The essence of identity and the main approaches to its research

Nowadays the identity concept is frequently used by representatives of various sciences, which allows distinguishing of ontological, sociological, psychological and philosophical anthropological approaches to its research. As an ontology category the identity is a parameter of objective reality, meaning the identity of something to itself. Sociologists consider the identity as a distinctive feature of social groups or individuals, distinguishing them from others, recognized by them as such, and forming in the process of individual development by the interaction with social environment. Psychology and psychiatry interpret the identity as a sense of one’s verity, value, self-relation and continuity of one’s being. From the perspective of philosophical anthropological approach the personal identity is the awareness by a person of his or her oneness and integrity in space and time, the sense of continuity of goals, motives and value systems. The personal identity structure can be divided into individual and sociocultural levels. The individual level of personal identity includes the range of unique, peculiar characteristics distinguishing a person from the social environment. The sociocultural level supposes identification with the norms of a certain social environment and with a symbolic world of culture. The substantial features of the personal identity are projectivity, processivity, dynamism and incompleteness.