Identity Development & Adolescent Behaviors: Erikson, Marcia & Pressure in Adolescence, Apuntes de Desarrollo de Personalidad

¡Descarga Identity Development & Adolescent Behaviors: Erikson, Marcia & Pressure in Adolescence y más Apuntes en PDF de Desarrollo de Personalidad solo en Docsity! 1 DESARROLLO SOCIAL Y DE LA PERSONALIDAD LESSON 5: Adolescence, identity, and risk behaviours Erikson argues that adolescents strive to discover their particular strengths and weaknesses and the roles they can best play in their future lives. This discovery process often involves "trying on" different roles or choices to see if they fit an adolescent's capabilities and views about himself or herself. Erikson identity versus identity confusion stage Identity confusion stage: Adolescents may adopt socially unacceptable roles as a way of expressing what they do not want to be, or they may have difficulty forming and maintaining long-lasting close personal relationships. Failing to organize around a central, unified core identity. Identity: On the other hand, those who are successful in forging an appropriate identity set a course that provides a foundation for future psychosocial development. They learn their unique capabilities and believe in them, and they develop an accurate sense of who they are. Pressure Adolescents feel pressure to decide whether their post-high-school plans include work or college and, if they choose work, which occupational track to follow. During this period, adolescents increasingly rely on their friends and peers as sources of information. At the same time, their dependence on adults’ declines. Psychological Moratorium The psychological moratorium is a period during which adolescents take time off from the upcoming responsibilities of adulthood and explore various roles and possibilities. For example, many college students take a semester or year off to travel, work, or find some other way to examine their priorities. Marcia’s identity model 2 DESARROLLO SOCIAL Y DE LA PERSONALIDAD 1. Identity achievement Teenagers within this identity status have successfully explored and thought through who they are and what they want to do. Following a period of crisis during which they considered various alternatives, these adolescents have committed to a particular identity. Teens who have reached this identity status tend to be the most psychologically healthy, higher in achievement motivation and moral reasoning than adolescents of any other status. 2. Identity foreclosure These are adolescents who have committed to an identity, but who did not do it by passing through a period of crisis in which they explored alternatives. Instead, they accepted others' decisions about what was best for them. Typical adolescents in this category are a son who enters the family business because it is expected of him, and a daughter who decides to become a physician simply because her mother is one. 3. Moratorium Although adolescents in the moratorium category have explored various alternatives to some degree, they have not yet committed themselves. As a consequence, Marcia suggests, they show relatively high anxiety and experience psychological conflict. On the other hand, they are often lively and appealing, seeking intimacy with others. Ado- descents of this status typically settle on an identity, but only after something of a struggle. 4. Identity diffusion Adolescents in this category neither explore nor commit to considering various alternatives. They tend to be flighty, shifting from one thing to the next. While they may seem carefree, according to Marcia, their lack of commitment impairs their ability to form close relationships. They are often socially withdrawn. When Philip Meilman (1979) measured the identity statuses of males between the ages of 12 and 24, he observed a clear developmental progression. As shown in next figure, the vast majority of 12- to 18-year- olds were identity diffused or foreclosed, and not until age 21 or older had the majority of participants reached the moratorium status or achieved stable identities.