The Struggle for Identity in Teenagers: Recognizing the Signs

As a teenager, we are all trying to figure out what our identity is. According to James Marcia, a psychologist, there are 4 stages of identity development: identity diffusion when the teen has not decided on his identity; identity foreclosure when a teen decides on his identity without many considerations; identity moratorium when there are few thoughts put into deciding one’s identity, lastly; identity achievement when teen put in much effort to figure out his identity and is committed to it. While they are on the journey to search for themselves, they may face struggles. According to Les Parrott, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, there are five most common ways in which teens demonstrate their struggles with identity: they dress themselves to look like a specific group of people; they engage in forbidden activities; refuse to listen to adults; they look up to a certain celebrity and tries to be like him or her, losing their own identity, and; exclude people who are not part of their ‘group’.

Teenage is the time when teens become independent and more self-conscious, leading them to be more sensitive to others' comments. Those who are often criticized will see themselves as a failure, and be lost in what they want to do in the future. They will feel that the whole world is against them and feel lonely. While those who are often praised will feel more confident and feel that their future is very bright. They will be more energetic and have faith in themselves whenever they do something. The identity they give themselves can change their perspective of life too. Those with positive identities will always look forward to the future and those with negative identities will always want to return to the past. Not only do others’ comments influence their identity, but many factors shaped their identity. They include family, friends, idols, life experiences, roles in life, and family background. I would describe myself as lazy yet adventurous.

I would identify myself as just me, a fifteen-year-old girl with multiple roles, mainly a student, a sister, and a daughter. I identify myself as an actress. An actress is one who plays different roles in different shows which will allow her to experience different perspectives of life. With different roles, I will experience and learn different things. For example, I gain new knowledge in school when I am a student, I learn the importance of having a family when I am a daughter and I experience arguments with my sibling when I am a sister. Whatever I experienced can be sweet or sour, but at the end of the day, they are all my life experiences that shaped my identity.

Various roles allow me to communicate with a range of people. These people are also key influences that shaped my identity. As I mentioned previously, people influence how teenagers think about themself. After meeting with different people, I got to understand more about myself too. Sometimes, there will be people calling others ugly and there will be others saying otherwise. These thoughts made me think deeper about myself. By reflecting, I would then conclude on what are qualities I have. Independence is one of the qualities that define me. I am someone who prefers to complete things on my own to others helping me. While I have good qualities, I have negative ones too. Sometimes I can be short-tempered especially if I had a long or tiring day.

No matter who you are or what qualities you have, it is crucial that you have the right values to live by. For me, it would be appreciating and respecting others. Respect is something we all should have. We treat people the way you want them to treat us. To have a gracious society, a first-world nation with first-world people, we must respect our surroundings and the people around us. Even if you are the President or someone with high positions, if you do not respect others, no one will listen to you and it would be hard to persuade others.

I feel that my perception of who I am is different from others. As no one would understand me more than myself. There may be things that others do not know about me. With different life experiences, family backgrounds, and many other factors, teenagers will have different perspectives and identities from one another. Overall, everyone is unique in their own ways, we are all just who we are.