The terms personality, identity, self or person and many others, are used in
the literature in different ways. Sometimes the term implies the personality
of the self and the person (Leary, 2004), and sometimes the identity (Harre,
2001). An important source of terminological confusion in the study of self
and identity lies in a variety of different perspectives in the social
sciences. The subject of this paper is to present the concept of identity in
social constructionist paradigm. The paper focuses on works of social
psychologist Kenneth Gergen (Gergen, 1991; Gergen, 2002; Gergen, 2009), Rom
Harre (Harre, 2001, Harre, 2004; Harre & Tisaw, 2005) and John Shotter
(Shotter, 1989; Shotter, 1997) whose speaking of the fragmented nature of
identity. The similarities and differences between these approaches are
shown. In conclusion, theoretical, methodological and political implications
of adopting a new understanding of identity are reconsidered.