milestones influences how that individual going through that
deal with life events basically and it changes their behavior a little bit well
now I'm a man now I'm a woman I've gone through this right of passage that is my
new identity and so to speak and you know something we touched on briefly
go globalization this whole interconnectedness between countries and
cultures basically you know even travel can create a hybrid identity
remember we briefly touched on the fact that if you come from a different
country like India and you come to the US or Europe or another country even
Australia and you you retain some of that cultural identity and you take on and
assimilate to the new culture you're creating this whole new hybrid this whole
new cultural hybrid identity blending the elements from various cultures
together you might just be a traveler traveling the world and picking up parts
of different cultures and then adapting that to your own culture to your own
identity in your own host country you know so all of these have a profound
influence on shaping your identity and the reason I'm bringing this up and the
whole point of this podcast this topic is to understand that identity is not set
in stone it's dynamic it's ever-changing and it's influenced by everything around
you from a childhood up until now these are elements that you can change about
your life should you want to change them and I'm not advocating you should change
anything but I'm just trying to present to you an idea that identity is not
fixed so you don't have to if you don't like the identity in which you have
right now you can acquire a new identity through new experiences try traveling
try creating an identity based on other cultures that you've visited or are
familiar with even through media I love that media it's both evil and evil and
good at the same time and personal experiences also shape your identity I
mean you could be working with an ethnic group of people that share their
culture with you and it's those personal experiences that help shape your
identity you might take on some of the stuff that they enjoy for example food
maybe you've never been exposed to spicy food and you're you know you're
enjoying food with people from India or Mexico or South America and you start
enjoying the spicy food and that becomes part of who you are a person who seeks
out that spicy taste and food I'm not sure that was a very good analogy but
but I think you get the idea and here's something that you're probably not
completely aware of but these social interactions in our life they're mirrors
they're mirrors in which we see and refine our own identities we look to
others within our society and our culture and our group and we check
ourselves are we acting or behaving in this way should we make a modification
to mirror what that person's behaving like do we revere them do we respect them
do we admire them you know we look at our peers we look at broader social
networks individuals in our group you know that we meet with on occasion or
daily even relatives and it's these relationships and in social roles that
provide a context for the development of our identity and the continuous
development of our identity and we may just completely reject it we may not
like how any of them act and say I want to be somebody different and you and
again you have that choice you see it's not locked or set in stone and another
modern phenomenon for the impact of social interactions on identity is social
networking sites it's like Facebook, TikTok and any other sort of platform
that allows you to share and exchange ideas they intensify the role of social
interactions in the formation of your identity they allow you to experiment
with and manage multiple identities like we've talked about you can be whoever
you want to be online you can have multiple accounts with multiple
identities see which one has the most likes so to speaking like oh I think
I'm gonna be that person today or I'm gonna just adapt that and that doesn't
mean it stays online you can adapt that into your own personal life as well and
I want to reiterate that this isn't my opinion this is information is based on
solid research you know studies and psychology that highlight the identity
formation that that highlight identity formation is on an ongoing process it's
influenced by cognitive development and socialization this is a study done by
the social psychologist Erickson on the stages of identity development even
sociological research emphasizes the role of societal structures in control
cultural context in shaping your identity showing that identity adapts to fit
social roles and expectations let me say that again showing that identity
adapts to fit social roles and expectations so you can simply say
change your social role change your expectation change your identity and
even neuroscientific findings suggest that areas of the brain involved in
memory reasoning and emotional regulation play a very important role in the
ongoing process of the formation of your identity and the reformation of
identity as well so there's a lot of science to back what I'm talking about
so again the key takeaway from this part is that you can change your identity
should you want to it's not set in stone and some people may want to so you're
not stuck in the part and who you are you don't have to give yourself a label
and stay with that label you know you could change your roles you can have
multiple roles but just expand your horizons go out meet new people
