Identity Construction: Analyzing a War Veteran's Life Stages

This report presents a case study analyzing the identity construction of a war veteran named Roy, exploring the interplay of psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors across his lifespan. The report begins by outlining Roy's life stages, from infancy through old age, and examines how key milestones and experiences shaped his development. It delves into the impact of his religious upbringing, bullying during adolescence, military service, and experiences in the Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan conflicts on his cognitive and behavioral traits. The report discusses how biological factors, such as physical development, and psychological factors, such as ego-centrism and the development of self-perception, influenced his identity formation. It also highlights the significance of social interactions, including family, peers, and the military environment, and cultural influences such as his American upbringing and the culture of war. The conclusion emphasizes that while innate characteristics and early experiences play a role, environmental factors and changing circumstances continue to shape an individual's identity throughout life, as exemplified by Roy's evolving self-perception and the impact of his experiences on his views and behavior.

Running head: IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION
IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Abstract
The purpose of this report is to assess the growth and development of an individual in terms
of identity and behavior, across the various stages of his or her life, and assess how
psychological, biological, social and cultural factors play a part in shaping the developmental
process. The report takes the case study of a war veteran and assess how his cognitive and
behavioral traits have developed throughout the stages of his life. The report concludes that
some factors influence behavior in an innate manner, while most play a temporarily
influential factor in the personality development of the individual.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
The story of Roy.....................................................................................................................3
Life stages and development..................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
A person has many stages of life. William Shakespeare has pointed out in his story,
“As You Like It”, that a person has seven stages in their lives, each having an effect on the
person’s behavioral characteristics (Shakespeare 2018). However, modern sociology lays out
that a human life has four distinct stages, which are infancy, adolescence, adulthood and old
age. The concept of this is much more applicable and viable. According to Papalia, Olds and
Feldman (2017), each of these stages have a specific way of constructing the identity and
behavioral characteristics of an individual. Factors such as biological, psychological, cultural
and social factors play a part in each of the stages of an individual’s lives. This report will be
particularly considering the life of a veteran soldier who served during the period of the Iraq
war during Saddam Hussain’s regime, and will be referred to as Roy in this report. The report
will be particularly focusing on the stages of Roy’s life which built his identity and character.
Discussion
The story of Roy
Roy was born in a middle class family in Texas, in 1998. His father used to be a
postmaster and his mother looked after the household. Roy attended school where he took
interest in religion and alphabets. This was perhaps because Roy’s father was a very religious
person. When he was 10, his father passed away. This had a very emotional impact on Roy’s
life. He completed his higher studies amidst all the emotional turmoil when he lost his mother
too, and gradually began to develop an interest to serve his country. During most of his
adolescence, Roy had been bullied and his self respect urged him to fight back the kids who
bullied him. Into adulthood, having developed an interest to serve his country, Roy joined the
military when he was 22 years old, in 1990. When he was 35, he got a call of duty to serve in
the US invasion of Iraq. Roy has reportedly killed seven of enemy forces in that war. This

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according to him, is something that haunts him to this day. He got married at the age of 37.
He has also served in the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan, where he has killed and has seen
people getting killed in the frontline. Roy retired from the army when he was 50 years old, as
a US war veteran. According to Roy, now that he has started to enter into his old age, he
suffers from post traumatic stress due to the experiences which he has had on the front line.
Life stages and development
Infancy
Having been born as a male, Roy gained prominent height and masculine features
while gradually growing up, including a distinct voice of a boy, and other distinct biological
features. He has been well raised with enough nutrition as his family has never been in a
financial crisis, thereby, building his body up for growth. Biological factors such as genes
also play a role in the character development of a child (Kampourakis 2017). Hence, it can be
assumed that the genes present in Roy, had started to shape the initial character of Roy. The
key milestone in this stage, is learning to walk and talk.
Psychological development during the infancy stage starts with ego-centrism, as per
Newman and Newman (2017). In this stage, the child does not view things from the
perspective of others, and only considers his own views. However, he slowly starts to take the
views of other individuals as well, as he also starts to grow more cognitive intelligence.
Social interactions also played a part in the development and growth of Roy’s
character. At this stage of life, social interactions are restricted to the child’s family (Britto et
al. 2017). His father was a highly religious person. This social influence made him take
interests in religion when he joined school. The most important milestone in this aspect is the
fact that this was the time when Roy started to take interest in religion. This was a major
milestone, since it would play a big part towards the old ages of his life.

