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In this short-term longitudinal study, we examine specific examples of identity exploration in real-time interactions among peers. The participants included 12 first-year students majoring in literature, social sciences, and humanities at a national university in Japan (M age = 18.2; SD = 0.39; 83.3% female). They were divided into four triads that participated in weekly 20-minute discussions for nine successive weeks around three identity domains: learning, romantic relationships, and career. Transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Seven characteristics of exploration were identified in real-time interactions: support, open disclosure, meta-exploration, investigating, creating an idea, conflict, and demotivating. In addition, these characteristics generated three major overarching patterns that advanced exploration: creating a safe environment for exploration, clarification and elaboration of the idea embedded in support essential for promoting exploration, and a combination of finding a keyword and repeating it on the border between exploration and discovering an aspect of identity. Overall, our results reveal that exploration in real-time interactions among peers did not involve a fixed sequence of characteristics; rather, it was vitalized by mutual affirmation, going back and forth among different characteristics of exploration while taking small steps.

Based on the Identity Process Theory, this study wondered whether COVID-19 risk representation threatened relational identity and health perception. A sample of 976 Italian university students (Mage = 24.2;females: 73.8%) and a sample of 204 university staff members (Mage = 50.86;females: 57.4%) completed an online survey during the 1st phase of COVID-19. The results confirmed that in both samples the COVID-19 risk representation has been related to participants’ identity, both activating identity protection strategies and threatening their relational identity, i.e., the identity they derived from family and friendship relationships. Furthermore, identity protection mediated the relation between risk representation and health perception, suggesting that to feel even more part of their family and friend groups can protect participants from feeling unhealthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Identity is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Identity development occurs in the context of real-time interactions. However, existing research on interactions has focused on identity processes and little is known about identity content development within interactions. We define real-time identity as claims about selves, formulated in the service of an interactional “social business.” The aim of this methodological paper is to introduce Iterative Micro-Content Analysis (IMICA) as an approach to studying the changes and consistencies in real-time identity content. We outline four key principles of IMICA and offer a step by step guide to its analytic stages. We provide two worked examples for illustration: a video-recorded conversation between two young women on the topic of “love and desire,” and audio-recorded speed-dating conversations between young same-sex attracted men. The worked examples demonstrate how IMICA can be used to study how identity claims change within a single interaction as well as across multiple interactions. We argue that IMICA’s empirical insights into the concrete mechanisms through which social interactions shape identities are of both theoretical and practical relevance. We discuss how IMICA may allow for a micro-level operationalization of macro-level concepts (e.g., exploration or identity centrality), outline how it may be combined with quantitative analyses, and discuss its limitations.

Hispanic emerging adults are routinely faced with a variety of cultural stressors that adversely impact mental health and compromise identity development. Given that identity emerges through day-to...

Identity resilience is conceptualized in Identity Process Theory as a relatively stable self-schema, akin to a trait. Identity resilience is said to be high when individuals perceive their identity to be characterized by a high overall combined rating of their self-efficacy, self-esteem, continuity and distinctiveness. People reporting higher identity resilience respond more favorably to, and cope more effectively with, events and situations that question or threaten their identity. The Identity Resilience Index (IRI) is a 16-item self-report measure of identity resilience. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on data from 465 participants in two studies in the United Kingdom who completed the IRI and the Positive Affect Scale. Results revealed a second-order factor model in which every item loaded onto one of four first-order identity dimensions (self-esteem, self-efficacy, continuity and distinctiveness) and indicated these four first-order dimensions loaded onto a higher-order identity factor (identity resilience). Overall, we found no statistically significant differences on the IRI by population (general vs. gay men). The IRI correlated positively with the Positive Affect Scale, suggesting good concurrent validity.

Since the early 2000s, researchers have been taking advantage of the increasing availability of internet-based technology to gather intensive longitudinal data over short-term (e.g., hours, days) t...

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important aspect of youth development and has been wellstudied for the last several decades. One issue less discussed is how the construct of ERI translates acros...

While a substantial number of studies have shown that perceived parenting plays an important role in identity formation, research employing a multi-informant and cross-cultural approach is still la...

The identity of Americans of Arab or Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent has been relatively understudied within the U.S. racial landscape. Given that the U.S. Census categorizes indivi...

This study examined social identity development on the national and European domain using the three-dimensional identity status model. We took a person-centered approach to identify identity status...

Among emerging adults, peers are central to ethnic-racial identity (ERI) exploration, acting as primary interlocuters in discussions about ethnicity and race. Although ERI development is understood as adaptive, particularly for young people of color, ethnicity and race related conversations are often highly charged, and can consist of both positive, self-affirming exchanges, as well as negative experiences of identity denial, disinterest, and discrimination. The valence of such conversations, and their role in ERI development, may relate both to what is being said and how the conversation is structured. The current study examines in vivo, unguided conversations between 36 friend pairs coded for mention of ethnicity and race (N = 64 individuals; 56% women, 75% born in the U.S., M age = 20.54, SD = 2.73; ethnic composition: n = 11 ethnic-racial minority (EM)-EM , n = 14 EM-White, n = 9 White-White). Based on a two-step qualitative analysis, we found wide variation in conversation content and structure. Despite no differences in the length of ethnicity and race related discussion, the types of stories told were shaped starkly by ethnic-racial inequality, discrimination, and the largely segregated experiences of White students. We discuss our findings in light of the little investigated link between ERI exploration and maladaptive psychosocial outcomes.

In this paper, we examined the internal consistency and structural validity of Cross Ethnic-Racial Identity Scale-Adult (CERIS-A) scores. The CERIS-A, developed to assess ethnic-racial identity att...

