Essay On Identity And Intimacy

Both identity and intimacy are important aspects throughout the adolescent period. Identity development is the process in which adolescents work to define themselves as unique individuals. Whereas true intimacy is when the adolescent becomes able to exchange certain important and necessary aspects with others aside from their parents, while simultaneously maintaining their sense of self. Although two very different concepts they both are set to occur during adolescence and they can both be marked a period in which many changes are occurring. Adolescents itself is a period of finding yourself and figuring out who others are and what they mean to you therefore it is evident that both identity and intimacy are parallel and mutually influencing.

I would say that many people would agree to it being a social fact that boys interact differently with their friends than girls. Boys tend to not have the same level of open intimacy and expression as girls do. Although when boys are around their friends they are just as likely to engage in intimate conversation. I would also say that because of the simplicity aspect of an adolescent boy’s relationship with his friends causes far less and shorter periods of conflicts between their friendships. Even though the relationships are more simplistic there are still some negatives and positives that can result from this relationship. On a negative note conflicts with guys tend to more than likely escalade to violence because they often originate due to issues of power and control. The fact that many of the falling outs between boys result in violence is essentially the only negative thing I can really think of between adolescent males. Nevertheless on the positive side of things when a conflict between boys arises it is over and done with quickly. This is a good thing because the effects of this type of conflict are less likely to have any long lasting effects on the adolescents involved. Conflicts are also usually able to be resolved without anyone putting forth any explicit effort. A good example of this type of intimate expression between adolescent boys is

Based on all of the information I have learned about identity and intimacy, I do feel that it necessary to have formed some sense of identity in order to have true intimacy. As I stated before an important aspect of intimacy is the ability to disclose information about yourself to another person. Clearly the adolescent would have to have figured enough about themselves to have information to disclose. Since the function of identity exploration is providing a new foundation for identity commitments, one would also expect identity styles to also predict levels of intimacy commitment (Kerpelman, 2012). I also not only feel that it is possible for an adolescent to develop intimacy, I feel that it is an essential part of the adolescent period in more ways than one. It is very important for adolescents to be able to disclose and have close knit relationships with people other than their parents. Being able to go through this process as an adolescent in turn aids in the knowledge about people and the structure of the relationships they can form in adulthood. I also feel that intimacy in the form of dating also helps the adolescent to know in terms of what type of mate they are looking for, what they like and dislike in a potential mate, and essentially what to expect in