Crisis of Identity and Western Society Contribution - Essay Example

Psychosocial Studies: A 'Crisis of Identity' and how Contemporary Western Society has Contributed to This Phenomenon Psychosocial Studies: A 'Crisis of Identity' and how Contemporary Western Society has Contributed to This Phenomenon The term 'identity crisis' is considered to be the most important conflict which human beings encounter when they go through eight developmental stages in life. As Erik Erikson, the psychologist who coined the term identity crisis, quotes: "The identity is a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image. As a quality of unself-conscious living, this can be gloriously obvious in a young person who has found himself as has found his communality. In him we see emerge a unique unification of what is irreversibly given - that is, body type and temperament, giftedness and vulnerability, infantile models and acquired ideals - with the open choices provided in available roles, occupational possibilities, values offered, mentors met, friendships made, and first sexual encounters. (Erikson, 1970). In order to come to a clearer and more knowledgeable understanding on the matter of a crisis of identity, the following questions must be addressed: 1. What is the definition of identity 2. What is a crisis of identity 3. How has contemporary Western society contributed to this phenomenon By thoroughly discussing these three questions, we can gain a more intellectual and critical understanding on the issue of identity crisis. The aim of this paper is to discuss all of this, as well as any and all other key elements and factors in regards to this subject matter. This is what will be dissertated in the following. What is the Definition of Identity Identity is literally defined as "The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group," and "The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality." (Dictionary, 2006). The term identity is an umbrella term which is used throughout the social science's for an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. "In cognitive psychology, for example, 'identity' refers to the capacity for self-reflection and the awareness of self." (Wikipedia, 2006). What is a Crisis of Identity It is developmental psychologist Erik H. Erikson (1902-1994) who was best known for his theory on the social development of human beings, as well as for coining the term 'identity crisis'. His theory of the social development on human beings in regards to identity crisis describes eight stages through which a healthily developing human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. The stages discuss the ages from 0-50+, each stage with a different set of characteristics including: psychological crisis, significant relations, psychosocial modalities, psychosocial virtues, and maladaptations malignancies. The information in relation to this is as follows: (0.1 / infant) - Psychosocial crisis: Trust vs mistrust Significant relations: Mother Psychosocial modalities: To get, to give in return Psychosocial virtues: Hope, faith Maladaptations malignancies: Sensory distortion, withdrawl This first stage (stage 1) considers approximately the first year or two of life, and the task involved in this area is to be able to develop trust without completely eliminating the capacity for mistrust. "If mom and dad can give the newborn a degree of familiarity, consistency, and continuity, then the child will develop the feeling that the world - especially the social world - is a safe place to be, that people are reliable and loving." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if the proper balance is achieved, the child will develop the virtue of hope, and the strong belief that, even when things are not going well, they will always work out for the better in the end. (2-3 / toddler) - Psychosocial crisis: Autonomy vs shame and doubt Significant relations: Parents Psychosocial modalities: To hold on, to let go Psychosocial virtues: Will, determination Maladaptations malignancies: Impulsivity, compulsion This stage (stage 2) is the anal-muscular stage of early childhood. This stage considers the ages of from about eighteen months to three or four years old; the task during this stage is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame and doubt. "If mom and dad (and the other care-takers that often come into the picture at this point) permit the child, now a toddler, to explore and manipulate his or her environment, the child will develop a sense of autonomy or independence." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if the proper balance is achieved, you will develop the virtue of willpower or determination, and this is of incredible significance and importance. (3-6 / preschooler) - Psychosocial crisis: Initiative vs guilt Significant relations: Family Psychosocial modalities: To go after, to play Psychosocial virtues: Purpose, courage Maladaptations malignancies: Ruthlessness, inhibition This stage (stage 3) is the genital-locomotor stage or play age, and considers from the ages of roughly three to six years old. The task during this stage is to learn initiative without too much guilt incorporated with that. "Initiative means a positive response to the world's challenges, taking on responsibilities, learning new skills, feeling purposeful." (Boeree, 2006). Elements such as fantasy, curiosity, and imagination should be accepted and encouraged, in order to give the child a feeling of allowance for these traits. Hitherto, a good and proper balance in this case leads to the psychosocial strength of purpose. (7-12 / school-age child) - Psychosocial crisis: Industry vs inferiority Significant relations: Neighborhood and school Psychosocial modalities: To complete, to make things Psychosocial virtues: Competence Maladaptations malignancies: Narrow virtuosity, inertia This stage (stage 4) is the latency stage, and considers in the ages from seven to eleven or twelve. The task here is to develop a capacity for industry while avoiding an excessive sense of inferiority. "There is a much broader social sphere at work now: The parents and other family members are joined by teachers and peers and other members of the community at large. They all contribute: Parents must encourage, teachers must care, peers must accept. Children must learn that there is pleasure not only in conceiving a plan, but in carrying it out. They must learn the feeling of success, whether it is in school or on the playground, academic or social." