Cole Frederick CAPS #1

Cole Frederick

CAPS blog #1

Gender Identity

                Gender identity is defined as identifying oneself with the cultural norms of being masculine or feminine (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Gender is completely different than biological sex. Labeling someone as a man or woman in our society is influenced by the socially acceptable cultural notions. There are actions in society that our considered masculine and others that our considered feminine. For example, watching football is considered a masculine activity where as watching the food network or soap operas may be considered more feminine. Gender identity is constructed by culture (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). What may be feminine in one culture may be masculine in another. The social norms and expectations of a specific culture define specific gender identities.

I found a very interesting story from a Swedish newspaper about a couple that didn’t reveal their babies sex to anyone after birth. The child is now almost 3 years old and no one knows whether he/she is a boy or girl. They dress the baby in clothes that range from dresses to athletic shorts.”We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mold from the outset,” the child’s mother said. “It’s cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.” I think the parents were right on with this because it is so true that directly from the womb we are judged by our biological sex. A biological male is shunned if he wants to become a dancer and the biological girl is supposed to be the caregiver. I think if we stopped labeling individuals biologically as male and female individuals would be able to grow on their own without the constructed expectations of society.

Link to news story http://www.thelocal.se/20232/20090623/

                Gender itself is demonstrated in communication styles. Women’s communication style is described as a much more supportive and disclosive nature than men (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Men supposedly communicate in more assertive and competitive ways. After further research, it appears that men and women’s communication styles are actually much similar than people think. This goes back to the fact that gender identity is constructed.

                I think knowing the facts and definition of gender identity helps with intercultural communication immensely. By knowing the fact that gender is reconstructed by society, communication is much easier because you can have a sense and understanding of different cultures views.

I found another interesting link on youtube.com about a new story of placing boys and girls on high school sports teams based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvR8nKKx-9I

References

Bornstein, Kate “Naming All The Parts” Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us.  (1994) 

Green, Jamison “The Art and Nature of Gender” Unseen Genders: Beyond the Binaries. 

Maritn,J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pp. 185-187. New York, NY; Mcgraw-Hill

Lauren Bayne CAPS Blog #1

Third Culture Kids

A third culture kid, or global nomad, is a person that grew up in many different cultural contexts because his or her parents moved from their home country (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The term is used because TCKs combine aspects of their birth culture and of the new culture in which they are immersed to create their own unique “third” culture. In this way, they develop a unique sense of identity that gives many of them the ability to understand and communicate easily with people from various cultures and backgrounds.

A friend of mine spent four years, ages eight through twelve, growing up in Bulgaria because her father was a missionary there. Her whole family relocated with him, including her mother, and older brother and sister. They lived in the capital, Sofia, where she attended a public school for a time, but later transferred to a U.S. Embassy school due to the poor public education. She became integrated in the culture of Sofia, even going so far as being friends with a son of the local Bulgarian mafia leader. She played soccer and baseball with the local “boys,” grew up calling her parents’ close Bulgarian friends “Uncles” and “Aunts,” and spoke both Bulgarian and English. Still today, six years after moving back to the United States, she refers to Sofia as home. The food, the sense of community, and even the dirty streets and rather provocative billboards on the streets of Bulgaria, integrated themselves with her white American identity, which transformed into her identity as a third culture kid. With this experience, my friend has acquired a passion for being involved internationally and has developed a resilience and understanding of cultures. But she has also acquired a feeling of being fragmented and marginalized. She has discovered that very few people understand, or want to understand, her experiences in Bulgaria. This leaves her discouraged, and now she does not mention Bulgaria in public unless she is asked about it.

Understanding part of the cultural identity of a third culture kid will greatly aid in any intercultural communication a person may have with one. This contact could prove to be one of the most unique intercultural communications a person can have because a TCK has a multicultural identity, something that many native-born, white Americans do not have. According to Dr. Ruth Useem, the sociologist who coined the term, third culture kids, “there is a high level of international activity in adult TCKs” (Cottrell, 1993). As I will likely work in an international setting in the future, having a basic understanding of one facet of a TCK’s identity will ease the process of intercultural communication and will open up the opportunity for me to learn more fully about his or her own unique cultural identity.

