Erickson's Fifth Psychosocial Development During Adolescence

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

Adolescence is moving from childhood to adult. This adolescent year brings many changes, not only physically but also mentally, emotionally and socially (Feldman, 2006). My adolescence was a period in which I gained maturity due to the biological changes associated with puberty. I became independent from my family and developed more perspective since then. I started thinking more about my future goals. I was also trying to understand more of who I was as an adult. In Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory young people start to think abstractly and hypothetically in the formal operation stage (Berk, 2007). Therefore, this major cognitive development may have contributed to the exploration or search for my individual identity.

It outlines the struggle an individual faces in finding stability between developing a sense of forming a unique identity while still being accepted and “fitting in” with society. Erikson believed that when teenagers adequately navigated their way through this crisis, they would transpire into having a clear understanding of their individual identity and easily share this new ‘self’ with others. However, if an individual is unable to navigate their way through this crisis period, they may be uncertain of who they are which can result in a lack of understanding, leading to disconnection from society and the people around them. If youth become stuck at this stage they will be unable to become emotionally mature adults, according to Erikson’s theory. This period of an individual’s life allows them to investigate possibilities which will lead them to discovering their own identity based upon the result of their explorations.

Identity has been defined in many ways. It is the concept used to describe an individual's sense of who he or she is (Dashefsky and Shapiro, 1976). Changes in identity occur throughout the life cycle, however, the changes in identity are usually most notable during adolescence. Integrating a positive sense of ethnic identity into one's overall personal identity is an important task of late adolescence (Steinberg, 1996).

Culture, ethnicity, family, sexuality, and society are all factors that can influence a person’s identity. A combination of all these elements usually result in the successful discovery of self-identity. Preadolescents and adolescents often find themselves in a constant battle attempting to find who they are or who they want to be. Adolescents are faced with questions like, What do you want to be when you grow up? What colleges are you looking into? What are your plans after high school?. In a normal process of growth, teens experiment with new activities in order to find their identity, but this is not the case for every teen. Some adolescents do not go through the normal process of experimentation for various reasons.

“Identity Development “ Identity is most simply defined as a person's own sense of self; their personal sense of who they are. Identity development is intrinsically linked with adolescence because, according to John Santrock author of the book entitled Adolescence 15th edition, "...for the first time, physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development advance to the point at which the individual can sort through and synthesize childhood identities and identifications to construct a viable path toward adult maturity.” We often see the results of this sorting process in behaviors of adolescents such as adopting and shedding different personas, including speech patterns, clothing styles and peer groups. Although these transitions

years) is the stage when adolescents are facing new roles and adult statuses. If they explore the

PSYU 324 has introduced students to the major theoretical models of adolescent development and biological maturation. For instance, this course addressed the issues of identity, peers, family, school, sexuality, morality, substance abuse and psychological problems. One of the assignments was to interview an adolescent and demonstrate our mastery of psychological theory as it applies to adolescence.

All throughout our lives, we wrestle with the question of who am I and what do I want in life? However, it is usually during the adolescent years that this issue really comes to a head and we begin a more earnest search into finding ourselves and deciding the direction we want to take with our lives. One of the theorists who studied this idea of identity formation was James Marcia. Marcia proposed that there were four different stages or statuses in the development of identity which he labeled Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Achievement. In this essay, we will briefly summarize his four different stages and then apply his theory to my own identity development during the adolescent years.

The chart above denotes the major theories of adolescence development; however in this study we limit ourselves to Erik Erikson’s identity development theory.

Application of Theory – Adolescence can become a very confusing age. It can also become a very definitive age in figuring out who you are; your identity. The way to identify who you are, according to Erikson, is to reflect back on what you have learned from the choices you have made and how you dealt with earlier conflicts. If someone comes out of this identity crisis with a positive outcome, then they have realized who they are, be able to confidently make choices for themselves, and have started to set goals for themselves in the future. However, those who do not come out positively will slip into a state of confusion of who they are, what they stand for, and will be unable to make decisions to establish descriptive characteristics such as sexual orientation, what career they want to go into, or what job they want to apply for. My subject did not sink into a confused state of mind. By the time she graduated high school, my grandmother decided that she wanted to go to college and become a teacher and she followed through with her decision until

The word “identity” is an unclear concept; it debates a social category or distinguishable features. Identity development is the process through which individuals go through in life. Identity development is examined in various stages. These stages happen around different ages. In Erikson’s psychological identity development theory. He explains the eight stages through which identity is present during adolescent and early adulthood. His ideas were influenced by Freud’s theory. The eight stages of Identity development is more significant during childhood and adolescent to during an adult.

It is my belief that one of the best ways to encourage and support our adolescent men and ladies is to focus on the issues that are plaguing them during this developmental period by providing them with opportunities to openly discuss their concerns in a gender-specific, safe, trusted environment. Although this can be important for all people at any developmental period, it is especially important for adolescents for several reasons. First, the developmental period of adolescence is the transitional period from childhood to adulthood where humans begin to form their own opinions about the world. As a result, adolescents tend to question everything they were taught as children and test boundaries as they attempt to derive their own conclusions about the world. This makes it difficult for adolescents who have been taught to “honor thy father and thy mother” to have open and honest conversations with parents without coming across as disrespectful or defiant. Therefore, it is of critical importance that adolescents build trusting relationships with other adults in which they can confide for their own spiritual, mental, and physical safety. Second, during this time of questioning what they have previously learned, adolescents are preoccupied with developing their own identities. As much as they do not want to be different for fear of getting bullied, adolescents really desire to create their own unique identities and have them to be accepted by their peers. As adolescents

Adolescence is the fifth stage in Erikson's psychosocial development theory. It is posited to last from ages 12 to 18, and the basic conflict inherent in the adolescent stage, which the person must resolve, is between identity and role confusion. This conflict between identity and role confusion especially plays itself out in peer relationships, but the teenager also navigates through identity and role confusion with relationships in the family unit. Identity and role confusion issues can arise with sexuality, as well as worldviews.

While childhood seemed like a breeze, my adolescent years were anything but that. Adolescence, the transition between childhood and adulthood beginning with puberty, is a time full of physical and psychological changes both positive and negative. During this time individuals are in search of their identity, a task that can yield a lot of confusion. The question of who am I lingers in the back of adolescent minds and the answer anything but simple. This struggle for an identity and one’s place in society can lead to stress. Through exploration and soul searching, however, one might find their identity. For me, this question seemed impossible to answer, however, I always had a strong desire to fit in and be liked by others. Reading through the different developmental theories in the text, I started to compare them to events in my own life and noticed many significant similarities.