Question

How do adolescents form an identity and what role does gender play in this? Discuss your own experience with identity formation. Was your experience different than your peers who were the opposite gender?

Answer 1

Adolescence is the stage of life that begins at the onset of puberty, when sexual maturity or the ability to reproduce is attained.It is the period of rapid change, both biologically (universal changes) and psychologically (the social and psychological dimensions of the adolescent's experiences depend on the cultural context).

Identity is who you are and what your values, commitments and beliefs are. The key developmental task of adolescence is to establish an identity separate from the parents. During this stage, a detachment process enables the individual to develop a personalised set of beliefs that are uniquely his or hers. In this process, the adolescent may experience a conflict with his parents (or significant ones) and within himself or herself.

The core conflict here is the tension between role confusion and identity. Seeking identity involves :

a)searching for continuity and sameness in oneself-trying to get the clear sense of what's one's skills and personal attributes

b) to discover where one is moving towards his life

c) to believe that one can count on recognition from significant others

The adolescents who can cope with this conflicting identities develop a new sense of self whereas those who couldn't cope with this identity crisis are confused. According to Erikson, this 'identity crisis' can lead to individuals isolating themselves from peers and family or they might loose their identity in the crowd.The adolescents failing to achieve this sense of identity may experience  psychosocial moratorium which is delaying any commitment to adult roles. It may be promising (as valuable period of information gathering ) or risky (rebellious pattern or the pursuit of negative identity ).

The adolescents who forms a sense of identity gets two major benefits (according to Erikson)

i) a feeling of being at home with one's body

ii) a sense of psychological well-being

The formation of identity in adolescence is influenced by factors like:

a) cultural background

b) family and societal values

c) ethnic background

d) socioeconomic status

Gender identity refers to the extent to which a person experiences oneself to be like others of one gender. One’s sense of being male or female largely determines how people view themselves and provides an important basis for their interactions with others. In most cases, gender identity will develop in accordance with physical gender characteristics.

A gender-role is a set expectations that prescribes how males and females should think, act and feel. Gender learning starts early, is a gradual process taking many years, and passes through various stages (Kohlberg 1966).  Children begin to understand the gender-identity (the awareness of being a boy or a girl) at the age of two. Between age 4 to 7 they begin to realise that gender is the basic attribute of each person. With the progression of childhood, they learn the stereotypes associated with being male or a female in their culture , and gender-appropriate behaviour is strongly encouraged.

Gender intensification ( Hill and Lynch,1983)  has been used to explain an array of characteristics in which gender differences emerge or intensify during adolescence.   In adolescence, girls and boys face increased pressure to conform to culturally sanctioned gender roles. These pressures come from a variety of sources that convey messages about appropriate gender roles, such as parents, peers, educators, and the media. In the face of these pressures, adolescents are thought to become more differentiated in their gender-role identities, which presumably will be adaptive for their adult roles as women and men.

There are indications that gendered personality qualities and interests tend to change during adolescence, for the majority of adolescents gender identity is in concordance with assigned gender and seems to be fairly sprouts from early childhood (Diamond and Butterworth 2008).

Personal Experience:

During my adolescence I (being a girl )experienced more restrictions than my peers who were of the opposite gender (boys). I was given more of a 'dependence-training'. There were certain unspoken rules about how should I dress up, the kind of posture I should retain while interacting with others. It wasn't 'hyperfeminity' i.e., exaggerated version of the female traditional roles. I was free to choose and career and pursue my dreams yet I was supposed to carry-on few house-hold chores along with that. I was also gradually but subtly trained to be more considerate about the feelings of others etc whereas I observed my peers from the opposite gender, again not 'hyper masculinity' were free to choose their attires, time they would like to go out of the house etc.

At that time, I didn't see it as a way of ' protection' from my parents and had my own set of conflicts with them which I resolved with time. Since it wasn't extreme gender-role identification it didn't result in any kind of maladaptation. Though today I find a varied degree of difference in the self-reliance, confidence, ability to take responsibilities, assertiveness between me and those peers. I also find myself to be more concerned about my appearence than them. I can say that I have adjusted to the traditional gender-role and identity that was passed on to me by my family.