Adolescence: Navigating Identity & Role Confusion in Teenage Years - Essay Sample

Introduction

Adolescence is one of the stages that can be confusing to many including parents. One of the daunting tasks of a teenage parent. The adolescent psychosocial development is a study that was created by Erik Erikson's. He attributes this stage as one of the crucial one where a teenage has difficulties identifying their roles that why the age of 18-21. This age is characterized by the role of confusion and identity confusion. This is where you will find sexual orientation being more experimental and the sexual energy at it primeval high. Adolescence psychosocial development is characterized by the transition from childhood to adulthood or from teenagerhood. Psycho deals more in the cognitive process that one undergoes while social deals with the social aspects of a person. Therefore, adolescence psychosocial development will analyze the development based on social perspective and cognitive functions.

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Psychosocial development can be traced to its founder Erik Erickson after he discovered the different stages that an individual pass through. He grouped the stages according to the age and characteristics that underpin the stages. According to Erikson adolescence is a stage where various changes occur from the growth of sexual parts and the distinguishing aspect of sex roles. With all these changes taking place at go adolescence find themselves covered under pressure to give in to anything. But the truth is that all these changes are due to the fact that this a stage where Erikson classifies it as identity versus role confusion (Newman & Newman, 2017)

A role can be described as a function or part played by a person, in this case, it is the adolescent. Their role in the family is determined by the support they get and the acknowledgment they seek. They find it hard to accomplish any task without being reminded thus they seem to have adopted the role of being unconcerned by what happens around them. Role diffusion or role confusion is at times mistaken as a don't care attitude by those who do not understand adolescence upbringing (Newman & Newman, 2017). When this occurs then the adolescents feel like they are not welcomed and thus they form a kind of rebellion and conform in their own caucus. With role confusion having more than one branch of understanding scholars' term it as a lifelong occurrence which is compounded by the issues of identity.

Identity is the acknowledgment of where one comes from or who they are, one of the prevalent questions in identity is, "Who Am I." This is the question that many adolescents are struggling with (Newman & Newman, 2017). Identity is classified into four areas mainly; political, religious, sexual and vocational. Every person in life always seeks to find their identity once in a while. Having a stand on your identity is among the greatest achievement. As identity is what is used to determine who we are and what we do. In everything, we do we are always identified by our actions, our background, racial, and our color. That's the identity, one of the adolescence conformities is how they deal with religious identity.

Religious identity conforms with the adolescence quest to seek their faith (Newman & Newman, 2017). Some even got to the extent of questioning whether they are Christians or not Christians with pressure coming from the parents that they should follow in their steps. As they tend to grow adolescents find it hard to relate to church, therefore, the attendance goes down gradually.

Political identity manifests itself through the comments made by the parents (Newman & Newman, 2017). Parents are the greatest influencer of their children political identity. In the USA where the dominance of Republican and Democrats is more candid one can find that some of these teenagers prefer not to have any party affiliation at all. They become independent in their party affiliation which later on they realize it's also their parents stand. Teenagers of most countries at this age have the right to vote and chose any leader of their choice without being compromised. Teenagers also find some time to relate to how they choose work which is in accordance with their skills or preferred choice.

Vocational identity is how a teenager portrays themselves in terms of being a worker (Newman & Newman, 2017). This typically happens in places where the teenager finds its appealing working in a certain shop or place since they feel they have a responsibility. With the changing trends, many young youths have resorted to career hoping since they find no meaning in one particular job. Bring the discussion of gender identity. Gender identity refers to sexual identity where a boy has to have the male features while the girl the womanly features.

Conclusion

In conclusion, adolescence is usually a stage that requires a lot of support from the family members and even the teachers. This is a crucial stage where role confusion and identity can make one become what they intended not to be. Identify and affiliation is what makes a young teen be whom they are if given support to have their own choice accordingly then they can be of good character and will live a meaningful life.

References

Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2017). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.