Self and Identity: Overview

1
Self and Identity Overview

• Changes in Self-Conceptions
• Self Esteem
• Self-descriptions
• Self integration
• True/false selves
• Possible selves
• Emotional self
• Identity models

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Self-Esteem

• Overall evaluative feeling about oneself.
  Self-satisfaction, liking oneself, pride in
  onself
• Harter Sense of competence in domains that are
  important to the individual results in high
  self-esteem (global self-worth). Domains of
  competence include scholastic, job, athletic,
  physical appearance, social acceptance, close
  friendship, romantic appeal, and behavioral
  conduct.
• Cooley, Mead Perceptions of competence and
  evaluation are in large measure constructed in
  light of others evaluations Looking-glass Self

3
Changes in Self-Descriptions

• Harter Change from concrete to abstract
• For example, personality description (I am
  tolerant a tolerant person) based on integration
  of a number of concrete descriptions (I am a good
  listener, I can see someone elses point of view)
• More differentiated self descriptions
• Vary across different social roles/contexts
  (e.g., self with mother, with close friend, in
  romantic relationship, etc.).
• E.g., with mother the self may be more sarcastic,
  with a close friend it may be more sensitive,
  etc.

4
Integrating the Self

• Beginning in middle adolescence, important
  question How to integrate multiple self-concepts
  into a unified conception of self?
• Early adolescents do not mind inconsistencies
  (e.g. with friends vs. parents)
• Middle adolescents want internal consistency in
  their self-theories (Epstein)
• E.g. A girl talking about romantic
  relationships I hate the fact that I get so
  nervous! I wish I wasn't so inhibited. The real
  me is talkative, I just want to be natural, but I
  can't.
• Older adolescents can integrate (if they cannot,
  the self is overly fragmented (Eriksons
  Identity diffusion).
• E.g. You can be shy on a date and outgoing with
  friends, because you are just different with
  different people, you cant always be the same
  person and probably shouldnt be.

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True vs. False Self

• Harter adolescents distinguish between true
  and false selves.
• More likely to display false behavior in romantic
  or dating situations and with classmates, and
  least likely to display it with close friends.
  Self with parents is in between the other two.
• Why do they engage in false behavior? a) To
  impress others b) to try out new behaviors or
  roles c) because others don't understand or
  don't like the true self.

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Possible Selves

• Markus and Nurius adolescents begin to be able
  to conceptualize discrepancy between real self
  vs. ideal, hoped for, and feared selves.
• Possible selves provide an incentive for guiding
  future behavior (ideal and hoped for), and
  behaviors to avoid (feared self)
• However, can also be used as a basis for negative
  self-evaluations (e.g., real vs. ideal as a basis
  for shame)

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Emotional Self

• ESM (Experience Sampling Method) Using beepers
  (Csikszentmihalyi, Larson).
• Adolescents feel self-conscious and embarrassed
  2x to 3x more often than parents.
• Adolescents more likely to feel awkward, lonely,
  nervous, ignored.
• Compared with 5th graders, for 9th graders the
  proportion of time described as very happy is
  50 lower.
• Adolescents spend about ¼ of their waking time
  alone. They initially feel lonely, but typically
  use the time in a restorative way. They listen to
  music, lie on their bed, reflect, fantasize.
• This is constructive as long as it is not
  unusually high, OR unusually low. In those cases,
  school problems and depression are more common.

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Sense of Identity

• Sense of purpose
• Your long term plans
• Your values
• A sense of knowing who you are

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Eight Eriksonian Stages of Identity Development
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Eriksons Model of Identity

• All people pass through 8 stages of identity,
  which include 8 psychosocial crises based on
  tensions that are prominent at that stage because
  of a combination of biological and social forces
• Each issue is present at all stages. Passing
  through a stage doesnt mean its resolved (e.g.,
  we can always learn more about trust--but, are we
  more trusting than not?)
• At adolescence, the development of a coherent
  sense of identity is most prominent issue
• Each crisis is normative, everyone must go
  through it
• Hierarchical model The successful resolution of
  each challenge depends on the healthy resolution
  of the prior challenges.

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Erikson on Adolescent Identity Task

• ..."From among all possible imaginable relations,
  the young person must make a series of
  ever-narrowing selections of personal,
  occupational, sexual, and ideological
  commitments.
• It is through interactions with others-- a
  social task, not just a psychological private
  soul-searching (as has sometimes been
  described)-- that one achieves an identity.
• Through others responses to us, we learn who we
  are and what we should/shouldnt keep doing what
  is possible (what are the alternatives, and which
  are desirable). We are shaped by others
  reactions to us.

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Moratorium

• For Erikson, a societal phase during which
  adolescents can take time to figure out their
  identity
• Time to experiment with different roles, delay
  making decisions about career, values,
  relationships.
• May not be possible for adolescents in lower
  socioeconomic (SES) levels
• E.g., if a teen has to go to work to help with
  family finances, their chance to explore is cut
  short (foreclosed).

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Moving Beyond Identity Phase

• Establishing an identity is a conscious
  achievement. Commitments made to occupation,
  ideology, religious life, romantic partner (or
  knowing what one wants in a partner).
• Period of crisis may last well into early
  adulthood.
• Person may gain, re-lose, regain identity. Easier
  each time, and more enduring.

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Problematic Resolutions of Identity Phase

• Problematic resolution more likely if
• Adolescent has not successfully mastered previous
  stages, or
• Environment, e.g. family, community, social,
  cultural e.g., cultures which discourage
  exploration, especially in girls, economic
  pressures may prevent or cut short the moratorium.

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Problematic Resolution, I Identity Diffusion

• Disjointed personality, lack of sense of self
• Similar to dissociative states (multiple
  personality)
• Can vary from mild loss of sense of self, to more
  pathological fragmentation of self
• Milder examples include
• Not-me experiences
• Lack of normal orientation to time/place
• Lack of conviction, major difficulties making
  choices

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Problematic Resolution, II Foreclosure

• Skipping over the moratorium, and prematurely
  arriving at sense of identity
• Could occur in families in which it is not
  permissible to make choices or think for oneself
• Could also occur if adolescent must take on adult
  obligations prematurely
• Could occur if adolescent is too emotionally
  fragile to experiment with different roles
• May set the stage for crisis later in life (e.g.,
  severe mid-life crisis).

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Problematic Resolution, III Negative Identity

• Identity formed out of rebellion against parents
  wishes
• E.g., a son of conservative, religious parents
  who dresses in black trenchcoat, and listens to
  Marilyn Manson

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Marcias Research Model

• Marcias work is the most influential work on
  Eriksons theory
• Focuses on identity in occupation, ideology, and
  interpersonal relationships
• Two dimensions (a) degree to which they have
  made commitments, and (b) the degree to which
  they have engaged in an ongoing search process
  (i.e., the crisis).

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Marcias Classifications

• Identity Achievement (has made commitments, and
  has experienced a crisis).
• For Marcia this is stable, for Erikson it
  fluctuates over time
• Moratorium (still in crisis, no commitment)
• Note that for Marcia, this is a psychological
  state, but for Erikson it is social. For Marcia,
  crisisturmoil for Erikson, the crisis is more
  subtle, experimentation
• Foreclosure Has made commitments but did not
  experience a crisis
• Diffused (no commitments, and has not engaged in
  exploration)
• For Marcia, diffusion random experimentation
  for Erikson, it is fragmented personality