[SPEAKER_00]
Exploring
your
identity.
We are more alike, my friends, than we are unlike, says Maya Angelou.
College students at a public university were invited to participate
in a study.
A total of a hundred and forty-four students completed surveys about their identity and well-being during their first year in college.
Only ninety-eight students completed the surveys in both the fall and spring semesters.
So the results are based on their responses.
Most students reported identifying as European Americans, ninety-one percent of them, ten percent identified as African American,
which is two percent.
Two percent is Latinx and two percent is American Indian or Native American.
Findings indicated there is much stability with identity exploration and commitment during the first year of college, meaning that students exploring their identity in the fall continue to explore in the spring and those who were committed in their identity in the fall remain committed in the spring.
However, this did vary to some extent based on different aspects of identity.
, identity development was connected to overall psychological well-being.
Global and friendship exploration were associated with lower levels of satisfaction with life.
Romantic commitment was related to higher levels of life satisfaction.
These findings show that identity development takes time and is not something that is achieved in one year of college.
Identity achievement requires exploration followed by commitment.
Seeking out opportunities for you to explore who you are can help you move toward identity achievement.
Recognize that exploring can be associated with lower levels of life satisfaction and note that this is normal.
Anxiety and stress are often higher when we explore and have not yet committed.
, establishing a strong support system that includes friends and a significant other can be helpful and increase your satisfaction in life.
Relationships are an important source of support, but they take time to develop, especially when you have just entered a new environment, such as college.
Seek out opportunities to get to know others and build relationships.
Let us begin with an important yet complex question.
Who are you?
Taking time to explore who you are as you begin your college journey is a valuable activity.
Self exploration is central to our growth as individuals.
Our relationships with others and our ability to promote equity, our various social identities, sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, socioeconomic class, religion, and ability, among others, are important aspects of ourselves that shape our attitudes, behaviors, worldviews, and experiences.
In college, taking time to figure out
Who you are and who you want to be can help you make good academic, professional, and personal decisions.
You'll learn about the importance of considering your multiple identities, a concept referred to as intersectionality.
You'll also explore groups in which you belong, relationships and social roles you have, and your personal characteristics.
In addition, you'll have the opportunity
to consider your values, actions, and goals.
Schwartz emphasized the importance of exploring both your personal and cultural identity.
According to Starot, there are three primary ways that we tend to describe our identity.
group membership, relationships and social roles, personal traits and characteristics.
Intersectionality is a term that can help you see your many different identities and how these diverse aspects of your identity connect.
The term intersectionality was first used in
by Kimberly Crenshaw, a scholar and activist, to bring attention to the experiences of black females who belong to two oppressed groups.
Group membership is a key part of your identity.
Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender are examples of group membership that help you define who you are and are often core parts of your identity.
Although these are terms that are used often, their definitions can vary.
For our purposes, the following definitions will be used.
Race is a social construct that refers to a group of people who have similar physical traits.
The term social construct
means that is not biologically determined, but rather determined by humans in society.
Social constructs can have different meanings in different social contexts.
Ethnicity refers to a shared ancestry, history, and culture.
Sexual orientation refers to a component of identity that includes
a person's sexual and emotional attraction to another person, and the behavior that may result from this attraction.
Gender is defined as the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person's biological sex.
It is important to recognize that the labels used do not fully capture who you are.
, identities are complex and your story will be best told when you acknowledge and appreciate your multiple identities.
Chizik and Chizik cautioned that using single definitions to describe identity can be problematic.
, they found that when you describe yourself in simple terms, you may also do the same for others.
When this happens, you miss out on understanding all aspects of yourself and others.
It's important to understand how privilege and oppression can impact you and others.
Privilege refers to advantages that are automatically given to you as a person because you're a member of a group.
White individuals, males and
, individuals identifying as heterosexual, and as able-bodied individuals carry the most privilege.
Oppression, on the other hand, refers to disadvantages associated with group membership.
Examples of oppressed groups include black, indigenous, and people of color, females, the LGBTQIA plus community, and individuals with disabilities.