References:

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Cottrell, Ann. (1993). ATCKs Have Problems Relating to Their Own Ethnic Groups. Retrieved from http://www.tckworld.com/useem/art4.html

Hofstede's value Orientations

Figure 1: Results from Hofstede's original study

A social psychologist named Geert Hofstede led a study of personnel working in IBM branches in over 50 different countries. In 1984, Hofstede published his work, identifying 5 distinct sets of cultural values of which solutions were different among various cultures. The values or problem types are individualism vs collectivism, power distance, femininity vs masculinity, methods for dealing with uncertainty, and long-term vs short-term. Individualism is the cultural emphasis on the person or individual, while collectivism is placing cultural importance on families, teams, or communities. Power distance deals with the distribution of power in a setting, and having people with less power accept that they cannot make decisions. The masculinity/femininity cultural difference is the assignment of gender specific roles or the label of gender oriented values. The uncertainty avoidance difference notes how different cultures deal with ambiguous and less structured meetings, whether it be in a work or personal setting. The final problem type is the long term vs short term orientation. This describes a societies outlook, focus and goals and whether they are to solve current or future problems.

This topic is very interesting as it is a very dynamic observation about different cultures and is likely highly affected by location. The original study was done in only IBM branches, which brings a sampling bias into the study. That sampling bias would probably only affect judgments created about a sub group of people working in an IBM branch and would not affect the cultural value theory that was created. The results of the study primarily affect how one should be aware of cultural differences. It could be a poor decision to talk with somebody about what your culture considers an important masculine value if the other person's culture led them to believe that the solution would be more of a feminine value. This might not create angst but most likely produce some sort of confusion or reevaluation and require clarification. An example of this could be if you were to mention gender equality (labeled feminine) to somebody that believed in strong gender roles (labeled masculine).

I have personally not had a great number of interactions between opposite sides of the cultural difference. Recently, however, I was talking with my academic adviser (in the college of engineering). We were talking about life goals and he mentioned that he had always wanted to get a Masters in Business Administration and how it would have been ideal to work towards while (or shortly after) he earned his Ph.D, especially since he was going to school in Chicago. He then continued to say that he felt as if it were too late now because he is very busy with research and classes, his wife is pregnant, and once he turns 40 he will have to start preparing to die. While this was all said in a very lighthearted manner, it made me think about how different this man's life was to mine. We have relatively similar academic and personal goals, but he had spent his childhood and created his foundation for his life in the country Jordan, and was raised in a Muslim household while I have never lived for an extended period outside of Nebraska, and have not had any formal religious education.

Studying Hofstede's theory of cultural differences will probably make me take a closer look at how people are raised and try to connect that to their actions: even  if they were raised in just different parts of the United States, Nebraska, Omaha, or even the same school district I grew up in. Most likely anything can be the cause of a persons belief as a collectivist or an individualist, and it seems important that these values are not overlooked or underestimated. Finally, while considering the cultural differences described by Hofstede's theory, I found an interview with Geert Hofstede himself, talking about a 6th cultural dimension.

Video: Hofstede - example of the 6th dimension

References

Hofstede, G. (2012, January 05). Professor emeritus - geert hofstede. Retrieved from http://geert-
          hofstede.com/index.php

Kanzler, S. (2010). Knowledge sharing in heterogeneous collaborations - a longitudinal investigation of a
          cross cultural research collaboration in nanoscience.Journal of Business Chemistry, 2010(1), 111.
          Retrieved from http://www.businesschemistry.org/article/?article=111

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill
          Higher Education.

Ethnic Identity - Michael Filipowski

Ethnicity identity is made up of three major components: how you self-identify yourself, having attained knowledge about the ethnic culture and feeling as if you are apart of that specific ethnic group. So for the most part it relates to those factors as in culture, language and beliefs. Everyone has an ethnic identity and everyone's is quite different depending on where you are from. This part of an identity is how we may perceive others identity and actions based on the beliefs and cultural knowledge that we attained from our beliefs or culture. 

In terms of how we or other ethnic groups may perceive each others beliefs or culture, I have added a video of Barack Obama bowing to the Japanese Emperor. In America a simple hand shake can mean hello, goodbye or thank you it's a greeting gesture and allows us to connect. In Japan, this small gesture of a bow is deeply attached to the japanese culture. Due to living in Japan for 6.5 years I understand the meaning of it. Not only is a bow a form of greeting as a hello, goodbye or thank you, but it is a bond tied to their ethnicity meaning that you respect the other person you are bowing to. The deeper you bow forward shows how much respect you have for that other person. Now in this video, we see Obama bowing but it doesn't mean that he is of Japanese ethnicity because he does it, it means that he has knowledge of their cultures and beliefs within Japanese's ethnic identity and is respecting them. He understand's their history and sense of origin.

