Identification

Abstract

A person’s sense of self, his very identity is a measurable and manageable psychological trait that is formed over the course of his entire life based on what the person can do, what he has achieved, what he looks like, with whom he associates, and what he possesses, among other things. The way in which a person understands who and what he is, is based largely or entirely on the memories he forms over his lives that collectively create not just a representation of how others view and react to him, but also what he comes to expect from himself. Self-concept theory is often used to explain how a person identifies himself, based on several different aspects that make up who he is and what he believes about himself. This is seen as something fairly fixed and made up of self-perceptions of who he was previously, who he is currently, and how he could be in the future. A person’s sense of self, his entire identity, is made up of his self-knowledge, self-esteem and social self.