One way you may characterize your identity is by how you are different from others.
Sharat noted that you are likely to identify characteristics that make you unique when describing yourself.
Individuals who are from privileged groups, such as someone who is heterosexual,
, may not immediately identify as such.
However, individuals who identify as part of an oppressed group such as the LGBTQIA plus community are often more likely to indicate that sexual orientation is an important part of their identity.
For those of you unfamiliar
with the term LGBTQIA+, it is used to indicate someone who identifies as one or more of the following, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and questioning.
Another example relates to individuals with disabilities.
For individuals who do not have a disability, being able-bodied may not be a term they would immediately use to define themselves.
However, if someone has a disability, it is more likely that this part of their identity might be immediately identified as a core part of who they are.
The disadvantages and consequences associated with oppression are often felt very strongly and on a regular basis for members of oppressed groups.
If, on the other hand, you are a member of a privileged group, the advantages given to you may not be noticed as easily.
It is important to note that many from privileged groups work hard to achieve success.
The difference, though, is that
.
Clifford, who identifies as a white female, shared the following running metaphor to help students better understand privilege.
As I started out, I felt like my feet were wings.
I'd gone for a longer than usual run a few days before and decided that must be the cause of my improvement.
It's possible that I looked quite slow to anyone who saw me, but by my standard I was zooming along.
The Chariots of Fire theme song was going through my head.
I felt like I reached the end of my first mile in no time.
My hope had been to run the
a return route faster than the first mile, and I had no doubt in my mind I would be able to.
But then I reached the end of the road and turned around.
As I started my run back, I was gasping for breath, and I had to fight for each step.
Remember, the road was pretty flat, so it's not that I was now going uphill.
No, what I realized as I ran that first block in the return direction was that I was now running headfirst against the wind.
I was aware of that wind every step I took and knew that I had to expend a lot of energy to simply move forward.
It was very obvious to me that the wind was an obstacle to my running prowess.
It took me a little while to realize, however, that the same wind that was now making it so difficult for me
, to run had a few minutes earlier been pushing me along on the first half of my run.
What I thought was a major breakthrough in my development as a runner was really just nature giving me a push.
While I was constantly aware of the wind on the second half of my run, I hadn't noticed it at all in the first half.
Instead, in my mind, my improved abilities were all because of me.
I had thought I was becoming a damn good runner.
As I was cooling down, I realized that this experience provides a metaphor of how privilege works in our society.
Privilege is like the wind that was pushing me along.
It surrounds us and gives some an added push and unearned benefits advantage that makes it easier to excel.
The person running against the wind never forgets the wind is there.
Similarly, many in our society can never forget that is riddled with racism, sexism, class inequality, heterosexism, ableism, and religious intolerance.
At the same time,
Others of us can go on blissfully unaware that the wind is at our backs.
Our society is structured to keep that privilege invisible much of the time.
And those with privilege often attribute their success to exactly the kinds of things I was thinking on the first half of my run.
My success is because of my abilities, my hard work.
It is common for individuals to be part of both privileged and oppressed groups.
Ianey noted, an African-American student at a predominantly white campus will have the experiences of being part of a minority group.
However, if that same African-American student is a male majoring in one of the science, technology, engineering, and math or STEM fields,
, a field in which women have traditionally been underrepresented, then in the aspect of gender, he may also have experience as part of the majority group.
It's an interesting study by Chizik and Chizik.
They found that students who categorize themselves as non-white were more likely than white students to view themselves as having statuses associated with both privilege and oppression.
The following are examples of students' response to a question about privilege and oppression that show the complexity of privilege and oppression.
I am oppressed because I grew up very poor, went to a school without any programs other than sports, and came from a one-parent home.
I also grew up in an area that is mainly white or Hispanic, but I am both.
I never seemed to fit in.
I am now a single mom, plus I am working my way through college.
I am privileged because I had a family who valued education.
My mother supplemented my education,
through PBS plus library materials.
She has helped me whenever she could so that I could go to college and move from economic oppression to economic privilege.
I must first say that both states of being are relative to my opinion.
