society

Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality.

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"The process of socialisation, the role of the family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities in the development of the self."
Many of the successes and failures that people experience in areas of life are closely related to the process of socialisation in developing self-identity and satisfying personal needs.

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Self-identity has at least three major qualities.
It is learned
It is organized
It is dynamic
In regard to meeting personal needs, Maslow, a psychologist of the describes a hierarchy of needs which is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels. The four lower levels are associated with fulfilling physiological requirements, the need to feel secure and safe, meeting emotional and esteem needs.
The top level is termed self-actualization, which is based on satisfying psychological needs, which are continually shaping our behaviour. In Maslow's theory the basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are entirely satisfied.
The role of family, kinship, gender, rites of passage and changing rights and responsibilities influence this process and affect the ways that individuals learn to view themselves and their relationships to others. They are extremely significant influences among all social groups and their attributes are universal, common to all social and cultural groups. Despite the huge diversity that exists between many cultures, such as Aboriginal, Italian and middle and upper class Australians that make them unique, there are some features that are similar and common to all.
Within Aboriginal cultures, such as depicted in Yolngu Boy, their community has a complex kinship system which determines all behaviour among its members. This structure is complex, specific and predetermined. These experiences significantly shape, impact on and determine the form and context of an individual's development and the process of forming self identity and self actualising or lack there of Aboriginal extended families will co-operate to raise children with a strong sense of ethnicity and culture. (Betty Kiekebosch, 2006). In Yolngu Boy we see how this extended family support each other, in their treatment and handling of each other and with decisions that are made
Gender is also significant in Aboriginal culture in determining what land is sacred and holy to an individual and consequently impacts on the development of self identity. In Western culture gender also has major influences as it portrays the definition of femininity or masculinity and manipulates many aspects of daily life and self-image, including what you wear, how people treat you and what behaviour is expected and acceptable.
In Yolngu Boy, as children, Lorrpu and Botj, have basically the same existence. However, as the boys grow older their developing paths diverge as the need to feel secure, loved and belonging within their family and kinship intensifies and becomes evident. Lorrpu lives within a safe environment away from violence, delinquency, and aggression. He has the moral support and security of his family, extended kin and unique culture that provides meaning to the context and nature of his experiences. Consequently Lorrpu is able to advance to a higher level on Maslow's pyramid.
By contrast, Botj lives in a less secure environment as a result of domestic violence, incurring psychological and physical abuse from his father. He has no sense of being secure, loved or having a sense of belonging within his family or culture and is unable to progress any further in the self actualising process as defined by Maslow. In Australia Aboriginal women and children are more than 45 times more likely than other Australians to be victims of domestic violence.
The contrast between the two characters of Botj and Lorrpu becomes even more exaggerated when Botj returns from jail and is denied rites of passage in the process of initiation, unlike his peers who progress to the next step of adolescence, to become Yolngu men. His life lacks meaning and he feels so dislocated that he commits suicide. Similarly in Looking for Alibrandi John Barton is so overwhelmed by his family's expectations and the fear of disappointing them that he is pushed to the brink and commits suicide.
Similar to the Aboriginal culture in Yolngu Boy, the Italian context of Looking for Alibrandi has a strong impact on Josie's development through adolescence and into adulthood. As in the Aboriginal kinship system of Yolngu Boy, the large, extended Italian family in Looking for Alibrandi has a very strong core that maintains traditions, such as the tomato festival. This culture, enriched by tradition, provides the strong Italian bond of community and kinship for Josie. This Italian cultural influence and pride, however, alienates Josie and Christine because they are "cursed." This is brought on by the fact that Christina is a single parent.
This strong Italian identity provides security, similar to Lorrpu's, and allows Josie to easily satisfy the early stages of safety and emotional needs defined in Maslow's hierarchy. However, she still has not achieved the love and belonging stage according to Maslow's hierarchy. This is a consequence of the lack of any relationship that is denied by her father. As the film progresses Josie's father gains her trust and she learns to love and respect him. This attribute finally allows Josie to begin the self-actualization stage. Similarly Lorrpu is able to commence this process as he respects and understands that Botj and Milika no longer wish to continue the childhood dream "that we would become great hunters, become men together" as he does. .
Through a constant process of exposure to values and beliefs, my self-identity continues to be moulded. As a child I always accepted and respected what was told to me by my elders especially parents and family members. As I advance through my adolescence I am now in a position to make and develop my own opinion on issues and have the ability to question things that I may have previously accepted. My social and cultural literacy continues to grow as I discover who I truly am and consciously decide how I wish to portray myself as a person. I am able to progress to satisfying the third layer of human needs which is social interaction. This involves developing emotionally-based relationships in general, such as friendship, sexual intimacy, and I become less dependent on family.
One of the major rites of passage that I experienced and shaped who I am today is when I moved away from my family and boarded with a number of diverse families in Darwin.
Within one of these households I stayed in I was surprised by the lack of family interaction as compared to my family who were nearly always together or even physically near each other even while at school, which is where my parents both worked.
As their father worked as a barrister from dawn till late in the night, the children would often go for days on end without communicating with their father. Once he went away on business and the children did not even realise this until four days later. Their idea of family time was on Saturday, their father would take them out for lunch and go shopping. I found this to be really strange even though they considered their family to have a strong bond.
I often thought that my friend was very lucky to have so few responsibilities as compared to my family where these responsibilities changed and increased according to our age. In addition to this we were able to more readily gain the trust of our parents and were consequently given greater freedom and liberty in regard to outings and curfews.
My friend's upbringing is mirrored in her self-identity. To her appearance is vital, and she is exceptionally judgmental, in terms of stereotyping larger people. This value comes directly from her mother. Like her father who is very determined, my friend is also a strong willed, and one never to admit that she is wrong. She is quiet shy and rarely steps out of her comfort zone and is still very mothered making her dependant on others to complete simple tasks.
Up until this time I had not been exposed to the material life of the city, where females spent hours getting ready to go out, or acted out of character to be accepted within a social group. Within that first year away, I behaved how I thought girls my age were meant to act. I became much of a girly girl, one who would gossip about others and continually use the phrase "oh my god."
Technology also had not been a major aspect of my life as I was an average sporty tom boy, who would be outside kicking a football or mucking around rather than playing computer games. The SMS and MSN culture of communication was another daily aspect of modern adolescent lives that was alien to me.
In Yolngu Boy, Milika is also being exposed to modern day technology. He is seen to be carrying a personal Discman on the journey towards Darwin, in which the aboriginal band Yothu Yindi is playing. This music is an example of the acculturation process between traditional aboriginal and westernised culture. From this Milika has accepted the identity that modern aboriginal culture provides.
Another major rite of passage has recently occurred in my life which was moving interstate. This required me to leave my comfort zone including, my school, netball club and friendship group, in all of which I had gained respect and self-esteem. I needed to find new social groups to belong to in an environment where everybody had already gained respect and esteem and were further advanced on Maslow's self-actualization scale. I still feel that the self that I project and how others perceive me is not the self that I believe myself to be.
Humans have a need to be respected, to self-respect and to respect others. Every individual climbs Maslow's hierarchy at their own pace according to their own experiences and personality. People need to engage themselves in order to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution and self-value, be it in a profession or hobby. Every social being strives for this contentment in order to feel satisfied and happy. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes and a lack of fulfilment.