Youth develop identities in various life domains by resolving identity-related subjective distress (i.e., identity distress) as well as engaging in identity processes (e.g., exploration and commitm...

In this study, national rates of youth unemployment were used as a proxy for economic disruption and stability in Spain and Canada, respectively. Identity distress was examined in relation to ident...

Relocation to a new culture has significant impacts on individuals’ “self” and identity. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of Japanese temporary resident and immigrant parents on the...

In the United States (U.S.), adolescent identity development occurs within a socio-historical context characterized by an ethnic-racial hierarchy, as well as an unequal distribution of power and pr...

The open science movement has been gaining steam in numerous scientific disciplines (e.g., ecology, cancer biology, economics) as well as sub-disciplines of psychology (e.g., social, personality). These issues, however, have been scantly discussed in the context of identity research. This presentation will include an overview of core issues in the open science movement and how they apply to research on identity. Emphasis will be placed on how incorporating open science principles can improve both theoretical and empirical work on identity.

This study investigates the nature of narrating experiences of difficult life events among Swedish young adults. We use the master narrative cultural framework to understand how narratives of diffi...

The risk for alcohol misuse among emerging adults can increase by the development of a maladaptive identity structure. Recent research has shown that drinking identity serves as a risk factor for h...

This study sought to examine the associations between parental identity commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitments with mental health outcomes (i.e., symptoms of depressio...

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is tied to wellbeing, especially for ethnic-racial minority individuals, and the process of ERI development is inherently social. However, much of the research on ERI d...

Recently, there has been increasing interest in understanding generativity, defined as concern for future generations as a legacy of the self, in adolescence and young adulthood. In Erikson...

Although psycho-social interventions have been proposed to increase physical activity, variability in the degree to which physical activity is maintained still exists. The self-as-doer identity, an...

Furries are fans of anthropomorphic art and media. A unique component of the fandom is the creation of individualized fursonas – anthropomorphic animal-themed identities to represent onesel...

This article explores a novel way to understand the process of diasporic identity formation by comparing the discursive structure of Italian diasporic newspapers published in the United States with...

Most research on identity has focused on either identity processes or identity content, neglecting how individuals structure their identities. We investigated how individuals negotiated their somet...

The history of Tamil Muslims is intertwined with the Malay Archipelago since antiquity because of their geographical proximity. A community that has valued its heritage is now forced to reinvigorat...

Young Latino males fare poorly in various measures of occupational outcomes compared to their peers. Identity development theory proposes that occupational outcomes are extensions of identity, and ...

The present study focused on the conflict of Asian immigrant students preserving their connections to the Asian ethnic culture, adapting to American cultural orientation, and redefining the...

The qualitative case study presented in this article describes and analyzes the experiences of Israeli education students, who joined a delegation to Ethiopia last year. This journey opened...

This study investigates how grit, perseverance in the face of challenges and focus on achieving goals, relates to identity development and how identity development mediates the relationship between...

Adding to a growing body of work on the psychology of neighborhood choice, the present research examined middle class black attitudes regarding owning homes in majority white and majority black com...

‘Self-continuity,’ or ‘continuous identity’ is the sense of cross-temporal persistence of identity and is associated with positive mood and decreased suicidality. Few studies have examined whether ...

In our contribution to this special issue devoted to reflections on Erik Erikson’s theorizing in Identity Youth and Crisis, 50 years later, we present the value of integrating attachment theory wit...

This introductory analysis presents the content of the special issue entitled “Fifty years since ‘Identity: Youth and Crisis’: A renewed look at Erikson’s writings on identity.” The authors of the ...

In contemporary identity research Erik Erikson is seldom associated with work on culture, race, and ethnicity. What is ironic about this lack of association is that not only did Erikson consider these factors, but that they figured prominently into his theorizing. The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of Erikson’s views that is more accurate than is what is typically represented by: 1) reviewing a brief history of empirical research on identity development since Erikson, 2) providing a broad summary of Erikson’s writing on how identity is shaped by culture, race, and ethnicity, 3) arguing that Erikson’s work suggests that historical trauma serves as an ideological setting for the identity development of marginalized groups, and 4) describing how historical trauma is associated with threats to temporal identity integration, or self-continuity.

Identity: Youth and Crisis provides a compilation of Erikson’s most insightful observations of the various types of identity crisis and their impact. Although his general writings about identity fu...

An Eriksonian perspective posits the importance of the societal context in which the individual develops. Part and parcel of that approach is a consideration of how contemporary technology might affect development. This article examines the impact of the defining technology of contemporary society—the Internet—on individual development of Millennials. Specifically, it delineates how the characteristics and affordances of the Internet may impact those elements of identity formation that may contribute to a sense of pseudospeciation. The focus is on the particular challenges of the Internet age on both identity formation and pseudospeciation at a time in which Millennials begin to undertake positions of influence in both their personal and professional lives. The challenges and possibilities inherent in the above are outlined and discussed.

Erikson borrowed the concept of epigenesis from embryology to propose that optimal personality development involves a sequencing of life tasks that emerges according to a predetermined principle of...

Negative identity is an identity that is formed by identifying with roles opposed to societal expectations. This topic has been neglected in prior research, which only focused more consistently on ...

Erik Erikson introduced identity as a universal developmental task that provides the foundation for an individual’s general sense of well-being. Erikson’s (1968) theorizing about the self, however,...

Identity research has become a prominent field of study in the social sciences, but the conceptualization and measurement of the construct of identity remains contested. Although Erikson’s theoreti...

The purpose of this paper is to highlight three aspects of Erikson's theory of identity that have been left relatively undeveloped. The first is Erikson's embedding identity development in an inter...

The construction of collective memory (and the formation of people’s identification) is a social process; however, this process is under-theorized. This article proposes a conceptual framework thro...