Adolescent Portraits

Identity and Challenges

Andrew C. Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, Andrew C. Garrod, Robert Kilkenny

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780367757014
• eBook ISBN: 9781000406269
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Adolescent Portraits introduces contemporary theories and research that surround adolescent development today through eighteen first-person accounts written by young adults. The case study approach of the book illustrates the complexity of the individual experience and the interactions among an individual's needs, ideas, relationships, and context. Each case, taken alone, helps us begin to know one more adolescent and his or her experience; taken together, the cases provide a rich overview of the wide, diverse, and complex range of adolescent experiences.

This edition also includes three follow-up essays, written five or more years after their original memoir. The authors of these follow-ups reflect on their original story written in late adolescence from the more mature point of view of full-fledged adulthood. These retrospectives provide a poignant and lifespan developmental perspective on the ways in which the adolescent themes of identity and challenges transform, for better or worse, with the tasks of adulthood.

With contributions from adolescents from a range of racial, class, and family backgrounds, the book provides a diverse introduction to the adolescent experience. It is a must-read for any student of adolescent development.

Part IIdentity

Theoretical Overview

The eight cases in the Identity section of this book show a pattern of a struggle for meaning and a quest for wholeness. Within the categories of values and ideology, the self in social context, and sexuality, the adolescent writers wrestle with important choices—who they want to be, how to relate to others, what values should guide them, and what their place is in various spheres of their lives. Though the content of the autobiographies may differ from case to case, the reader will see that the writers share common explorations and preoccupations with the self: the self in relation to others and the self in relation to the broader society. We offer here a framework for approaching the cases in this section—the Identity section.

What are the critical elements or “ingredients” that a theory of identity development might address? Santrock (2019) observes, “when identity has been conceptualized and researched, it typically is explored in a broad sense. However, identity is a self-portrait that is composed of many pieces and domains:

• The career and work path a person wants to follow (vocational/career identity)
• Whether a person is politically conservative, liberal, or middle of the road (political identity)
• A person’s spiritual beliefs (religious identity)
• Whether a person is single, married, divorced, or cohabitating (relationship identity)
• The extent to which a person is motivated to achieve and is intellectually oriented (achievement, intellectual identity)
• Whether a person is heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual (sexual identity)
• Which part of the world or country a person is from and how intensely the person identifies with his or her cultural heritage (cultural/ethnic identity)
• The things a person likes to do, including sports, music, and hobbies (interests)
• An individual’s personality characteristics—being introverted or extroverted, anxious or calm, friendly or hostile, and so on (personality)
• A person’s body image (physical identity)” (p. 139).

Erik Erikson (1968), who has helped shape our understanding of identity, proposed a detailed and widely applied psychosocial theory of identity development. Convinced that the study of identity is as crucial to our time as the study of childhood sexuality was to Freud’s, Erikson forged a radical rethinking among psychoanalytic theorists about ego structure and the role of culture and environment in personality development. His writings have, over the last decades, been expanded (e.g., Marcia, 1967) and debated (e.g., Gilligan, 1982) by a succession of theorists, some of whom have significantly broadened and challenged his theory’s applicability.

When asked to describe his adolescence, one of our students recently wrote: “I don’t know where it started and have no more idea if it’s ended. Something inside of me tells me I’m in transition between something and something else, but I don’t know what.” In transition between two “somethings,” this young man is not at all sure where he has come from and even less sure of his destination; he is Kurt Lewin’s (1939) “marginal man,” uncertain of his position and group belongingness. As an adolescent, he is in a stage of his life in which pressures, both internal and external, to define himself become simultaneously impossible to ignore and impossible to satisfy. He is working to establish a self-concept while at the same time realizing that this concept is changing as rapidly as he can pinpoint it. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, he may well reply to the question “Who are you?” posed by the Caterpillar by saying “I, I hardly know Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I must have changed several times since then.” In Erikson’s terms, the adolescent has entered a psychological moratorium—a hiatus between childhood security and adult independence.

Adolescence is a critical stage in the individual’s development. Adolescents are intensely aware of how they are seen by others—aware, as V.S. Pritchett (1971) observes, that “other egos with their own court of adherents invade one’s privacy with theirs.” It is a time in which the values and perspectives of others become clearer to the developing mind. The adolescent must first attempt to evaluate his or her different options—different ethical positions or religious beliefs, acceptance or rejections of societal norms, attitudes toward sexuality, ideological stance in relation to family, friends, and community—before he or she can choose among them. In this sense, the search for identity is not only the process of molding an image of oneself—it is also the attempt to understand the fundamental components of the clay that will be used.

