Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
essay: identity vs role confusion
Political life in china
Boyd and Bee (2015) “Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory”
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: essay: identity vs role confusion
Chang Yu-i’s Struggle With Identity
Are you are confused as to where you are going in life? Do you sometimes feel like you just do not know who you are, or who you want to be? Do not worry, this is not uncommon. In fact, according to psychoanalyst Erik Erickson (1902-1994), most young people ages fifteen to twenty years of age feel the same way. Erickson, a psychoanalytic theorist, took the human life cycle and categorized it into eight stages. One such stage would be identity versus role-confusion. During this stage, adolescents begin to truly form who they are in life. They form their present off of the good and bad experiences of their past. Erickson believes that the stages in the life cycle apply to nearly everyone. It does not matter where or what era you are from. Take, for example, a character from Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang. Chang writes a dual memoir of her and her great-aunt’s lives. In her novel, Chang tells the story of her great aunt, Chang Yu-i, growing up in a changing world. Even though Yu-i is born and raised in China during the early 1900s, she still faces the conflicts of trying to find herself.
The psycho social crisis called ‘identity versus role-confusion’ occurs mainly during adolescence, although it is not restricted to this period in life. It is usually the fifth stage in the life cycle, although it may overlap with the stages before and after it. Major circumstances can also later change the outcome of this stage. Throughout this stage, a person finds himself bringing together parts of his life and combining them to form who he wants to be in life. Outside factors, such as the community or family, tend to play an indirect, but important role in forming an identity. This is true in any culture, although family plays an even more significant role in a collectivist culture, such as Yu-i’s.
Chang Yu-i grows up in a family of twelve children in a small county outside Shanghai, China. Born into changing times, the struggle for finding herself is perhaps even harder and more confusing than it would be for people born today. Yu-i is born into a time when China is torn between holding on to the old traditions and adopting the ways of the western world. Throughout the early 1900s, China was in political turmoil. China had to deal with the Boxer Rebellion, the revolution against the Manchu dyna...
... middle of paper ...
..., Yu-i’s family decides she will marry Hsu Chi-mo at age fifteen. Yu-i does not want to get married yet, but instead wants to continue her education at the Academy. However, she does not have a say in who or when she will marry. Because it is time for her to get married, her education is discontinued. She is pulled from her schooling before she is finished with it, neither her parents nor her in-laws feel that this is important. Although the fact that her education was cut short is not something she is pleased with, it is still something she has to accept, and it still a part of who she is.
It is a difficult and long process to find yourself. Erickson tells us that is is a natural stage in life to question who you are. Everyone goes through it, regardless of age, sex, race, or time. Take Chang Yu-i for example. She pulled good experiences in her life, such as having unbound feet and getting some education, and used them to help form who she was becoming But she also took the experiences she did not like, such as discontinuing her education as such a young age to get married, and accepted them as part of who she was. She grew up strong, and eventually became her own person.
This story follows Wang Lang a poor young farmer in rural China that is forced by his father to marry a slave that belongs to the powerful local Hwang family. The Hwangs sell Wang a 20-year-old slave named O-lan who becomes his wife. O-lan and Wang Lung are pleased with each other, although they exchange few words and although Wang is initially disappointed that O-lan does not have bound feet. Together, Wang Lung and O-lan have a cultivate, beautiful and profitable harvest from their land. O-lan becomes pregnant, and Wang Lung is overjoyed when O-lan’s first child is a son. Meanwhile, the powerful Hwang family lives decadently the husband is obsessed with women, and the wife is an opium addict. Because of their costly habits, the Hwangs fall
The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consist of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1 his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his families politics were always questioned, the mistake mad...
Beyond the basic need for a sense of control, people are driven by their sense of identity, of who they are. Each person lives in their own universes, which are centered upon their feeling of self-purpose. There are multiple types of identities such as individual and group identities. Each person's identity is formed differently because of the unique experiences every individual encounters. The formation can be affected by many things such as their home environment, social concurrences, and physiological health. This story, A Separate Peace, exhibits interesting main characters which establish the frequent struggles of personal identity in adolescence.
Nien Cheng is the author of the autobiography, Life and Death in Shanghai. This book takes place in Shanghai, China, starting around the first few days into the Cultural Revolution. Nien Cheng was a widow in her 50's working as a senior partner for Shell in Shanghai. In late 1966, Nien Cheng was arrested and her house lay looted and vandalized. She was sent to the No.1 Detention House, where staying for six and one-half years, she was punished and pressured for a false confession that she was a spy for the imperialists. She consistently to confess refused and as a result, was tortured many times. She had a daughter named Mei Ping who, refusing to criticize about her mother, was murdered by the Red Guards. Nien Cheng was released in 1973 and was relocated to a house that had 2 bedrooms. (Which she had to live in with another family who spied on her) She stayed in China until 1980, and when she applied for a visa to the United States. She was accepted and she emigrated to Canada and very soon, Washington D.C.
