Identity Flashcards
What does identity encompass?
Identity encompasses all of the complexities of how we view ourselves and our relationship to the world around us
What are some things that identity includes?
It includes our:
- Values
- Morals
- Group Memberships
- Personal Goals
- Motivation
- Characteristics
- Self-expression
Is identity just an adolescent issue?
Changes in the way we perceive and feel about ourselves happens throughout our lives
What is a prominent issue for adolescents in regards to identity?
Identity development
What does identity represent during adolescent?
It essentially represents the first substantial reorganization and restructuring of your sense of self when you actually have the intellectual capability to fully appreciate how significant the changes are
What are the biological changes associated with puberty?
Physical changes
What are the changes in cognition?
Metacognition, social cognition executive function
What is a part of the changes in cognition for an adolescent?
- Possible Selves
- Future Orientation
What are possible selves?
The various identities an adolescent might imagine for themselves
What is future orientation?
The extent to which an individual is able and inclined to think about the potential consequences of decisions and choices
What are the changes in the social landscape?
Redefining roles
What is a part of the changes in the social landscape for an adolescent?
- Self-conception
- Self-esteem
- Sense or identity
What is self-conceptions?
The collection of traits and attributes that individuals use to describe or characterize themselves
What is self-esteem?
The degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about themselves
What is a sense of identity?
The extent to which individuals feel secure about who they are and they are becoming
What happens as adolescents mature intellectually?
As adolescents mature intellectually, they come to conceive of themselves in more sophisticated and differentiated ways. This is because they are:
- More capable of considering
abstract concepts than children - More able to process large amounts
of information - More likely to use complex, abstract,
psychological self-characterizations
What do American teenagers do more than Chinese teenagers?
During early adolescence, American teenagers increasingly describe themselves with reference to their own social and personal characteristics. In contrast, Chinese teenagers use these sorts of descriptions less
What is self-conception influenced by?
Your culture
What are some changes in Self-conception?
- Differentiation of the Self-Concept
- Organization and Integration of the Self-Concept
What is a part of the differentiation of the self-concept?
- Link traits and attributes describing themselves to specific situations
- Take into account who is doing the describing
What is a part of the organization and integration of the self-concept?
- Shift toward differentiation in self-conceptions accompanied by better organization and integration – they are unique!
- Recognition of multifaceted, contradictory personality – they are inconsistent!
- Initially stressed about these inconsistencies; recognition of advantages in long run
- Begin to distinguish between one’s self (who one really is), ideal self (who
one would like to be), and feared self (who one most dreads becoming)
What is one’s self?
Who one really is
What is the ideal self?
Who one would like to be
What is the feared self?
Who one most dreads becoming
What are adolescents able to distinguish between due to changes in self-conception?
Adolescents become able to distinguish between their authentic and inauthentic selves
What is False-Self Behavior?
Behavior that intentionally presents a false impression to others
What do adolescents think/feel about false-self behavior?
Adolescents dislike false-self behavior but also believe it is sometimes acceptable
What is false-self behavior linked to?
False-Self Behavior is linked to lower self-esteem, increased depression and hopelessness because it ultimately devalues their true sense of self
What are the 5 basic dimensions of personality traits in the Five-Factor Model?
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Neuroticism
- Openness to experience
What is considered high in neuroticism?
- Depressivity
- Emotional liability
- Shamefulness
What is considered low neuroticism?
- Fearlessness
- Shamelessness
What is considered high in extraversion?
- Excitement seeking
- Attention seeking
What is considered low in extraversion?
- Social withdrawal
- Detached coldness
What is considered high in openness?
- Magical thinking
- Eccentricity
What is considered low in openness?
- Inflexible
- Close-minded
What is considered high in agreeableness?
- Submissiveness
- Selflessness
- Gullibility
What is considered low in agreeableness?
- Deceitfulness
- Manipulativeness
- Callousness
What is considered high in conscientiousness?
- Perfectionism
- Workaholism
What is considered low in conscientiousness?
- Distractibility
- Irresponsibility
- Rashness
What is personality derived from according to the Five-Factor Model?
Where you fit along these 5 dimensions
What are two influences on personality?
There are both genetic and environmental influences on personality
What is temperament?
Individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, systems of values and attitudes
What influences personality more early in life?
Temperament tends to influence personality more than environment
What becomes more important as people age, the environment, or temperament?
The environment and experience becomes more important as people age
True or False: Both personality and temperament become increasingly stable as we move through adolescence.
TRUE
What is the course of stability over personality?
Over the course of adolescence, few changes occur in personality characteristics
True or False: Adolescence is a time of tumultuous upheaval in personality
FALSE. The research does not show this
What is stability?
The extent to which individuals’ relative ranking within a group on a particular trait stays more or less the same over time
What is self-esteem and how stable is it throughout adolescence?
The degree of confidence in one’s own worth or abilities
- Self-esteem becomes increasingly stable during adolescence
What is self-consciousness?
The degree to which an individual is preoccupied with his or her self-image
- Lots of this during adolescence…
What is self-image stability?
The degree to which an individual’s self-image changes from day to day
- Self-image fluctuations are most likely between the ages of 12 and 14
Why do fluctuations in self-image during early adolescence happen?
- Egocentrism may make young adolescents painfully aware of others’ reactions to their behavior
- Adolescents learn that it is not always possible to tell what people are thinking on the basis of how they act or what they say (Social Cognition)
- Adolescents are especially interested in their peers’ opinions of them
What are some components of self-esteem?
- Even within broad domains of self-esteem, adolescents often have differentiated views of themselves.
- Some aspects of self-esteem contribute more to overall self-image than others
- Adolescents are often unaware of what contributes most to their self-esteem (mostly appearance!!)