This concept of ethnicity identity gives me much insight on how I lived my life from the age's 6 to 13. Every summer vacation I had while I lived in Japan, I would come to America for about two or three months to visit family. While in Japan I had become used to bowing and conforming to the Japanese culture and understanding their beliefs. But when I came to America and someone would do something for me I would find myself bowing and doing other things such as that because I had become used to that ethnic identity I found myself integrated with. I was not of Japanese nationality, but the concept of ethnic identity helped me understand that I had been doing these actions because of the beliefs and culture I was learning from at such a young age. 


Works Cited: 


Maritn, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pg. 185). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Andrew Steinhoff CAPs #1

Gender Identity

       

          The human race is made up of men and women. You are born one or the other. However, gender can be changed by way of modern medicine, but this delves more into sexual identity rather than gender identity. A newborn child is given either blue clothing if they are male, or pink clothing if they are female, even though the child has no perception of gender at this age. The concept of gender identity relies on the culture within. Females and males have different roles in society depending on where you are in the world.

          What does it really mean to find your gender identity? Some of you may have seen the Miller Lite commercials on TV encouraging the viewers to “man up.” In this clip that I have chosen, the masculinity of the male actor is called into question. He is carrying a bag that some might mistake for a purse, which is a very common accessory for females in western society. He is shocked when the female bartender questions his “manhood.” Even his male friends get in on the action, and make jokes at his expense. In the United States the general consensus is that men should not act like women.

         

        Gender identity is always in the back of your mind, it's just the way we are hardwired as humans. Even though we may not think about it every minute of the day does not mean that it's not important. We as humans make assumptions based on appearance and other factors. It is important to embrace your own gender identity, but to also recognize the similarities and differences in other gender identities.  

Works Cited

"gender identity." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228219/gender-identity>.

Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. "Chapter 5: Identity and Intercultural Communication." Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010. 180-82.

Personal Identity- Weiting Yue

Communication application paper #1

Identity and intercultural communication- Personal Identity

According to Martin & Nakayama (2009), personal identity is “who we think we are and who others think we are” (p.199). They also state that personal identity is constrained and influenced by contextual and external forces (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).

I recently read a psychology short passage on Psychology Today’s website, which is called “We Are What We Do”. It’s a fresh idea for me and I like the statement the author made on the first sentence of the passage: people become what they do. This statement means we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are, even from tiny actions and daily behaviors in our life (Wilson, 2012).  People’s traits and attitudes will determine behaviors and thoughts, but what if we reverse the order?  Just like the definition said, people’s personal identity is also influenced by contextual forces. This force can come from us. Here are some examples in the passage which illuminate we do things that we think they are right. People return a lost wallet because they are honest, recycle their trash because they care about the environment, and pay $5 for a caramel brulée latte because they like expensive coffee drinks (Wilson, 2012). Here are some examples illuminate that we become what we do. According to Wilson’s understanding, if we return a lost wallet, there is an upward tick on our honesty meter. After we drag the recycling bin to the curb, we infer that we really care about the environment. And after purchasing the latte, we assume that we are coffee connoisseurs (Wilson, 2012).

In the real world, I can use myself as an example. The external environments that influence me can be the United States’ culture, university’s environment and back home’s social environment. But the contextual forces that can influence me are more complicated. They could be the intercultural communication styles’ changes, the bilingual environment and how I suit myself into two totally different societies. I look myself as a bilingual girl with different hobbies and non-stable heart. But what will others think of me? I do not know all but they are not similar to what I think. The following is a video shows how current young people search for personal identity.

