The social constructionist perspective suggests that identities are constructed through language and social relations. Illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of this statement with examples of research studies from this and one other perspective.
The aim of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weakness of identities constructed through language and social relations. I will hopefully compare these to James Marcia Social Identity theory and conclude my finding at the end.
Identities are more complex than it first seem. Judging identity on personality, gender, social constraints and life style choices, sexuality and ethnicity can easily lead to miss-indentify. Identity is believed to be created through many means including social and language relations, however like any belief or theory there is always strengths and weakness.
We learn how too behave, understand and believe from many different sources including reading, writing, watching and interaction with people. The only issue with this is that if someone else ‘believes’ that what they think is correct, it may not necessary be. However the person on the receiving end of their belief can be influenced by their opinion unless they have a belief of their own.
Identities are changeable, adaptable and most socially constructed. With society changing over the years towards attitude, equality and diversity people’s identities have evolved too. An example of this is the Military today compared to the years before 2001 “1996 report by the Homosexuality Policy Assessment Team, which asserted that to allow gays in the military would be bad for morale, and leave them vulnerable to blackmail from foreign intelligence agencies”. (Wikipedia Sexual orientation and military service)
It was not accepted or allowed for serving personal to be homosexual and if they were found out they were often discharged with recorded stamp of ‘service no longer required’. That law changed in 2001 allowing homosexual...