Chapter 11: Identity Flashcards
bicultural identity
Identifying both with one’s own ethnic minority group and with the majority culture.
big five factors of personality
The view that personality is made up of five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
commitment
A personal investment in identity.
contemporary life-events approach
The view that how a life event influences the individual’s development depends not only on the event itself but also on mediating factors, the individual’s adaptation to the life event, the life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context.
crisis
A period of identity development during which the individual is exploring alternatives.
ethnic identity
The subjective sense of ethnic group membership that involves self-labeling (Mexican American, for example) and evaluation of one’s ethnic group
generativity versus stagnation
The seventh stage in Erikson’s life-span theory; it encompasses adults’ desire to leave a legacy of themselves to the next generation.
identity achievement
Marcia’s term for the status of individuals who have undergone a crisis and have made a commitment.
identity diffusion
Marcia’s term for the status of individuals who have not yet experienced a crisis (explored meaningful alternatives) or made any commitments.
identity foreclosure
Marcia’s term for the status of individuals who have made a commitment but have not experienced a crisis.
identity moratorium
Marcia’s term for the status of individuals who are in the midst of a crisis but whose commitments are either absent or vaguely defined
identity versus identity confusion
Erikson’s fifth stage of development, which occurs during the adolescent years; adolescents are faced with finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.
individuality
Characteristic consisting of two dimensions: self-assertion, the ability to have and communicate a point of view; and separateness, the use of communication patterns to express how one is different from others.
narcissism
A self-centered and self-concerned approach toward others
optimism
A style of thinking that involves having a positive outlook on the future and minimizing problems
perspective taking
The ability to assume another person’s perspective and understand his or her thoughts and feelings.
possible selves
What adolescents hope to become as well as what they dread they might become.
psychosocial moratorium
Erikson’s term for the gap between childhood security and adult autonomy that adolescents experience as part of their identity exploration.
racial identity
The collective identity of any group of people socialized to think of themselves as a racial group.
selective optimization with compensation theory
The theory that successful aging involves three strategies: selection, optimization, and compensation.
self-concept
Domain-specific evaluations of the self
self-esteem
The global evaluative dimension of the self. Self-esteem is also referred to as self-worth or self-image
self-regulation
The ability to control one’s behavior without having to rely on others for help
self-understanding
The individual’s cognitive representation of the self, the substance of self-conceptions.
