Picture this: A young girl stands in front of her mirror, practicing applying her bubblegum pink lipstick and thick black mascara. In a different home, a boy stands in front of his mirror practicing his poses and monitoring his muscle growth. The mirror quietly reflects each of their appearances as they try to determine who they are and who they hope to become. Identity can be best described as a sense of self.…
Erikson defines identity as “a coherent conception of the self. Made up of goals, values, and beliefs to which a person is solidly committed” (Papalia & Martorell, 2015, pg. 337). This happens during the teenage years, this is a time spent discovering the self (Papalia & Martorell, 2015). It is during this time that an individual begins Erikson’s fifth stage of psychosocial development, identity versus identity confusion, if the individual is successful in experiencing this stage they develop the virtue of fidelity (Papalia & Martorell, 2015). This adolescence stage starts around 12 years old and ends around 18 years old (Papalia & Martorell, 2015).…
The stage of adolescence is categorized by being 12 to 18 years old and psychosocial maturity the individual exemplifies. A developmental delay that is evidenced by the inability of an individual’s needs to be met can be identified by using Erikson’s stages of development (Groark, McCall, McCarthy, Eichner, & Gee, 2013). For the adolescent stage the task requires children to find their own personal identity separate from their peers and parents. This achievement of identity will lead to increased independence from parental control and more time interacting with peers. Unfortunately if the child cannot accomplish the task of forming self- identty this leads to confusion in life roles.…
Identity, something which everyone has. The aspect that truly defines who someone is. Do we have full control over our identity, or do we gain it through exposure to life? Many people can argue both sides, but which one is reality. The more likely scenario is that it is defined by our family and friends.…
Identities developed during childhood can impact adulthood. Some people are consciously aware of their identities and some are not. The social messages that people receive can shape their identities both positively and negatively. Experiences also greatly affect identities. Two identities from my childhood that shaped my adulthood are being a military child and being a female.…
There are a lot of obstacles that we as America’s youth face, weather it is a problem we created or someone else’s doing. The problem becomes cumbersome when you retaliate in an ineffective way. My grandmother always told me “it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” In order to change the direction of your retaliation to things you have to know yourself and be able to effectively articulate yourself. My vision for America’s youth is to learn their selves, be comfortable in their skin, and effectively articulate their selves to initiate change in their lives and the lives of others.…
Surviving adolescence can be hard and incomprehensible to adolescents which can lead to more health issues, mentally and physically. Ego identity Vs. Role confusion is confusion for adolescent because of those exposures to these diseases, illegal substances or stereotypes. There’s not a guide of what will happen exactly or how to deal with the difficulty of understanding the changes, the sexual orientation and the risk of it or health risks. The difficulty of understanding the changes, whether it physical or mental, is different for each adolescent, not everyone develop or mature the same pace.…
Emerging Adulthood is an ambiguous period in a person’s life. It is a period that most people do not know who they are as a person or know what to expect next. Throughout the first week of class we learned where the term emerging adults came from and how it became such a phenomenon in the field of Psychology. Arnett (2014) defines emerging adulthood as an age of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling of in-between, and possibilities; which he called the key features of emerging adulthood. After learning about the five key features in emerging adults, there were three that stood out to be me; the age of identity exploration, instability and self-focus.…
I believe that growing up a different environment and socializing with different people does makes up one’s identity, in other words, who I am. Everyone has their own life story, and I bet that their stories are more interesting than mine, the reason being my stories have more sadness rather than happiness. But with me, I respect every single event of this sadness and happiness, because they make up who I am. I was born in Vietnam, along with my brother and two sisters. Growing up surrounded by many challenges and witnessing many things in life taught me many lessons that I carry with me today.…
In this stage, adolescence is under puberty, hormone generated, physical grown rapidly and sex organ develop completely. Other than that, adolescence also concern about he or she self-image, and also role as an adult and future career issues. “Who am I?” is the common question that came to adolescence mind. The main crisis needs to be resolve will be self-recognition, direction of life and the meaning of life.…
If a child is not able to create an identity for himself, he will have a constant loss of direction for the rest of his life and will struggle with the remaining crises. In this stage, adolescents either form an identity and see themselves as unique individuals with a purpose in society or will be confused about their identity (“Erikson’s Stages,” 2016). Adolescents in this stage begin to ask themselves what they want to be when they grow up and who they are in regards to their beliefs, religion, and goals. Identity formation is the central task of adolescents and the events that take place within the later years of adolescence trigger an identity crisis. An identity crisis is a phase in which adolescents attempt to become unique individuals by using self-knowledge acquired during their younger years (Bernstein, 2016, p. 411).…
It's clear that most of our identity is shaped by the environment that we are in. We are most influenced by our family, friends, and school. Our family shapes our identify in how our behaviors are, depending on how our parents have raised us. Friends shape us by the choices of friends that we associate ourselves with. Friends tend to have a big influence in our identity.…
These feelings of self-worth and confidence assisted me as I navigated my way through the identity versus role confusion stage. Erikson (as cited in Swartwood, p. 84) states that the developmental crisis of this stage is centered on the establishment of identity. Role confusion can be experience by an adolescent who does not successfully establish an identity in occupation, gender roles, politics, and religion. Erikson’s work has been expanded on by James Marcia (as cited in Swartwood, p. 84), who has recognized four “identity statuses.” These statuses “explain unique differences in how young adults search for an answer to…” who they are, based on their levels of exploration and commitment (Swartwood, p. 84).…
Erikson (as cited in Crocetti, Rubini, Luyckx, & Meeus, 2008) stated, “the fundamental developmental task that individual face during adolescence is defining their identity,” (p. 983).…
During adolescence, teenagers are in the process of trying to find their own unique values and lifestyles. Robert S. Feldman, author of Development Across The Life Span, described that, “this…