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Erik Erikson's theory identity vs confusion
Erik Erikson's theory identity vs confusion
Social development in adolescence
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Erikson believed that people cannot achieve true intimacy without first having formed a solid identity as an individual. Identity is a sense of knowing who you are and where you’re going in life, resolved positively emergence of identity marks end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. Feeling of being at home in one’s body, sense of knowing where one is going. Inner assuredness of anticipated recognition from those who count. Identity development is a key developmental task of adolescence and emerging adulthood. There were advantages to exploring my identity during my teenage years. I remember during my teenage years I would always look for solid identity for my friends on the track team and from kids in the band. I would always look for acceptance to be accepted by my friends and peers and by my teachers. My identity showed where my life was going by my actions. According to Erikson, it’s important to think seriously about these issues and ultimately to come to enough of a resolution so that the path you walk on in adulthood is one that I have chosen. Just like Erickson has stated that if you don’t come to grips with harsh decisions and never arrive at a firm identity and has prepared me for the development tasks that lay ahead. I know that my solid identity of wanted to be accepted by my friends and when I measured my development …show more content…
They are parallel, first do I agree with Erikson’s position on identity formation and intimacy? I know that dating for me was peer interaction which helped me as an adolescent clarify my identities and begin to separated identity formation in middle adolescence. Failure to sail smoothly through this stage of identity development can lead a person to feelings of confusion, isolation, and lead to difficulties developing meaningful relationships with others. (Feldman,
Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self-inside.
True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges. Identity means having ideas and values that one lives by” (Merton). Concurring with Merton, a person is not given their identity at birth or while developing as an embryo, rather it is something that you create for yourselves over the course of life through decisions and actions made by the individual. Identity is something that one may not be fully aware of or discover until the last breath. Identity can be influenced through associations with others, and environmental factors.
Before beginning the explanation of how an identity is formed, one must understand what an identity is. So, what is identity? To answer this, one might think of what gives him individuality; what makes him unique; what makes up his personality. Identity is who one is. Identity is a factor that tells what one wants out of life and how he is set to get it. It tells what kind of a person one is by the attitude and persona he has. And it depends upon the mixture of all parts of one’s life including personal choices and cultural and societal influences, but personal choices affect the identity of one more than the others.
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
Role Confusion is the main stage that can be observed. Identity vs. Role confusion takes place from around 12 to 18. The four boys in this movie are all around 18 or so and are trying to figure out where to go from high school. Ego identity is one’s self-image, it integrates our ideas of what we are and what we would like to be whereas the identity confusion is looked at as failure to bring together previous developments into a consistent self-image. This confusion often results in feelings of worthlessness. Out of this stage of Erikson’s theory comes the virtue of fidelity, or the, “faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support” (Dictionary).
Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them are. The most interesting point about identity is that some people know what they want and who they are, while it takes forever for others to figure out the factors mentioned before. Many of the individuals analyzed in this essay are confused about the different possible roles or positions they can adopt, and that’s exactly the reason they look for some professional help.
Everyone struggles with identity at one point in their life. It will eventually happen to everyone. Identity is how people see one another, it is one of the most important things about someone. Identity goes hand in hand with experience. One’s experiences can impact one’s identity.
In Erickson’s psychosocial stage theory, one of the main components he focused on is the development of the ego identity. Ego can be defined as the conscious sense of self that is developed through interaction. According to Erickson, our ego is constantly changing due to the new and different interactions that we have on a daily basis. We can either hinder or strengthen our ego identity by the interactions we experience. Erickson believed that a hindered ego or an ego that isn’t developed can lead to a person feeling an inadequacy as well as losing the meaning of life. However, if a person’s ego is strengthened and mastered a person will feel accomplished as well as the sense of belonging. This feeling can also be referred to as the ego strength or ego quality. During the times of ego identity, the person’s potential of growth is high, however, the potential of failure is also present.
The establishment of one’s identity is the central development issue during their college years. Arthur Chickering's Seven Vectors theorize the "tasks" that students must go through while developing their identity. Vectors is a development that students can experience, but usually students or people can experience them through a series of multiple steps; and they are not necessary done in any sequential order. More like, multiple and clustered, patterns of behavior developing over a period with someone. And because this experience isn’t sequential, students move through these different “stages” at different rates, different complexities, and at different times.
“It’s a blessed thing that in every stage in every age some one has had the individuality and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.” The part of me that sums up my identity best is not the adjectives given by family, or the faults I find in myself. My identity is my desire to better myself, and my passion for children. My identity is who I want to be and what I do to accomplish my goals My identity is the feelings and emotions I pour into my journal every day, and the way I feel when I do something right. My identity is not what others thing of me or what I think of myself after a bad day. My identity is the love and confidence I have in myslef, and the beauty inside.
In this paper I will be focusing on Erikson’s Theory mainly about identity versus role confusion. Finding one’s identity is not always an easy task. Everyone at some point in his or her life has had, as Erikson puts it, an identity crisis. Everyone experiences different struggles that can have either a positive or negative impact on their identity. On my path to identity, I have reached identity achievement, which means I have explored and made commitments. I will also be focusing on two articles highlighting a fifth possible outcome regarding identity and looking at identity statuses as developmental trajectories.
In conclusion, the formation of one’s identity has many components. Beginning at the onset of adolescence and continuing to expand, grow and form and reform as we live through the struggles or success of life. Many theorists have endeavored to clarify the development of identity formation. However, Erik Erickson offered one significant theory involving the formation of one’s identity. Expounding on Erickson theory, Marcia developed his Identity Status Model according to the existence or absence of crisis and commitments. These four statuses, diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and achievement can combine in various ways to produce a self. One’s sense of identity is determined largely by the choices and commitments made, therefore, having a well-developed sense of self can provide an individual with insight to their strengths, weaknesses, and individual uniqueness. An individual that finds themselves
Also as I was a toddler (play age), if I did a mistake my parents wouldn’t shame me about my mistakes, but they would do the right thing by showing me how to do it right, which promotes autonomy, which it would also help me to make the right decision. When I first started to go to school (school age), I was raised to be a hard worker, to work with industry, meaning that success doesn’t work with hard work, and that’s a method I use till now. And this where it gets harder for me, my adolescence years. In these year people find out who they are in life, to be honest I’m 19 years old and I still don’t know where I’m going in my life, I really don’t know what is the cause of this, I don’t like to blame people. Hopefully journey in college helps find where I belong at. I might be curious, confident in my choices, and a hard worker, but I’m still on the journey of finding myself, and that’s how I relate to Erik’s identity formation.
It’s when an individual explores options to work out who they are. Two theorists with lofty ideas on identity formation are Erik Erikson and James Marcia. Erikson is one of the most influential theorists on the topic. He developed a theory on psychosocial development. His fifth stage of identity vs role confusion is aimed at adolescence when a person is trying to work out their identity and who they are (Keitt, 2012).
In Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, I thought, “Who am I?” countless times like many other adolescents. I occupied much of my time trying to construct a firm identity of myself, which I now realized did more harm than good. Letting myself explore different interests would have helped me find my identity than me trying to fake some firm identity.