People always wonder who they are and how they came to be that person. Erickson, a Freudian ego-psychologist, tackles this issue as in his quest, he discovers how personality develops in a series of stages. Additionally, Erickson also discovers growing up, especially for other cultures like Asian-American or African American is toilsome. Not to mention, Cady on the movie, “The Mean Girls” also grew up in a foreign country. As a matter of fact Cady got wrapped up in different stages of Erickson’s theory when she first arrived in a foreign high school. The three stages of Erickson’s theory Cady undergoes are trust vs mistrust, ego-identity vs role-confusion and initiative vs guilt.
Wang Lung starts off poor, but happy. While he is not satisfied with his place in life, especially compared to the seemingly mighty and rich House of Hwang, Wang Lung is pleased to have a wife, Olan. Olan helps him in the fields, in addition to all of her housework, and she bears him sons. With her help, Wang Lung becomes successful and rich. His displeasure in his place in life is evident with Olan; while he is pleased to have her as his wife, he is upset that he cannot afford to have a wife with bound feet. Although he is disappointed in Olan’s appearance, it does not truly affect him until he becomes rich, at which point he decides that she is too ugly and he must take another wife, against his father’s wishes.
Maturity grows on people to show them to the point of how they act and learn from what they have done. Jing Mei was a girl in two kinds and matures in her later life. The author states that Jing Mei did not try throughout her life from the piano and her mother. Both of the stories compare and are similar of both girls growing up.
At first, Ji-li thought she was the luckiest girl in the world. She came from a very wealthy, loving, respected, and dependable family. In growing up in such was so was she too, “I was happy because I was able to excel and always expected to succeed. I was trusting, too. I never doubted what I was told…”(Jiang 1). The way Ji-li felt towards her family, proving that is the kind of family is everything Ji-li wanted. It is important for her, so then she can feel comfortable, then the family dynamics changed. Ji-li’s relationship has changed due to the Cultural Revolution, because when the change started to happen, she was okay. Ji-li then hated her family’s guts and background; near the end of the book. Ji-li feeling’s toward her family was unbreakable or even strengthened more than ever, and never went away. “… I would never do anything to hurt my family, and I would do everything I could do to take care of them. My family was too precious to forget, and too rare to replace.” ( Jiang 262-263). The importance that she will never abounded her family even in the most difficult times in her life. The reason the change occurred was Ji-li knew she could change her name, but she will always be a Jiang. She could also never leave the best thing in her life. Ji-li had other problems in her life as well, besides her family, there were her friends. Well
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
At the beginning of the novel, Wang Lung accepts his peasant lifestyle, but still yearns for financial stability and happiness. Initially, Wang Lung’s life consists of two priorities; he must aid his aging father and tend to ...
...ith Jing Mei and her mother, it is compounded by the fact that there are dual nationalities involved as well. Not only did the mother’s good intentions bring about failure and disappointment from Jing Mei, but rooted in her mother’s culture was the belief that children are to be obedient and give respect to their elders. "Only two kinds of daughters.....those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan1) is the comment made by her mother when Jing Mei refuses to continue with piano lessons. In the end, this story shows that not only is the mother-daughter relationship intricately complex but is made even more so with cultural and generational differences added to the mix.
In this paper I will be focusing on Erikson’s Theory mainly about identity versus role confusion. Finding one’s identity is not always an easy task. Everyone at some point in his or her life has had, as Erikson puts it, an identity crisis. Everyone experiences different struggles that can have either a positive or negative impact on their identity. On my path to identity, I have reached identity achievement, which means I have explored and made commitments. I will also be focusing on two articles highlighting a fifth possible outcome regarding identity and looking at identity statuses as developmental trajectories.
Adolescence refers to the transition period experienced by children that occur between childhood and adulthood (Shefer, 2011). Identity is first confronted in adolescence between the ages 12 – 19 years old, because of physical and hormonal changes in the body. It is also due to the introduction of formal operations in cognitive development and societal expectation that this contributes to an individual’s identity to be explored and established (McAdams, 2009). The forces within and outside (family, community) the individual that promote identity development usually create a sense of tension. The basic task is, in Erikson’s terms, “fidelity or truthfulness and consistency to one’s core self or faith in one’s ideology” (Fleming, 2004: 9), in a nutshell: "Who am I and where am I
Erik Erikson was a developmental psychologist known for his theory on psychosocial development. Unlike other theorists of his time Erikson’s theory focused on human development across the lifespan from birth to late adulthood. Erickson believed that development change occurs through out our lives in eight distinctive stages that emerge in a fixed pattern and are similar for all people. Erickson argued that each stage presents a crisis or conflict which results in either a positive or negative outcome (Feldman). In this essay I will identify incidents in my own life that demonstrate each stage of development according to Erickson that I have lived through. I will also interview my Aunt Tami who will share her experiences for the remainder stages of Erickson’s development that I have not gone through thus far.
In Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, I thought, “Who am I?” countless times like many other adolescents. I occupied much of my time trying to construct a firm identity of myself, which I now realized did more harm than good. Letting myself explore different interests would have helped me find my identity than me trying to fake some firm identity.