Identity Wheel:

Personality: Introvert

Age: 20

Race: White

Ethnicity: White

Physical Ability: I think I’m in between; I like playing sports, but I also really like taking it chill.

Sexual orientation: Bi

Gender:  Woman 

Geographic Location: Richmond

Income: 70k, I don’t really know

Personal habits: Reading and listening to music

Recreational Habits: Tennis and swimming 

Religion: Agnostic 

Education background: Grad school 

Work experience: I think I’d like a job were I’m more engaged 

Appearance: I don’t really mind

Parental Status: Middle class

Marital status: Maybe, I don’t know

Kids in the first 7 years: maybe 

Social Identities:

Refers to an individual’s membership in a group that help guide one’s idea of their identity.

 Ability

• This is a physical identity refers to one’s own physical ability. Some ways in which a person could identify themselves is as an athlete or on the other end a home body. Depending on the person, this one could hold more or less importance. Personally, for me, it is important to me because I enjoy playing sports such as tennis and swimming and believe that it is important to be physically fit enough to do everything I want. When looking at what you want for your future self, ability would be important to consider for the type of job you want. If you really value your physical ability, you probably will not want a job that promotes a sedentary lifestyle like working at a desk all day. For me, it is important that my future job and lifestyle allow me to still keep up my physical ability.

Ability and Efficacy:

How much control a person feels they have over their ability their ability could be affected by many things. If they have had success in the past with their ability, they could feel like they have great control over it. If they haven’t, then they might feel it is something about of their control. It could also be affected by the people around them, such as family. If family has low ability and you grew up with the mentality that it is something out of your control, then you might have that same mentality

Ability and Mattering:

If people have low ability and cannot participate in certain activities, they may feel as if they do not matter to the people around them because they can’t give them what they want.

Ability and Self-esteem:

If someone feels like they have little control over their ability and that they don’t matter because of it, they can have low self -esteem when it comes to how they perceive themselves overall.

Age

This a physical identity. Your age is important because it affects things that you are and are not able to do at some points in life. It affects the jobs you can get, certain rights (i.e. drinking and voting), and overall respect you may receive from others. Different age groups also have different societal expectations for certain achievements and how you should act. When thinking about the future, you may need to be a certain age to be considered for a job you want. You might also have certain goals you want to have reached at specific ages.

Age and Efficacy:

Age could have an effect on the sense of control you have over your life because it affects the things you are able to do. If you are under 18 you are unable to vote and my feel you have no control over the society you live in.

Age and Mattering:

As you get older, some people grow apart from friends and people they used to know, so some could start to feel they do not matter to people anymore, especially if one is unmarried or has no kids.

Age and Self-esteem:

I think the effects of aging on self-esteem is very interesting. There’s a whole industry that teaches women specifically to be scared of aging. You have no control over your aging and might feel like you matter less, so that can take a toll on one’s self-esteem.

Personality

Personality is an internal identity and it refers to what type of person you are, specifically between introvert and extrovert. I myself am an introvert, meaning that I am more reserved and introspective. Personality is important because it affects how you go through life. Someone who is an extrovert might enjoy going out a lot and engaging in social interactions while an introvert may enjoy just taking some time for themselves. It also affects how you a perceived by the people around you. Personality is important to consider when thinking of your future because it could influence the type of job you want. Do you want a job that has you working with other people a lot, or one that allows you to be able to work from home often. I myself would not mind a job that had me work with other people; I would just also want to make sure I took time for myself outside of work.

Personality and Efficacy:

One could feel like they have very little control over their personality. If they are pressured to be more social and that is just simply who they are, then that can cause feelings of helplessness.

Personality and Mattering:

Mattering plays a big role, because if someone is less social and doesn’t enjoy some social activities, then they may feel they do not matter to their friends.

Personality and Self-esteem:

If someone feels like people do not like their personality, this could affect their self-esteem and make them feel like something is wrong with who they are. Some aspects of your personality you have no control over, so if it isn’t well received by others or oneself, that can create a sense of not mattering and that will affect self-esteem.

Religion

Religion refers to an individual’s belief system and is an organizational identity. There are many different religions in the world that a person can identify with. I myself am agnostic, meaning I think there could be something more about there, but I’m not really concerned about it. Depending on the person, religion can be very important to them, or they could care less. For some, religion is a large aspect of their life that informs many of the decisions they make. When thinking about the future, religion is important to consider because if it is a large part of your life, you would want to make sure you are living a life that agrees with your beliefs. This could affect things such as the type of job you want, where you want to live, or if you want to get married and have kids. All important things to consider about the future. Other people might not think about religion at all when planning their future.

Religion and Efficacy:

I think control is hard to pinpoint. Some may feel they have great control over being religious or not while others in a religion may feel like they don’t have much control, especially if they believe their life is already decided by some greater force.

Religion and Mattering:

Being a part of group like religion might create a sense of mattering because you have a community to fall back onto with similar beliefs. One could also feel isolated if they don’t align with the beliefs of their groups.

Religion and Self-esteem:

Some might have improved self-esteem with religion, believing they matter within a community that supports them. However, internally it could harm self-esteem if someone questions where they stand in the religion.