Nonetheless, I would consider myself to be both privileged and oppressed.
I know that I am privileged because I have always had the necessities of life, a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food on my table.
But beyond that, I have also had the opportunity to travel, pursue a post-secondary education,
and the freedom that accompany Americans' citizenship.
However, in the midst of the many positive aspects of my life is the negative and heavy weight of oppression.
I say that I am oppressed because a major determining factor of my reality is the color of my skin.
Another is my gender, and depending on what the latest societal norms are, those factors can
not will, limit my achievements.
Now, this is not to say that any capabilities do not play a role in shaping reality.
I am not saying that they can be overshadowed by the factors mentioned above.
There are many differences among individuals within each socially constructed group.
This is especially true when broader terms such as people of color are used.
This is also true with more specific labels such as black or Latinx.
Individuals identifying as black or Latinx share some characteristics with others in their group, but will also vary a lot on other characteristics.
It is therefore important for you to consider not only what racial and ethnic groups you and others identify with, but also in what way and to what extent.
Categories are convenient ways to describe ourselves and others, but cannot be relied on as they do not fully capture who you or others are.
There are, of course, many other kinds of group memberships that can also help define who you are.
For example, your religious affiliation can be an important part of your identity.
For some, this group membership is central to their identity.
Individuals with disabilities may also define themselves in part of their disability or diagnosis.
For example, it is common for individuals with a specific diagnosis to relate to others who have the same diagnosis, and this can be an important part of who they are.
Team membership is another example.
If you are an athlete or even a fan, being associated with a team can be another significant part of your identity.
Where you live also contributes to your identity.
Your hometown or even the part of your hometown where you reside may play an important role in who you are.
If you are residing on campus, your residence hall may also become a part of your identity.
In a study by Garvey,
Student group membership as a residence hall positively impacted their sense of belonging.
Understanding yourself and others requires deep exploration and interaction.
One way to get started is to complete self-assessment inventories.
It is important that inventories you take have been studied by researchers to ensure they are effective tools.
Roberts developed a multi-group ethnic identity measure that has been published in a peer reviewed journal and studied by researchers.
In addition to determining how strongly you connect your ethnic identity, you can also consider how significant race is to your identity.
Worrell developed a five-question subscale in race salience.
The better you know yourself, the better able you will be to make important decisions about your education,
and how you plan to use it.
This includes reflecting on your group membership identities such as race and ethnicity.
Researchers have found a connection between students who have a strong ethnic identity and several success factors such as
the student's belief in their ability to be successful and their engagement in schoolwork.
This in-depth self-exploration process can therefore set the stage for your success.
It will also help you appreciate the complex identities of others.
Our social roles and relationships also factor into our identity, often in significant ways.
We all have numerous relationship roles.
Here are a few examples of personal roles that may apply to you.
Child, significant other, parent, sibling, other family member, friend.
Each one of these personal roles helps define who you are as a person.
In some cases, this personal role may be one of the most central parts of your identity.
Your role as a student can be another critical part of your identity.
Holmes found that student identity has been associated with many possible positive outcomes such as earning more credits, higher grades,
, increased confidence, improved sense of belonging and overall well-being.
You can increase your sense of belonging and identity as a student by seeking out and connecting with others who are similar to you and hearing their stories of success.
In an interesting study conducted by Williams, high school students were assigned to one of two groups.
In one group, students watched a video
less than eight minutes in duration that featured students from minoritized and non-minoritized groups talking about how challenges decreased over time and then wrote a letter to a future student in another group.
In the other group, they watched a video on social media profiles.
For students in the first video group,
whose students shared their experiences, there were many positive outcomes, including earning higher grades.
It is important for you to know that you belong as a student at your institution.
Even if you struggle at first, this is a common experience.
It can be helpful for you to understand how important your role as a student is to your overall identity.
Student identity can be assessed with a three-item survey developed by Holmes.
As a student, you are a member of your college community as a whole and are also a member of more specific campus groups too.
For example, your academic major is part of your identity.