Are boys or girls self-esteem generally higher?
Boys’ self-esteem is generally higher than girls’ self-esteem
Do sex differences in self-esteem become smaller or larger over the course of adolescence?
They become smaller over the course of adolescence
The sex difference is likely linked to the high concern girls have about physical attractiveness, perhaps related to their portrayal in the media…
Are there ethnic differences in self-esteem?
Ethnic differences are significant;
unclear why
What are some influences on self-esteem?
- Approval of others, especially parents and peers, enhances it
- Success in school enhances it
- The same influences are found in almost all ethnic and cultural groups
- When approval of others has too much power, adolescents are at risk of self-image problems
- Self-esteem, derived from peers rather than teachers or parents,
leads to more behavioral problems and poorer school achievement - Interestingly, academic success leads to improvements in how adolescents feel about themselves, but the reverse is not true
What are the consequences of high self-esteem?
High self-esteem enhances adolescents’ well-being
What are the consequences of low self-esteem?
Low self-esteem may lead to mental health, emotional, and behavioral problems, but the relationship is complicated
How many psychological crises did Erikson say a person moved through in their lifetime?
8 psychological crises throughout lifetime
What is the fifth psychological crisis according to Erikson?
It is the identity versus identity diffusion stage
Who predominantly goes through the identity versus identity diffusion stage?
Adolescences
- Age 12-18
What did Erikson believe was part of the identity versus identity diffusion stage?
- It essentially reflects the need to establish a meaningful self-concept in which the past, present, and future are brought together to form a meaningful whole
- He believed we did not have the cognitive or emotional capacity to achieve a balanced, coherent sense of identity until Adolescence
- During this time, individual characteristics interact with the social environment to begin to shape our sense of identity
True or False: The course of identity development varies by culture and historical era
TRUE
What determines if the search for self-definition will be a manageable challenge or a full-blown crisis?
The social context
Why can the social context affect whether the search for self-definition will be a more manageable challenge or a full-blown crisis?
- The more alternatives are available, the more difficult it is to establish a sense of identity
- Because of the rapid rate of social change, the likelihood of experiencing a prolonged and difficult identity crisis is greater today than previously
What is psychosocial moratorium?
A period during which individuals are free from excessive obligations and responsibilities and can therefore experiment with different roles and personalities
- You have the option to explore options that are available to you
According to Erikson why is psychosocial moratorium important?
- It is necessary due to complications of identity development in modern society
- It is an important prelude to establishing a coherent sense of identity
- According to Erikson, loss of psychosocial moratorium means lost potential
Some consider it a luxury of the affluent…
What does successful resolution of the many identity crises lead to?
- Adolescents really experience a series of crises that relate to different aspects of identity
- Successful resolution of these crises creates the foundation upon which we build our commitments and goals related to:
- Occupation
- Ideology
- Social norms
- Religious affiliations
- Ethical views
- Sexual needs
According to Erikson, problems that arise with identity may…?
- Be partly due to not successfully resolving the earlier crises (Stage theories…)
- May arise when the adolescent is in an environment that does not provide the necessary period of moratorium
- Could lead to problems with later stages
What three problems did Erikson focus on?
- Identity Diffusion
- Identity Foreclosure
- Adoption of a Negative Identity
What is identity diffusion? And what can it be in terms of symptoms?
The incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of self that is characteristic of not having resolved the crisis of identity
- Mild or severe
- Disruptions in sense of time (you might feel younger than you actually are)
- Excessive self-consciousness and difficulty making decisions
- Work and school issues
- Difficulties forming intimate relationships (how do you develop an intimate relationship with someone and not know who you are)
- Concerns over sexuality
What is identity foreclosure?
The premature establishment of a sense of identity, before sufficient role experimentation has occurred
- Some skip exploration and experimentation that leads to sense of identity
- Roles adopted in identity foreclosure often revolve around goals set by parents or other authority figures
- Ultimately, it interferes with individual’s discovery of full range of potential
What is negative identity?
The selection of an identity that is obviously undesirable in the eyes of significant others and the broader community
- Usually, this is an attempt to forge sense of self-definition when it is difficult to establish an acceptable identity
- Would rather be somebody “bad” than nobody at all
What does the individual differences approach study?
Identity status
- More continuous
What is identity status?
The point in the identity development process that characterizes an adolescent at a given time
What approaches have researchers used to determine an individual’s identity status?
- Exploration and commitment
- Exploration in “depth” and exploration in “breadth”
- Dynamic process involving alternating commitment and exploration
Identity status is based on the work of?
James Marcia
What does the Identity status model provide?
Provides a model for understanding where a person falls in terms of a specific aspect of their identity
I.e.:
- What you want to major in?
- What do you want to do as a career?
- What type of relationship do you want for yourself?
What are the two ways to define your identity status?
Your commitment and your exploration
What are the highs and lows of identity diffusion?
Low commitment, low exploration
LOW commitment towards considering a new career. LOW motivation to explore ner options. Overwhelmed or unaware of number of possibilities so inertia sets in.
What are the highs and lows of identity moratorium?
Low commitment and high exploration
LOW commitment to the prospect of a new career identity but HIGH level of engagement in exploring new opportunities so are more knowledgeable about possible options
What are the highs and lows of identity foreclosure?
High commitment, low exploration
HIGH commitment towards the prospect of a new career identity but LOW exploration activity. Have accepted the prospect of changing careers but unmotivated to start the process of job seeking
What are the highs and lows of Identity achievement?
High commitment, High exploration
High commitment to a new career identity and high exploration. Accepting of a new career and taking positive action to explore the job market
What is MAMA referring to?
MAMA is referring to moratorium achievement – even if you find something you really love doing and reach identity achievement, you may eventually want to do something else and you can explore those options again, things can change
