“Yes, it’s the same,” we say when we understand that two objects, phenomena are no different from each other. This is identification. Identical means the same. Through factual analysis and comparison, we come to the conclusion that the two items are no different. However, in psychology this has a slightly different meaning. You and I have to understand the concepts of “identification” and “identify”: what it means, where it occurs.
What is identification
What does it mean? Identification is the equation of two objects with each other. Let us consider the definition of the concepts “identification” and “identify” in more detail.
The meaning of the word "identification"
This is a determination of the similarity of objects by comparing their characteristics, properties, and essence. Synonyms: comparison, reconciliation, identification.
The meaning of the word "identify"
To identify means to recognize some objects as the same, without differences. Consider one to be similar to another. This means to compare one thing to another, to find similarities.
How to become yourself
In essence, identifying yourself with successful and satisfied people with life is commendable, but we must remember that everyone has their own path. The pursuit of material wealth, the daily bustle and the struggle for a place in the sun will not give you peace of mind and tranquility.
Those who have realized the value of life follow the path of spiritual search, but our “I” is terrified of waking up and seeing the world as it really is. Finding yourself can turn into an endless pursuit of a ghost that melts in the night, into the work of awakening the inner “I” without awakening this “I”.
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Psychologists have developed several techniques that eliminate identification. One of them suggests abandoning past experiences and going beyond comfort by achieving the state of an “outsider observer.” This is a kind of meditative state achieved through measured, deep breathing and concentration of thoughts on the sensations of the body.
An identified person begins to realize his condition and builds a connection between the true “I” and the infinity of being. Gradually, consciousness is cleared of chaos and identification, enlightenment sets in, meaning the achievement of internal harmony, a feeling of oneself “here and now.”
Buddhist practices offer immersion in a state of contemplation, the meaning of which is to concentrate attention on one pre-selected subject. During meditation, a person completely merges with the observed object, disidentifying with the rest of the world around him. He loses the sense of himself as a person and gains a sense of pure being. The technique allows you to completely clear your consciousness and bring your thoughts to the simplest level.
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Yoga uses a technique aimed at liberation from identification and achieving the state of “samadhi”. A meditating person moves away from the bustle and enters a state of nirvana - feeling being without emotional coloring beyond identification. Gradually, you begin to feel like an eternal spectator, calmly observing the world and people.
Most of the time we live automatically, according to the “home – work – home” scheme, so life sometimes throws us into shocks. The more identified a person is, the greater the shock he needs to experience in order to break away from his habitual identifications. Life forces us to move forward and work on self-awareness, spiritual growth and development. Author: Natalya Ivanova
What is Personal Identification
In psychology, personality identification is understood as a person’s attribution to himself of features, qualities, properties, external signs and internal characteristics of a subject. According to this, he partially or completely transforms himself.
Personal identification is likeness to a person, group, character. This process is called identification. Derived from the Latin word identificare, which means “identification.” Moreover, most often the person himself does not understand that he is adopting someone else’s characteristics. This is why it can be very difficult to distinguish the true “I” from borrowings, which is why we sometimes do not know what it means to “be ourselves.”
Until the age of three, children talk about themselves in the third person, because until this moment they do not identify themselves as an independent person. But from the age of three we begin to actively learn about ourselves: gender, age, nationality, etc. We then begin to accumulate social experiences by identifying ourselves with family and friends. Every year this process becomes more and more difficult, and the risk of losing oneself increases. Individuals completely forget about themselves and dissolve in other people, things, and phenomena.
Identifying yourself with another person is comparing your experience with his experience, building your life similar to his life. “We are so similar”, “I am the same as you” - such phrases can describe the essence of this phenomenon.
Identification of a person by external and internal characteristics
Freud made a special contribution to the study of personality assimilation. He believed that this is an unconscious merging of a person with others, imitation of them. The individual becomes infected, as it were, with other people’s thoughts, emotions, interests, and habits. This is probably why they say “tell me who your friend is and I will tell you who you are.” According to Freud, comparison of a person according to internal and external characteristics occurs by comparing characteristics or by determining the essence (membership in a group).
The process of identifying oneself with others
Identification comes in three levels (stages, types):
- Acceptance of external values. An example is the worship of a star. The fan watches every performance of the idol, perceives every fall and every rise as his own victories and failures. He follows him around the cities, lives his life. Such identification helps to escape from real problems and worries. A person lives according to instructions, a script. Living in a fictional world is comfortable and not scary.
- Acceptance of internal values. These are the “masks” that each of us wears. This is the acceptance of the values of society, imitation of the norms that others promote. Simply put, we hide our essence and appear as specific people in a specific place and time want us to be. There is nothing wrong with this as long as a person understands where the mask is and where he is real, and knows how to manage it.
- Comparison with oneself (self-identification). For example, in a dream we experience and feel everything as if it were happening in reality, but at the same time we understand that this is far from our reality. This is the most difficult and deep level. The level of self-compassion, knowledge and understanding of your body, feelings, desires, subconscious. This is communication with yourself beyond all masks and images.
