The paper summarises different views of identity in philosophy. The different traditions of understanding identity are analysed that view it as one’s intrinsic sameness, or as one’s correspondence to the cultural conditions. The development of these views within psychology is shown. The essence of the identity phenomenon can be captured by a number of proposed dichotomies: inner essence vs correspondence to social values, the union of consistency and change, the problem of integrity vs adaptation. Specific features of identity development associated with early and late stages in life are discussed.