Literature Review On Adolescent Identity Development

Erikson theorizes that in such a period, adolescents have certain tasks, one of which is identifying who they are. An individual successfully completes the task by staying true to his or her self, whereas when a person fails that stage, it leads to role confusion; consequently creating a weak sense of self. (Block 2011). The stage also entails a variety of personal challenges and limitations faced as well as a series of needs to be met, including: attention, guidance, independence, stability, and acceptance, among other needs. Meeting an adolescent’s needs is fundamental to their healthy development and personal growth. Nevertheless, adolescence remains as puzzling of a period in time for both the teens experiencing it, as well as for the individuals surrounding them, watching them as they navigate through the trials that adolescence brings them.

In this essay, Erikson Identity Crisis theory and Marcia’s four stages of Identity Statuses demonstrates how adolescences analyze and make decisions about one’s identity. Many adolescences struggle with decisions about where they fit in. Also, in this essay I will explain how you know you are LGBTQIA and I will discuss why so many adolescence of LGBTQIA have a hard time fitting in with society. The intent of this essay is to discuss the problems of LGBTQIA adolescences and why the impact of LGBTQIA is mainly in adolescent ages and the discrimination based on sexual orientation & gender 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.

The life transitions are the major changes that occur throughout individual’s lifespan. Adolescence is often classified as one of the most challenging and significant stage during life transition. In this phrase, the individuals not only developing physical and sexual maturation but also experiencing the development of identity and transitions into social and economic independence (WHO, 2014). This essay will discuss the different concept of self-identity for adolescents, the important predictable and unpredictable elements during the transition, as well as the nurses’ role in relation to adolescence care.

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,

“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

Erikson (1968) believed that the primary psychosocial task of adolescence is the formation of identity. Therefore, he called developmental conflict identity versus confusion. There are various contributing factors to the formation of identity such as cognitive development, personality as well as schools and communities etc. The onset of puberty during adolescents leads to newfound cognitive skills and physical abilities (Kroger,2004) . In addition, increased independence and autonomy leads to greater interactions with communities and schools etc. according to Erikson (1968), this allows the individual to explore relationships and ideologies. He gave particular attention to the career domain, starting “In general, it is the ability to settle

Erikson’s stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion (13-19 years old), was a crucial time for my brother and I, as my parents decided to put us back in public school. I was thirteen-years old at the time, just entering the eighth grade as a “new kid” in a very small rural community. This was beyond some of my toughest

During the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development it is considered the adolescence identity versus role confusion occurs. Teens need to develop a sense of self-

When Erikson developed his theory, he suggested that males and females move through the identity versus identity confusion period differently. He argued that males are more likely to proceed through the social development stages in order, developing a stable identity before committing to an intimate relationship with another person. In contrast, he suggested that females reverse the order, seeking intimate relationships and then defining their identities through these relationships (Feldman, 2003). These ideas should be considered by the researchers when designing this study. Gender differences in identity formation should be explored. This also suggests that Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development may not always progress in the order he proposed.

The primary task of an adolescent is identity development in a social and peer context that plays a significant role (Erikson, 1993; Berk, 2014). According to a self-report study, Kretsch et al. (2016) suggest that there are cross-cultural differences among peers in perceived development in which there are differences in pubertal timing regarding ethnic and race differences. The findings show that “non-Hispanic White adolescents mature slightly later than African American and Hispanic adolescents” (Sun et al. 2002 in Kretsch et al., 2016). Also, peer friends are comparable in a wide-ranging aspect of “physical appearance, including body mass index” (Cohen-Cole & Fletcher 2008; Fowler & Christakis, 2008 in Kretsch et al., 2016), which is correlated

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.

Erik Erikson proposed a theory that identity formation was an important developmental aspect of adolescence, which has been characterized by progressive developmental shifts. However, there has been a lack of longitudinal studies that support the multiple aspects of identity formation across adolescent. Therefore, there have been debates on whether or not identity formation fluctuates or if it’s stable throughout adolescence. The main purpose of this study was to provide a detailed review on the changes and stability of identity formation across adolescents ranging from ages 12 to 20.

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.

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.