The identities of childhood, strengthened by identifications with significant others and by growing mastery of the tasks of school and family life, may no longer hold; the challenge for the adolescent is a creative synthesis of past identifications, current skills and abilities, and future hopes—all within the context of the opportunities the society offers. This challenge is made immeasurably harder because of the technological society we live in, in which multiple roles and careers tantalize us with choice. Mead (1958) suggests it might be easier to live in a society in which roles are inherited through birth or decided by gender! Yet the critical task of the developing adolescent is to balance the imposition of identities provided by his or her position in the social structure, the family, and the community with an agentic sense of who one is, what one stands for, and how one relates to the world.

Theories of identity development focus on themes of separation and individuation of the emerging individual and themes of connection or relationship between the adolescent and significant others in the process of renegotiating the childhood self or selves. Theories of separation stem from the work of Freud (1953) and Erikson (1968) and focus on how the individual rejects prior identifications in the search for a separate, unique, and unified sense of self. Theories of connections (Gilligan, 1982; Miller, 1991; Stern, 1989) explore how individuals come to know themselves through relationship; adolescent identity development is a process of refiguring one’s relationships to account for new psychological and social needs and expectations. More recently, studies of adolescent identity have focused on how adolescents draw on aspects of both separation and connection in negotiating the multiple identities they construct and perform in this stage of life and into adulthood.

Erikson’s theory of ego identity formation focuses on the concepts of ego identity, the identity stage, and the identity crisis. He defines identity as “the capacity to see oneself as having continuity and sameness and to act accordingly. It is the consistent organization of experience.” Erikson held to the epigenetic principle of development in which “anything that grows has a ground plan, and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy until all parts have risen to form a functional whole” (Erikson, 1968, p. 92). The stages are not merely passed through but instead add cumulatively to the whole personality. His psychosocial stage theory is founded on the belief that life is composed of a series of conflicts that must be partially resolved before the developing individual can move to the next stage. He proposes eight general stages of conflict: trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus identity confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and integrity versus despair (Erikson, 1968). Following psychoanalytic theory, these stages appear in sequential order but are never completely resolved. Erikson saw the quest for identity and the crises that it often produces as the defining characteristics of adolescence. The formation of ego identity does not take place only in the identity stage, however; the degree to which one satisfactorily resolves the identity crisis is heavily dependent on the resolutions to the challenges of the first four stages in Erikson’s eight-stage life cycle theory. Each item exists “in some form,” Erikson tells us, before its decisive and critical time normally arrives (Erikson, 1968, pp. 93, 95). That is, there are identity elements in all preceding stages just as there are in the succeeding stages, and if the conflicts in these earlier stages are concluded satisfactorily, the healthy development of the ego is more probable. If the conflicts are resolved unsatisfactorily, negative qualities are crystallized in the personality structure and may impede further development.

The psychosocial moratorium—a time of deferred choice—is the period in an adolescent’s or young adult’s life for resolving the identity crisis. It is a time when role experimentation is encouraged and where there is little expectation that the individual will commit to permanent responsibilities or roles. The identity crisis “is precipitated both by the individual’s readiness and by society’s pressure” to separate from childhood identifications and find a coherent individuated identity (Erikson, 1980, p. 130). The age at which the identity crisis occurs may vary “according to such social structure factors as class, subculture, ethnic background, and gender” (Côté and Levine, 1987) or socialization factors such as child-rearing practices and identification with parents (Jordan, 1971). The moratorium must end with the experience of role experimentation complete and the achievement of a resynthesis of positive identifications. These achievements enable the individual to find “a niche in some section of society, a niche which is firmly defined yet seems to be uniquely made for him” (Erikson, 1968, p. 156). The niche is dependent on the adolescent’s feeling that commitment in the areas of values, vocation, religious beliefs, political ideology, sex, gender role, and family lifestyle are accepted, settled, and expressions of personal choice. Other more critical theorists, Jackson, McCullough, and Gurin (1981) for example, have suggested that the option of having a moratorium and being in a position to choose in the area of commitment are limited by social, political, and economic structures and dominant ideologies.

Allied with Erikson’s faith in ego identity is his understanding of the difficulty involved for adolescents in creating and maintaining this identity. Identity confusion, and the resulting identity crisis, results from the individual’s inability to understand the “mutual fit of himself and the environment—that is, of his capacity to relate to an ever-expanding life space of people and institutions on the one hand, and, on the other, the readiness of these people and institutions to make him a part of an ongoing cultural concern” (Erikson, 1975, p. 102). Feeling pressured by society and his or her own maturation to choose between possible roles even as personal perspectives are rapidly changing, the identity-confused adolescent experiences a confusion that challenges his or her ability to form a stable identity.

