Social identity - Definition

Self-identification or social identity is the way one sums up the totality of his being to the world of others or, often more importantly, to oneself.

"Social identity theory was developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979. Social identity theory involves three central ideas. Categorization, identification and comparison (sometimes it is called CIC theory for this reason)." [1] (http://www.anu.edu.au/psychology/social/socident.htm)

"Identity is a complex integration of cognitive, emotional, and social factors that make up a person's sense of self. These include gender (personal sense of being male or female), sex roles (social and cultural expectations of masculinity and femininity), personality (individual traits and disposition), and sexual orientation." [2] (http://www.tpronline.org/read.cfm?section=articles&id=111)

See:

• racial identity - black, white, yellow, etc.

With an African-American father and an Irish mother, Beals belongs to the growing group of Americans--seven million, in fact, according to the 2000 census data--who have a racially mixed heritage, but she did not publicly identify as biracial until recently. Prior to taking this role on The L Word, in fact, only two of the dozens of characters Beals played over the years have been biracial; the rest have been white women or women whose race was unspecified but assumed to be white. This likely has less to do with Beals, however, than with the fact that there have been almost no explicitly biracial characters on film or television. [3] (http://www.afterellen.com/People/jenniferbeals.html)

• sexual identity - usu. male or female
• sexual orientation - opposites attract? not always

Gender specialists do not consider a patient's previous sexual orientation to be of major importance, as this is separate from one's gender identity. [4] (http://www.genderweb.org/~zenith/fgid.html)

Further reading

• Culture and Identity texts (http://www.sociology.org.uk/cmmer.htm) - The Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences