“Youth” is
defined by UNESCO as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to
adulthood’s independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a
community. In psychology, youth are categorized as adolescence which is the period of many transitions ranging
from the physical changes related to puberty to the psychological processes of
identity formation to the social challenges of negotiating new patterns of
relationships with family and peers (Santrock, 2012).
Adolescence is a
time of growth and development, possibility, and invulnerability, but also a
time of stress, risk, and struggles. There is the paradox that often appears
among adolescents. Stanley Hall’s view of adolescence is that adolescence is a
period of ‘storm and stress’. It is because they are having a turbulent time,
stormy conflicts & mood swings, however sometimes they can’t cope with it
so that’s why they become stress. Nevertheless, Margaret Mead (1928, in
Santrock, 2012) contended that the
‘storm and stress’ faced by adolescents is caused by the adolescents being
treated so differently from adults. There are so many stereotypes adults have
toward adolescents, ‘you so lazy, don’t know how to work hard, only think
about sex, have it all easy, danger to society, and so on..’. Adults are almost unable to think about
adolescents in a more positive way. Regarding that matter, the question now is,
is it right? Is it right that youths or adolescents are that bad and never be
as good as adults wish from them? Is it appropriate to judge youths that way?
Who are youths actually? This writing will answer these questions in a more
comprehensive and scientific way of who youths are.
Instead
of thinking about adolescents as stormy agents as mentioned above, we’d rather
see adolescents as the agent of change. Since they are in the period of
transition, there are so many challenges being faced by adolescents in order to
reach their own identity. Some people still think that they are just kids who
still need full of guidance, but some others have high expectations toward them
to be independent in their own way. This makes adolescents sometimes confused
of what actually adults expect from them.
Adults
often underestimate adolescents as they are incapable of doing anything.
Meanwhile, adolescents are the creatures with high spirit. They are curious
toward many things and want to learn many things. In order to fulfill their
curiosity, they have to be given many opportunities to explore themselves.
Adults have to encourage hope, optimism, positive values, as well as tolerance.
Their curiosity about so many things is in line with their efforts of pursuing
their identity. Adolescents don’t know who they are and what they are supposed
to do. Identity is self-integration, the piecing together of different aspects
of the self (Erik Erikson, in Santrock, 2012). Identity is not simply about who
one is, but also includes roles, hopes, will, views, and so on. Those things
are integrated in oneself and become something which makes person special and
unique. Identity can be either positive or negative, and it depends on the way
individual copes with various alternatives in life.
In Erik
Erikson’s Developmental Stage theory, adolescents are in the stage of identity synthesis vs. identity confusion.
Erik Erikson argues that adolescents who do not successfully resolve the
identity crisis suffer identity confusion. Identity is a self-portrait
composed of many pieces, such as vocational/career identity, political
identity, religious/spiritual identity, relationship identity,
achievement, intellectual identity, sexual identity, cultural/ethnic
identity, interests, personality, and physical
identity/body image. In order to develop an identity, one must do an
exploration during the entire life. It is obviously a gradual and lengthy
process. The development of identity is very complex; it can be neither begun
nor ended in adolescence. To develop a positive identity, one must have social
support from parents, friends, school, and even the whole environment where
they belong to.
People are faced
with so many alternatives. Marcia identified 4 identity statuses by considering
what she called crisis and commitment. The process involving choosing among
meaningful alternatives is called crisis, whilst commitment is a personal
investment in what an individual is going to do (outcome rather than process).Crisis
can be either absent or present, and so does commitment.
Furthermore,
there can be more than one identity of a person. As mentioned above, people are
faced with so many alternatives, and they are regarded as having an identity
synthesis as long as they have decided what the best is for them and they are
comfortable with that. However, there are so many circumstances in this world
which force individual to choose more than one options. For example, someone
who is commonly known as honest can be extremely different when they get
involved in a political field. They have to follow the system and stick at
nothing. They eventually do corruption either because they can’t get rid of it
or they really enjoy it. Here is where the honesty is being challenged.
However, when they get back to their daily lives, they might not do the same
thing. They might hold their identity as an honest person rather than greedy
ones as who they are in the politics. Hence, one’s identity can be more than
one depends on the situation. But then the question is, is it truly a
more-than-one identity or is it an identity crisis instead? Identity crisis is
marked by the process of choosing the alternatives. They still don’t know
what’s best for them. However, when someone has made a decision even though for
more than one thing and he does enjoy the flow, it is not a crisis
anymore. In other words, he has more
than one identity in terms of honesty but in the different situation.
Identity is not
an everlasting kind of thing. There will always be a possibility for someone to
lose his or her identity. How long will it last? And in what situation is the
identity going to end? Meeus (2011, in Santrock, 2012) said that identity is
more stable in adulthood than adolescence. This obviously means that identity can
be unstable and someone might lose it in some way and time. In adolescence,
most people are still in identity confusion and they do not yet make any
commitment in life. When they’re getting older, their way of thinking becomes
more advance and mature. This helps them make decisions more wisely and get easily
committed to the things they have chosen. Furthermore, McAdams & Cox (2010,
in Santrock, 2012) contended that resolution of identity during adolescence
does not mean stability through the remainder of life. The stability of
identity really depends on many factors. We can’t predict when one will lose
his or her identity and when it will be replaced by another.
People have
different identity. That difference can be influenced by who and where they
belong to. The place, race, ethnic, and religion are all the tools for shaping
one’s identity. An enduring aspect of
the self that includes a sense of membership in an ethnic group, along with the
attitudes and feelings related to that membership is called ethnic identity (Phinney,
2006, in Santrock, 2012). Is it
apparent that one will develop the identity of the ethnicity where they live?
The answer is no. Adolescent from a family who has migrated from one country to
another and decided to live in that country before he was born, might not
develop the ethnic identity of the country where he lives now, but he might
develop the ethnic identity of his or her parents’ former country instead. In
the case of ethnic minority groups, they usually have struggle of
maintaining their ethnic identities while blending in with the dominant culture.
Many adolescents resolve this choice by developing a bicultural identity.
Identity can be
either self-made or given by the society. The proportion of these two is
unobvious for every person. If we can observe, the pattern would be different
for those from developing country and those from developed country. In my
personal opinion, people from developed country most likely have greater
proportion of self-made identity and people from developing country most likely
have greater proportion of given identity. Why is it so? It is because in the
developing country, people are more conventional and they keep their tradition
really tight. This way of thinking sometimes makes them a little bit
inflexible. Many things are inherited from their ancestors as well as the
tradition people hold for so long. Hence, those traditions cause them develop
their identity which fits the society. Whilst people from developed country are
way more flexible in terms of tradition and culture. They are more
individualistic which enables them to develop their own way of thinking as well
as their identity. However, it doesn’t always work that way. This opinion is
also the result of stereotyping and the proportion of self-made or given
identity is always depending on the person himself. Nevertheless, everywhere
the individual stays, the identity formation is always influenced by the stuffs
like tradition, culture, social, politics, and so on. People might claim that
they have their own view of something, but beyond their awareness, all of their
views are all the result of their understanding and knowledge of their
environment which involves culture, tradition, politics, etc.
In conclusion,
identity is something very crucial to exist in oneself. Identity is not
something to be obtained easily; it needs a gradual and complex process
instead. The identity formation mostly begins in adolescence. However, it
doesn’t mean that all adolescents are able to develop their identity. There might be a phase where they are confused
of who they are and what they are supposed to do in life. During their
exploration, they might take it either positively or negatively. It all depends
on oneself as well as social supports. The role of tradition, culture,
politics, social, and so on are also very important in helping adolescents form
their identity. Adolescents are said to be having many conflicts yet
opportunities to improve themselves. Conflicts and opportunities are all the
products made by adolescents and must also be completed and sought by themselves
as well. However, adults’ support must also be consolidated to adolescents’
effort in order to help them build the positive identity.
References:
Santrock, John W. (2012). Adolescence (14th ed.). United
States : McGraw-Hill.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/youth/youth-definition/
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