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When growing up, we all face the difficulty of finding who we really are as a person. This can be referred to as Identity Diffusion. Described in Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages, the individual has not yet experienced an identity crisis, nor has he made any commitment to a vocation or set of beliefs. There is also no indication that he or she is actively trying to make a commitment. According to psychologist Erik Erikson, identity diffusion has 4 major stages. Those components include: intimacy, a diffusion of time perspective, diffusion of industry, and negative identity. Even if you may not be aware of it, everyone really does experience these stages when growing up in life. In my life, I have gone through the four stages referred to as intimacy, a diffusion of time perspective, diffusion of industry, and negative identity. To begin, I myself have faced the problem of intimacy, but maybe not in the typical notion one thinks when hearing that word. This has more to do with the fear of commitment and close relationships. Since a young age, I have always seen movies, read books, and witnessed in person the relationship between a girl and guy. Disney movies often depict a fairy tale ending where two strangers meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after. You see movies set in high school where two people are in love and share the experiences of growing up together. But once I got to the ages of 14-17, I realized that relationships are a lot more complex and difficult. Every has that “first love” which is more like a big crush, and that happened to me my freshman year of high school. As you probably assumed, it did not turn out like I had imagined, causing my views to change for the future. When something like this happens, one deve... ... middle of paper ... ...shman, I felt that I had a new sense of adulthood because I was finally in high school. I started lying to my parents and basically doing the exact opposite of what they wanted me to do. Because of this, I started to develop a “not-so-good” relationship with them. After this stage in my life though, I realized that disobeying my parents and having a fake kind of identity was not benefitting me in any way. After this, I then decided to change my ways and I have definitely learned from it too. All in all, these four elements make up the development of adolescents. Some people may have gone through all these stages already in life, while others may face them in the years to come. Intimacy, a diffusion of time perspective, diffusion of industry, and negative identity are just a few stages you will face in life and the more you understand them, the faster you can learn.
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
According to Dolgin (2011), “Biological theorists - primarily biologists and psychologists – believe that adolescents are the way they are because of their genes, hormones, or evolutionary history. These theorists downplay environmental influences and tend to believe that the adolescent experience is similar regardless of where someone is raised” (p. 32). “Development occurs in an almost inevitable, universal pattern, regardless of sociocultural environment” (Dolgin, 2013, p. 32).
If an individual still has not mastered this stage in their life, they could have a commitment or trust issues which is why they can never feel safe or secure in a relationship with a partner.
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
“According to Erikson’s theory, every person must pass through a series of eight interrelated stages over the entire life cycle.” (“Erikson’s stages of development,” 2016). An example would be basic trust and mistrust. This stage is from birth up to a year old. A baby develops trust when being held, fed, or simply being touched. If the baby does not develop trust it will result in the baby having insecurity and mistrust. Another example would be identity vs role confusion, this stage is during adolescence. During this age adolescents begin to discover their identity, those who do not begin to try to be like others which is also known as “fitting
Personal Introduction to Childhood – Adolescence Childhood and adolescence is a time in life when one goes through many changes. Most children around the age of five are leaving home, some for the first time, and starting kindergarten, where they are getting used to new surroundings and starting what is the beginning of their social lives. Adolescence is when one goes through many different types of changes that include the mind, body and social development. Some childhood-adolescence years are full of conflict and trauma, which was the case of mine. Finding out at a young age that I was adopted caused mixed emotions and identity issues, being sexually molested at a young age by a family member and a neighbor and then raped at fourteen caused much trauma which still affects my adult life.
Adolescence, the period of life involving the transformation from a teenager into an adult, is a vital time in one’s life where many begin to unearth who they are and the very things they desire as they transition into the adult world. In J.D. Salinger’s timeless American novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden is a downhearted teenage boy struggling to leave his childhood behind in transition to the phony adult world he despises in order to explore universal themes including the phoniness of the adult world and the loss of innocence that is associated with the transition into adulthood. Through Salinger’s abundant use of symbolism, the reader is able to analyze Holden, his struggles, and angst towards change as he transitions into the adult world so that one is able to come to a deeper understanding and comprehension of the themes explored.