References:

Maritn, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pp. 185-187). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Wilson, T. (2012), We Are What We Do, Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/redirect/201201/we-are-what-we-do-0

Ethnic Identity by Nolan DeBord

Ethnic Identity

Ethnic identity is a set of ideas about one’s own ethnic group membership; a sense of belonging to a particular group and knowing something about the shared  experience of that group.  I believe that ethnic identity is an important part of America today.  After all, this nation was built on immigration.  It is important that people continue the traditions and keep their culture alive.  Living in a different place can be distracting for individuals who are far away from the origins of their culture.  Ethnic identity itself includes three dimensions.  First being, self identification,  at this stage a person acknowledges their own ethnicity.  Second is the knowledge about the ethnic culture, which is the traditions, customs, values, and behaviors.  Last is the feelings of belonging to the history of your culture and where it started.

An example of ethnic identity in today’s America is that of Judaism.  Jewish people have some of the strongest traditions that live in today’s society.  From an early age Jewish parents are usually strong in upholding the traditions such as going to Temple on the sacred day and celebrating Hanukkah.  Not only do they celebrate those traditions but on the 13^th birthday for a boy they will celebrate his bar mitzvah and for a girl her bat mitzvah. This tradition represents the transformation into manhood or womanhood. This is similar to the quinceanera for Hispanic girls on their 15^th birthday. 

I believe that ethnic identity is important because I, for one, am not someone who has the privilege of upholding traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.  My ethnicity has been lost somewhere in the family tree and it is to the point that I could not even tell you and be 100% where I originated from.  Family culture and tradition is important and as our nation grows it is necessary for people to keep their cultures alive, no matter where they are from.

Reference:

Maritn, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pp. 185-187). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

CAPS Blog #1

Identity Ascription

                Communication and culture intersect in identity formation and perception.  Identity can be self-determined through avowal or attributed to a person by others through ascription (Martin and Nakayama, 166).  Both avowal and ascription play influential roles in the development of identity.  Identity is not a static concept, but a dynamic one that changes with time and context, following the interpretive perspective of identity (Martin and Nakayma, 166).  This is especially important in intercultural communication because communicating between cultures is a highly dynamic situation in which perceptions play a leading role.  During the communication period, both parties are making observations and forming opinions about the identity of the other.  Each communicator is in the process of ascribing an identity to the other communicator.  Each communicator also enters the interaction with a pre-formed concept of their identity.  Ascribed identity is being constructed or re-evaluated during the intercultural communication.  The ascribed identity can often be in conflict with avowed identity and can lead to unsatisfactory communication or miscommunication.

                This conflict becomes more apparent during intercultural communications when visiting other countries or interacting with members of another culture.  This was one of the biggest surprises for me when I arrived overseas of a semester abroad.  I only went to Scotland, but this conflict became apparent from my first interactions with European students.  I was forced to further develop my own identity when confronted with the ascribed identity the other students attributed to me.  In this situation I was ascribed as a close-minded, ignorant, conservative Christian who practiced blind pride and apathy about broader global developments.  Parts of this identity are not entirely false, but my avowed identity was much more positive than these ascribed characteristics.  My new friends assumed I would fit their perception of an “American”, but they also changed their concept of “American” identity.  Stephen Brooks explains that this process of conflict and reassessment is expected and should occur more often as those ascribing identity are made aware of the differences between the diversity of “American” identities and the limited influences that informed their ascribed characteristics (Brooks, 14).  Huntington explains that this conflict between avowed and ascribed identities arises whenever America has undergone a unifying event, such as World War Two, the Civil Rights movement, and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States (Huntington, xv).  This conflict will impact intercultural communications by necessity as the world becomes more globalized and interconnected.  The awareness of this identity conflict will steadily decrease as time following the unifying event increases.

                                            

                Knowing more about the conflict of avowed and ascribed identity from an international and intercultural perspective will allow me to enter into intercultural communications with a more flexible attitude toward other cultural identities.  It is important to recognize that stereotypes are perpetuated by entertainment and news media, and that these contribute to ascribed identity.  Cultural diversity does not match these stereotypes.  Intercultural communications need to be sensitive to the damage that can be caused by subscribing to stereotypes about anyone.

References:

Brooks, Stephen (2006). As others see us:  the causes and consequences of foreign perceptions of America. Broadview Press, Ltd. Introduction.

Martin, Judith N. and Nakayama, Thomas K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts.  5^th Edition. McGraw-Hill.

Huntington, Samuel P. (2004). Who are we? The challenges to America’s national identity. Simon & Schuster. Foreword.