Erikson believes that the success with which the adolescent resolves these crises is extremely important for the eventual achievement of intimacy with others. It is only through the commitment to sexual direction, vocational direction, and a system of values that “intimacy of sexual and affectionate love, deep friendship and personal self-abandon without fear of losing ego-identity emerge” (Muuss, 1996, p. 54). Identity achievement, as opposed to identity confusion, allows the individual to move smoothly from preoccupation with the inner core of identity to exploration of the potential roles this self will play in intimate relationships with others. When identity achievement is realized in an individual, that individual is capable of making a series of basic life commitments: occupational, ideological, social, religious, ethical, and sexual (Côté, 2019, in Steinberg, 2019, p. 231).

Erikson’s construct of identify versus identity confusion has been expanded by James Marcia (1966, 1980). Marcia, whose work on the ego and identity development began with his dissertation “Development and Validation of Ego-Identity Status” (1966), establishes two concepts already mentioned by Erikson—crisis and commitment—as the determining variables in identity achievement. “Crisis refers to times during adolescence when the individual seems to be actively involved in choosing among alternative occupations and beliefs. Commitment refers to the degree of personal investment the individual expresses in an occupation of belief” (Marcia, 1967, p. 119). Using these variables as the determining standards, Marcia breaks Erikson’s fifth stage down into four substages: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement.

The identity-diffused individual is characterized by having neither an active involvement in the search for identity roles nor a commitment to any of these roles. He or she is not questioning alternatives. At this point, the adolescent is, like James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus (1992), “drifting amid life like the barren shell of the moon.” Identity foreclosure is characterized by commitment without crisis; that is, the individual has chosen a set of values or ideological stance, most often that of his or her parents or valued others, without examining this value or searching out alternatives. In moratorium, on the other hand, the individual is in the midst of a crisis, actively questioning and searching among alternatives, without any commitment to one option. In achievement, the individual has experienced the crises of moratorium and has successfully made a commitment. Identity achievement is most often attained in the college years, with moratorium and diffusion characteristic of earlier adolescence (Santrock, 1990). It should be pointed out that differences exist between societies and between groups and individuals within societies in the length of the sanctioned intermediary period, the psychosocial moratorium (Manaster, 1989). Also, those not afforded the time or opportunity to engage in identity seeking may well not undergo an identity crisis in adolescence or young adulthood.

Some theorists, among them Miller (1991) and Surrey (1984), have suggested that adolescent identity development (like childhood development that precedes it and adult development that follows) is more a story of connection and relationship than one of separation and autonomy. Early theorists in this field argued that adolescent boys seem concerned with separation and individuation while adolescent girls create identity more in connection to peers and members of their families. Carol Gilligan (1982) writes of her reservations about Erikson’s theory in In a Different Voice. Gilligan points out that Erikson recognized sex differences in identity development and discussed how for men identity precedes intimacy and generativity in the optimal cycle of human separation and attachment, but for women these tasks instead seem to be fused—the woman comes to know herself through relationships with others. Erikson nevertheless retained the sequence of identity preceding intimacy. The sequencing of Erikson’s second, third, fourth, and fifth stages, Gilligan suggests, little prepares the individual for the intimacy of the first adult stage. “Development itself comes to be identified with separation, and attachments appear to be developmental impediments, as is repeatedly the case in the assessment of women” (Gilligan, 1982, pp. 12–13).

In contrast, more recent theorists explore how the challenges of adolescence—brought on by puberty, a more active role in the social structure, and changing cognitive abilities—are negotiated within and through relationships by all adolescents. Both adolescent girls and boys explore who they are through interaction with families (Hill, 1987; Taylor, 1996; Ward, 1996) and peers (Chu, 2004; Savin-Williams and Berndt, 1990), and through the other social groups and networks that are important in their lives (McLaughlin and Heath, 1993). While finding a separate, unique identity is important, that process occurs within and through negotiating the self in relation to other individuals and social groups. This relational perspective also allows us to examine how adolescents form multiple identities that differ to some extent by context and need. The adolescent in school, experiencing certain demands and opportunities, may differ from the adolescent at home, where alternative relationships and expectations influence actions and values (Ferguson, 2000; Flores-Gonzáles, 2002). The adolescent must learn to balance the search for a coherent, separate identity with the multiple identities, negotiated through relationships, that characterize his or her sense of self.

The process of adolescent identity formation may also vary in accordance with the ethnic and racial background of the individual. It is hardly surprising that White youth generally have much less sense of their ethnic identity than do minority youth, though youth from some White, working-class backgrounds identify powerfully with a particular ethnic, national, or racial group (e.g., German, Scottish, Irish, Italian) (Steinberg, 2019). An area of recent study has been ethnic identity outside the majority culture (Kiang and Fuligni, 2009). Black, Latino, and Asian students in the U.S. are more likely to explore their ethnic identity than are White adolescents or to make a commitment to it (Steinberg, 2019). The trigger to questioning one’s ethn...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Cases Categorized by Themes
• About the Editors
• Preface
• The Case Study Approach
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Identity
• Part II Challenges
• Index