Identity: Definition, Types, & Examples

By Eser Yilmaz, M.S., Ph.D.
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
What is identity? Discover the definition of identity, understand how it differs from personality and character, and learn about its types.
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Have you ever found yourself questioning who you are or your role in society? Do you think about what makes you unique? This kind of contemplation is only natural, and everyone deals with these existential questions occasionally to reassess or confirm their perception of themselves. After all, a person’s subjective sense of self is an essential factor that guides the way they carry themselves, who they associate with, and how they make certain decisions. 

In this article, we will define identity and learn about the different ways we identify ourselves. Furthermore, we will discuss the distinctions between identity and similar concepts and discover different types of identity.
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What Is Identity (A Definition)

In the most general sense, we can define identity as a person’s sense of self, established by their unique characteristics, affiliations, and social roles. Moreover, identity has continuity, as one feels to be the same person over time despite many changes in their circumstances. 

The seeds of identity are planted during a person’s childhood when their caregivers influence them the most. Yet, as individuals transition from childhood to adolescence, they start questioning who they are and how they fit in society. Hence, adolescents set out to discover their senses of self by experimenting with different roles and behaviors (Erikson, 1956). Although adults continue to reassess their identities throughout their lives, the changes to their identities are relatively small. Therefore, according to the famous psychologist Erik Erikson, this significant identity development during adolescence is essential for forming a solid self-concept and developing a direction in life (Erikson, 1956).

Here is a fun video that presents a philosophical view on identity and the complexity of a continued sense of self.

Video: Who Am I? A Philosophical Inquiry ​

Identity vs. Role Confusion

The explorations during adolescence are vital for the development of our identities. However, this identity formation process isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. For instance, some adolescents’ caregivers and social circumstances may restrict their abilities to experiment with different roles and identities. As a result, these adolescents may not fully discover a sense of self or a life purpose for a while. 

Erikson calls the adolescence stage of self-discovery “identity vs. role confusion.” According to this notion, individuals form their identities after testing various roles, behaviors, and social strategies. When they can’t complete this stage effectively, it leads to role confusion (Erikson, 1956). 

Simply, role confusion can be considered to be a lack of a solid identity. A person with role confusion may feel unsure about themselves and how they fit in society. Not knowing who they are meant to be or what they really want in life, they may struggle to settle into a career path or have healthy relationships. These experiences may lower their self-esteem and fulfillment in life. 
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Identity vs. role confusion example
Let’s assume a person comes of age in an environment where they are forced to fit in traditional gender roles. They may not be allowed to test behaviors or career paths often attributed to the opposite gender. As a result, this person might experience role confusion if they struggle to fit the norms imposed upon them. 

Identity vs. Personality vs. Character

Many people use the term identity interchangeably with other terms such as character and personality. Although these three concepts sound similar, they are distinct from each other, and here is how you can set them apart.

Identity includes a person’s qualities that they have little or no control over, such as their family background, skin color, or height. It also includes their belief systems, ethics, morals, and values. In contrast, personality typically encompasses dispositional qualities such as extraversion, temperament, optimism, and conscientiousness, among others. In other words, your identity describes who you are and what you stand for, whereas your personality guides your behaviors. 

Character is similar to personality in that it is used to describe a person’s behaviors. The key difference between personality and character is that individuals' personalities are more visible in their day-to-day actions. In contrast, character traits typically reflect situation-specific behavioral tendencies, such as when forced to make high-stakes decisions. For instance, your personality would determine how you interact with your coworkers in your daily interactions. In contrast, your character is more likely to be revealed in how you react to distinct circumstances, such as when you witness workplace discrimination or overhear your supervisor’s phone conversation in which he details his tax evasion scheme. 

Another difference between personality and character is that a person’s character is more malleable than their personality. Furthermore, the changes in characters might reflect changes in identity, such as due to the transformation of their belief systems and values. For instance, a person may not be able to change their level of extraversion much. Yet, they can value truth more as they get older and become much more honest over time.

Types of Identity

We have already discussed that identity encompasses various traits that we are born with and thoughts, beliefs, and values we acquire from our surroundings. Here are some common types of identity and their brief descriptions.

