ABSTRACT
UNIT B3.1 THE REPRESENTATION OF IDENTITY: PERSONALITY AND ITS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
In this unit we return to the question of individual identity, and particularly the question of personality and how personality is ‘socially constructed’. Vivien Burr, theauthor of the first text, writes that‘The notion of personality is so firmly embedded in our thinking in contemporary western society that we hardly, if ever, question it’ (1996: 17). Indeed, not only do we rarely question the ‘western’ model of personality, but we often assume that it can be universally applied to, and be a useful mechanism for understanding, individuals in all cultures.
