Identity Disorders

Introduction

This entry describes Erikson's concept of identity and important elaborations made by later researchers. It also overviews currently used measures of identity derived from Erikson's work. Various identity disorders linked with arrested development of the self are also addressed, along with current instruments used for assessment purposes. New directions for research on the relationship between identity development and psychopathology are suggested in conclusion.

Identity Defined

Erikson (1963) defined identity as a sense of self-sameness and continuity, which enables one to express biological capacities and psychological needs and interests within a social context. Identity formation is the process of finding meaningful vocational directions, outlets for the expression of ideological values, and satisfying forms of sexual expression in a wider social milieu.

Issues of identity, according to Erikson (1963), generally come to the fore during adolescence, though they may continue to be revised and modified throughout adult life. Erikson has described an eight-stage sequence of psychosocial tasks requiring resolution for optimal personality development over the lifespan; he sees the task of finding some resolution to ‘Identity vs. Role Confusion’ as central to adolescence. To Erikson, identity is something an individual possesses to a greater or lesser degree; one can assess an individual's identity as lying on a continuum somewhere between the poles of identity achievement and role confusion.

Identity Status Assessment

The Identity Status Interview (Marcia et al., 1993) assigns an overall ego identity status to an individual based on the ways in which he or she has explored (or not) and made commitments (or not) to identity-defining vocational, ideological, and sexual roles and values. The most commonly used paper-and-pencil measure of ego identity status is the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-II (Adams, Bennion & Huh, 1989). This instrument assigns an identity status within each of eight identity domains, and provides ways of deriving an overall identity status assessment. Both measures have consistently shown good indices of reliability and validity.

Whether identity in general or each identity status in particular represents a unitary construct is an issue for further research. Preliminary research on the identity diffusion status with patient samples has suggested that identity diffusion can be divided into at least four facets: ‘role absorption’, ‘painful incoherence’, ‘inconsistency’, and ‘lack of commitment’ (Wilkinson-Ryan & Westen, 2000). The diffusion identity status may thus reflect any one of a variety of underlying identity disorders.

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