Since the 1940s, there has been an explosion of writings, both scientific and nonscientific, about the question of ???identity??? and what it means to be an individual in today??'s world. This book examines sociological perspectives on identity in order to illuminate the perennial problem of defining the human person, and to pose an alternative definition of identity based on it being socially constructed. Beginning with a review of previous studies of identity, the authors present a set of propositions for organizing the wide range of uses of the term, and for arriving at an adequate...