It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves.

The journey of self-defining and self-founding constitutes the story of a life. It varies, continuously and significantly, with the ever-changing social, financial and political environment of a human being. Many psychologists and psychoanalysts, holding the same idea with Henri Tajfel and John Turner, believes the social identity theory, which states that intergroup activities and influences play a significant role in the identity of an individual. I agree with the statement given, which is also shown to have a solid theoretical support; however, I think it is also necessary and critical to mention that even though social groups assist us in the self-defining journey at the primary and fundamental stage, we still need to explore our own self regardless of our counterparts as our own story unfolds.

On one hand, social groups are our first and foremost platform to see the world and experience the unknown. During the infancy, we are inseparable from the caring of our parents and elder family members. They are the social groups through which we grow our linguistic ability, learn the abstract emotions like compassion, sorrow and happiness, and, eventually, form the basic definition of self for the first time.

As time proceeds, we move on from childhood to adolescence. With the basic and rudimental definition of ourselves, we continue to absorb more opinions from the group of people surrounding us. Among which, there are teachers, classmates, and friends as new members adding to our existing social groups. During this period, we start to accelerate our journey of self-defining due to a more complex and mature social network. As teenagers, we doubtlessly will encounter larger influx of a variety of individuals than ever before, and the persons, who become our other egos, who share the same philosophy and value with us, will continue to develop with us. They are the mirror of ourselves, and through them, our self-definition becomes more conspicuous and accurate.

The same logic also occurs in the business world when a teenager starts to take on the responsibility as an adult. The working attitude of a new hire is considerably influenced by the moral and the culture of a company, as the survey of employee performance shown. What images would you conjecture when someone mentioned a person working in a financial institution on Wall's Street versus a geek working in Silicon Valley? The dressing codes are significantly different depending on the working environments and the social groups one is interacting with. For a financial service consultant, so as to show his/her professional and earnest attitude, he/she will certainly choose a business attire to attend to a client's meeting. Such dressing, however, will be considered bizarre and even patronizing at a high tech company where everyone else is enjoying their casual dressing code, their soft t-shirts, and comfortable sandals. It is obvious that one's self-defining process relies heavily on the relevant social groups even from the simple example of the dressing code.

On the other hand, the later stage of the journey is more private and self-driven. In order to consummate our definition of ourselves, we need to be brave enough to jump out of the box and leave our comfort zone to continue the expedition of self-defining and self-founding. Surely the previous findings in astronomy provided a solid knowledge base and data points for Galileo Galilei, he was remembered because of his own geocentric theory. Though various artistic styles were created by the contemporaries of Pablo Picasso, the reason that he is granted one of the greatest artists in the twentieth century is due to his avant-garde exploration in surrealism. Given the fact that a large number of directors has appeared on the screen since the golden age of Hollywood, Tim Burton possesses a high reputation because of his unique interpretation and combination of gothic, dark themes with fantasies.

To resume, I hold the opinion that, based on my analysis and examples, the statement is sound and valid. However, I also feel the necessity to mention that defining oneself solely from the social group is not the whole story, and one need to see oneself in his/her own eyes and hear oneself in his/her own voice is crucial at the final stage of self-defining.