Identity Shaping: Social, Genetic, Cultural, and Built Environment - Essay Sample

Introduction

Several elements, such as social, genetic, and cultural, and the built environment mix together to ensure an identity is shaped. Relationships are often developed between people and the place in which they have grown in both small and large scales (Hernández et al., 312). The larger-scale encompasses an entire city or a country while the more modest range often includes the workplace, school, room, and neighbourhood. This is often illustrated when people meet through the things that they ask about each other, which often includes the places they live in or the cities they come from. All this information collected refers to the different physical places (Dixon, 30). Neighborhood, gardens, and homes are often personalized; this usually reflects the different ways that people manage things depending on their preferences. The dynamics, methods, and the life paces of people also affect places. For instance, people often ornament and decorate their homes, gardens, and workplaces in different ways, and this regularly communicates who they are. Physical place influences the identity one has through interaction with the environment and the people around them.

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Place identity is a concept that has been present since the 1970s, and it is used to describe different ideas, interpretations, conceptions and memories, and related feelings as well as the particular type and physical settings (Knez, 212). The attachment of a place is often an aspect of place-identity; however, this is more than just an attachment (Knez, 212). Place identity is also an illustrated social identity, which relates to social class and gender. It comprises of interpretations and observations regarding the environment in question. These elements are different, and they can be divided into two categories, where one of them consists of values, ideas, settings, thoughts and memories, and the other kind relates to a relationship comprising of different settings, including school, home, and neighbourhood. Identity is developed when children begin identifying and differentiating themselves from everyone around them (Bernardo, 242).

Similarly, place identity develops among young children as they start identifying themselves as distinctively different, but they find a relation with the physical environment. Their first identities are often rooted in the memories that children have with their rooms, clothes, and toys. This is followed by the importance of the homes supported by the school and the neighbourhood. Environmental and social skills are developed from this place, and it forms a platform through which the child will be able to recognize and evaluate other places (Davis, 53). Several changes occur in the place identity in the entire lifetime of a person. A place has five central functions, and this includes defense function, anxiety and mediation of change, expressive requirements, meaning, and recognition. Place identity is a cognitive database through which different physical settings are experienced.Additionally, a place brings out the social identity that a person has. Social identity is the sense of belonging that one has towards a particular social group, as well as the values and the emotions conveyed to them. These develop self-concepts, and they make people similar or different from other people. Furthermore, abstract social categories are the bases through which people create the perceptions they have about themselves, which are developed to be part of their self-concepts (Hernández et al., 315). Often, humans define themselves with components of the groups that they belong to. Social identity theory is a concept that foresees different behaviours relating to various groups, differences in-group status, and the ability to turn from one group to another and the legitimacy of these groups and behaviours. This differentiation is applied to illustrate general theories about human social selves (Dixon, 32). Social identity theory does not stand as a lone theory and often depends on the place identity theory because these social groups are often developed depending on the place that one is in. This illustrates that perspectives and approaches of social identity bring about self-categorization, and this is significantly tied to the place where these social groups are formed. This illustrates that there is a contribution of both the self-categorization and self-identity theory and place identity theory (Bernardo, 245).

Several kinds of literature have brought out different ideas about people and places. Structures, materials, smells, food, and neighbourhoods can describe a place, and they are among the different things that people relate to their places with (Knez, 213). These things make people feel like they belong in some places while they do not belong to others. Identity and place are bound to each other inextricably. These two qualities are produced together where people often come to get identified with the place they live, and they shape it depending on their needs. These are, in turn, shaped by the environments around them, and they create different autobiographies and narratives that people hold in the memories developed in those places and the places that shaped them. Exploring the relationship present between identity and place brings out the role that a place has in developing identity and psychological development (Knez, 216).

The bonds present between identity and place often influence political actions, cultural practices, and social formations. It is often seen that emigrants often find ways to reflect on their homes by planting certain tree species or developing certain architectural ornamentations. Different techniques have been illustrated in the literature that represents how place and identity intertwine (Knez, 213). The identity that emerges from a place is a concept that has been developed in environmental psychology, and this proposes that different identities form depending on the place a person comes from. Place identity is a subdivision of the character that a person has, and it is developed through various experiences, feelings, and knowledge that people have with their physical spaces. An identity that emerges from the sense of space is derived in different ways where place acts as a means to guide change, foster attachments, construct meaning, and develops a sense of belonging (Knez, 214). The identity evolved from space can inform the attitudes, behaviours, and experiences about different places. Place identity is a broad concept through which several theories of the relations of the environment and humans are developed. Also, place attachment is another concept that demonstrates the different ways through which people come together from different places, and these bonds are affected in practice, perception, place-making, and identity development. These concepts bring out the idea of sites and the reason that makes people feel at home and the reason that makes displacement very traumatic for groups and individuals.

A place brings out the coherence of memories in different ways. People's experiences often intertwine with the politics of space and the sense of space that has been developed. This illustrates how different identities are usually hidden when people talk about a place in various stories (Bernardo, 246). Human existence dramatically depends on the occupation of a territory. A place is essential to ensure the survival of man even in the most impoverished conditions. This is because it allows access to vital resources such as land, which is supplemented by a water body. Even in the most primitive state as hunters and gatherers, pastoralists, or people with permanent and fixed residences, illustrate that access to a particular territory is a critical condition of life (Bernardo, 247). To ensure that the assurance of subsistence, there is a need to allow exclusive access, and this means that a place of their own may be their place. A sense of place is an element of identity politics, and this is a core concept in the psychology of the environment. It refers to the bond that people develop regarding different places (Bernardo, 248). Along with the attachment, the identity gotten from a place is an important concept that illustrates the idea people develop with their homes.

These concepts are used in different ways, and this is a sense of place and personal idea. Nationalism is an identity that often develops from the identification of the country (Dixon, 31). This may be dismissed as a myopic and brutal short-sighted form of identity, however people often have place identity towards their nations, and this is strong enough to lead one to die or kill for the identity to be maintained (Dixon, 32). The sense of place can develop to be violent and intense such as this. In understanding the development of identity, it is often an extraordinary and emotional construction of a place. There is a relation of identity and sense of place where they work to offer divergence between one set of people and another. These contrasts are often differentiated and complex. They also are based on race, gender, class, and different identities. This is brought out by the process of "othering", where one specifies where they belong and through contrast with different places and different people (Dixon, 33).

Several techniques are continually emerging, and these have been set up in a way that does not invoke the differentiation of people. Instead, it handles the differences that people have respectfully. It is possible to think of difference without thinking in regards to the people, it is also possible to think of the interrelation that people have with places with humility and tolerance.

Work Cited

Bernardo, Fátima, and José-Manuel Palma-Oliveira. "Urban neighbourhoods and intergroup relations: The importance of place identity." Journal of Environmental Psychology 45 (2016): 239-251.

Davis, Andrew. "Experiential places or places of experience? Place identity and place attachment as mechanisms for creating a festival environment." Tourism Management 55 (2016): 49-61.

Dixon, John, and Kevin Durrheim. "Displacing placeidentity: a discursive approach to locating self and others." British journal of social psychology 39.1 (2000): 27-44.

Hernández, Bernardo, et al. "Place attachment and place identity in natives and non-natives." Journal of environmental psychology 27.4 (2007): 310-319.

Knez, Igor. "Attachment and identity as related to a place and its perceived climate." Journal of environmental psychology 25.2 (2005): 207-218.