Research shows that having an identity related to a discipline or major can contribute to student success.
Students who choose a major because of their interests often have a strong sense of belonging.
A sense of belonging has been shown to be connected
to improved academic performance.
There is no need to worry if you have not decided on a major.
Many students are undecided.
This text and course will help you choose a major.
, you may also belong to clubs and organizations on campus that become a part of your identity.
Basically, any group you are part of may contribute to how you define yourself.
For some, membership in a campus group may significantly contribute to their identity, but for others their involvement in a campus group may not be a major part of who they are.
Even how much the role of being a student impacts identity can vary a lot from one person to the next.
For those of you who are full time students, this may be a primary part of your identity.
For those of you who may be attending part time and working full time, being a student may be a less prominent part of your identity.
Your student identity may be especially important if you are the first one in your family to attend college.
Professional roles also shape your identity.
If you are employed,
Your identity probably also includes your role as an employee.
As an employee, you have group membership related to your place of employment.
Many of you will be more interested in having your future career as part of your identity.
Being in a career field is usually a primary part of one's identity.
James Marsha, a renowned developmental psychologist, described different identity statuses, emphasizing that identity achievement requires both exploration and commitment.
Culture plays an essential role in identity development.
Exploring who you are and the possible options available is a critical part of making good career decisions.
In addition to group membership and social roles relationships, your personal characteristics and interests also play an essential role in determining your identity.
Personal characteristics describe your personality traits and attributes.
There are many ways to describe personal characteristics.
Some examples include adventurous, compassionate, courageous,
creative, dependable, flexible, helpful, honest, loyal, responsible, patient, productive, social, and trusting.
Interests refer to activities that you enjoy doing.
Sports, gaming, reading, traveling, fitness, gardening, cooking, drawing, and music are some examples.
Interests usually guide what hobbies or activities you do.
Interests also play a role in deciding on a major and career.
Being in a career that aligns with your interests can increase the likelihood that you will enjoy working.
Some students have a good understanding of what they like to do and what characteristics best describe them.
But for most students, college is a time to explore and develop interests.
It is common for students to not yet fully know their interests and passions and be uncertain about what they want in the future.
There is no need to worry if this is the case for you.
One effective way to better understand your interests, skills, and values is to engage in new activities every day.
It is impossible to know if you like something if you have not experienced it before.
Be open and try out new activities.
College campuses have so many different types of opportunities for you to explore.
Visit the website for your college and search your student organizations, activities, and even to see the vast array of options available.
After you engage in each activity, you can reflect by asking yourself the following questions.
What did you like about the activity?
What did you not like?
How did you feel when you engaged in this activity?
What about the activity made you curious?
How important was this activity to you and why?
What did you do well when engaging in this activity?
What did you struggle with?
How interested are you in engaging in this activity again and why?
And what more do you want to know about this activity and why?
The combination of your personal characteristics and interests helps differentiate you from others.
Although you are similar in many ways to others, you also have characteristics that make you unique.
It is the combination of your multiple identities that best describe your uniqueness.
Exploring and reflecting on your multiple identities is valuable.
This deeper understanding of yourself can help you grow and develop.
College is an excellent time to determine who you want to be now and in the future.
Think about what aspects of your identity you want to strengthen and how you would like to incorporate new identities into your existing identity.
For example, most college students want to develop or enhance their professional identity.
To help you explore and reflect on your identity, here are a few questions for you to consider.
How would you describe your identity?
Be sure to include group membership, roles and relationships, and personal characteristics, including interests.
What parts of your identity are most important to you and why?
What part of your identity is moderately important to you and why?
What parts of your identity are not so important?
What privileged groups do you belong to?
What oppressed groups do you belong to?
What part of your identity do others notice the most?
What part of your identity do you want to learn more about or develop?
What would you like to add to your identity
and what type of professional identity do you wish to develop?
In five or ten years from now, how would you want to describe your identity?
What actions can you take towards this end?
And what can you do to learn more about your identity?
In addition to helping you know yourself better, thinking about identity can also help you better understand others.
