We live at a historical time of social psychology, where we discover things daily about how our social environments shape us. The social environment includes social institutions like education, media, religion, family, governments, and cultures that significantly influence our personality. All the institutions take part in shaping our identity, creating meaning, and defining us. Also, they help shape our attitudes, behave, and give us a sense of belonging. The social environment that we grow in cultivates morals, beliefs, and values. The social climate makes identity recognition for being dependent on factors more than biological influence.
The social environment has a far-reaching impact on individuals by shaping behaviors and values. The cultures we live in have those morals and values that we must incorporate into our lives. The view can differ depending on the culture of the person. The environment shapes the individual by restricting individuals from doing or not does jobs they like. The restrictions can be to meet the societal expectations of financial stability, success, status, and gender roles. Also, social environments sometimes prevent individuals from involving in morally wrong acts (Y Studios, 2020). For example, there are those acts we cannot do in public, like scratching our itchy buttocks. Individuals are born imperfect, and everyone has a bane. However, because of fear of coercive power or ostracism, people refrain from involving crimes believed to be wrong by society. Thus, the fear of being judged can limit our behaviors. Society restricts the actions of individuals.
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The social environment impacts individuals' personalities differently. People brought in harsh, and poverty-stricken areas tend to be more arduous than those who grew in wealthy and peaceful neighborhoods. These individuals are more hardworking and competitive in matters of learning and education. They believe that success in their education will make them secure jobs that will eventually improve their lives. The violent regions and poverty make them become hardened in life as they must face the challenges of poverty. Also, individuals who are orphans or born from single families seem to be more self-reliant and responsible since they believe that their fate relies on their efforts in life.
Among the social environment factors that influence personal identity formation is race, ethnicity, and culture. These aspects evolve both in the way we define our groups or how society defines the groups. Since we have no control over ethnicity and race, we can only decide to distance ourselves from the religions, customs, and cultures that we live in. These factors influence our identity from when we are born, particularly when our families recognize these associations. They create a foundation for our scheme of beliefs, influencing our attitudes and behaviors as well. Each cultural group has a way they conduct their lives or solve problems differently from other groups (Kate, 2020). The way individual relates to their surrounding and cultural practices influences how they feel about themselves. Generally, the environmental reaction on our skin color, cultural customs, or heritage either weakens or strengthens our sense of egotism in a characteristic of our identity.
A social environment like peers affects an individual personality either negatively or positively. Individual's creative and critical thinking is affected when a person is not capable of making good decisions. Sometimes the peers separate the individuals from cultural practices and beliefs. For instance, when children interact with their peers in boarding school, they contradict some of their cultural practices because the behaviors never exist in their friend's society. In this way, an individual loses identity leading to a different lifestyle from the basic one in one's society. Contrarily, peers positively influence the personality of their fellows. An individual may borrow the better and good skills from associates, improving their lives and becoming part of their identity. The central traits among many friends make individuals to be more accustomed and attracted to fellow personalities.
Though society is influential in shaping one's identity, our loved ones and families have a more significant effect on our identity formation. Since we are exposed to this circle first, we always look to them to build blocks for identity formation. In our early developments, we have embodied the title of daughter, son, sister, or brother (Leary, 2019). We identify with the names depending on the type and size of our families. Also, conflict or support we receive from the family is helpful in our naming identity meaning. The match or support depends on the factors contributing to the identity of our parents, like level of education or financial status. Also, communal relationships influence our identity as the relationships cause more commitments, the size, and the valence of our view of self-changes. Either we do loss or gain traits either positively or negatively, thus becoming hallmarks of personal identity. The relationship can cause us to lose interest in things we once cherished and enjoyed or fall out of touch with our cultural or religious attachments.
Lastly, opportunities and location are some of the most variable influencers of our identity. The country we are born in, the community we are part of, and the town we stay in the impact our intellect. The economy and current government impact our vision about our world and ourselves—the cultures and geography impact our creativity, happiness, and productivity. When we feel unaccepted and isolated in a place, our identity faces conflicted development. The area helps to reinforce our existing knowledge about our identities. Also, the location one is born or lives in influences the language they are identified in. In schools, people develop a new language that later becomes part of their identity.
References
Kate, D. (2020). How does society shape the individual? Padlet. https://padlet.com/katedesborough/sociology
Leary, M. (2019, December 27). The role of the environment in shaping personality . The Great Courses Daily. https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/the-role-of-the-environment-in-shaping-personality/
Y Studios. (2020, July 2). What Factors Really Influence Identity? Retrieved April 28, 2021, from https://ystudios.com/insights-people/influence-on-identity
