Self-awareness is the defining characteristic of human beings. If nothing else, people usually know that they seem to exist as individual entities. People are each unique and have their own interpretation of the universe and individual way in which they perceive it to be. There seems to be an inimitable aspect of a person that is always there, no matter what new concepts are grasped or what new insights are gained.
An individual’s life is a composite thing; made up of many different interests and relationships, such as a job, a family, and different groups to which one belongs or is affiliated. These components may blend, enhance or detract from one another, but they are definitely separate parts of a person’s pattern of existence. Likewise, people themselves are composed of separate and distinct parts; different “ways of being” – different “selves” they adopt, depending on the situation or circumstance they find themselves in. We refer to these separate parts as “identities,” and define an identity as “a way of being in order to accomplish something.” Simply stated, an identity is an apparent separate self created by the individual; a separate self consisting of ideas, beliefs, conclusions, decisions, etc. which is there to carry out some goal or purpose. An identity is a package of rules and laws dictating how to be in given circumstances. Examples of identities are a husband or wife identity; or a job-related identity such as a teacher or taxi driver.
There is apparently a basic individual or basic being, the “I,” which generates these identities, experiences life via these identities, and shifts in and out of them automatically; without much thought. For example: the computer salesman who at work is in his salesman identity, but when he comes home to the wife and kids he shifts into his husband or parent identity. As a salesman, his primary purpose is to sell more computers than anyone; a purpose and activity that would be inappropriate when he is at home with his family, so he shifts into the parent or husband identity with a different goal or purpose.