When you have a deeper and more complex understanding of yourself, you'll be more likely to acknowledge and appreciate that others also have multiple identities.
This recognition and appreciation of the complexity of others will increase your ability to be empathetic and understanding.
Increased empathy and understanding can translate into improved abilities for collaboration and teamwork, which are essential skills in college, careers, and in our personal life.
Researchers have demonstrated that having a balance between concern for self and others typically leads to the best outcomes.
For example, Wayman found that this balance is associated with improved coping and overall well-being.
This self-other balance is desired by employers too.
, values are an especially important part of your identity.
Values refer to what you believe is important.
In other words, what do you care about?
What matters most to you?
Values motivate you to act and are used to evaluate yourself and others.
What are your values?
Values often stem from your family, community, and culture.
Some cultures value individualism, where independence and autonomy are encouraged.
Whereas other cultures value collectivism, where group needs are more important than individual ones.
These cultural values are often incorporated into your personal values.
Your family also plays an important role in shaping your values.
For example, if education is highly valued in your family, enrolling in college was likely something you have always planned to do.
, and you probably did not spend much time, if any at all, deciding on whether to attend college.
Instead, you perhaps spent your energy deciding which college to attend.
Another family value relates to caretaking.
Living with family and taking care of other family members is a strong value in some families.
If this value is important to you, you may be staying home and attending a community or other local college, or maybe at a college offering fully online
degrees.
It is not surprising that the people you spend the most time with really shape your values.
Although parents can play an important role in helping you decide on your values, other family members can also play a role.
This was demonstrated in a study by Lee,
, where they investigated the value of work ethic in African American families.
This study showed a connection between the work ethic of parents, siblings, and adolescents, finding that older siblings and fathers played an especially important role in developing the family work ethic.
Schwartz identified ten basic values.
Researchers have been studying these values across cultures and found that Schwartz's framework is useful for many different populations.
As you can probably imagine, there are numerous assessments you can take to explore your values.
McCarty and Shroom found that the best way to engage in assessments is to first identify the value that matters most and least and then write the values.
Dobwal and Rudnev developed a brief assessment to measure the values described by Schwartz.
, before you begin taking the assessment, use McCarty and Shroom's suggestion and decide which value matters the most to you and which value matters the least, and then rate each value.
College is an opportunity for self-reflecting on personal values.
Knowing what truly matters to you will help you make decisions that you will feel good about.
Your personal values will be especially critical when you decide on a major and a career.
Aligning your personal values with the values of the profession you choose is important and will likely contribute to higher levels of satisfaction.
For example, if helping others is of high value to you, you may choose a major and career such as education, healthcare, or another service-oriented career.
Your personal values also matter where you work, where you look for employment.
Organizations have values, too, and working for an organization with similar values will increase the likelihood that you are a hapless employee.
For example, if the company where you work is not engaged in environment-friendly actions and this conflicts with your value system, you may become unsatisfied with work.
If, on the other hand, you are working for a company that emphasizes work-life balance and this is important to you, you will likely enjoy working there.
As you reflect on how important each of these values are to you, consider what values are not captured on these assessments.
No one tool is comprehensive.
Thinking about all that matters to you can help you make good personal, academic and career decisions.
Activism is a term that refers to acting on your values in ways that result in political or social change.
For example, activism related to social justice and equity involves being a champion, advocate, and change agent for reducing the injustices faced by many underrepresented groups.
Another example could be environmental activities who support green efforts.
Activism can be an important part of your personal and professional identity.
Activism can come in many different forms.
Some activists might engage in peaceful protests, while others might write or comment on social media posts to increase awareness of issues and encourage others to act.
Other examples include writing to legislators or making statements on hearings for policies or regulations.
Activism can also happen informally when individuals talk with family, friends, or coworkers, sharing knowledge, and encouraging related actions.
Students have a long history of being activists and have used numerous platforms, including social media in recent years, to voice concerns and push for change.
Activism begins with knowledge and passion.
In college, there are many ways that you will expand your knowledge and find ways to act on what you care about.
