How People’s Psychological Identities Affect Their Behavior

• Why do people behave the way they do?
• What are the forces that affect a person’s behavior?

In my previous articles, I said that many factors affect how a person behaves, such as his past childhood experiences, his birth order, and the way he was raised. One of the forces that greatly impacts the way people behave is the psychological identities they develop.

A male friend of mine, who is considered fairly attractive to most women, is obsessed with his looks. He stands in front of the mirror more than other men and is extremely sensitive to any changes to his looks, even if they were too tiny.

Because that person has always considered himself an “Attractive player,” he became very attached to this identity in such a way that it became his main source of self-esteem.

When a person becomes attached to a certain identity, he feels more worthy when he moves closer to it and less worthy when pushed away from it.

People do their best to protect their main identities, and as a result, they change their behavior.

How people change their behavior to protect their identities

My friend changed his behavior by spending more time in front of the mirror. As a result, this friend started to arrive late to appointments, and he became known for his lack of punctuality.

When analyzing that person’s behavior without considering his main identity, you will certainly come up with wrong conclusions about him.

The guy arrives late because he spends a lot of time protecting his main identity. That person believes that his looks are a precious asset, and if anything happened to him, he would lose his main identity and self-esteem along with it.

People go to lengths to protect their identities, and as a result, they completely change their behavior. A successful man who gains his self-esteem from his success will fight to the death to protect his identity and to remain successful.

Any threat to a person’s main identity will result in anxiety and excessive worrying. This is why we can understand emotions better if we looked at them through a different lens. Emotions might be nothing more than guidelines the mind uses to help a person protect his main identity.

Protecting the wrong identity

Why do some people fear money or success?

I am not talking about the group of people who move forward with disregard to their fears, but I am talking about those who never take action then blame their fears for it.

Those people are the ones who protect the wrong identities, such as “the laid back” or “the lazy.” Believe it or not, some people want to be called lazy just because they are too afraid to experience a change in identity.

They should be called lazy or even airheads than risk looking for a new identity. In other words, those people are the ones who are too afraid to come out of their comfort zones, and as a result, they do their best to protect the wrong identities.