Identity Development Essay

“Identity development is the process through which individuals achieve a sense of who they are, what moral and political beliefs they embrace, the sort of occupation they wish to pursue, and their communities and culture” (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2012, p.573). There are many paths of identity development, but the path that will be mostly focused on is ethnic identity. According to the text ethnic identity is the extent of identifying oneself as a part of a particular ethnic group, including the part of one’s feelings, perception and behavior that is due to being a member in that group. Identity formation is more complicated on minority ethnic groups than majority ethnic groups. It is because of their differences in customs, values and beliefs. Also ethnic-minority groups have two identities to form and join together; one based on their own cultural background and the other “based on that of the majority group.” (Lightfoot, Cole & Cole, 2012, p.578). In the text it mentions stages of ethnic-identity formation. Many researchers label the three stages differently but all follow the same basic content and the labels mentioned are specifically suggested by Jean Phinney (2008).

The stages are: Stage 1: Unexamined Ethnic Identity, Stage 2: Ethnic Identity Search, and Stage 3: Ethnic-Identity Achievement. In Stage 1, children tend to follow and show a preference to majority cultural values. In this stage, it may also lead the children to have negative evaluation of their own ethnic group. Stage 2 refers to discrimination. A young child facing a shocking event of humiliation due to their own cultural background, will lead them to have “intense concern for the personal implications of their ethnicity and often engage in an active search fo...

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...n South Asian American and immigrants of both countries. A concept of self is mentioned, and this idea is “the "subtle body," and it is not primarily a psychological category although it does include something of what is considered the psyche in the West” (Ibrahim, Onishishi &Sandhu 1997; Kakar, 1991) According to Bharati (1985), he states that “the highest form of the self-rises above all material conceptions to be formless, immutable, and absolute. People achieve their higher order self, the ideal, by going through stages of psychological development that progress from gross matter, like the body, to the mind; from material to nonmaterial; from materially needy, to the highest order of purity” Ibrahim, Onishishi & Sandhu, 1997; Bharati, 1985). This idea shows in Rajiva’s study where these girls identified their self relatedly to the racialization they encountered.