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we may learn how to care for ourselves, otherwise we never shall."
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Identity vs Identity Confusion is Erik Erikson's fifth stage of the eight stages of the life span. According to Erikson, this occurs during adolescence which is typically defined as the second decade of life, between 10 and 20 years. For some of us, discovering who we are may take longer (Santrock , 1999).
Ego identity means knowing who you are and how you fit into the rest of society. It requires that you take all you've learned about life and yourself and mold it into a unified self image, one that your community finds meaningful. Erikson suggested that discovering oneself occurs during a process called a "psychological moratorium". This involves experimenting with different roles and self-concepts and finding what makes you the happiest (Santrock, 1999).
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The secular trend is playing a key role in the identity formation of preteens and adolescence. Early developing males are generally looked upon as leaders and over-achievers, however, rapid development at an early age can have damaging effects on females (Santrock, 1999). |
| "It is nice to have documentation of increases in height across two decades. Anyone who walked through doorways in buildings built a century or more ago knew this."-Catherine D DeAngelis, MD |
   The Psychological Impact of Puberty |
Girls report a mixture of positive and negative reactions to menarche, depending on prior knowledge and support from family members. Boys report mixed feelings about spermarche; most know about ejaculation ahead of time, but few get any 
information from parents -- most obtain it from reading material or friends. Boys seem to get much less social support for the physical changes of puberty than girls do. Modern adolescents are granted partial adult status at many ages -- this makes the process of becoming an adult especially confusing (Erikson, 19 64).
Higher hormone levels are related to greater moodiness between 9 and 14 years of age. Bickering increases between parents and adolescents as teens move toward the peak of pubertal growth. Both parents and teens report feeling less close to one another during this time. Only a small minority of families experience a serious break in parent-child relationships (Erikson, 1964).