Seth J. S., Byron L. Z., & Robert S. W. Broadening the Study of the Self: Integrating the Study of Personal Identity and Cultural Identity. Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2-2), 635-651.
This article claims the need of integrative and simultaneous research of personal identity and of cultural identity.
personal identity focuses on the set of goals, values, and beliefs that an individual has developed and/or internalized. Thus, personal identity represents the answer to the question ‘Who am I?’. On the other hand, cultural identity represents values internalized from cultural groups to which the person belongs and therefore represents an answer to the question ‘who am I as a member of my group, and relation to other groups?’. However, the author claims to study personal identity and cultural identity together in that both of them highlight the importance of values.
According to him, as people define themselves personally, they will also have to define themselves culturally and therefore individuals with stronger or more developed personal identities may have more strongly developed ethnic identities.
The article suggests further recommendations for integrating the studies on two kinds of identity in terms of definitional clarity of terms, refining the measurement of the identities, and its applicability to to diverse populations.