Chapter 1 Identity
Theory
Three theories are presented which are associated with three different perspectives:
None represents "the truth"; the perspective chosen depends on one's own interests and the psychological tradition followed.
Method
Each theory naturally and logically leads to a different methodology being used, and whether an outsider or insider (or both) viewpoint is taken.
Themes
Identity is very much concerned with "humanness" — what makes us us?
But each approach differs in terms of whether it is interested in us as unique individuals or us as similar to other humans
They have different ideas about how much we are fixed by out early experience or can change throughout our lives
The stupidity of the nature v. nurture argument is raised. We are clearly a product of the interaction of both, although different theories may put more emphasis on one or the other.