experience new experiences connect with international people find what makes you
who you are and adapt that to your life okay folks now I want to turn my
attention to the fluidity of identity and no that's not the name of a best
seller the fluid so identity as we already discussed briefly is very fluid
it's dynamic it's constantly I wouldn't say constantly changing but it does
change and changes frequently but unlike static characteristics that you might
possess identity as I said is dynamic and it's evolving part of human
experience and it changes in response to life's influences and the decisions that
you make in your life so for example if you're making career choices that's
gonna have an impact on your identity if you make religious choices political
choices family choices all of this has an impact on your identity and it's
definitely not fixed at birth but does develop and transform through various
stages of life which is again influenced by your personal choices social
environments and cultural exposures if you feel like I'm repeating this it's
because I'm trying to drive the point home that again identity is not fixed
it's fluid it it changes over time and with experiences and with your own
personal choices so what does this say about you it says that you have that
capability to change your identity to change who you want to be rather than
staying who you are so if you're unhappy with yourself it's only because you
choose to be unhappy with yourself I know it's a lot easier said than done
but the capability exists for you to make that change just be cognizant of
the fact that you can make that change I mean there are psychological theories
as we talked about Erickson Eric Erickson who emphasized that the
evolution of identity takes place through a series of stages you know each
characterized by specific specific challenges and growth opportunities in
your life so it comes down to this here the next time you're going to make a
career change the next time you're gonna make a change in your life consider the
implications that it has on your identity you can pick let's say you move to a
completely new location you can completely change that identity become
somebody different and I'm not saying like change your look and everything but
just change who you are for the better and not necessarily the worst although
some people do change your identity for that make those adjustments you know one
of the big things that helps propel identity shift is a change in your
career there are people that take on a whole different career midlife sometimes
two or three careers that are in completely different industries so they
go through multiple identity changes throughout their entire life and this
affects how they see themselves and how they are perceived by others as well and
as an example let's say you are a janitor at a hospital and you you're
keeping it under wraps so it's natural that people are not going to look up to
a janitor which is sad because to me everybody's equal and a janitor is as
capable as a doctor in terms of you know their existence that being equal being
respected however the majority of people will look at a janitor and not have a
lot of respect for them but let's say you're this janitor and you're putting
yourself through medical school but nobody really knows this and then let's
say four eight years later however long it takes to get through medical school
you come out a doctor now you're doctor so-and-so instead of the janitor so
and so the perspective that people have about you changes drastically even the
perspective you have about yourself because as a janitor you're heavily
influenced your identity is heavily influenced by how people treat you and
talk to you and perceive you it begins to wear on your psyche and you begin to
buy into this identity that I'm just a janitor picking up trash but do a
mind shift become a doctor or become anything else that is respected and then
watch how people perceive you and treat you and watch how your identity shifts
in that area I mean for example you can also have like let's say a former
military officer transitions to a career in the arts I mean you're going from a
combat soldier in theater to an artist the shift not only alters his
professional identity but also affects his personal values in his lifestyle
what does he value now versus what he valued as a military officer this whole
shift in values changes when you shift careers in identity so are you getting a
whole big picture about identity how identity is not a fixed characteristic
it's something that evolves over time it's fluid it can change so I want people
to understand to get away from this notion that you're stuck in being who
you are just because someone says you're ABCD and E that's not true that's what
someone else says about you based on maybe how you perceive yourself or how
you act or from a culture that you come from you can change that by shifting
your mind set and learning new customs new skills new experiences and these
career changes and these these mind shift changes requires new skills and
again requires new mindsets and what they do is they lead to a reassessment of
your personal strengths weaknesses and your overall self-concept and so it's
kind of like a transformation from you know a butterfly from our caterpillar
to a butterfly so you're becoming a butterfly I'm not sure if you want to
be a butterfly hey butterflies are cool I love butterflies but you get my point
right and then become an apparent I mean that completely I remember when I became
