The Psychological and Sociological Viewpoints on the Creation of One's Identity - Coursework Example

Introduction Identity formation is a crucial aspect in a human’s life. It is the formation of one’s perspective of himself. It is defined by his belief’s and actions and is influenced greatly by his cultural background and the world he presently lives in. Identity formation is a continuous quest of becoming who one believes he should be, would be or is. Why doesn’t it end? Because life is a continuous journey and as one goes through life, he experiences things and is placed in different situations that will forever impact his personal beliefs and perception about his self. Because of the diverse cultural and ethnic background of humans and because of the diverse personal characteristics of each individual, identity becomes a unique piece of oneself that can be created and formed only by the individual. Although this may be impacted by similar life events, the perspective of individuals varies because of different factors that each individual deems important in his life. Identity Formation Process The concept of identity is strongly influenced by Erik Erikson’s theory on identity formation. Erikson focused on the psychosocial development of identity and identified stages of identity formation in connection with the life-stages that an individual goes through his life. There are three dimensions in Erikson’s work: the subjective/psychological dimension or ego identity qua a sense of temporal-spatial continuity and its concomitants, the personal dimension, or a behavioral and character repertoire differentiating individuals, and the social dimension, or recognized roles within the community (Cote and Levine p.15; Browne, pp.5-8). One needs to go through all these components in order to form a stable identity. This is to prevent identity crisis, which happens when the stages for identity formation is incomplete. Characteristics of identity crisis is a subjective sense of identity confusion, a behavioral and characterological disarray and a lack of commitment to recognized roles in the community[Cot02]. This indicates that failure to reconcile all the three dimensions of identity formation results to an unstable identity. The development of one’s identity is rooted upon the dimensions of the self, the social relationship with others and the functional role of the self within the group or community aspect. Without the alignment of all dimensions, the individual becomes confused since the directions of the three dimensions are in jumbles, going against each other. It is important to have a defined and stable sense of self, or how one see himself in order to create meaningful relationships with other people, to be able to socialize and function well in society, serving the community and creating bonds that will, in turn, be beneficial for the development of one’s identity. In relation to Erikson’s social self and functioning self from a psychological standpoint, McCall and Simmons, and Stryker emphasize this using a sociological perspective. Because of the impact of the culture and society in an individual’s perspective, it is important to consider these in the construction and reconstruction of one’s identity. For McCall and Simmons, and Stryker, an individual enacts different personas depending on the situation he is because of the culturally shared meanings, social interactions and role enactments [Cot02]. Because the self is a social being, one’s personality and identity is strongly influenced by the social world and the values, norms and meanings that govern the social world. Identity formation does not only rely upon one’s own personal experiences but also in the socially constructed meanings within his culture. This emphasizes the importance of culture and society in the formation and stability of one’s identity. The integration of the psychological and sociological viewpoints on the creation of one’s identity is important in understanding the stability of one’s identity. Though the two perspectives look at different aspects of identity formation, their goal is one and the same, which is defining how one’s identity is formed, established and how it changes through time. Psychological perspective emphasizes on the internal self, it looks into the internal effects or inward influences that affect identity formation while the sociology perspective emphasizes that identity formation is strongly associated with the social interactions within one’s community[Cot02]. While psychological perspective focuses on identity as something that is formed through the personal perspective and reaction of the individual as one goes through life, the sociological perspective looks into the connections of the cultural meanings that influences the identity and relates the individual with the world around him. Another glaring difference of the psychological and sociological perspective is the view of who owns one’s identity. The psychological perspective defines the self and his actions as one’s own while in a sociological perspective defines self as an interconnection of relationships with the outside world, emphasizing more of the social self. While psychology is focused on the mental processes of identity formation, sociology is focused on the reflective aspect of the self in relation to its internal and external nature [Cot02]. The Crucial Stage of Adolescence The formation of identity is most crucial during the adolescent stage because this is where the child becomes to more socializing agents other than their families. Being exposed to different world views, cultural background and personal perspectives may confuse the adolescent causing his identity to falter if it is not established and stable. There should be a balance between identity and roles, as indicated by Erikson [Kro07]. The confusion within this stage does not only result from being exposed to the different socially and culturally-related factors, but it also roots from the physical changes that the adolescent encounters. Slowly, there are changes within the body that can be seen and can’t be seen that affects the perspective of an individual towards himself. He may reject or accept these changes and this impacts the stability of his belief on himself. Because of the physical changes that are happening as the child enters early adolescence, he begins to feel his development to adulthood and this may be scary for him without the proper guidance and an established