Christen Green
CDE 232
Mrs. Foster
Writing Assignment #1
9/10/14
Your Life in Theory
The developmental theory I’ve chose is identity vs. role confusion. Identity vs. role confusion is the fifth stage of Erik Erikson’s theory. This stage happens during the adolescence stage between the ages of 12 to 19. Teenagers start to evolve a sense of personal and self-identity. During this adolescence stage, children are finding a sense of themselves and exploring their independence. When they start making the step from childhood to adulthood, teenagers can begin to feel insecure or even undecided about themselves and how they should fit in to our society. They will try to find what makes them comfortable for themselves, and to do that they may experiment with different behaviors, agendas and roles. Teens going in their own direction and
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I really looked up to them because they had the newest and nicest clothes, their parents gave them more freedom then what mine did, and all of the boys liked them. Since I was younger, I was more naïve and thought all of the girls were my true friends and perfect so I wanted to be just like them. My mom never approved of me hanging out with these type of girls because she knew that they were some kind of trouble. I never listened to her because I figured she was just too old and didn’t know what she was talking about. Going into my freshman year of high school, I realized that I was being more independent, and making better decisions for myself. I was making a lot of friends that were better than the group of girls I wanted to be like. My parents also saw a change in me, saying that I was much happier, more obedient, and getting better grades. I stopped hanging out with the girls from middle school because I was learning and wasn’t as naïve anymore to know that they were bad for me and wasn’t really my true
During this stage, Erikson believes that the individual’s successful identity formation relies on social, cognitive and physical maturation (Pittman, Keiley, Kerpelman, & Vaughn, 2011). The individual tries out different roles for who they see in themselves and who they portray to others, eventually committing to their own personal role and occupational choice. Pittman et al. (2011) describe the identity formation as “consisting of decisions, investments, and commitments tied to current and future roles, goals, and relationships.” Additional considerations for identity formation include the context of the culture which is available to the adolescent during this time. After successful resolution of this stage during adolescence, individuals will typically progress into Erikson’s Intimacy versus Isolation stage during young
...f adolescence allow development the identity that will serve as a basis for their adult lives. During Erikson's stage of identity versus role confusion, adolescents' description of self expands to include personality traits and attitudes. The emergence of abstract reasoning abilities allows adolescents to think about the future and experiment with different identities. The development of abstract thought in adolescence also impels the exploration of religious and spiritual beliefs. The development of religious identity begins to come into question with further exploration. Even though the adolescent may eventually adopt beliefs that were similar to their childhood beliefs, the process of exploration is important in achieving a religious identity.
Using Erikson’s theory of Identity vs Role Confusion with Mary Ann’s situation, one can see how when she was a teenager she went through the stage of role confusion. According to Erikson (1993) confusion comes from an adolescent 's inability to settle on a future role for themselves; “to keep themselves together mentally the teenager will emerge themselves within a specific group or crowd that is popular amongst their peers” (p. 262). When Mary Ann began to date Kurt during her sophomore year of high school, she went from being part of this mixed group of individuals who were not all white, not all brown, not all male or female, not a bunch of brainiacs, they were an enigma amongst the students at Flatwater High. Kurt was the handsome, buff,
This period is marked by physical, social, moral and emotional development (Davies, Hartdegen, Haxell, Le Geyt & Mercier, 2012). It is a time when the adolescent’s sense of self or identity is becoming much more clear and they are beginning to understand their role in society, starting to question the morals of others and contemplating their own moral and ethical beliefs (Davies et al., 2012). During this time Erik Erikson believed that adolescents are faced with the psychosocial stage of identity versus role confusion (Berk, 2008). Adolescents explore their values and role in society, overcoming this conflict to better understand their own identity, however if they do not fully overcome this conflict, Erikson believed that the adolescent would be confused about their values and future adult roles (Berk, 2008). This conflict was clearly demonstrated in my own development during the late teenage years when I experienced both the results of failing to overcome and then overcoming Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage. At age eighteen I finished secondary school and began my tertiary studies, I had been accepted into the degree I had wanted to study since middle childhood, however I quickly learnt that I was enjoying neither my studies nor my experience of life in halls of residence. I discontinued my studies after only
Another stage of Erikson's identity versus identity confusion. This is Erikson’s fifth lifespan stage. The developmental period for this stage is adolescence and that would be from 10 years to 20 years of age. This stage is usually after puberty because Erikson’s fourth stage is till puberty and after that stage is identity versus identity confusion. First, the adolescence has just gone or is going through puberty at this time, so their bodies go through many changes (for females they breast develop and they start their periods, and for male they have an increase in height and they have pubic hair growing and many other changes), but at this time their mind is going through a lot of changes as well. Since, this is the stage were most adolescents question themselves They want to know about themselves. They want to know, who they are or what they want to do in life, they have many
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).
