Issue 36. It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves.

Among people’s growing paths, social groups play a vital role in shaping and influencing their identifications. Whether it is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves can be weighed in many aspects. From my perspective, I generally concur with the statement that most of the time, interaction with social groups helps to define ourselves.

Admittedly, some people will argue that people can develop their identification without influence from the outside world, or it is not easy to distinguish their propensity. For example, characteristics of maverick can sculpture a person only believing himself and not seeking any recognizance, or some people may join different or even contradictory parties. These cases show that social groups are not the primary way to define ourselves. However, it is relatively rare to see these cases.

First of all, when a person was born into this world, the first social group will be his family. Family plays a substantial role in one’s life because parents teach and impart their value of life, manners, and knowledge. In the early stage, we will perceive our parents as a paragon and imitate their behavior. During the process, our identification is developing without awareness. Moreover, children will start education and interact with more and different people. In the school, teachers and peers will become the primary social group and source of influence to shape one’s identification. A person experiences many emotions, obstacles, and progress, and finds his group of people sharing with the same values, such as student clubs. Therefore, the social groups is an inevitable and primary source of most people to define themselves and find identification.

On the other hand, in the fast-changing and dynamic world, people tend to cooperate to create more productivity and competition. For example, a person joins the political party and devotes his time to serve the core value of the party. We can tell that this person finds his identification and define himself as a member of the party and recognize the purpose. After all, when cooperating with others, we likely agree with the opinions of others and seek to create more influence in the given field. Consequently, from the case of the political party, in contemporary society, identification with social groups and the cooperation is the primary and conspicuous way to define ourselves.

To sum up, the statement is persuasive to some extent. Base on my expositions mentioned above, although we cannot neglect those rare cases that people only recognize and believe in themselves, most of the time, we will go through much social interaction with different groups of people and define ourselves through the process.

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