a parent I lived life almost now I wouldn't say reckless but I was more risk
taking I took risks a lot before I had a child when I had a child I began to drive
like a little old lady from Pasadena you know in the slow lane I didn't it's like
I wanted to be very cautious extra cautious you know having a kid in a car
so it changed my whole identity on who I was this this risk-taker who would ski
you know slopes that were steep you know double the black diamonds it didn't
really matter I would take risk I've flown off cliffs with quads and broke my
collarbone I've done all kinds of crazy things but then when the kid came along
it's like you know what I'd better slow down so I there's a major identity shift
and the same thing happens with almost every parent you know they go from
living one way being one way having one set of values to having a completely
different set of values they'll go from I'm partying every night to I'm not gonna
party at all now some people still party when they have kids they don't care but
you know you get you get the idea and we touched on this too significant
personal experiences such as like moving to a whole new country I mean if I moved
if I moved away from the US and then to you know maybe a Scandinavian country I
would have a completely complete identity shift I would want to adapt and
assimilate to their culture and become you know one of the locals so to speak
even though I'm not originally from let's say Finland or Iceland I would want
to adapt to their culture to kind of assimilate and blend in with them you know
I would retain some of my culture but that that move will have a significant
change on your identity and you have to adapt to their laws and also their
cultures so I mean it's almost like a forced I mean you can live in isolation
I guess but that would be kind of boring what's the point of moving to another
country I mean if you pick a place you want to go live even Canada I love I
would love to live in Canada you know I don't think they're I mean I think
they're different than people from the United States but you know they have a
different identity in a different mindset but but nevertheless moving to
Canada would definitely shift my mind and my identity I would want to do as the
Canadians do so to speak so recognizing the fluid nature of identity can lead
you to a greater self-acceptance and greater flexibility in your personal
growth understanding that it's fluid that it's not rigid that you're able to
make that change and you can if you want to based on your all-life
experiences culture current environment it will lead you to greater self-
acceptance and that's where we want to be we want to accept ourselves we want
to be flexible in our personal growth we want to be able to grow and shift our
mindsets become better people not necessarily buy into this ideology that
you're born with a certain identity and you're gonna die with that identity
that's like putting you into a box if you like to be in a box by all means
stay in that box don't come out but if if you want to be outside of that box be
a free thinker be fluid and dynamic as a human being be the best that you can be
and embrace the fact that identity is fluid it's constantly changing and you
can constantly make that change and understanding that identity can change
provides a framework for you for coping with life's uncertainties and challenges
so you go into a new job you go into a new place to live you're not locked in
to who you were you are now able to change and adapt to that environment and
that's perfectly okay and also embracing fluidity and identity allows you to adapt
more readily to changing circumstances and to explore new aspects of yourself
and very healthy and in an open-minded manner versus having to struggle there's
a lot of people that struggle with identity change with adapting to new
environments because they don't think they I don't think they understand that
identity is fluid they can make that change that they have to be stuck in
their old ways and that is not true that is something that's taught to you that
is an unrealistic belief it is it is a 100% false you have that power to make
that identity change for yourself to better yourself become more open-minded
and to be more self accepting of yourself so far we've been identifying
ways that individuals you myself can make a change in our identity by maybe
moving to a new country doing a career shift career change shifting our
perspective gaining new experiences learning about other cultures in a
plethora of other reasons however society also plays a role in identity
informing your identity too and societal roles serves as frameworks that
significantly influence our identity by setting these expectations for behavior
for responsibilities of these roles and interactions I mean you have roles such
as parent professionals you know doctors teachers students and even community
members they come with very specific expectations we talked about this early
on if you're a doctor or if you're a police officer there's a suit there's a
certain set of expectations and norms that shape how people perceive themselves
these professionals and how others perceive them I mean and adhering to or
rebelling against these roles can define your self concept and influence your
personal decisions and life trajectories by doing so for example professional
roles they often dictate a substantial part of your identity right I mean if
you're a broker stockbroker if your cashier it dictates a substantial part