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Culturally, all that could be said is that being born in USA, Roy has been brought up
in a modern and developed environment. Belonging to the Christian community built his
character accordingly, especially because of the fact that he was religious from childhood.
Adolescence
According to Sawyer et al. (2018), it is during the adolescent stages of an individual’s
life that biological factors of growth become the most prominent. It is at this stage of an
individual’s life that distinct biological characteristics like puberty takes place. This is a key
milestone in the life of Roy, as he acquired distinctions like growing beard and other
masculine features in his identity.
Psychological developments too began to take during this stage of Roy’s life. As
discussed earlier, Roy used to fight kids back who used to bully him. This can be attributed to
the trauma which had reconfigured his psychological traits, having lost his parents at this
stage of his life. This is another key milestone in his life.
Social interactions play the biggest part in the character development of an individual
during this stage of one’s life (Allemand, Steiger and Fend 2015). For Roy, this social
interaction included interactions with his peers, many of whom bullied him, and he fought
back. It is here where Mead’s identity theory of I and Me can be applied. By now, Roy had
developed a perception and view of himself, which is the I. What people viewed of him, gave
Roy the view of himself from an environmental and social perspective. Both of these factors
play a part in shaping the identity for oneself as per Hammack (2015). For Roy, the I and Me
conflicted as he did not accept of the environmental and social opinion of his identity, having
developed a strong identity in his mind for himself. This indicates the integrity of Roy’s
perspective of his own identity, which is another key milestone. The social factor here, is

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what influenced his tough approach in his behavior and mentality, and thereby was to
facilitate him in his quest to become a war veteran.
Cultural factors like moral values and beliefs are implanted by the environmental
culture of the individual during this stage of one’s life. Since Roy had been living in Texas,
the cultural values of that particular state had been implanted within his character.
Adulthood
Young adulthood comes along with the acquisition of physical strength. This is
usually the time in one’s life where physical strength is at its peak, specifically during the age
of 24-30 (Evans et al. 2015). Hence, this is the time when biological factors like physical
strength built up the Identity of Roy. Psychologists suggest that one can have varying
impressions and perceptions about oneself, based on how strong or weak he or she is.
Adulthood is the time when Roy finished his higher studies and joined the army,
which is a key milestone in his life. Being in the frontline during the Iraq war during his early
adulthood and also being involved in the crises in Syria and Afghanistan made Roy kill and
watch people getting killed. This witness of violence shaped his character up to be even more
strong, although his innate values of religion were to later make him feel down about this
phase of his life.
This is also the phase in life when he got married, which is another key milestone. His
social life, thereby had another sphere, which was now his family. Having a family makes a
man more responsible. Thus, the behavioral change which took place in Roy at this stage of
his life, was responsibility for his actions and decisions, if being responsible for his entire
country was not enough already.
The only cultural factor which played a part in the development of Roy’s identity
growth, was war. A soldier has to be out in the battlefield or the training grounds for most of

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the year, and this was the culture in which Roy had been cultivating himself. Thus, mental
and physical toughness were bound to become a part of his identity.
Old Age
Old age is the time when an individual begins to lose much of his or her physical
strength (Holzer et al. 2018). This is because the body and the muscles begin to lose their
efficiency in functioning due to the old age. According to Marder et al. (2016), this
decreasing strength in oneself is the time when a person starts to have a more realistic view of
one’s identity, and calms down a person’s behavioral characteristics. In other words, if a
person were violent and short tempered, it gradually lowers down in this phase of life. This is
the phase in life where Roy too, had to have a more realistic view of who he really was.
It is the time when Roy retired from the army. The experiences in the battlefield has
made him traumatic, now when he remembers the experiences. This is further aggravated by
the fact that Roy has religious values engraved deeply into him This is again where Mead’s
theory can be applied. Roy views himself as someone who has betrayed his religious values
throughout the years, living in violence for most of his life. However, the environmental and
social factors perceiving him as a war veteran and giving him that respect, merged with his
own view of his identity to restrict his psychological conditions to only a post traumatic
experience.
Social interactions pick up from the adulthood into the old age. For most elderly
people, the main source of social interaction is family and friends (Goll et al. 2015). Hence,
for Roy, it is the respect which he gets from the society which incorporates gratitude in his
behavior.
Culturally, Roy has seen a lot in the world change throughout the course of his life,
and has impacted his behavioral traits in the society accordingly.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that while every stage in a person’s
life has a role to play in the character and identity building in the person’s life, none of that
could be permanent, as situations and varying environmental factors in one’s life could
impact the way in which a person behaves or thinks. Like in the case of Roy, his toughness
and esteemed self image has gradually diminished to a more realistic view of himself, now
that he is in his old ages. Some factors become part of the innate characteristics of a person
throughout his life, which was religious values in Roy’s case. Each of the psychological,
social, cultural and biological factors have a part to play in a person’s behavioral and identity
growth and development.

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