IDENTITY FORMATION AND

SOCIAL COGNITION

IDENTITY FORMATION

What is identity?

According to Hoare (2002), identity refers to a sense of who one is as a person and as a contributor to society. It is personal coherence or self-sameness through evolving time, social change, and altered role requirements.

THEORIES OF IDENTITY FORMATION

ERIK ERIKSON

- identity provides one with a sense of well

being, a sense of being at home in one's body, a

sense of direction in one's life, and a sense of

mattering to those who count (Erikson, 1968).

- had a coherent view of self

- Identification in childhood and identity

formation in adolescence

- Identity vs. Role confusion

JAMES MARCIA

- Canadian developmental psychologist

- refined and extended Erikson's model

- argues that two distinct parts form an adolescent's identity: crisis and commitment

- Identity statuses: identity diffusion, identity

foreclosure, identity moratorium, identity

achievement.

NB: these are not stages.

- Ethnic identity

PERSONAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON IDENTITY

FORMATION

Perception of one’s self Gender identity refers to what it means to be

male or female, which is linked to sexual expression, but also concerns broader issues of masculinity and femininity.

Sexual identity is a matter of forming an enduring recognition of the meaning of one's sexual feelings, attractions, and behaviors.

Cognitive development plays an important role in identity achievement

CONT’D Peers Peer provides a temporary reference point for

a developing sense of identity.

Friends influence important attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics.

Bosma and Kunnen (2001) support the idea that peers can act as models and provide diversity and opportunity.

CONT’D

Schools For most adolescents, school is a prominent

part of their life. It is here that they relate to and develop relationships with their peers and where they have the opportunity to develop key cognitive skills.

Academic learning is the major cause of schooling. But a lot is learnt through the school environment in its hidden curriculum.

School also has its personality or style and develops in children what it holds important.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The term ‘culture’ refers to the language, beliefs, values and norms, customs, dress, diet, roles, knowledge and skills, and all the other things that people learn that make up the ‘way of life’ of any society. Culture is passed on from one generation to the next through the process of socialization.

PARENTS AND IDENTITY FORMATION

Familial interactions influence the initial status of identity development (Bosma & Kunnen, 2001).  The relationships with one’s family are typically the first an individual experiences, thus providing a foundation for identity formation.  

Adolescents in the diffusion status are more likely than those in other statuses to feel neglected or rejected by their parents and to be distant from them (Archer, 1994).

FAMILY AND IDENTITY FORMATION

family also fosters autonomy and initiative in children when they allow children to make appropriate decisions and engage in new activities

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The extent to which one identifies with a particular ethnic group(s). Refers to one’s sense of belonging to an ethnic group and the part of one’s thinking, perceptions, feelings, and behavior that is due to ethnic group membership. The ethnic group tends to be one in which the individual claims heritage (Phinney, 1996).

COMPONENTS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY

Ethnic awareness (understanding of one’s own and other groups)

 Ethnic self-identification (label used for one’s own group)

Ethnic attitudes (feelings about own and other groups)

Ethnic behaviors (behavior patterns specific to an ethnic group)

THE MEDIA AND IDENTITY FORMATION

The media has infiltrated many aspects of

our everyday lives from what brand of

cereal to eat for breakfast, how to dress,

what we should look like and even how to

label ourselves racially.

So, if young people have such frequent access and an interest in the media, it is fair to say that their behaviour and their sense of ‘self’ will be influenced to some degree by what they see, read, hear or discover for themselves. Such an influence may include a particular way of behaving or dressing to the kind of music a person chooses to listen to. These are all aspects which go towards constructing a person’s own personal identity. 

SOCIAL COGNITION

Social cognition is the thinking that people

display about the thoughts, feelings,

motives and behaviours of themselves and

other people. (Shaffer 2005)

•Humans socialize daily and that will help them to understand the people around them (beliefs, values and goals)

•. People are likely to be harmoniously if we know what our social partners are thinking or feeling and can predict how they are likely to behave. (Heyman & Gelman, 1998 as cited in Shaffer 2005)

AGE TRENDS IN PERSON PERCEPTION

•Based on the age of the child he/she will

characterize people around them in different

manner

•Research suggest that by age 5-6 children

are able to think about traits in a

psychological manner

•Children in middle childhood use

behavioural comparisons: forming

impressions of others by comparing and

contrasting their overt behaviour

By age 14-16 adolescence are able to

understand that various situational factors

can affect a person’s character (Damon &

Hart, 1988 as cited in Shaffer 2005)

THEORIES OF SOCIAL COGNITION

Cognitive Developmental Theory (Jean Piaget)

•Children’s view of themselves is based on the level of cognitive development

•As a child gets older their cognitive skills will develop into more high order thinking

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

•Sensorimotor (birth-2 years)

•Preoperational (2-7 years)

•Concrete Operational (7-11 years)

•Formal Operational (11-the end of the life

span)

Selman’s Role-Taking Theory

Having the understanding of another person’s perspective and understand their thoughts, feelings, intentions and behaviours.

STAGES OF ROLE-TAKING

0. Egocentric or undifferentiated perspective (3-6 years old)

1. Social-informational role taking (6-8 years old)

2. Self-reflective role taking (8-10 years old)

3. Mutual role taking (10-12 years old)

4.Social role taking (12-15 years old)

SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND

ROLE TAKING

There are various factors that help to contribute to a development in cognition and role taking skills