In an interesting study by Goldman, they found that students who were in majors that involved environmental concerns were more likely than students who were in majors where environmental topics were not addressed to engage in actions that address these concerns.
find ways to learn more about what matters to you and then discover ways to be an activist in these areas.
In addition to using classes to increase your knowledge, you can also pursue outside of class opportunities on and off campus.
Organizations on campus may have already established programs that you can participate in.
For example, Greek and other campus organizations typically center their philanthropy efforts on their core values.
If you do not find an organization on campus that is doing the activist work you are interested in doing, most colleges and universities encourage students to start new clubs or organizations.
You may also want to join efforts happening off campus.
There are many community-based organizations engaged in various forms of activism.
Jason noted that using allies and partners can increase the likelihood of results.
Your values not only impact your actions today, but also play a significant role in your aspirations.
Aspirations refer to who you hope to be or what you hope to accomplish.
Your aspirations probably motivated you to attend college.
For example, you may be attending college to learn the skills and earn the credentials related to your career aspirations.
for some attending and graduating college is a way to improve socioeconomic status or to pave the way for future generations if you are the first in your family to go to college your motivation may come from showing others in your family that education is possible when you think about who you hope to be and what you want to accomplish look beyond your now and into the future
It is common to focus on your current network to see what your family members, friends, and community members have achieved and use this information to determine your aspirations.
However, for many students, your now network may only provide you with limited examples of what is possible.
For example, if most of your family and friends work in the same field or for the same employer,
you may not see other options.
Although this may be a good career choice, the best decisions are made when you explore and evaluate multiple options.
You can think beyond your now by seeking out conversations about possibilities with others.
The more you talk with others, the more options you begin to see.
The over and under representation of your group, membership and professions can impact your decisions.
Researchers have found that role models or others who see you in various careers guide career choices.
In a study on science majors, Byers, Winston and Rogers noted the importance of giving black college students the opportunity to watch and learn from black mentors.
, because this can help students feel like they are science insiders versus science outsiders.
In addition to role models and our personal networks, you're also exposed to role models through television and social media.
In a study conducted by Walters and Kremser, they found that the career aspirations of first and second year students are more influenced by television and the media as compared to third and fourth year students.
seeing others who look like you in the field can make a difference.
There is no need to be limited by what is most visible.
If you discover that there are few individuals from your race or gender currently in a career, search for role models or mentors who may help and support you as you challenge existing stereotypes.
College is an excellent place to find a mentor,
In fact, researchers have found that professors play an important role in career aspirations for third and fourth year students.
Professors are not the only resource.
Working professionals, especially alumni, are often willing to connect with students and support you with developing and researching your goals.
There is no need to be limited by what you currently see.
Stretch yourself and consider options you may have never thought about before.
Your aspirations and related actions can have long-lasting positive impact on you, your family members of the groups in which you are a part of, and on future generations.
Aspirations go beyond what career path you choose and include whether you would like to move into a leadership position within your chosen field.
It is not surprising that if individuals in the groups you identify with often have leadership positions, you may be more likely to aspire to higher levels within a career.
Unfortunately, gender and racial gaps continue to exist in terms of salary and leadership positions.
Yavorsky found that education is connected to high income, but that men benefit more than women.
Gaining knowledge and skills and challenging yourself to aspire to higher levels can position you well for success even when there are obstacles to overcome.
Take a few minutes now to complete the career aspiration scale.
, you are likely starting out on your college journey, so it may be difficult or perhaps overwhelming to think about your aspirations.
If you're like many other college students, you may be struggling to decide on a major and may not know what career path you want to pursue.
If this sounds like you, you're not alone.
This is common.
Learning about yourself and how to discover your aspirations is an important part of your journey.
The better you know yourself, the easier the decision-making processes will be.
But those decisions and that process take time.
Remember, aspirations are more than career choices.
Think about what you want in the future personally as well as professionally.
Considering who you want to be in five, ten or twenty years from now can help you determine what actions you can take today, tomorrow and the next day to help you get to where you want to be.
.
What mark on the world can you make to make the world a better place?