Psychological development plays a big role in the adolescent stage of an individual 's development, both biologically and environmentally. As Erik Erikson 's stages of Psychological Development model stated, "Identity vs. Role Confusion" occurs at the age of adolescence to the 20s. During this stage, individuals increase concerns for the way others seem them, and exploring "who am I '. However, inability to settle on an identity at this stage may lead to role confusion. This is an important stage as individuals are exploring and experimenting with different aspects of one 's self. An example can be expressed using an adolescent girl attending high school. She may try to dress differently, dye her hair, and make her own decisions
Another stage of Erikson's identity versus identity confusion. This is Erikson’s fifth lifespan stage. The developmental period for this stage is adolescence and that would be from 10 years to 20 years of age. This stage is usually after puberty because Erikson’s fourth stage is till puberty and after that stage is identity versus identity confusion. First, the adolescence has just gone or is going through puberty at this time, so their bodies go through many changes (for females they breast develop and they start their periods, and for male they have an increase in height and they have pubic hair growing and many other changes), but at this time their mind is going through a lot of changes as well. Since, this is the stage were most adolescents
According to Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who translated and extended Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages into his own developmental theory, human develops and shapes eight psychosocial stages throughout their entire life span. The eight stages include Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair. Human goes through the first four stages during childhood while the last three stages cover adulthood. As a high school senior, I have only gone through the first five stages and I experienced the most difficulty in stage five – Identity vs. Role Confusion.
The fifth stage, according to Erik Erikson psychoanalytic theory of development is the Identity Vs Identity confusion. The stage occurs during adolescence in the ages between 12 to 18 years. At this stage, the adolescents try to find a sense of personal and self-identity by intensely exploring their personal goals, beliefs, and values (McLeod, 2017). Notably, the adolescence is between childhood and adulthood. Thus, their mind is between the morality learned during childhood and the ethics they are trying to develop into adulthood. The transitioning from childhood to adulthood is the most important development for a person because the individual is becoming independent and is focusing on the future regarding career, relationships, families
Adolescence refers to the transition period experienced by children that occur between childhood and adulthood (Shefer, 2011). Identity is first confronted in adolescence between the ages 12 – 19 years old, because of physical and hormonal changes in the body. It is also due to the introduction of formal operations in cognitive development and societal expectation that this contributes to an individual’s identity to be explored and established (McAdams, 2009). The forces within and outside (family, community) the individual that promote identity development usually create a sense of tension. The basic task is, in Erikson’s terms, “fidelity or truthfulness and consistency to one’s core self or faith in one’s ideology” (Fleming, 2004: 9), in a nutshell: "Who am I and where am I
An individual goes through many stages in life, when going from an infancy to adulthood. But the most complex stage is adolescence, where an individual has to identify him or herself as a person to be able to transition to adulthood. Adolescence is a stage in life where teens are trying to figure out who they are, while exposing themselves to risky behaviors. Erikson's theory of identity versus role confusion tries to explain that teens explore the world to try to identify what kind of person they want to be. Many local teens local go to the Laurel Mall on Friday nights so I took the opportunity to observe their cognition, language, and socialization.
Erik Erikson, a psychologist, concludes that every person faces eight crises (stages) as he develops, and to solve these crises he must make a good or bad decision. Making more good decisions than bad decisions results in person moving forward to the next stage (Ewen, 2010). As a person who is nineteen years old, I believe that I am at the end of my fifth stage, Identity Vs. role confusion. To prove my previous statement, I will be talking about my friend, music, and fashion.
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 Santrock citing Marcia & Carpendale, "...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 often seem drastic and swift, adolescents are utilizing their newly honed abilities efficiently to assess, decipher and ultimately construct their own unique identity. Just as any structure is built with individual building blocks, forged together to create a whole, so is the identity.
During this stage adolescents develop a better understanding of self and belonging or they face identity crisis and role confusion. During this stage in my life I felt that I was rebelling and doing things that were not age appropriate. I did not respect authority and thought it was ok to do what I wanted to do. Even though I was a young teenager I did not think of myself that way. I thought of myself more like an adult. Through my negative experiences in this stage I suffered identity crisis and role