IDENTITY

Identity is the distinctive characteristic that defines an individual or is shared by those belonging to a particular group.

• Identity can also change over the course of a person’s lifetime.

• Environment and history are two of the primary factors that shape the behavior of human groups.

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

7 CATEGORIES

NATIONALITY

• It connotes membership of a person, in the country, describing his/her connection with the political state.

• Basis of identification for nationality is by birth or inheritance.

Citizenship is granted to an individual by the government of the country, when he/she complies with the legal formalities.

1. By birth – it is either jus soli or jus sanguinis.

2. By naturalization – the process of becoming or making someone a citizen of a country that they were not born in.

ETHNICITY

• It refers to the person’s identity in relation to the social, cultural or religious group.

• Bases of identification for ethnicity are through language, religion, culture, race, etc.

GENDER

• It refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

• Sex refers to the biological characteristics of humans such as male or female.

• In some societies, gender becomes a basis of one’s identity, as social norms allow for their acceptance or neglect by the majority of the population.

1. Heterosexual – a person with this gender is inclined to be sexually attracted to a person of the opposite sex.

2. Homosexual– a person who is sexually attracted to a person of the same sex.

3. Bisexual– a person who is attracted to both sexes.

4. Transgender – a person whose gender identity does not match up with his/her assigned sex.

5. Transsexual – a person who feels that he/she is not the gender which he/she was assigned, and can be addressed through medical sexual reassignment.

6. Queer – a broad term that is inclusive of people who are not straight and cisgender.

7. Intersex – a general term used for a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the boxes of “male” or “female”.

8. Asexual – a person who is totally incapable of being attracted to any sex.

9. Polysexual– a person who is attracted to multiple types of gender.

10. Pansexual – a person who accommodates all types of gender.

SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS

It refers to the category of persons who have more or less the same socioeconomic privileges in a society.

• The types of social class/status operate in varying forces and combinations at different times within a society or in diverse societies.

1. Upper class – they are considered the most productive in terms of resource generation and oftentimes very successful in their respective fields of interests and endeavors. The elite has two general types: the new rich/nouveau riche and the old rich/traditional upper class.

2. Middle class – composed of small business and industry operators mostly owners and managers, professionals, office workers, and farm owners with income sufficient enough to provide a comfortable and decent living.

3. Lower class - are the farm employees, skilled and unskilled artisans, service workers, and people who may be unemployed or underemployed or those who belong to indigent families or informal sectors.

RELIGION

• It refers to an organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the supernatural, along with associated ceremonial or ritualistic practices by which people try to interpret and/or influence aspects of the universe otherwise beyond human control.

• Today, religion has evolved to promote far complex forms of understanding human nature, the afterlife, and natural events.

1. Monotheism – belief in the existence of one God.

2. Polytheism – belief in the existence of multiple gods and goddesses.

3. Atheism – disbelieving or lacking belief in the existence of God.

4. Agnosticism

– belief that the nature and existence of gods is unknown and inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience.

POLITICAL IDENTITY

• It refers to the set of attitudes and practices that an individual adheres to in relation to the political systems and actors within his or her society.

• In a more rigid context, an individual can acquire political identity by subscribing to a political belief such as communism, democracy, or socialism.

EXCEPTIONALITY

• It refers to the state of being intellectually gifted and/or having physically or mentally challenged conditions concerning personality/behavior, communication, intellect, physical appearance, or a combination of more than one specific exceptionality or disability.

• This could be understood in a spectrum of capabilities, wherein you have the geniuses in one extreme and you have the disabled and challenged in the other extreme.

• Issues relating to this can range from having fewer employment opportunities due to being physically disabled to not reaching one’s full capacity due to the lack of advanced mechanisms to support an exceptional talent.

CULTURAL VARIATION

Ethnocentrism - is a perspective that promotes an individual’s culture as the most efficient and superior; hence the individual who exhibits ethnocentrism feels that his or her culture is the most appropriate as compared with other cultures.

• Cultural relativism promotes the perspective that cultures must be understood in the context of their locality