of your identity it influence your self-esteem your daily routines and your
social status as much as I dislike social status unfortunately we can't get away
from that in professionals or career roles play a big important impact or a
part of your social status some societies you know revere certain
professions more than other societies might for example a doctor or teacher
may integrate their professional responsibilities deeply into their
personal identity which affects how they interact even outside of their
professional environment they'll carry that over with them from their job to the
outside world so to speak in changing your professional career let's say you
go from a doctor to a teacher maybe become a professor at a university that
leads to a definitely a significant identity shift as you take on this new
role you may align you know or have conflict with your pre-existing
personal values and self-perceptions you will go in from a doctor to a professor
I don't know what would be better to me they're both equal you know as far as
career paths are concerned one works on people one well they both work on people
right help people one educationally the other one you know physically medically
but maybe it changes your perception of which one is better I don't know that
that really comes down to the individual right I don't value either one more or
less I think they're both important gender roles historically ingrained in
societal expectations play a crucial role in shaping identity from a young age
boys do this girls do that but what if we seen over the last decade or two
decades we've seen gender identity emerge into a plethora of different forms of
identity you know we've got this whole pronoun thing going you know it's them
them they I think that's kind of odd it's like messing with the English language
to begin with but we have this whole whole personal pronoun how you identify
as a gender and again it's your free choice you are free to choose whatever
gender identity role you want to do that's you know to your heart's content
hallelujah I'm good with that but don't get upset if somebody misidentifies you
because the majority of people the majority of people on this planet fall
prey to societal cultural norms when it comes to gender identity man and woman
take a look at the Middle East take a look at Asian cultures they believe
women have one type of identity whereas in the West the identity of a woman is
more open and somewhat equal to a man and so what does all this mean I mean
societal expectations about gender roles they influence our personal choices
their influence our personal choices in education career and even our hobbies
which impacts yes our self-esteem and our opportunities for personal growth go
to the Middle East go to Afghanistan that you know the Taliban they don't
believe that women should be educated a lot of Islamic countries don't believe
that women should be educated although that's come a long way now so I take
that back not every one of them do but there are some extreme Islamic beliefs
that don't believe women should you know have a have an education and what
about some Asian cultures where they believe the women are even African
cultures where they believe the woman is subservient to the man try that here in
the United States watch it watch you get belted with a frying pan if you if you
tell that to a woman an American woman but again that's that really comes down
to how the society is set up in the expectations and the cultural expectations
you know in in the Middle East or Africa the woman from a child is gonna say
well you know I'm gonna grow up be married I gotta take care of the household
feed my husband and you know do all the household chores and child rearing
whereas in the West are like I'm not gonna raise my child I'm with someone else
raise it I'm gonna have a career and I'm gonna be the boss of the house
completely different I know because I have this argument with my wife all the
time oh boy I mean in a few challenge traditional gender roles that can lead
to a significant identity shift in this indefinite pushback by society which
can have societal consequences as well I mean even some Christian churches are
very strict in the way they view gender roles between a man and a woman and
completely negate any other type of gender gender identity so I mean again it
comes down to where you're from you know your belief system your experiences and
all that I say you can be anything you want to be be whatever you want to be be
whatever gender you want to be it doesn't really matter you're gonna die anyway
I mean we're all gonna that's a that's a guarantee so might as well just enjoy
your life and be who you want to be right you know and there's a and there's a
real negative downside to just not just gender identity but to just general
identity based on your cultural upbringing there's a general societal
pressure to conform because what happens if you don't conform to these certain
identity roles they can impact your personal identity formation and your
mental health can you imagine women that are subservient that don't want to be
subservient how that impacts their mental health how that impacts their
life I mean on the one hand don't get me wrong on the one hand conforming to
societal expectations can provide a sense of belonging you know what I mean
and a sense of approval from your culture if that's what you're looking for but it
can also suppress your individuality and your personal growth and I think here
in the West we all push for individuality you know we all want to be