  • Racial identity refers to a person’s sense of belonging to a racial group, such as Asian-American, white, etc. This identity trait remains constant throughout a person’s life.
  • Ethnic identity indicates a person’s affiliation with a specific ethnic group, such as Japanese, Malaysian, etc.
  • Geographical identity is the identity that indicates the local affiliation of a person. For instance, a person living in the United States may identify as a Mid-westerner, Southerner, New Yorker, Texan, etc.
  • Sexual orientation is an identity trait that indicates the sexual preference of an individual, such as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc.
  • Family identity is made up of all the roles a person plays in their family life. Typically, a person has a primary role (i.e., daughter) despite having multiple functions at a given time (such as daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin). Yet, these roles, and thus a person’s primary family identity, can change over time as new functions are added to their repertoire (such as wife, mother, aunt, mother-in-law, grandmother, etc.).
  • Ability is a form of identity that reflects an individual’s ability/disability status. Non-disabled individuals may not feel the implications of this form of identity as much as persons with disabilities. 
  • Body identity stems from a person’s body shape and size. Although some traits remain constant over time (i.e., height), others may fluctuate (i.e., weight, body shape, etc.)
  • Generational identity is also referred to as age identity. It reflects a person’s affiliation with an age group, such as child, adolescent, elderly, among others. 
  • The religious identity of a person reflects their spiritual belief system. People may be born to families that practice a specific religion. Yet, sometimes individuals adopt a different religious identity as they get older or become more or less religious. 
  • Class identity of an individual reflects the social stratum they belong to, such as middle-class, upper-middle-class, etc. A person may not notice their class identity until they interact with someone from another social class.
  • Educational identity depends on the level of education a person has or the types of schools they have attended. Examples include ivy-league educated, high-school drop-out, private school student, public school graduate, among others.
  • Career identity forms when a person selects a career path and may evolve with the changes to the person’s job titles and responsibilities. Some examples are doctor, scientist, teacher, superintendent, CEO, artist, miner, etc.

Although the identities in this list are common, they aren’t the only ones we come across. Some identities are related to or encompass multiple types of identity or are frequently debated in our society. Let’s discuss some of them.

Gender Identity

Gender identity indicates which gender group a person belongs to, such as masculine, feminine or non-binary, and along with sexual orientation, it might be one of the most debated types of identity in our society. Most people equate gender and sex, and controversies arise when people identify with a gender that doesn’t match their biological sex assigned at birth. To understand this debate, let’s consider these concepts. 

Gender is a social construct and includes its groups' behavior patterns and societal expectations. In contrast, sex is a biological concept and depends on the chromosomes of individuals and other genetic factors. If the gender identity of a person matches their sex (i.e., masculine and male), they are referred to as cisgender. If the gender identity and sex don’t match, these individuals might identify themselves as transgender, gender-fluid, queer, or non-binary.

Generally, individuals are born with two sex chromosomes, XX for biological females and XY for biological males. Yet, sex is not always as straightforward as many people think. For instance, individuals with Turner’s syndrome have only one X chromosome, as their second sex chromosome is missing (Heard & Turner, 2011). Although these individuals have female-like characteristics, their reproductive organs don’t develop properly without hormone therapy, and they are typically unable to conceive.

Biological sex becomes even more confusing when considering individuals with androgen insensitivity syndrome. These individuals have XY chromosomes, which means that they are biological males. However, a mutation in a receptor protein essential for detecting male hormones in the body renders these individuals partially or fully insensitive to male hormones (Mongan et al., 2015). 

Individuals whose mutation causes them to be entirely insensitive to male hormones appear female at birth and develop female bodies later in life, despite their XY makeup (Mongan et al., 2015). Many of these individuals are raised as females and don’t find out for many years that they are indeed biological males. In contrast, individuals who are partially insensitive to male hormones may appear as females at birth but may develop a mixture of male and female characteristics during adolescence (Mongan et al., 2015). Again, these children and their parents may be unaware of this condition until adolescence. 

In short, biological sex isn’t as clear-cut as which genitals are present at birth, and this type of identification may be misleading at times. Moreover, because gender is a social construct, a person’s gender identity doesn’t always match their apparent biological sex. If you’d like to find out more, here is a brief video that explains the difference between gender identity and sex assigned at birth.

Video: Sex Assigned at Birth and Gender Identity ​

Socioeconomic Identity

This type of identity includes parts of education, career, and class identities, as it depends on a person’s income and occupation, which typically reflect their level of education. Generally, socioeconomic identity is an indicator of social status, economic welfare, and prestige. 

Many people may remain in the same socioeconomic class throughout their lives. However, socioeconomic identity is relatively more dynamic than some other identities, such as race, and people may move from one socioeconomic identity to another over time. For example, a child born to blue-collar, high-school dropout parents may be the first one in her family to finish college and later become an upper-middle-class executive. 