How to become yourself? It is important to understand your value and realize that each person has their own path to happiness. To be yourself, you need to constantly leave your comfort zone, develop, learn your needs, abilities, interests. You need to learn to look at yourself from the outside. At the same time, it is important to develop awareness and learn to live here and now. You need to break out of the usual framework of identification, remember what you once were, what you wanted.
We will talk more about identification and self-identification in other articles.
How does this process happen?
Identification occurs gradually, in several stages: first, a newborn child learns to hear his own name and associate it with the body. Growing up, he often talks about himself in the third person: “Sonya wants to eat.” Then the baby learns the magic word “I” and associates it with his name. This is the first stage of identifying oneself as a thinking person, experiencing emotions in relation to the objects and personal phenomena around her.
At the next stages of identification, the child grows up, he realizes that he has such characteristics as gender, age, and race. Next, oneself identifies with mother, father, relatives, friends, and communication experience accumulates. The perception of oneself becomes more complex, accumulated experiences grow into the inner “I”.
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The head of an adult is always filled with an endless stream of thoughts, they are often repeated, can be absolutely meaningless, but evoke emotions: “What would happen if...” The result of such emotional chaos is mood swings, poor health, loss of interest in life, loss of contact with true "I". From the Buddhist point of view, man has two minds:
- Monkey - fussy, endlessly thinking about something, not focused on specific problems or matters, never sleeps. It predominates in people with a low level of awareness and creates in them a feeling of meaninglessness and inconsistency of life.
- Volovy is consistent, thorough, aimed at solving specific problems in the real world. People with a predominance of this mind are aware, calm and balanced, full of energy and true enthusiasm.
At the last stage, the monkey mind is identified with the Ego, and the person loses contact with his inner space. As a result, he not only forgets himself, but also completely immerses himself in the world of similarity to other people, things and phenomena.
The true “I” sometimes makes its way to us in dreams about childhood and strange things whose names we can’t remember.
Identification in criminology
Criminologists understand identification as the identification of a wanted criminal. In the process of operational-search activities (OPM), specialists use several identification methods at once.
Identification in criminology is the identification (establishment) of a person based on dynamic and static characteristics. The first includes facial expressions, speech, gestures, and gait. The second includes fingerprints, smell, composition of biological fluids. Sometimes for identification they use a sketch compiled from the words of witnesses, a photograph or a computer model of a person.
Conditions for the identification procedure:
- Preservation of the rights and freedoms of all participants.
- Maintaining the safety of witnesses, maintaining secrecy.
- Drawing up a report, extract, certificate on the results of the event.
- The final document describing the conditions under which identification took place and the signs of compliance. Audio, video and photographic materials are included.
Personal identification can take place in natural or artificial conditions. That is, in those places where the suspect should appear or at the police department.
Description of the term
Conformity is a process as a result of which a person’s opinion and behavior changes, the cause of which is real or imagined pressure from external factors (person, groups of people, political situation and other factors) or internal psychological conflict.
It manifests itself in the form of opportunism, the cessation of the fight against manifestations and positions that are unpleasant for a person. Conformity is sometimes associated with a conciliatory attitude, especially in the political life of a society or country as a whole.
Conformity, by definition, is a change in a person's behavior in a direction consistent with the expectations of the group, which occurs as a result of the real or imagined influence of other people. The term "conformist" comes from Latin, where "conformist" means "to give form."
We can say that conformism is nothing more than submission to the views, principles, values and norms of behavior, that is, to the code operating in a social group.
The opposite of conformism is non-conformism or anti-conformism.
From the point of view of sociology and psychology, conformism is a form of individual adaptation to the social order, and conformist behavior in groups is considered as an indicator of their cohesion. Deviation from conformist behavior is often seen as social deviance.
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Levels of depth of conformity
There are many levels of depth of conformity.
This:
- Submission
, which only occurs when the pressure group is physically present. When it disappears, the person returns to his beliefs or behavior. The motive for action is most often the fear of punishment or rejection from the group. - Identification
is a deeper form of conformity. He appears even when the group is not physically present. This is said when an individual identifies with a group, resulting in his behavior adapting to the ideas of the individual. - Introjection
(or internalization) is the deepest form of conformity, which involves recognizing certain norms and values as one’s own. This is one of the tasks of socialization.
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Influence on modern man
Conformity is inherent to each of us to one degree or another.
The main characteristics of the influence of this phenomenon on humans are as follows:
- Its greatest manifestation is typical for people under 25 years of age
(kindergarten, school, college). At this time, a person is to a greater extent part of unchangeable social groups with their own leaders and extras. - Application of a group or team method of work
. To achieve a common result, several people must come to a common opinion. In such a situation, everyone’s opinion is often taken into account, but it has to be unified, that is, modified to form a common position of the team. - The order of relationships between a person and a group.
If the level of material reward when using the group method is higher than when working individually, higher, conformity in the team will increase. Today, in most commercial companies, team players are valued, since, in the opinion of management, this method brings the best work results.
Conformity greatly influences modern man, both in a positive and negative sense.
