‘NATURAL’ DETERMINERS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

‘NATURAL’ DETERMINERS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

In analyzing who we are and what makes up the basis of our personality, there are ‘natural’ determiners and ‘external’ determiners. Natural determiners are what we receive from birth: gender, race, ethnic background, and social class. For example, a person might have a certain personality because she is a woman, Black, half Jamaican and half Dominican, whose parents own a small restaurant and are thus middle class. Another might be a man, Hispanic, whose mother is Cuban and whose father is part Irish and part Italian, and whose family is lower middle class.  

You are going to write a THREE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY. Each paragraph should be six-eight sentences long.

Paragraph I:
In the first paragraph, you will describe yourself, what ‘natural’ determiners make you who you are. Include gender, race, ethnic background, and social class. These are factors that you cannot control, that you are handed at birth.

Paragraph II:
In the second paragraph, you will analyze which of these factors are most important in the way you see yourself and identify yourself. Is the most important aspect of your personality that you are Italian, or a woman, or that you are Asian?

Paragraph III:
In the third paragraph you will answer the following question: Is it important for you to stay as close as possible to your ‘natural determiners’ when you choose a mate? That is, might you ‘cross’ race, ethnic background, social class, or gender in choosing someone to go out with or to marry.