Articles

The importance of adolescents establishing their own identity.

Adolescence is a period between the onset of puberty (usually 11 years of age) and the starting of adulthood (usually 20 years of age). During this period, an individual is going through various changes in his/her body namely physical changes such as an increase in body size, development of sexual organs; cognitive changes such as advanced patterns of reasoning abilities, planning, problem-solving, and a stronger sense of self, taking the perception of others; and emotional changes such as the development of complex emotions. It is a change that turns a child into an adult.

Self Identity is how we define ourselves as an individual or in simple terms, “Who we are?". Identity formation is the development of a strong sense of self and personality. It mainly occurs in the adolescence period as it is the period when an individual is curious to know about self. His/her physical, cognitive, and emotional changes help in doing so. In this period, an individual makes connections with people other than his/her parents or relatives, and with oneself. The important connections of adolescents move away from parents and move towards their peers. Identity formation shapes one's perception of the world and his/her own self. When an individual is in his childhood period he/she is rigid about his perception and fails to understand others' perceptions whereas an adolescent understands that people have different perceptions and tries to understand the different perceptions.

This adolescence period can be extremely stressful at times as it involves various new and complex emotions, understanding the need to develop new social relationships, and an increasing sense of responsibility and independence as he/she is moving towards adulthood.

Eric Erikson, a psychologist, defines this adolescent stage as "Identity vs Role confusion" as he says that during this period an individual try to search for his/her unique identity and questions "Who am I?". According to him, the major aim of this stage is to search for one's unique identity and if an individual fails to establish his/her personal views and beliefs then he/she develops an identity crisis which eventually leads to a weak sense of self. A positive sense of self helps in developing a positive self-concept which results in positive self-esteem and increased confidence not just in this adolescent phase but in his/her later life also.

According to Erikson, during the Role confusion phase, an individual tries various methods to understand about self and form a unique identity of his/her own. He/she tries balancing the identity he/she has at present or try to choose between two or more different identities or take up a negative or undesirable identity or if they fail to form any identity then temporarily give up on it.

The social identity being the part of the self-identity plays an important role for an individual to form a unique identity. An individual's role in society defines his/her social identity.

According to Charles Cooley, a sociologist, an individual forms his/her identity as a "looking-glass self". The term "looking-glass self" is termed by Cooley and means the reflection of how we think we appear to others. The major part of an individual's identity comprises of what the others namely the parents, the peers, and other people think about us. The value judgment from peers and parents helps an individual form his/her identity. How one views oneself and behaves depends on what he/she believes other people think of him/her.

Cooley mentions three main components of the looking-glass concept, that are:
  An individual imagines how he/she must appear to others in society.
 An individual imagines and reacts to what he/she feels their judgment of that appearance must be.
An individual develops his/her sense of self and responds through these perceived judgments of others.

As a result, the individuals will change their actions according to what they feel other people think of them, even if it is not necessarily true. In this way, social interaction acts as a "mirror" or a "looking-glass", since one's sense of self and self-esteem is built off through others.

Adolescents are often observed to be highly self-conscious, hence they create an imaginary audience in which they feel that everyone is constantly watching them and they behave according to the judgment or what the imaginary audience will think of him/her. And as the individuals think so much about themselves, they often mistakenly believe that others must be thinking about them, too. As a result, they behave and act accordingly.

The positive reinforcements of efforts, good choices from parents and peers can help an individual develop a strong sense of self which will result in positive self-esteem and increased confidence. The major aspect which defines the adolescent phase is the development of a unique and consistent self-identity. A positive self-identity is very important as it develops the perception of oneself and others.