Personal Identity

Task 1. Mind Maps. Do you use mind maps in your studies? Read the text about them. What kind of study tool are mind maps? Why are they effective?

Have you ever studied a subject or brainstormed an idea, only to find yourself with pages of information, but no clear view of how it fitted together? This is where mind mapping can help you.

Mind mapping is a useful technique that helps you learn more effectively, improves the way that you record information, and supports and enhances creative problem solving. By using mind maps, you can quickly identify and understand the structure of a subject. You can see the way that pieces of information fit together. Mind maps also help you remember information, as they hold it in a format that your mind finds easy to recall and quick to review.

Mind maps are more compact than conventional notes, often taking up one side of paper. This helps you to make associations easily, and generate new ideas. If you find out more information after you have drawn a Mind Map, then you can easily integrate it with little disruption.

More than this, Mind Mapping helps you break large projects or topics down into manageable chunks, so that you can plan effectively without getting overwhelmed and without forgetting something important.

A good Mind Map shows the "shape" of the subject, the relative importance of individual points, and the way in which facts relate to one another. This means that they're very quick to review, as you can often refresh information in your mind just by glancing at one. In this way, they can be effective mnemonics – remembering the shape and structure of a Mind Map can give you the cues you need to remember the information within it. As such, they engage much more of your brain in the process of assimilating and connecting information than conventional notes do.

When created using colors and images or drawings, a Mind Map can even resemble a work of art!

Mind Maps are useful for:

• Brainstorming – individually, and as a group.
• Summarizing information, and note taking.
• Consolidating information from different research sources.
• Thinking through complex topics and problems.
• Presenting information in a format that shows the overall structure of your subject.
• Studying and memorizing information.

Thus, you can use mind maps in working on your essays, projects, presentations. It is also a great method to present and help you remember the vocabulary of the topic as it presents it in portions and you can show how these portions are interconnected.

Use single words or simple phrases. In Mind Maps, single strong words and short, meaningful phrases can convey the same meaning more potently. Excess words just clutter the Mind Map.

Print Words. Joined up or indistinct writing is more difficult to read.

Use Cross-Linkages. Information in one part of a Mind Map may relate to another part. Here you can draw lines to show the cross-linkages. This helps you to see how one part of the subject affects another.

Look at the mind map for the topic Time Management below. What other tips on how to make a mind map can you give having it as an example? Study the map and say what time management is about and what mind maps have to do with it.

Task 2. Read the following text on the topic ‘Identity’. Study the meaning of the words in bold using an English-English dictionary if necessary. Prepare a blue print of the mind map for the topic ‘Identity’. Remember that you will add more information to your mind map.

Personal Identity

Your personal identity is the way that you see yourself and how others see and define you. Personal identity is formed through the communication and the influence of the family, the educational system and the mass media. It is very important as it is only through establishing your own identity and learning about the identities of other individuals that we come to know what makes us similar to some people and different from others. It affects the friends you have, who you will marry or live with, the groups to which you relate and belong, as well as the way you behave in challenging situations. In other words, identity ‘fits’ you into the society in which you live. Nevertheless, we are not free to adopt any identity we like, and it is also influenced by such factors as our social class, ethnic group, sex.

Thinking over your identity, you should take into consideration so called Identity Statements and Identity Questions, like: I can…, I have…, I like…, I am…, I remember…, What Am I? What makes me who I am? What are my values? What are my personal goals? Where do I belong? Who do I belong? How many of me are sitting in my chair? Do I persist through time? etc.

A well-developed personal identity will help you to be at harmony with the world and others around you. Understanding your personal identity means to be clear about who you are and what you believe and it is a first step towards self-acceptance and higher self-esteem that will change your life positively. Lack of self-acceptance creates a number of problems in your life that affect you personally and how others treat you. If you manage to develop self-acceptance your life will be free of self-criticism and you can begin to face the challenges in your life and succeed.

Everyone holds opinions about the type of person that they are. These opinions are at the heart of self-esteem and they affect how you feel about and value yourself. Self-esteem is not static and fixed; your beliefs about yourself can change throughout your life as a result of circumstances and experience. The impact of low esteem on your day-to-day life can be dramatic, as it affects your personal relations, social life, work, behaviour and so on.

You should make your own decisions in order to live as you want to, not as others want or how you feel you should. You should remember that nobody on this planet is or was ever exactly like you. If you want to feel good about yourself then you need to understand what your values are and start living them. Your internal identity, your personality and character, make you unique and you should value them.

It should be pointed out that our identity changes often over the years. The sense of identity appears early on in life as the infant begins to differentiate themselves from their mother. Later on we identify with our career orientation, then we go into relationships, maybe parenthood, then on through those busy years towards midlife and then the empty nest, forward to our senior years.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24