sense of self-image [Bee03]. As he develops to middle and late adolescence, he encounters more changes and is more inclined to experience different situations that will affect his belief of his world and himself. These impacting changes build an adolescent’s identity and once the adolescent is able to establish a strong foundation of one’s own belief, he achieves a strong identity and is able to move on to the next stage, which is adulthood. How an adolescent understands and perceives himself will have an impact on how he deals with the different life experiences he will encounter later on with his life [Col99]. Influences on Identity Formation in Adolescents Identity is influenced by several factors, aside from the perception of the individual with himself. There are four factors that affect one’s formation of his identity: cognitive growth, relationship with parents, outside home experiences, and broader cultural context [Sig05]. Cognitive development consists of the development of operational thought processes involved in thinking in abstract and complex ways. These are the mental and thought processes that allow an adolescent to solve issues and make decisions. The ability of the adolescent to determine what should be done and where should he place himself is an important factor in identity formation. If the mental and thought processes of an adolescent are not fully functional, he will not be able to make decisions and solve problems easily and may result to a defragmented notion of the situation and, eventually, himself. The family, especially the parents, is a child’s first point of contact in socialization [Osg05]. Role identification is one important aspect of identity formation [Moo01]. And because the parents are the primary socializing agents, they are the first people that the child identifies with. This identification is an essential part of identity formation since the adolescent is able to filter the desirable and undesirable traits of his parents that will be appropriate or that is in sync with his personal perspective. This aspect of identity formation, however, is delicate since there are parents who are overly protective of their children that these children tend to just follow and accept the decisions of their parents. This limits their cognitive development and mental thought processes. If the adolescent is not able to filter these decisions and characteristics then they become replicas of his parents making him lose his self-identity. Adolescents need to create and form their own identities not just accept their parents’ decisions on who and what they should become. There should be a mutual respect between the parent and the adolescent to create a positive relationship that will establish a positive self-image. This can be achieved through communication and respect between the two parties and a degree of independence given to the adolescent [Sig05]. Outside home experiences are culturally inclined since these experiences allow the adolescents to be exposed to diverse perspectives and backgrounds that they can incorporate in their self-identity. Because of this exposure, they develop an understanding of the world around them, establish their own stand on things and analyze issues developing and stabilizing their cognitive development and decision-making skills. There is a critical issue on this, though, when the adolescent becomes just part of a crowd and just follow it instead of developing one’s own identity. This is the same critical issue with parental identification. When the adolescent fail to filter the perspectives and characteristics that are appropriate and helpful in creating an identity, the adolescent cannot fully form his self-identity. That is why a fully formed and stable cognitive process, and parental guidance is needed to be able to establish self-identity. Finally, the broad cultural context is important in forming self-identity. Because of the diverse cultural backgrounds that an adolescent is exposed to, an adolescent comes to understand what culture and how culture is assimilated into his persona. Being born within a certain cultural group, the adolescent is exposed to values and norms that may be different from another. Because of the assimilation of different cultures, an individual may be exposed to just one or more cultural backgrounds that may create a stable self-identity, being able to identify oneself with a certain cultural background. The critical aspect of exposure to diverse cultural backgrounds is not being able to establish who one is because of the many backgrounds one has. These adolescents, then, develop split cultural personalities. The four factors discussed greatly influences identity formation, whether or not it will be stable and established or not. It is important to consider that the adolescent should overcome whatever roadblocks they encounter with the four factors in order to establish who they are. Without developing good operational thought process, establishing good family relations, adapting to, understanding and assimilating positive sides of outside home experiences and cultural backgrounds, the adolescent will not be able to form a positive relationship with oneself, thus, creating a split in the image or a foreclosed perspective of oneself. Identity Formation in Vulnerable Groups Vulnerable groups are identified as ethnic groups and adopted children. These vulnerable groups of adolescence are identified as such because of the sensitive life experiences and positions they are in, in reference to their social positions. Because of their situations and backgrounds, they face different and situations, which most adolescents do not normally encounter. There are three stages identified in the development of identity in ethnic adolescents: unexamined, searcher and achiever stage [Col99]. Adolescents who have not yet explored their identities are going through the unexamined stage. When they have started questioning and inquiring about their roots and cultural background, they go through the searcher stage. The searcher stage starts when they encounter life experiences, like being a witness or experiencing racial discrimination, that makes them wonder why and how come they are experiencing these situations. The adolescent reaches the final stage when they resolves their personal and cultural issues and accepts their position within their culture and in relation to other cultures. Degrees of achievement and non-achievement of the