Question

Your child is experiencing Erikson's crisis of Identity vs. Role Confusion. Describe how your child is expressing identity in the Four Arenas of Identity Formation.

Answer 1

Erikson's Crisis of identity vs. Role Confusion shows the problems in the adolescent period. In this stage the child suffers from the problem of role playing and the problems appears in different levels. The child faces identity crisis and through social interactions he faces the problems of identity.

In this period the child is encouraged by the parents and teachers. They make promise without thinking how to maintain the promise. It is the stage of foreclosure in the identity formation. It causes pressure in the child. He also gets the association of the peers and there it becomes very much difficult to maintain balance between the pressure of fulfilling promise of the parents and teachers and the pressure and maintaining group norms of the peers. In such situation they suffer from the indecision. It is called group identity diffusion, the second criteria of the identity formation. He tries to achieve various skills. He develops a sense of maturity through social interaction.    

Then the child faces the crisis of maintaining the balance. He suffers from anxiety and he faces struggles to maintain balance. This stage is called moratorium. Through continuous struggle the child is able to achieve an identity. There grows a sense of pride. Then he achieves the identity and it is called Identity achievement. In this period the adolescent shows pride for achieving identity. He is able to take responsibility and gets pleasure when he is given responsibility as it satisfies his desires.