Identity

• Identity


  As children age, they are able to describe themselves in more complex ways
• Puberty and Identity


  1. Cognitive Change and Identity Development

  2. Possible Selves

  3. Future orientation
• Identity


  • Adolescence is a time where many important decisions about school, work, relationships and the future occur
  • Requires questions about who one is and where they are headed
• Three approaches to understanding how sense of identity changes in adolescence

  • Self Conceptions
  • Self Esteem
  • Sense of Identity
• Changes in Self-Concept


  • Adolescents report more abstract and complex self-conceptions during adolescence
  • Able to differentiate their personality
  • Adolescents tend to adopt three self views
• False-Self Behavior


  One of the three self views adopted by adolescents
• Dimensions of Personality in Adolescence

  • The Five-Factor Model of Personality (The "Big Five")
  • Influenced by combination of genetic and environmental factors
  • Strong links between earlier infant temperament and adolescent personality
  • Most personality traits are stable over time
• Changes in Self Esteem


  • Adolescents don't typically have declines in self esteem, as is typically thought to be linked with the "storm and stress" of the time period
  • Minor problems in self-image may arise in early adolescence
• Changes in self-image


  • Are the result of egocentrism and learning that it is not always possible to tell what people are thinking on the basis of how they act or what they say
  • Increased interest in their peers opinions of them
• Components of Self Esteem

  • Some dimensions of self-esteem are more strongly linked with overall self esteem than others
• Group Differences


  • Boys typically have greater self esteem than girls
  • Black youth report highest overall self-esteem
• Antecedents and Consequences of Self Esteem

  • Self Esteem is enhanced by approval from others (parents and peers) and school success
  • High Self Esteem and Wellbeing
  • Low self-esteem may lead to involvement in deviant activity, psychological distress, and victimization
  • Low self-esteem often discourages adolescents from seeking out social support from others, which can lead to feelings of loneliness
• Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development


  • The crisis characteristic of adolescence is the 5th stage in psychosocial development
  • Referred to as the identity versus identity diffusion
  • The adolescent's identity results from a mutual recognition between the young person and society
  • Force young people to reflect on their place in society, ways others view them, and options for the future
  • Key to resolution lies in social interactions (according to Erikson)
• Social Context in Identity Development

  • Identity is shaped by our social contexts
  • The more available alternatives or options for identity, the more difficult it may be to establish an identity
  • Psychosocial moratorium
• Problems in Identity Development

  • Identity Diffusion
  • Identity Foreclosure
  • Negative Identity
• Identity Development


  • Identity development involves two main processes
  • Health identity development involves experimentation and exploration before finalizing choices about work, love and lifestyle
• Identity Status


  • Youth can be classified into one of four identity states
  • Individuals in a state of identity achievement have better outcomes
• Resolving the Identity Crisis

  • Informational orientation
  • Normative orientation
  • Diffuse/Avoidant orientation
  • Identity is related to scores on the five-factor model of personality
  • Achievers: high extraversion and low neuroticism
  • Foreclosed: less open
  • Diffused: less open, less neurotic, and less agreeable
• Agency


  The sense that one has had an impact on one's world
• Identity Development Over Time

  • Identity is typically not established before age 18, especially true for boys
  • Identity status is not as systematic as hypothesized
  • Youth may move from one identity stage to another during adolescence and early adult years
  • For some adolescents, foreclosure may be a temporary phase
  • Some individuals remain confused about their identity, may remain in diffusion or moratorium, especially true for those high in anxiety
• Identity and Ethnicity


  • For those that are not a part of the majority culture, integrating an ethnic identity into their personal identity is an important task of late adolescence
  • Weak in white youth
  • Middle class may identify with a particular ethnic group (German, Irish, Italian, etc.)
  • For immigrant adolescents, process is similar to the process of identity development in general
  • Unquestioning view of oneself is displaced or upset by a crisis
  • Period of exploration after crisis
  • Strong influence of context
• Recent Immigrants


  • Compared to adolescents from the same ethnic group whose parents were born in America, report more positive feelings about mainstream American ideals, perform better in school, less likely to be involved in delinquent behavior, or have physical, emotional, and behavioral problems (known as "immigrant paradox")
• Ethnic Socialization


  • Having a sense of ethnic pride is linked with higher self-esteem, stronger self-efficacy, better mental health
  • Ethnic socialization in minority families focuses on three themes
• Racial Discrimination


  • Three aspects of racial identity influence the effects of discrimination: Racial centrality, Private regard, Public regard
  • Racial centrality tends to increase and private regard remains stable, changes in public regard are dependent on background and context
  • Experiencing discrimination firsthand is more likely to lead to low public regard
  • These factors can also increase sensitivity to discrimination
• The experience of discrimination is common among Black adolescents
• One pathway linking perceived discrimination to antisocial behavior

  Is through the impact of discrimination on depression and alienation, which leads adolescents to affiliate with antisocial peers
• Multiethnic Adolescents


  • Youth who have parents from different racial or ethnic backgrounds
  • Population is increasing
  • 17% of infants born to a black parent had another parent that was white
  • 34% of infants born to an Asian parent had another parent that was white
  • Many biracial or multiracial youth will change their racial identity over time
• Identity and Gender


  • Gender Identity
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender-role behavior
• These three concepts (gender identity, sexual orientation, gender-role behavior) are non-related
• Many suggest that we should view these constructs as fluid, rather than fixed, and existing along a continuum
• Gender-Role Development


  • Contrary to popular opinion, there are far more similarities among boys and girls than differences
  • Major differences: Strength, Aggression, Intimacy, Self esteem and depression
• Gender-Role Socialization


  • Despite fact that sex differences are trivial, there are commonly held norms about what is appropriate or expected for boys v. girls
  • Gender Intensification Hypothesis: Masculinity and femininity are relatively stable over time, boys and girls who behave in gender-typical ways are more accepted than their peers whose behavior is more gender-atypical, however, costs of gender-atypicality are greater for boys than for girls
• During adolescence, boys increasingly avoid displaying stereotypically feminine traits, but comparable pressure on girls to avoid stereotypically masculine traits is much milder. As a consequence, boys show a drop in emotional expressiveness, but girls do not show a similar decline in instrumentality.