Identity Development Essay : Identity And Emerging Adulthood

Most people, unless they choose to be an outsider, want to be considered “cool.” Whether it’s to fit in with a peer group, or clique, or to impress someone in particular, like a member of the opposite sex, or a potential mate. Or possibly to gain something from an individual for financial or social gain (see “Scamming”).

Emerging adults have reached a step up from childhood but are not yet ready to fully take on adult responsibilities. This part of life is open to many new experiences which can be very good for the morality of this upcoming generation of adults. People find themselves changing majors in college or taking different classes to explore their interests and find out where they best belong in their future career field.

Identity is what defines us as a person. Everyone one on earth has their own unique identity. To showcase my identity, I created a collage of images and descriptive words, called an identi-kit. This identi-kit shows what I feel like is my identity to myself and the others. My identi-kit identifies me as a mixed martial artist. The identi-kit has images of a deadly shark with mixed martial arts gloves on that say mixed martial arts on the front and fight shorts with the words competitor and warrior on them. It also has descriptive words like “killer instinct” and “fight” which describe my spirit. There are three assumptions that come to question when asking about one’s identity. The first is if you were born with this

My identity is something that that no one can take away from me. As I am still growing and learning, I can say that I have found many things that appeal to me. My interests will help define my personality and express myself in ways that I can’t express through words. I enjoy finding new things to do and doing my best in aiming towards my goals. I have many goals, but I know that I can only accomplish them through patience and perseverance.

Then for example stage 5 - which is the adolescence stage, is where identity is discovered through

The Identity vs Role Confusion stage is represented in the years of adolescence and early adulthood. Erickson identifies this stage as a very important stage of an adolescence, because this stage is where the development of identity forms begin. If a strong sense of identity is not identified for an adolescences they will continue to experience confusion roles throughout their adulthood (Siegler et al., 2014, pp. 346-347). The film represents this Identity vs Role Confusion stage because some of the individuals in the film have experienced this stage in their lives. For example, Suzy in the film had experienced role confusion in her life. In 56 Up, Suzy, at 16 years old, during her adolescence age, she was uninterested in school, which she dropped out of and moved to Paris to create a new experience. Moving to Paris made her become more motivated, which she ended up getting a job and helping her shape her identity by experiencing new social and cultural changes. She was a nervous wreck and she was a heavy smoker, but when she was about 28, I examined that she had a better sense of identity because she was more mature, settled, and successful. From Suzy being a young child to a grown adult, she has changed drastically over her life span. She has matured and once she met her husband, her views changed, such as her not wanting children, but once she married her

Our perception of our identity is constantly changing, the groups we belong to, the people we talk to and the way we connect with others help to form our identity. There is one thing we all have in common despite our individual identities, is the need to belong. There’s no obligation to belong to only one group, you can belong to many. An individual can belong to many groups, which will then create multiple identities; hence our understanding of identity is never constant. Belonging to a loving family, group of caring friends that help us to develop our own sense of self. However, belonging can have a negative side. For example our families might have an expectation of us to do something that might alter our ambitions and interfere with

Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.

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.

"Middle age is when your classmates are so old and wrinkled and bald, they don’t recognize you". -Bennett Cerf     

To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.

Most difficult or challenging feature of being an adolescent would be trying to figure out their identity. The adolescent is going through a period where their bodies is changing. The reason why this plays a big role in my opinion is that sometimes what would happen is that the individual would experience either early or late maturation when compared to their friends. And since the individual does not what is going on with their body, they might feel like they are lacking something if they experience late maturation. If they are experiencing early maturation they might feel embarrassed that their voice is much deeper than their friends, or that they are taller than their friend, or that the are having periods. Which result in the adolescent

Just like how one must discover and establish their identity and morals throughout adolescence and young adulthood, one must find their voice through writing as well. It is a difficult feat to find the proper sum of humor, seriousness, casualness, pretentiousness, or satire. This is something that everyone struggles with as they routinely take pen to paper. Of course, this is all extremely subjective, but until recently my writing voice sucked. As I climbed the academic ladder, clumsily bouncing from teacher to teacher, I heard many varying opinions about my writing. “It is not light-hearted enough”, “this is too light-hearted, Emily”, “this needs more commas”, “use less commas and just shorten the sentences”, “this is awkward”, “this is eloquent”, and “try harder next time.” I questioned every word that I used, contemplated every sentence structure that I wrote, and second-guessed every idea that I had. I eventually became a writing robot that would methodically piece together papers that were well-received, but I was never proud of. I promised myself that as I entered college, I would change my writing practices, no longer consider only my teacher as the audience, and use my voice. The following that ensues is my initial attempt, successful or not, at following through with my promise.

There are five key features that characterize emerging adulthood. The first s identity exploration. The second is “Instability.” For many the instability is a result of residential changes such as living in a dorm. There is also instability in friendships, romantic relationships, academia, and work. Emerging adults have few obligations, responsibilities, and commitments. Because they have so much autonomy in controlling their own lives the third key feature is “Self-Focused.” One of the most difficult

Emotional Transitions to Adulthood During the early part of adulthood major emotional transition takes place. At the beginning of the adulthood lifestage you begin to seprate from your parents and family and no longer rely upon your peers to support you in a pratical way- such as doing your washing and also in a emotional way, you begin to find that your parents aren't such a big fixture in your life. During our early adulthood we spend alot of our time finding a partner and once we do we become emotionally attached and begin to rely upon our spouse for support as we once did our parents.