Chapter 9 is all about the process of adolescence developed in the children’s life. The chapter explained how the puberty starts, how the changes in body and mind developed according to the sex in puberty, how the children faced some barriers during early and late maturation, how some of the eating disorders occurred, how puberty connected with the formal operational thoughts (Intuitive and Analytic thought), in what way the brain developed in stage of puberty, and how do middle schools provide knowledge about adolescence. In my case, I started my puberty from the age of 14. As the chapter talks that genetic factor also plays role in puberty. For example, my mom told me that she reached puberty at age 14 which lead me to pass through same age
Adolescence has been depicted as a time typified by stress and storm for both, parents and friends of adolescents.This is evident with increased disagreements between both parent-child and peer relationships. Hall, (1904) suggested that this period occurs due to a search for identity. The following essay will examine and provide evidence to understand why there is an increase in conflict throughout a period of adolescence.
In South Africa, adolescence is a sensitive period, and not a critical period, for identity development as it is “a period during which normal development is most sensitive to abnormal environmental conditions” (Bruer, 2001). When looking at South Africa particularly, the abnormal environmental conditions would be apartheid, and one will see its profound effects on identity development. Adolescence is a sensitive period rather than a critical period as a critical period focuses on a system that “requires a specific kind of experience if normal development is to occur” (Bruer, 2001). Therefore this essay will place an emphasis on adolescence as a sensitive period for identity development.
Based on the amount of exploration and commitment, Marcia differentiated four identity statuses. A person going through identity diffusion has not yet made the commitment concerning a specific developmental task and they may or may not have tried out different alternatives in that area. There is confusion about who the adolescence is and what they want. (Meeus, 2011). They have not gone through an identity crisis and they seem unconcerned about identity issues (Holt el al., 2015). In foreclosure the adolescence has not gone through an identity crisis either but they have made a certain amount of commitment towards an identity and set of values without exploring other options first. For example, people who have adopted the values of other people without questioning those values would be in foreclosure (Holt et al., 2015). In moratorium, the adolescence is going through an identity crisis. He/She is actively exploring but has not made any solid commitment. The final stage in
Adolescence, in modern society, is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Known as a time of rebellion, crisis, pathology and deviance, this period of life is influenced by the ethnicity, the culture, the gender, the Socio Economic Status, the age and the lifestyle. Adolescence period usually ends with a physically, cognitively, and socio-emotionally changed young adult. The physical development in adolescence In trying to discuss adolescence, most adults tend to confuse the terms adolescence and puberty, and use them synonymously. However, puberty refers to the physiological changes involved in the sexual maturation of a child.
The essay aims at an explicit discussion of adolescence as a stage of human development. The stage occurs at the age of 12 years to 18 years. The paper will discuss the transition stage in detail and the crucial social cultural and physical aspects associated with the stage. It will also look into the cognitive aspect in human development that result due to adolescence by mentioning to a theorist work. In every stage of human development, it has been found that they exist some important non-normative life transitions associated with it. The essay will precisely analyze the crucial non-normative life transitions that are expected to occur in the adolescence stage. the paper will discuss the criteria in which self-concept develops in the adolescence
Adolescent development is such a familiar terminology for human development. Majority of the people are aware of this concept or have at least touched based on it. People also know adolescent development as people going through puberty, identity crisis, etc. Even though this idea and concept of adolescent development are very common today, surprisingly, the concept and the idea of adolescent development were neither heavily researched nor valued. This is because “prehistoric and ancient civilizations did not think that individuals developed through a number of stages” (Steffof, 1990, p. 15). Long time ago, people believed if you were a small person, then you were known as a child; if you were a bigger person, then you were known as an adult.
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.