Self-definitions

Bullock, A.W., ed.Images and ideologies Self-definition in the Hellenistic world. Berkeley (CA) Univ of California P, 1996. viii, 414 p. 

The first way that parents can affirm the strengths from individuality in their son or daughter is by affirming the three traitsclarity, conviction, and integritythat tend to develop in the only child. This affirmation is not as simple as it sounds, however, because sometimes such strong self-definition can prove difficult for parents to honor. 

Identity formation is the key issue. Issues of independence and self-definition predominate. 

Bringing one s whole self to work is a process of self-definition. A key part of this involves our individual responsibility to understand our own cultural identity in other words, to learn how our connections to rituals, practices, and perspectives are products of our cultural experience as well as our individual history (Ferdman, 1995). To what degree am I aware of how much my taken-for-granted assumptions about what is appropriate and normal are culturally grounded And to what extent and in what ways am I able to express this awareness and these cultural connections For example, I may have certain beliefs about privacy and individual expression— whether inside or outside of work—that come from the norms, values, and practices common in my identity groups. Or I may have views about the appropriateness of discussing one s... 

Joseph Schull, for example, states that social practices embody the self-definition of a people and are also made meaningful by them. See Russian Political Culture and the Stateless Intelligentsia (Montreal McGill, 1986), p. 18. 

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