individual individuals we want to be seen as somebody you know unique next to
the next person we want to be our own person not like a cookie cutter part of
a identity that's you know part of some society or culture that's all doing the
same thing and that's where the conflict really a lot really lies when we start to
go against what other cultural cultural norms are and I think that's a big
problem between the West and the Middle East and the and the East is that we
revere women I mean we look at women as equal and we allow them to be you know
in positions of power whereas the Middle East in the the Far East Asia they
don't do that as much you know and there's a theoretical and practical
implication of identity fluid fluidity I mean there's various psychological and
sociological theories that provide frameworks for understanding how
identities form evolve and influence our behavior so whether you come from a
culture that's one way or you come from a like like a middle like an eastern
culture or if you come from a Western culture again we're gonna go back to
Eric Erickson stages of cycle cycle social development and James Marcia's
identity status theory which explain identity formation as a dynamic process
influenced by personal crises and commitment again they hypothesize that
your own personal identity is a culmination of your personal crises
occurrences in your life and the commitments that you make and sociological
insights push the ideology that social structures and cultural conditions
shape and sometimes constrain individual identities I mean there's
different perspectives and theories of identity but the bottom line is with
identity it is shaped and reshaped through ongoing constant social
interactions and the negotiation of roles in various contexts when I say the
negotiation of roles I'm talking about how we deal with different roles and
society and the dynamics of identity negotiation are very important for
understanding personal adaptations and environments like you know the workplace
educational institutions and social groups I mean it's really important these
these these I would say are breeding grounds or training grounds for our
identity development in most people and I would say it almost everybody and
even even social media modern technology has transformed how identities are
formed and how they're presented and how they're perceived I mean here you you
have social media you can have curated personas which impact your self
perception and social interactions that's pretty powerful if you could be one
person as we've discussed earlier in the physical world and come to the digital
world and completely fabricated different identity but here's the kicker with
that the digital age actually introduced challenges that are related to privacy
authenticity and the psychological impact of online interactions on identity
meaning that we have a whole host of issues when dealing with social media
and identity and the authenticity of people look at the catfishers the people
out there trying to catfish the lonely hearts the people that are looking for
love or the scammers you know or the bullies all of these have come into play
and helped shape identity and this is why it's really important to understand
that identity is fluid and you can make that change you don't have to fall prey
to some sort of societal norm or core or cultural norms you can generate your
own path you can you can create your own healthy sense of self your own healthy
identity and I believe by truly understanding identity fluidity you can
enhance your personal life you can create you can enhance organizational dynamics
leadership approaches and personal development if you understand the
fluidity of identity it can help improve so much in life it can help improve the
work environment it can help improve the the the home life environment the
perfect you know any other the academic environment by just understanding
identity fluidity because what it really comes down to is that leaders who appreciate
and accommodate the fluid nature of employee identities can foster
inclusivity adaptability and resilience and embracing philosophical and
psychological insights into identity can empower individuals to navigate lives
changes more effectively which is very important and it promotes a healthier and
more authentic life and I think the key here to getting along with people to
really be in liked to be being a leader to be an accepted is to be authentic be
true to yourself okay folks this brings us to the end of our show you know I
encourage you to reflect on your own identity take a look at it take a take a
self-examination of who you are in how you portray yourself and how you're
perceived you know at work at home in your community consider the various roles
you inhabit and how they have shaped your sense of self and think about the
times your identity has shifted and what triggered those changes if you're
interested in a deeper dive into identity I recommend reading Eric Erickson's
work on identity development exploring peer-boudoirs theories of social
practice and engaging with the existential writings of Jean-Paul Sartre
these guys have all talked about identity and I want to thank you from the
bottom of my heart if you've stuck with me this far I really appreciate you and
I'm really hoping that you're gaining some insights from these podcasts that
can help you become a better person a better thinker and realize that life has
no scripts I'm Alan Stafford until next time this is life unscripted