Identity: modern social phenomena

N.V. Dolganovskaya-lecturer of the Department of the English Language of the Instutite of Philology, Journalism and Cross-cultural Communication

South Federal University

In the era of globalization of social consciousness, the interest and relevance of identity issues have increased significantly. The formation of identity gets a particular contemporaneityand effects all aspects of social life.Currently, the identity is a subject of studies for various human sciences, which defines its multiparadigmaticcharacter. The analysis and discussion of the various conceptual approaches forms deepand broad theoretical foundation of the particular scientific category.

According to dictionaries, “ identity” is psychological self-awareness of the person, which is being characterized by subjective sense of self-identity and personal integrity [1] . It is man self-identification (partially aware, partly unconscious) with various typological categories.

The identity research used to attract and continues to attract the attention of the broad scientific community. The term “identity” is relatively new. It has become widely used in science through the work of E.Erikson, who introduced the term " identity crisis ”, by carrying the analysis of the public relationship, cultural transformation and maintenance of ethnic self-identity.

In general, the psychological aspect of the term can be determined as a stable self-identification with important individual and a desire to be alike with one(e.g. the emotional connection with the parent, makes us wanting to be alike.)

The identity issue is deeply rooted to the ancient philosophical thought.Firstly, Socrates in his work "Know thyself" showed an approach to comprehend this phenomenon. Later on, Aristotle represents, in his work "Metaphysics", an identity as a characteristic of being, which is more fundamental than the difference, where all that exists is identical to itself and preserves its characteristics through the process of being, to a greater or lesser extent.

In Russia, the problem of identity has been recently posed as a fundamental and independent.Early studies appear at the end of the last century, when the attempt to classify types of civil, political, and ethnic Russians' consciousness on the basis of identity in the context of the transformation of post-Soviet society, appear in the work of sociologists and psychologists.

There has been an increased scientific interest to the problems of civil and national identity in the middle of 90th – early 20th. Mentioned above period of studies is well known for the following researches:study of ethnic identity as an element of political culture of civil society, the issues of formation of ethnic identity in the context of the processes of integration and disintegration of modern states, the issue of choice of the civic identity model for Russian citizens and Russian identity with their own federation.

Starting from the middle of 20th, the sharp increase of interest appears towards the identity, when the civil identity is being connected with formation of civil society and Russia self-identification of its own place in the European and global civilization space.

The current time frame is also accompanied with the emergence of the key dilemmas in the sphere of interethnic relations, which caused the enhance of the particular research, especially: poor design of all-Russian civic identity among young people (especially young people from the Caucasus);the formation of the importance of religious identity, and therefore strengthen of the religious and political radicalism and extremism, as well as the strong growth of nationalist sentiment among the Russian youth.

The contemporary psychology defines the terms “ identification ” and “ identity ”. The psychosocial approach, according to E.Erikson, provides the meaning of the term “identity”, as a certain condition of self-identification, however, the “identification” is considered as a complex of processes and mechanisms that lead to the achievement of the mentioned above condition.E.Erikson with his works on the personal social formation, specifies the human is experiencing a number of psycho-social crises throughout the lifetime. The scientist determines eight stages of the identity development ;every level provides the person with the choice between the two oppositions depending on the age and situation[2]. The type of decision, in terms of success or failure, affects the rest of the life.Psychologists consider the formation of identity in terms of social interaction.

The identity, as well as the history, tends to be needed in the difficult transition periods of the existence of society, where the identification acts as selfdefense mechanism and facilitates the implementation and the exaltation of national "Ego". In order to activate those perspectives of the identity, the most relevant,to the current social and political needs, historical facts are extracted.

Accordingly, the richer and more pervasive the historical roots are, the more confident the subject of identification feels in the global extent. There are two patterns of collective identity,presented in the history of 20th century: ethnic (cultural) and national (state), which became the substitute forthe religious, familyclan and other forms. In the last decades, those forms were exposed to the inevitable transformation and change of the content, according to the newly established political, geographical and cultural framework, due to the USSR collapse. However, it is considered the assessment of authentic identity is possible only through retrospective historical analysis.

The definition of the term “identity”has reached multiparadigmatic and interdisciplinary concept. The variety of studying perspectives of the identity caused by the complexity and multidimensional character of theidentity phenomenon and its concept. The western concepts of the identity cannot be fully and adequately used in the Russian reality, since the base for those approaches is a different mentality. In the structure of the Russian scientific representation the knowledge about the identity develops in the context of psychology, sociology, philosophy and political science. The current identity issue occupies an important place in the contemporary Russian science, which can be stated due to significant growth of interest to the problem.

Nevertheless, it is hard to unite and define particular approaches, since current subject causes numerous amount of questions and provides us with no answers. Up-to-date, there is no need to prove the social and human sciences are experiencing obvious difficulties understanding the reaction of the Russian society to the processes of globalization and modernization, which influences and interacts with transformational dynamics of Russian society.The need to answer the question "who we are?" encourages scientists to the study identity as a possible key to the creation of a harmonic society.