Identity Crises

With respect to Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development, the adolescence is the stage of identity versus role confusion. He also believes that identity as the significant personality achievement of adolescence is an essential step toward becoming a productive happy adult (Feldman, 2006). I remember so vividly my high school experience; especially

One of the theorists to investigate the development of identity would be Erik Erikson. According to Erikson (1968), throughout an individual’s life-span, they experience conflicts. These conflicts arise at certain points in life and need to be successfully resolved for the progression in to the next of Erikson’s eight stages (Sigelman & Rider, 2015). The specific stage relevant to the development of identity formation in adolescence would be the ‘identity versus role confusion’ stage. Identity development involves exploring options and making commitments to obtain a relatively stable self-perception (DeHaan & MacDermid, 1996). In contrast, role confusion occurs when individuals are not able to commit specific life choices (DeHaan & MacDermid,

A according to the author of the book, “adolescence is a time of trial and uncertainty for many youths” (p.9). Whatever they do may sound mature. However, they remain emotionally and intellectually immature. According to Erickson, in later adolescence, youths can experience crisis identity labeled ego identity versus role diffusion. That means many youths develop a sense of identity, they know who they are and for what they stand. Others can be uncertain, they cannot shape themselves. They look, instead,

Erik Erikson named the stage of adolescents “identity versus role confusion” (Sigelman, C. & Rider, E. pg. 343). This is a pivotal time in an individual’s life where many future endeavors; personal, academic, and professional, depend on the outcome of this stage. During this time, adolescents are trying to refine the many facets of their personality such as, political, sexual, religiousness, just to name a few. This is an arduous

The adolescent stage is one in which the human being develops from being a child into an adult, or from puberty to legal adulthood. The stage consists of the transition in both the physical and the psychological contexts ("Adolescence | Psychology Today", 2016). The transaction of the adolescent is the relationship between the environments and the person (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001). This interaction influences the adolescents development as they are in the stage of their lives whereby the trying to attain autonomy of their lives from their parents/ caregivers (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001). To achieve development to emerge into adulthood there are many identity statuses one must go through in order to achieve a sucessful development (Waterman, 1999). These identity statuses are influenced by the psychosocial enviornment of the person and these are represented in identity processes (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001). Identity processes are immeadiate processing of data that affects the identity and actually holds the identity at stake (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001). However they are the building blocks to developmental processes which is the identity growth and change over the human life span (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001).

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.

Throughout our life life we are continuing developing and changing our identity. According to Erikson, the first crisis of identity occurs during early to middle adolescence. (Oswalt, 2010) Erikson described this stage as identity versus identity confusion. The crisis during this stage beings the struggle to find balance between developing a unique identity, while being accepted and fitting in. (Oswalt, 2010). Adolescence have to make the decisions of who they want to be, and how they want others to perceived them. Within identity there are two concepts, self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept is the conceptualization of a collective image of one’s uniqueness and true abilities. Self-esteem is the acceptance and confidence in one's own

Erik Erikson is a figure in psychology who examined many factors about the personality. One of his theories revolves around identity crises, which he believed countless people have gone through during their lives in order to solidify their identity. Since his findings on this topic in the 1970s, others have done studies on identity crises and how they affect development as well. The concept of an identity crisis is quite important in discovering how the ego grows and identity develops, and it has been referenced many times in popular culture. Being that it is so relevant to everyone’s lives as Erikson believes, I picked this as a topic for this paper in order to understand the concept more. In this paper, I define Erikson’s idea of identity crisis and then compare it to three other works which revolve around the subject. Then I compare each article to Erikson, my personal experience, and occasionally to each other in order to demonstrate how Erikson’s ideas on identity crisis are valid in a modern setting.

Since the issue of identity appeared to be a repeating variable in a number of the situations broke down in the Teen-Parent Conflict workshop, we had chosen to commit a full workshop on this issue. This workshop occurred on April sixth and thirteenth, 2016 with support from 30 youth. At an opportune time in the workshop various inquiries were postured to the youth keeping in mind the end goal to make them mindful of the way of the dialog. Among a portion of the inquiries suggested were conversation starters, for example, what is personality, how do ones identity structure, where does impact over it originate from, and what does one 's personality extreme say in regards to them? The youth were clearly mindful of the way that they were at the phase where they will begin to experience quick change; at times in brief timeframes that would make them take a gander at themselves in various ways that could possibly represent a test for them, and additionally their family and companions. From the beginning a more top to bottom take a gander at the way of identity was endeavored. The youth

Identity is a common trope in most literature. One reason this maybe is because it is a very relatable topic, as many people also struggle with their identity. Having an identity crisis to mean many different things. It can mean struggling with inner demons, being what other people expect and not who one is, or trying to find out where one belongs in the world. Everyone can say that they felt like this at one time or another in their lives. Sometimes struggling with identity can cause rash decisions with negative outcomeS. Many people struggle with identity and deal with it in different ways including the characters in these books.

Identity Foreclosure – the status in which the adolescent seems willing to commit to some relevant roles, values, or goals for

Psychologists, sociologists, and other scholars have studied the process of developing and forming an individual identity in-depth. The use of psychosocial theories, defined as, “unified, systematic casual explanation of a diverse range of social phenomena”, assist in providing organized guidance in better understanding identity development (Patton, Renn, Guido, & Quaye, 2016, pg. 5). Psychosocial theory helps to serve as guiding points to understand development within individuals. They can provide insight into the journey of developing and establishing an identity. The purpose of this paper is examine my own journey by applying psychosocial identity theories to my collegiate experience.

Identity crisis is a state of psychological distress in which a person feels confused and uncertain and unsure of his role in life which makes his sense of identity becomes insecure on physical and intellectual segregation from the main stream of life. It is accepted by the psychologists that the establishment of character is a standout amongst the most crucial parts of a human 's life. A personality emergency is a period of investigation and concentrated dissection of diverse methods for taking a gander at oneself. People, particularly adolescents experience the development of personality emergency in which they have battle between their character and part. The harmony in the middle of personality and disarray lies in making a guarantee to a character. Subjective distress, disarray, temperament swings, carrying on, impulsivity, inner self resistances, increased physical and semantic protests are a portion of the manifestations that are said to happen with the move.

Today, terms such as identity and identity crisis are commonly understood among laypeople. “Identity crisis” isn’t a rare term to describe what people go through during their educational, relational, and occupational years. Typically, identity crisis is ascribed to the youth. More often than not, it is assumed that identity crises are normal among certain age groups, and are often necessary to achieve maturity. However, the original meaning of the term, “identity crisis,” has transformed over the years. Erik Erikson, a prominent psychoanalyst, studied and hypothesized how this concept of identity came to be. By examining the key themes, possible implications, applications, and Biblical comparisons of his work concerning the identity, a better understanding about identity may be gained.

In each stage, the individual faces what Erikson called “crisis” which the individual must overlap to proceed with development of identity (Sokol, 2009). Erikson believes that individual’s success of identity development depends on his overlapping these crises, and each stage is necessary for the development of the next stage (Fleming, 2004). Boeree (2006) claims