CAPS BLOG #1- Jihyun Kim

Class Identity

It is defined as a sense of belonging to a group that shares similar economic, occupational, or social status. The class identity can be easily distinguished by what an individual wears, by what kind of car they drive; by what school they went to receive their degree. It is against the social norm to ask a person’s salary; therefore, there are other ways to define a person’s class by simply observing their presence. For example, it is hard to imagine a member of the working class to be spotted at a 5 star restaurant in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. According to the French sociologist Bourdieu, the working class prefers to watch soccer because it is something they can easily relate to. Blaming the poor people for being poor is not always true. The United States has the most unequally distributed wealth income in the world and the only class being unaffected by this is the upper class. The top 1% has controlled at least a third of all wealth and the wealthiest 20% has held over 80% over the last 4 decades. The American dream of the upper class is easy to achieve but for the working class it takes more than having a one full time job to even come close to the American dream.

A classic example of class identity is the down falling economic crisis of the European Union states. The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. This article discusses the ever-rising unemployment situation all across Europe because of their debt crisis. The working class of Germany is tired and frustrated of being unemployed and being known as the “Sick Man of Europe.” While other countries like Spain, France, and Greece were improving in the job market; Germany was rapidly dwindling. In 2005 unemployment reached a peak of 12.5 percent, but in December 2011 it had a major turnaround and the rate went down to just 6.6 percent.

The concept of class identity is not only relevant to me, but also to the rest of the world. It not only defies whom we are but also where we stand in our society. There will always be that difference in communication between the upper class, middle class, and the working class. I am part of the middle class and it has appeared to me how much of the difference I see between the classes everyday. Even right here, on our own streets of downtown Lincoln we can see the struggles of the poor as they sit or sleep on benches asking for money. Some people will give those homeless people some money or a nice hot meal, but other will completely ignore them and move on with their lives. This concept is useful for understanding different cultures and the differences within the class identity. 

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Dowling, S. (2012, January 25). Germany's Job Miracle. CNN World. Retrieved January 25, 2012, from http://http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/25/germanys-jobs-miracle/?hpt=wo_r1

Fadhilah Lokman - CAPs Blog 1

Topic: Racial Identity

Racial identity which is also called as race consciousness is a factious issue. In old days, humans were classified by their biological characteristics; however today scientists have changed that based on fluid social and historical context. Nevertheless, racial identity is identifying with a particular racial group. Although to many people, they can simply identify others based on their biological characteristics, it is not necessarily true.

This concept is conveyed strongly in Crash. This movie illustrates the concept very deeply that how bad misunderstanding and hatred could be derived from having this racial identity. There are different characters with different races in the movies such are Persians, Hispanics, African Americans and Whites. Although they do not know each other, based on outer characteristics, they quickly categorized people in different group of races. From this, some treated others very badly just because they are from different race. Even worse, just like in the movie, the White policeman purposely molested black couple. The husband was so helpless and could do nothing at that time for the sake of their safety. As Mantin elaborated in the text, this concept is controversial and ubiquitous. It is fine to have people of different races making up the world population but the problem comes when people start favoring own races and looking down on others.

Indeed, there are limitations to this concept. The theory itself is very arguable. As mentioned earlier, people might easily categorize others based on their biological characteristic; it is no longer credible when interracial marriages are happening everyday around the globe. Not only that, if a Chinese get marry to an Indian later their son which should be a Chindian (This is what we used to call in Malaysia) marry a Malay woman. What should we call their children then? Or what race is these kids should be in? One of them might have small Chinese eyes, dark brown Indian skins and others have round Malay eyes and fair Chinese skins. It would be very hard to simply categorize them into specific race because they are made of multiple races. Other than that, as there are only 55 genes out of 3 million that differentiate different groups, it is highly possible and proven biologically that some races share same biological features. For example, Japanese, Koreans and Chinese are three different races but it is hard to differentiate them even among themselves. After all, knowing this concept does change my interaction because I believe that even one does not prejudice towards others, there is a high tendency to favor own race. Talking about this issue itself can quite offending to some people, thus through positive way of communication, I believe any unfavorable things can be avoided. I remembered my junior who is a mixed Japanese and Malay said, "If I am racist, I won't be here today." That's what she said when people start talking about her dating with an Indian guy.

