Erikson’s Social Development

• Recall that school age had the industry vs. inferiority conflict

Adolescence

• This period is characterized by identity vs. role confusion

• Children at this age are trying new things and seeking an identity

  • Teens are trying to find what skills they have

  • They are learning to think independently of their peers and parents

• Adolescents are usually given much more autonomy by their parents

  • If they aren’t given that autonomy and opportunities to explore themselves, teens can end up confused about their role

• Recall that the previous stage was about learning to compare yourself

  • That skill endures as teens weigh their worth and roles in comparison to the people around them

James Marcia

• This is a separate theory from Erikson

• It concerns how we establish identity and rests upon two factors: exploration and commitment

• Marcia sees identity as a process, not a conflict

  • The process may not look the same for everyone and the stages do not always come in the same order

• Identities are not uniform across all development aspects and can differ in things like work, religion, and politics

• The first stage is foreclosure, with low exploration but high commitment

  • The identity has not been explored very much, but the person is very committed to it

  • This is often the case when someone accepts the beliefs of their family or peers with no additional thought

• We then move to diffusion, with low exploration and low commitment

  • Identity has not been thoughtfully considered or explored but the person is no longer committed to it

  • It has an inactive status

• We move on to moratorium when we reach a crisis in life

  • When we feel like we are at a crossroads and need to make a decision, we begin exploring

  • This stage has high exploration but low commitment

  • This may happen in high school or a little later in life

  • Actively seeking and making decisions about the importance of certain beliefs and values, but options remain open and things change

• The last stage is achievement, with high exploration and commitment

  • After active exploration and examination, individual values and goals have emerged

  • Identity is no longer changing but the person is confident enough to review their own beliefs when someone does rise to challenge them

• Remember that the process may not always follow this trend, and it may happen multiple times in one person depending on what part of their life it is occurring in

Piaget

• Piaget places adolescents in the formal operational thought stage of abstract thought

• This is also known as hypothetical thinking

• This stage sees the ability to imagine how others view oneself

  • This leads to two phenomena called the imaginary audience and the personal fable

• Because adolescents are so involved with ideas surrounding how others perceive them, they have adolescent egocentrism

  • Teens expect and behave as if people are always watching them and paying special attention to their behaviors

• The imaginary audience is an adolescents tendency to believe that others are watching and evaluating them

  • It’s not uncommon for teens to feel this even when alone as if there was some sort of camera following them around

  • This leads to self-conscious behavior

• The personal fable is an adolescent’s belief that they are special and unique

  • This also comes with the thought that none of life’s difficulties or problems will affect them, regardless of their behavior

  • This can be seen as risk-taking or making impulsive decisions

Risk-Taking Behavior

• Risk-taking is a complex picture, so we use the biopsychosocial approach to explain it

• Biologically, the pre-frontal cortex is not developed and it is unable to mediate the actions of the limbic system

  • The pre-frontal cortex handles prediction, decision-making, judgment, etc.

  • The limbic system, however, is very active at this age and controls emotion

  • Essentially, emotions end up outweighing logic

• Socially, there is a disproportionate value placed upon the opinions of peers, which can influence behavior

• Lastly, the personal fable makes up the psychological aspect of this phenomenon