“I just want to be someone, mean something to anyone, I want to be the real ME”, by Charlotte

Adolescence is Erikson’s fifth stage of development wherein the person must master the conflict of identity versus role confusion. The question, who I am? Is a question that arises during this time? The child is concerned with

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.

Gratefully, my life has not been impacted negatively by alcohol. But after reflecting on my past experiences, alcohol has been involved greatly in my life, although it may not have been negatively. Since I was young, I have remembered observing family members drinking alcohol and pondering if whether their decisions were just. I was raised in an atmosphere, where alcohol was demonstrated as not a harmful thing, but shown as a privileged activity that adults did. Most of my family’s gatherings always had alcohol included, it became a natural occurrence and it seemed abnormal if it was absent. My family doesn’t need alcohol as an item in order to have fun, but we use alcohol as a special luxury to celebrate joyful events. We also don’t indulge

. .” (“College Drinking”). My good friend John was one of those students that felt he had to drink to fit in. He was pressured into drinking when he started college. John never drank alcohol till his first year in college. He was against drinking he did not feel he needed alcohol to fit in and could have fun without it. The people john hung with drank a lot and hosted a lot of parties. Overtime John said he felt the students looked down on him for not wanting to drink at the parties so he started to drink. The students told him everybody drinks and that it would not hurt him if he had a few drinks once in a while but they were wrong.

Much like Maeve’s trial and error phase, Erikson’s theory of identity versus role confusion explains psychological conflict of adolescence. This theory states that this conflict is resolved positively when adolescents achieve an identity after a period of exploration and inner soul searching. If a young person’s earlier conflicts were resolved negatively or if society limits their choices to ones that do not match their abilities and desires, they may appear shallow, directionless, and unprepared for the challenges of late adulthood. (p. 314). Maeve luckily didn’t make many choices that were resolved negatively. These social and emotional changes weren’t always easy for the rest of the family to deal with, but they were a part of her growth. With us there to provide nurturing support, she was able to develop her own healthy identity after her period of “soul searching.”

I understand that, at least for me at the time, drinking was a way of connecting with friends, to socialize with strangers, and to alleviate the shyness. But in hindsight, I noticed there was a change from wanting to needing a drink.  It was a way to deal with the tree of work and life itself. Years later now my wife and son are in the picture, I do my best not drink "that much" at home, but still finding a myriad of excuses to do so.

At the time I thought it was going to help me stop feeling the way that I was. Soon I found out that it was just making things worse. So to keep myself busy, and to keep me away from turning to alcohol I started working more, hanging out with friends at home instead of the bars, and I also got back into school.

Drinking can be due to many factors like genetic, physiological, psychological, and social factors and not everyone is equally affected by each (American Psychological Association [APA], 2016). Just like the textbook mentioned about Elon story, Alice knew her lifestyle was self-destructive, but she reached to a point where she could not control her own drug seeking behavior (Kearney & Trull, 2015, p. 251). Her mental illness was a result of environmental influences. Alice felt really pressured and overwhelmed by her job, raising

According to Erikson, the development of the lifespan is a lifelong process from birth to death and includes the formation of identity (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). I will cover in the paper six life events that influence my identity development from childhood to middle adulthood. Each life event will be explained based on the significance of the event as well as the impact the event had on my development. Also, theories will be discussed as they relate to my development.

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.

For Erikson (1950) adolescence is a period during which individuals seek to avoid dangers of role diffusion and identity confusion by establishing a sense of personal identity. Individuals have to find answers for two major questions “who am I?” and “what is my place in society?” Identity is a “conscious sense of individual uniqueness” and an “unconscious striving for a continuity of experience” (Erikson, 1968, p. 208).

I consider myself a social drinker. The only time I drink is to celebrate a special occasion; for example: birthdays, holiday parties, graduation celebration, end of semester celebration, and etc. However, every once in a while I will go to a happy hour with some friends. I have never been the type of person who likes to drink a lot. I do enjoy drinking every now and then but it will never be something I do on a daily basis. There is no specific reason why I am not a heavy drinker I just choose to be a social drinker.

Intro : When growing up we as people continue to go through stages. When growing up I hit the stage Identity vs. role confusion by Eric Erickson. This stages hits at age 12-18 years. During those years teens don’t know who they are and what their personal identity is. A person does this by exploring their personal values, beliefs and goals. The teen also wants to fit in with everyone else.

I was in the band in college and my sections drank and smoked a lot. There are many people that I went to school with that started smoking and drinking because they were pressured by their friends. I was one of the people that was pressed to drinking alcohol. I turned to drinking alcohol when things went south with one of my best friends. Also during that time I continued to have father issues, and I was doing an internship that was not going well. So I turned to alcohol as a way to help me get through my problems. I later discovered that drinking did not help with the issues that I was having; it only made it worse. Later on I got kicked out of my internship because of my alcohol abuse and went back to school to finish my

I could count on one hand how many times I drank before college so I wasn’t prepared for what was in front of me. Sitting on my college roommates desk were a few shot glasses with Burnets. I didn’t plan on drinking, but desperate for my roommate to like me, I accepted a few shots. The alcohol hit me fast and hard and changed my life forever.