Adolescent self-portraiture and identity development

Adolescence

Adolescent Self-Portrait

Adolescence: A conflicted life period

Adolescence is often considered to be a particularly 'fraught' time during the average individual's life history. Although the construction of adolescence and the age during which someone is considered to be an adolescent may vary from culture to culture, most societies define a certain period of time as 'not childhood' and 'not adulthood.' There are common physiological changes seen in all adolescents such as menstruation in females; lowered voice in males; and increased height and body hair in both genders. Adolescents also begin to experience and experiment with showing sexual desire. However, these changes can cause great anxiety and confusion, as the adolescent struggles with his or her emerging adolescent identity.

Females in particular tend to be more anxious about their body image than boys because of the great emphasis placed upon female beauty within the culture as a measure of self-worth (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 2010:260). Girls tend to mature earlier than boys and very early-maturing girls often experience particularly traumatic feelings about changes in their bodies (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 2010: 261). A common feeling amongst adolescents is that their body and mental state are not the same: they feel part child and part adult all at once, and this can be exacerbated by early maturity.

Adolescents are often said to be very impulsive and exhibit risk-taking behaviors such as engaging in substance abuse and early sexual activity. This may be partially due to the hormonal changes during this period of time and the underdeveloped areas of the brain which relate to judgment and foresight. Adolescents may feel like adults and judge themselves to be far more capable and mature than they really are in terms of perceiving risk (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 2010: 262).

On a social level, adolescence has often been characterized as divisive and 'cliquish.' The developmental theorist Erik Erikson noted that adolescents' "intolerance of differences" was likely due to the central problem of this life stage, which is identity confusion, causing the adolescent to lash out at others because of the internal anxieties the adolescent really feels about him or herself (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 2010: 296). Erikson believed that unless identity confusion was resolved in adolescence, the young person would be unable to move onto the next stage of social development.

The ways in which adolescents struggle with a developing identity have been characterized according to the following definitions: identity achievement, foreclosure, identity diffusion, and moratorium. Identity achievement involves a struggle to develop an identity which is eventually resolved; foreclosure defines individuals who transition seamlessly from childhood to adulthood with little soul-searching; identity diffusion is characterized by a permanently unstable sense of self; moratorium is characterized by persons who undergo an identity crisis which is never fully resolved in a satisfactory manner and causes them permanent life anxiety (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 2010: 298).