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, a proper balance here enables the virtue called competency. (12-18 / adolescent) - Psychosocial crisis: Ego-identity vs role-confusion Significant relations: Peer groups, role models Psychosocial modalities: To be oneself, to share oneself Psychosocial virtues: Fidelity, loyalty Maladaptations malignancies: Fanaticism, repudiation This stage (stage 5) is the stage of adolescence, which begins around puberty and ends around the ages of eighteen to twenty. The task during this stage is that of achieving ego identity and avoiding role confusion. "Ego identity means knowing who you are and how you fit in to the rest of society. It requires that you take all you've learned about life and yourself and mold in into a unified self-image, one that your community finds meaningful." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if there is a proper balance of this, the virtue which Erikson called fidelity will be achieved. Fidelity which means that of loyalty, the ability to live by societies standards despite their imperfections and incompleteness and inconsistencies. (20-45 / young adult) - Psychosocial crisis: Intimacy vs isolation Significant relations: Partners, friends Psychosocial modalities: To lose oneself and find oneself Psychosocial virtues: Love Maladaptations malignancies: Promiscuity, exclusivity This stage (stage 6) is considered to be the stage of late adulthood, and includes all from the ages of roughly eighteen to thirty. The task during this stage is to achieve a degree of intimacy, as opposed to remaining in isolation. "Intimacy is the ability to be close to others, as a lover, a friend, and as a participant in society." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if there is a proper balance of what Erikson calls promiscuity and exclusion, and these are carefully negotiated, the virtue that will be carried for the rest of that life is called love. (30-65 / middle aged adult) - Psychosocial crisis: Generativity vs self-absorption Significant relations: Household, co-workers Psychosocial modalities: To make be, to take care of Psychosocial virtues: Care Maladaptations malignancies: Overextension, rejectivity This stage (stage 7) is that of middle adulthood, and includes all from the ages of middle twenties to late fifties. The task which should be attempted to achieve here is that of the proper balance of generativity and stagnation. "Generativity is an extension of love into the futureStagnation, on the other hand, is self-absorption, caring for no-one." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if the proper balance is achieved here, there will be an achieved capacity for caring that will serve one through their life. (50+ / old adult) - Psychosocial crisis: Integrity vs despair Significant relations: Mankind or 'my kind' Psychosocial modalities: To be, through having been Psychosocial virtues: Wisdom Maladaptations malignancies: Presumption, despair This, the last stage (stage 8), is referred to as late adulthood, or maturity. The task here is to develop ego identity with a minimal amount of despair. "Ego integrity means coming to terms with your life, and thereby coming to terms with the end of life." (Boeree, 2006). Hitherto, if there is a proper balance achieved here, the virtue gained is called wisdom. "Human personality in principle develops according to steps predetermined in the growing person's readiness to be driven toward, to be aware of and to interact with a widening social radius." (Erikson, 1974). An identity crisis is literally defined as "A loss of the sense of the sameness and historical continuity of one's self and an inability to accept or adopt the role one perceives as being expected by society. This is often expressed by isolation, withdrawal, extremism, rebelliousness, and negativity, and is typically triggered by a sudden increase in the strength of instinctual drives in a milieu of rapid social evolution and technological change." (Webref, 2006). The following is quoted from Erikson, E. H. (1970). "Identity Crisis" in perspective. In E. H. Erikson, Life History and the Historic Moment. New York: Norton, 1975. To say then that the identity crisis in psycho and social means that: 1. It is a state of being and becoming that can have a highly conscious (and, indeed, self-conscious) quality and yet remain, in its motivational aspects, quite unconscious and beset with the dynamics of conflict. This, in turn, can lead to contradictory mental states, such as a sense of aggravated vulnerability and yet also an expectation of grand individual promise. 2. It is characteristic of a developmental period, before which it cannot come to a head, because the somatic, cognitive, and social preconditions are only then given; and beyond which it must not be unduly delayed, because the next and all future developments depend on it. This stage of life is, of course, adolescence and youth. The advent and solution of the identity crisis thus partially depends on psychobiological factors, which secure the somatic basis for a coherent sense of vital selfhood. On the other hand, psychosocial factors can prolong the crisis (painfully, but not necessarily unduly) where a person's idiosyncratic gifts demand a prolonged search for a corresponding ideological and occupational setting, or where historical change forces a postponement of adult commitment. 