Introduction
Individual conceptualization of one’s identity often fails to acknowledge the identity-developing processes of family heritage and the cultural environment surrounding an individual. To this effect, the individuals perceive themselves as being the primary architects of their individuality and personality, paying little homage to familial and societal aspects that form the foundation of their identity development processes. Proponents of this argument hold that it is the individual’s efforts in shaping their identity that determines how the society perceives them, rather than belonging to specific units with predetermined modes of behavior. In support of this claim, it is argued that the need to belong to a certain group motivates the individual behavior, attitudes, and actions. Although the claims hold some truth, this kind of self-conceptualization is not only careless, but also undermines the critical roles played by the family and the culture in the development of a wholesome individual.
In contrast to the notion that the individual is the primary architect of their own identity, studies have established that the family heritage lays the foundation to individual identity. As such, the importance of the family bond cannot be overstated in the study of processes associated with individual identity, as these bonds play a critical role in the acquisition of social understandings as well as in the processes that nurture life. Individual identity is the subjective conceptualization of oneself ( Harrison& Leitch, 2019 ). Thus, within the family concept, identity of an individual is defined by belonging to a specific family, as well as the specific roles played by the individual in the family.
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Individual identity is a factor subject to the collective conceptualization of social and ethnic phenomena that forms the immediate environment of the individual. As such, while the individual may exhibit characteristics different from the normative perspective of their family or their cultural deposition, this should not be taken to mean the individual is alien to their respective society. In fact, such discrepancies define unique identities. To understand the processes that define individual identity within the constraints of the familial context, it is important to consider the complex interdependency of the family heritage in the social context and interaction of the cultural phenomena surrounding an individual (Vignoles & Manzi, 2014) .
In the development of identity, the family plays a primary role in providing the individual with unique conceptualization of identity contexts and processes inherent in the family heritage. This implies that the identity of an individual is shaped by having familial ties to a culturally established unit ( Harrison & Leitch, 2019 ). It is from this unit that the primary aspects that motivate individuality and personality take root. This explains why some individuals, for instance siblings, may exhibit identities that tend to have similarities due to the similar cultural and familial contextualization aspects. Interestingly, the differential contextualization of these aspects by each individual significantly makes their identities unique and thus different from each one.
Some theorists suggest that family unit is the neutral environment that shapes the identity of the individual. On the contrary, recent studies have indicated that this is not the case. Notwithstanding the role played in shaping the identity of an individual within the constraints of the family setup, other aspects influence individual identity at both the family and extra-familial concepts. As such, the family unit does not act in isolation in shaping the identity of the individual. In fact, individual identity is shaped by the collective contribution of identity aspect of the other ( Côté, & Levine, 2014) . Additionally, different ethnic and racial combinations in the family also greatly influence the development of individual identity. Further, the interaction of different gender, race, and ethnicity influence the type of identity inherent in an individual.
While the individual plays a role in development of their identity, the family heritage determines what role the individual plays in the process. In support of this argument, individual identity is a factor of the interaction of several aspects and processes specific to their immediate, accessible, and historical environment. To that effect, individual identity is a multifaceted concept developed to its unique conceptualization by the aspects of family, culture, education, opportunities, and not forgetting the inherent choice of the individual.
On this note, the family is a combination of individuals who, in all sense, possess unique identities. As such, the family can be disaggregated to establish the nature of effect it has on its constituent individuals. First, at the group level, the family has its own unique identity as a group of related persons. This identity encompasses the individual identities whose combination gives the family its unique identity. As a whole, therefore, the family identity and hence its heritage is the combination of its member identities. To this effect, every individual member belonging to the family contributes to the overall conceptualization of its heritage (Bottero, 2015) . Similarly, no one member belonging to the family reduces its identity or heritage, whether that member’s identity is desirable to their family or not. In essence, such identity only serves to extend the diversity and uniqueness of the family identity.
Family heritage is the critical foundation upon which individual identity is built. That said, it is important to assess how the overall family identity affects the identity of its members. To this effect, the individual component associated with belonging to a certain group comes into play. At this level, the individual is inclined to identify with the context of the seemingly preset aspects of behavior ( Côté, & Levine, 2014) . Why this successfully influences the individual’s behavior is explained by the historical and cultural aspects upon which the family heritage is based. For instance, families whose ancestors were politicians will tend to produce more politicians in the future. Surprisingly, in such families, some of its members having no interest in politics will have identities that culturally will be conceptualized as being political. Thus, while assessing factors that shape individual identity at the family level, aspects that the family finds aggregable to identify with will be those that are normative in the society.
Conclusion
The conceptualization of individual identity based on roles played by the individual and other entities reveal a web ofintricately interconnected outcomes.While the individual contributes in defining their identity; the family heritage establishes the critical processes that develop identity. The family unit influences identity by assigning the individual unique roles to other family members and beyond. As such, claims that despise the role of family in shaping and influencing individual identity disregard the influence of parental transposition and filial perception to individual identity, and hence should be dismissed. In effect, individual identity has been established to be afunction of the collective conceptualization of family unit that spans from the past through the present into the future. Thus, without undermining the role of the individual in the development of their own identity, it is clear that the family bond influences the most critical aspects of such identity. In perspective, therefore, individual’s identity is a component of the identity of the group of individuals who share a common familial bond in the cultural context.
References
Bottero, W. (2015). Practising family history:‘Identity’as a category of social practice. The British journal of sociology , 66 (3), 534-556.
Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2014). Identity, formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological synthesis . Psychology Press.
Harrison, R. T., & Leitch, C. M. (2019). The Dynamics of Identity, Identity Work and Identity Formation in the Family Business: Insights from Identity Process Theory and Transformative Learning. In The Palgrave handbook of heterogeneity among family firms (pp. 673-713). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Vignoles, V. L., & Manzi, C. (2014). Identity motives. Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research , 3061-3064.
