Later Adolescence/Emerging Adulthood

18-24

Developmental Tasks-according to the other experts

• Autonomy from parents

• Gender identity (sexual identity)

• Internalized morality

• Career choice

The psychosocial crisis: Individual identity vs. identity confusion

Defining Identity

• The private self:– Agency-originator of thoughts/actions– Unity-consistent over time and across situations– Otherness-boundaries between self and others– Decentering or distancing-meta awareness of self

• The public self:– Roles– Expectations of others

• Content– What do I believe, value, think?– What traits or characteristics fit me?

• Evaluation– How important is each of these content

components?– How much energy, resources, etc. goes to

each?

Marcia’s theory of Identity Status

• Crisis and commitment

• Focal points: career, intimate relationships, religion, politics, lifestyle

• Four outcomes– Identity achievement– Foreclosure– Moratorium– Identity confusion

Moral Development

What is moral development?

• Text: Acquisition of principles or rules of right conduct and distinguishing between right and wrong.

• Different than social conventions and personal preferences.

• A current day moral dilemma: Socially responsible consumption

Fishbowl Discussion

What did you observe?

• Whose needs were acknowledged?

• What consequences of behavior were identified as mattering?

• What principles seemed to guide behavior?

Theories and Conceptualizations

1. Kohlberg’s theory-justice orientation• Preconventional: 4-10 years• Conventional: 10-18• Postconventional: 18+

2. Gilligan’s theory-caring orientation• Selfish/survival focused: early childhood• Social/Other oriented: middle

childhood/adolescence• Postconventional/principled/balance of self and

other: adulthood

Theories and concepts, cont.

3. Eisenberg focused on Prosocial behavior: voluntary behavior intended to benefit another.

• Key Points

– Empathy-experience another’s distress– Sympathy-act on behalf of someone– Perspective taking-cognitive understanding

of other’s experience

• Eisenberg’s stages– Around 1st grade: Meeting one’s own needs– Around 2nd grade: approval of others becomes

important– 4th-6th grade, prominent in high school:

empathy/sympathy, good or bad feelings about behavior

– Adolescence: transitional-reasons for helping are stated but not fully internalized.

– Adulthood: values of helping are internalized, convictions re: values and responsibilities guide behavior

Cultural Identity Development

1. Atkinson, Morten & Sue• A part of one’s overall identity.• Influenced by one’s relationship to

dominant/mainstream culture.• A multicultural society with monocultural scripts.• Not universal – depends on individual

circumstances.• Adolescence increases chances of change.

• Expanded interactions, cultural conflicts, exposure to divergent ideas, etc.

• Increase in abstract thinking.

Racial/Cultural Identity Model

1. Conformity

2. Dissonance

3. Resistance and Immersion

4. Introspection

5. Articulation and Awareness

Discussion and Questions about this model?

2. White racial identity development (aka Majority Identity Development)-Helms

• Culture is often invisible or unidentified for White people.

• The mainstream world reinforces White people’s experience (to varying degrees).

• Awareness of implications of being white influences identity, cognitive process and behavior.

Information Processing Strategies – How do we make sense of racial/cultural identity?

• Obliviousness

• Suppression & ambivalence

• Selective perception & negative outgroup distortion

• Reshaping reality and selective perception

• Hypervigilance and reshaping

• Flexibility and complexity

• Stages include:– Contact status– Disintegration status– Reintegration status– Pseudoindependence status– Immersion/emersion status– Autonomy status

Discussion and Questions?

Capturing Your Identity