3. It is dependant on the past for the resource of strong identifications made in childhood, while it relies on new models encountered in youth, and depends for its conclusion on workable roles offered in young adulthood. In fact, each subsequent change of adulthood must contribute to its preservation and renewal. The 'socio' part of identity, then, must be accounted for in that communality within which an individual finds himself. No ego is an island to itself. Throughout life the establishment and maintenance of that strength which can reconcile discontinues and ambiguities depends on the support of parental as well as communal models. For youth depends on the ideological coherence of the world it is meant to take over, and therefore is sensitively aware of whether the system is strong enough in its traditional form to 'confirm' and to be confirmed by the identity process, or so rigid or brittle as to suggest renovation, reformation, or revolution. Psychosocial identity, then, also has a psycho-historical side, and suggest the study of how life histories are inextricably interwoven with history. The study of psychosocial identity, therefore, depends on three complementarities - or are they three aspects of one complementarity - namely, the personal coherence of the individual and role integration in his group; his guiding images and the ideologies of his time; his life history - and the historical moment. According to Erikson's stages, the onset of the identity crisis takes place in the teenage years, and only individuals who succeed in resolving the crisis will be ready to face future challenges in life. But the identity crisis may well be recurring, as the changing world "demands us to constantly redefine ourselves." (Google, 2006). Erikson suggested that people experience an identity crisis when they lose "a sense of personal sameness and historical continuity." Given today's rapid development in technology, global economy, dynamics in local and world politics, identity crises are expected to be more common now than thirty years ago when Erikson first formed his theory. How has Contemporary Western Society Contributed to This Phenomenon This of which leads us into the next question of interest; the understanding of how the contemporary Western society has contributed to this phenomenon of identity crises. Identity and perception are difficult concepts to begin with and with which to analyze foreign policy initiatives, but in the case of Europe they offer an especially interesting route to explore. "In Europe, the post-Cold War period has been one of great hope and great discouragement. Steps toward unification have appeared successful thus far, but problems have arisen that could hinder Europe's international dexterity and internal stability." (Safioleas, n.d.). Identity is "a conception of self in relation to others." (Gross Stein, 1996, p.94). This conception includes aspects of language, tradition, history, culture, territoriality, and ethnicity. The contemporary Western society has contributed largely to the issue of identity crisis, not only in its own area but in the East as well. There are numerous reasons and explanations for this, such as the fact that - especially since Erikson's founding of his theory - the change in such things as technology, normalcy, global economy, as well as everyday dynamics, have changed significantly and dramatically. As Erikson argues, the prime age group subject to identity crisis are that of adolescence and late adulthood, and it is not difficult to see that it is this stage which also develops the most and the quickest. From this review, we can see that although each of the stages has their own complexity and significance, it is stages 5 and 6 which are indefinitely the most complicated and dire, and of which are statistically shown to be most familiar with identity crises. Many during these age groups tend to act on a rather superfluous level, and the rather automatic need for identity understanding is quite possibly one of the most primary factors and explanations as to why these two stages are considered the most in the issue of identity crises. References Boeree, G. (2006). Erik Erikson. Retrieved May 8, 2006, from http://www.ship.edu/cgboeree/erikson.html Dictionary. (2006). Identity. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://dictionary.reference.com/searchq=identity Erikson, E. H. (1969). Gandhi's Truth: On the origins of militant nonviolence. New York: W. W. Norton. Erikson, E. H. (1970). Autobiographic notes on the identity crisis. Daedalus, 99(4), 730-759. Erikson, E. H. (1974). Dimensions of a new identity. New York: W. W. Norton. Google. (2006). Identity Crisis. Retrieved May 6, 2006, from http://answers.google.com/answers/maincmd=threadview&id=178397 Gross Stein, J. (1996). Image, Identity, and Conflict Resolution. Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Ed. Chester A. Crocker, et. al (United States Institute of Peace: Washington, D.C.) Hypnotic World Psychology. (2006). Identity Crisis: How do we grow up Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://psychology.hypnoticworld.com/behavior/erikson.php Safioleas, P. (n.d.). Identity Shift and Europe's Changing Perception of Others: Europe, Turkey, and the Issue of Self-Identification. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/2_1identity.htm Webref. (2006). 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