Reference:

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Whitney Scholtes- CAPs Blog #1

Gender Identity

Gender identity is a social and cultural identity in which notions masculinity and femininity. You can also say it is an identity in which what is means to be a man or a woman. It goes beyond biological sex or sexual identity. Culture and our society greatly influence our gender identity. From the time we are born we adopt a gender identity. Biologically, you may be a male or female, but with gender identity you are considered either a boy or a girl. Along with this, baby gifts may be blue to signify it's a boy and pink signifying it's a girl. As we get older our gender identity may become more prevalent. Culture and society may project that some activities are more masculine or more feminine. Some examples are hunting, watching football, and riding a motorcycle (which would be more masculine) and sewing, cooking, and watching soap operas (which would be more feminine). Masculinity and femininity change continuously and my be different between different cultures. For example there is a trend in the U.S. for woman to have very full lips but in Japan this is not considered attractive. Not all women have naturally full lips either, but we have the option to get fuller lips by injections or surgery. Thus, gender identity also gives us a sense of who we want to be and not only who we think we are. Culture and society gives us many images and definitions of what masculinity and femininity is supposed to be or what it is supposed to look like. Although we all don't seek to be the same, we do communicate our gender identity as part of who we are.

I am going to use myself as an example for this identity. I would identify myself with femininity mostly because I am a girl. When I was born, my mother smothered me in pink. As I grew older, I started to sew which would be considered more feminine. I did other activities associating myself with femininity like cooking, piercing my ears, and playing with girl dollies because they were more like me. I also avoided specific activities because I thought they were more for boys. I never played football, never went hunting, and never rode a skateboard because they were more masculine. I also have seen how society can affect and change gender identity. As I grew older, I played football a few times without changing my mind about my gender identity. I started to see boys with their ears pierced and it was socially acceptable. There are many examples throughout my life in which associate to gender identity and I could go on and on about them, but those are a few to give you an idea of how gender identity have been in my life.

The concept of gender identity has made me think of how it's influenced my life in the past and how it applies to my life now. It also made me think of how gender identity has changed and stayed the same throughout generations and decades. I also realize that gender identities have been affected and still will be affected by culture and society in the future. This concept has changed my mind in which we are more than just a biological sex. We are more than just male or female and gender identity affects us in more ways than I had assumed.

Resources:

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Heidi Krueger- Spiritual Identity

Spiritual Identity

            Spiritual Identity is the identification with feelings of connectedness to others and higher meanings in life. (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 165) Spiritual identity is the inner spiritual reality that is realized and experienced to varying extents by people through a number of outlets. (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 165) It can be described by spirituality, beliefs, the nature of reality, consciousness, awareness, metaphysics, truth, philosophy and religion.

            In different cultures you see different types of spiritual identity.  As an example some Christians would believe Jesus Christ’s teaching that unless a man is born of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spirit.  While in other cultures and religions they believe in different structures of who they believe in.  For example, the spiritual self in India is expressed through a structure of gods and goddesses and through rituals and meditation. (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 165)  Spiritual identity is really how people themselves take and understand their feelings and how they are connected to others.

            I have gained knowledge about truly be myself and to not be afraid to let people see the true me.  I am a Lutheran and I believe in God.  In my spiritual identity, I am not afraid to express myself or let it be known that I believe in God and I’m very strong to my faith.  I have a tattoo on my wrist of a cross to symbolize my faith.  I have also gained that the identity development does not occur in the same way in every society, (Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 165) which makes you think and look at other people and their cultures more.

            This book covers topics helping you find your own spiritual identity.  It covers growing in spiritual friendship, learning discernment, hearing and speaking with God, approaching death and the world beyond, practicing stewardship and so much more.

These articles help people that have been through spiritual abuse.  I think it is very powerful and relates to the subject of finding your own spiritual identity.

http://www.churchabuse.com/articles/spiritual_abuse_articles/healing_spiritual_abuse_005.html

http://awordinseason.web.officelive.com/Spiritualidentitycrisis.aspx


  


Worldwide Religious Affiliation 


(Religion is not all of spiritual identity but it is one that plays a role in someone's spiritual identity.)


Archer and Waterman’s (1993) Assessment of Spiritual Identity Stage, Paraphrased by Griffith and Griggs (2001, p. 21)

Resources:


Archer and Waterman’s (1993) Assessment of Spiritual Identity Stage, Paraphrased by Griffith and Griggs (2001, p. 21)

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill Higher Education