Cultural Identity

Culture can be defined as the traditional set of beliefs and behaviors shared by the members of a group. Many of our identities involve a group with a shared culture. Therefore, our cultural identities encompass multiple identity traits, such as our ethnic, racial, religious, generational, and geographical identities. For instance, members of an ethnic group may have their unique traditions. Similarly, members of a religion may share values centered around their faith. Moreover, people who live in the same geographical area may have a regional accent and a shared history that influences their culture and therefore their identity. 

Humans are inherently social beings, and belonging to a group is essential for most people. Cultural identity is an integral part of fitting in and feeling a sense of belonging to a group we are associated with. In addition, it influences our outlook and how we interpret the world around us, which may differ from other cultures. For instance, a good or friendly behavior in one culture may be perceived as unacceptable or rude in another. 

Since each culture has its norms and standards, conflicts may arise when people from multiple cultures insist that their way of doing something is the correct way. Lately, another arena where we observe a similar phenomenon is with our political identities, which we will cover next.

Political Identity

In simple terms, politics can be defined as the collective decision-making regarding the governance of a group of people. In a democracy-based political system, individuals vote for the candidates they support in regularly-held elections. 

Voting in elections is typically seen as a right, a privilege, and a civic duty. But how we vote in elections may reveal a lot about us, our values, and our priorities. In other words, the way we vote has a lot to do with our political identities. 

The political identity of an individual refers to their political inclinations and affiliations. People who strongly identify with one political party may choose to only vote for that party's candidates, regardless of their character and qualifications. Moreover, the political identities of individuals may influence their attitudes, beliefs, and decisions beyond the voting booth (Collins, Mandel & Schywiola, 2021). This carryover effect of political identity has been associated with the politicization of previously neutral issues, such as school curricula or wearing face masks and social distancing during a respiratory pandemic, as well as vaccines.

What Is an Identity Crisis?

A person's identity can gradually shift and change due to nuances in their circumstances and environment. Yet, there are times that an individual may feel lost as if everything they believed about themselves is suddenly gone. Hence, we call periods of intensive analysis and inward exploration of a person’s sense of self an identity crisis (Schmeck et al., 2013).

Searching for identity is natural during adolescence and later from time to time. Most of these searches of self and purpose build upon and fine-tune a person’s existing identity. However, an identity crisis occurs when an individual experiences situations that completely destabilize their notions of self. Some of these experiences may be traumatic events such as losing a loved one, diagnosis of a disease, or a heartbreaking divorce. They may also be other events that change us in other ways, such as becoming a parent, aging, switching career paths, or moving to an unfamiliar area. For instance, a condition known as the midlife crisis is a form of identity crisis triggered by the sense of aging.

An identity crisis is an effort to redefine the sense of self. Although some people can navigate these periods with relative ease, others may struggle for a long time. An identity crisis may become a problem if the person feels empty, worthless, or starts harboring feelings of self-loathing. It may even interfere with a person’s daily life.

But how can you cope with an identity crisis? The first step is acknowledging why you are feeling this way. This acceptance may allow the inward search for new meanings and purposes in your life. Sharing your feelings with people you trust might also help you with additional insight. If you have negative notions about yourself, feel depressed or unsupported by the people around you, please try talking to a trusted mental health practitioner.

What Is Identity Diffusion?

A condition that is sometimes confused with an identity crisis is identity diffusion. Yet, unlike identity crisis, this condition means that the individual hasn’t committed to an identity yet and isn’t working toward forming one. 

According to James Marcia, identity diffusion is one of the phases of identity formation during adolescence (Marcia, 1980). Individuals going through identity diffusion may have difficulty solidifying their sense of identity and purpose. Moreover, due to their lack of commitment, they may appear unmotivated or withdrawn (Schmeck et al., 2013). They may also hesitate to make decisions for themselves or state any opinions. For instance, when asked about which music genre they like, a person with identity diffusion might answer that they don’t know much about music and listen to whatever is playing on the radio. Similarly, when inquired about what subject they like or what career path appeals to them, they might say that they haven’t thought about it yet. 

Although identity diffusion is typically observed while growing up and isn’t a life-long phase, it may persist into adulthood in some individuals. This persistence might result from the psychological distress these individuals feel due to rapidly changing life conditions that are out of their control (Carlsson, Wangqvist & Frisen, 2016). Again, if you or a loved one is struggling with identity diffusion, you might want to consider talking to a mental health professional to help establish a stronger sense of self.

Articles Related to Identity

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Identity

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Identity

A solid sense of identity means that you know who you are, what you value, and how you see yourself in society. There are many components of our identities, such as religious, political, and gender, among others, and knowing yourself fully is essential to feel integrated into society. ​

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