formation of identity with ethnic adolescents are also described as: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization [Col99]. This is in relation to the two dimensions of ethnic identity formation, retention of one’s cultural values and the maintenance of social relationships with the larger society [Col99]. This is important in determining how an adolescent is able to adapt and to establish his personal view of himself in relation to his cultural background and the majority culture. Integration is described as the ability of the adolescent to retain his own cultural values and develop strong social relationships with the mainstream culture. Assimilation happens when the adolescent is able to build strong social relationships with the mainstream culture but have not retained his own cultural values. Adolescents who have high adaptability can either be integrated with the society or assimilated with the society depending on the degree of their adaptation. Separation occurs when the adolescent is high in cultural values retention but cannot build strong social relationships with the mainstream culture. Marginalized adolescents are those who exhibits low in both dimensions. Separation and marginalization indicate an issue in the identity formation of the ethnic adolescent since it creates huge gaps in understanding and adapting to the mainstream culture, which is prominent in the society. Assimilation may also pose an identity crisis because the adolescent cannot maintain a relationship with the culture he belongs with. This causes a split in his personality because he rejects part of himself. These dimensions and degrees of achievement is also appropriate when analyzing identity development in excluded and adopted children. It is important that these adolescents have the proper guidance in identifying their self-worth and establishing their identities because of the sensitive situations they are in. These adolescents are vulnerable to splits in their personalities and self-perception since their situation involves varying degrees of social exclusion and discrimination. Youth services play an important role with these adolescents because they help in defining the self-worth of the adolescents [Moo02]. Youth services create and develop programs that involves the adolescent in decision-making and future planning, which increases their perspective of their own worth, value and importance in making decisions for their own lives (Garratt, Roche and Tucker p.86; Roche, Tucker and Thomson pp.157-158). Mental Health and Social Issues that Surrounds Adolescence Adolescents are continuously bombarded with different life experiences and critical situations that impact their identity formation. Because of the many changes that adolescents encounter and because of the different socializing agents, like family, peers, community, culture and media, that are in contrast or in resemblance of values and norms, adolescents become confused and troubled (Osgood, Foster and Flanagan pp.6-7; Strasburger, Wilson and Jordan pp.86-870). This initializes situations that pose troubling effects in the course of life of the adolescent. Examples of these issues are substance abuse, early pregnancy, joblessness and delinquency. These adolescent issues are a result of the deformation or regression of identity formation and development. These issues also impact identity formation since it affects the perspective of the adolescent towards himself. Substance abuse, early pregnancy and joblessness destroy the self-worth of the adolescent as it exposes the adolescent to failure and depression [Ess02]. Delinquency is a result of the misrepresentation of values and norms and the inability of the adolescent to create his own image and just adapt whatever image that his peers, mostly doing the same delinquent acts and lack of strong social control, which can be related to lack of functional social relationships [Con02]. Without a strong sense of identity and an established self-worth, the adolescent will not be able to stand up against these crisis and issues that will further destroy their self-identity. This eventually leads to psychological and mental health issues because of the low self-esteem they feel. With this, they get discouraged over life and eventually feel depressed and troubled. Therapies based on family relationships and self-worth are the focus of prevention and intervention surrounding these issues [Ess02]. Relationships with peers are also re-evaluated to determine the influences and impacts of the adolescent’s peer relations in their cognitive development, moral development and identity development [Buk98]. Education is also important in establishing the right direction that the adolescents should undertake to complete their search of themselves [Bal]. Conclusion Developing one’s identity is important in effectively fulfilling social and functional roles and establishing social relationships. Establishing a stable self-image is also important in the transition towards adulthood, which would be another set of challenging situations for an individual. If an individual fails to develop one’s identity in the adolescent stage, he will not be able to function well as an adult because they are still unstable in terms of their self-perception and image. With this, it is important to consider the different aspects and dimensions of establishing a strong sense of self by understanding the factors that influence an adolescent’s formation of identity. Because humans are social beings, it is important to consider that culture and society are important and considered as main influences in an adolescent’s identity development. Developing one’s mental and thought processes is also an essential part of identity formation as it allows the development of decision-making and analyzation skills. Works Cited Cot02: , (Cote and Levine p.16), Cot02: , (Cote and Levine p.35), Cot02: , (Cote and Levine p.48), Cot02: , (Cote and Levine p.48), Kro07: , (Kroger p.1), Bee03: , (Bee and Boyd pp.82-84), Col99: , (Coleman p.52), Sig05: , (Sigelman and Rider pp.303-304), Osg05: , (Osgood, Foster and Flanagan pp.6-7), Moo01: , (Moore p.82), Sig05: , (Sigelman and Rider p.303), Col99: , (Coleman p.65), Col99: , (Coleman p.66), Moo02: , (Moore, Social Welfare Alive p.202), Ess02: , (Essau p.150), Con02: , (Connor p.148), Ess02: , (Essau pp.203-206), Buk98: , (Bukowski, Newcomb and Hartup pp.249-252), Bal: , (Baldwin, Coles and Mitchell pp.92-93), Read More