Identity Development

One important task in life is the establishment of identity, a task usually associated with the adolescent. As part of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, he described the major crisis occurring during the teen years as being identity versus identity confusion. Identity is the individuality of a person and comprises relatively stable personality traits that are especially prevalent in certain situations (role behaviors such as being a parent). Identity development, then, is the search for this person one will become, which can either be a smooth or quite complex process.

According to Erikson, a person must resolve his or her adolescent crisis before the person can confront the next stage crisis; thus, ...