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Identity Development in Adolescence

The teenage years of one’s life is what most would say as the initial

years of personality development. As one ages, the brain develops more and

more, and during adolescence the combination of this and the influx of

hormones creates an interesting concoction.

After the onset of puberty, humans going through adolescence have

huge waves of hormones going through their bodies, and their brains begin

to shift, resulting in more aggravated behaviors and rash decisions. (Altman

et al., 2017). a study cited by the American psychological association stated

that age and gender became factors into developing identities. Also results

from this study showed that the older the ages of the teens were, they were

better at learning from past mistakes and gender did not influence that.

However, in terms of self-esteem, boys had better results. Girls on the other

had did better at telling memory. (Mclean et al., 2009). Teens go through

many changes and the nuances of each issue they face is influenced by

many things, not just limited to age and gender, religion, region, and

ethnicity also tie in.

The western world is notorious for being self-absorbed and some

could argue, they apply rules to the way they live and exist to every other

country. Teens here are most notably known for rebelling once they hit a

certain age and partake in riskier behaviors. For example, adolescents in

Japan are struggling greatly with the societal expectations of them, the idea

of putting society first before themselves, in a country where they don’t

even know if they can get a job. (Sugimura, 2020). Traditionally Japan had

an easy transition from school to work, however due to a recession in the

1990’s, that transition became muddled, and became very difficult to

navigate. “The dilemma of experiencing adolescence with neither support

from traditional roles and societal structures nor a new framework for the

future makes it harder to form an identity in Japan”. (Sugimura, 2020.,

p.71). While Japan is a very modern and technologically advanced country,

the mentality of the people is still very traditional. They are more focused

on collectivism than say Americans or Europeans, however, they are still all

equal in terms of individualism. (Sugimura, 2020). The problem lies within

the ideas taught to the youth by their parents and elders, even though they

don’t share the same beliefs. (Sugimura, 2020). Another issue is that they

have not incorporated modern ideals into society. The previous generations

struggle with the youth’s strong individualism and they cannot reconcile

with the idea that the teens no longer see them as role models as they want

to be able to put themselves first, and not have to worry about everyone

else’s opinions on them. (Sugimura, 2020). “At the cultural level we see a

serious gap between emerging individualism in younger generations and the

older generations inability to incorporate increased cultural variation”.

(Sugimura, 2020, p.74). In a study done in this article, it compared Dutch,

Belgium, and Japans teens, and it showed that Japanese teens had high

instability and uncertainty of identity development compared to the other

countries. (Sugimura, 2020). In fact, compared to Belgium’s youth,

Japanese youth scored 70% to their 25%. (Sugimura, 2020). Another issue

to consider is that Japanese teens also have many after school

programs/clubs that also effect their development. The constant pressure of

living up to societies standards takes its toll.

Finally, the idea of taking the pressure off of these teens and letting

them explore their youth is refreshing. Using the study above, if the

environment these adolescents are in changed how much would the data

change? And if compared to other countries in Asia and the Middle East,

how would it compare. The collection of this data would be to follow a few

teens from each region from say the ages 16-18 to see how they perceive

the world, and how they are developing their personalities, and if in specific

regions, which would have more gender biases imposed and how those

would also affect development. My Hypothesis would be that while culture

would be a major clashing issue, the gender bias would be relatively the

same in whichever country. Age on the other hand would also be an

interesting variable to look at, as every teen is different, and what influence

age would have on that.

The development of teenage identity is very crucial in one’s life,

there are many changes going through one’s body, and it is not an easy

transition for anyone. The layers that one has to deal with whilst also

navigating through life and trying to figure out what to do for the rest of

your life is a nightmare. Adding religion, culture, and gender adds fuel to

the fire. Your brain is literally redeveloping to becoming an adult and thus

causes a lot of risky and irrational behaviors. Gender norms and gender

roles have always been a hot topic, and it especially comes into play during

adolescence when teens are starting to become more mature. These

expectations are pathetic and awful as regardless of gender, they are just

teens who deserve to not be put onto unrealistic expectations. Teens are

very sensitive, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just they feel

everything in extremes, rage, sadness, happiness, it is not as normal for

them to feel it as adults. A saying I found that truly encompassed

adolescence went along the lines of that the teenage years were the worst

because you are old enough to know better, and you have basically come

into your own person, but parents still have full control over you, and no

matter what they will always be right, and you will always be wrong. It is a

crucial part in one’s life, these early developmental years but they don’t

define someone. It is just the stepping stones of becoming an adult and

therefore there should be more support during these years.

Works Cited Altman, M., Jacobi, L., Avilla, R., Beston, B., Brown, K., Burton, E.T., Carducci, B., Hummel, J., Lukowski, A., Martinez, R.L., O'Donovan, A., Poplock, S., Slonecker, E., Swisher, M., VanArsdall, J., Vervaeke, J.,& Wehe, H. (2017) .Introduction to psychology: A Top Hat interactive text. Top Hat Monocle .https://tophat.com/marketplace/beta/oer-introduction-to-psycholo gy-meaghan-altman/737/

McLean, K. C., & Breen, A. V. (2009). Processes and content of narrative identity development in adolescence: Gender and well-being. Developmental psychology, 45(3), 702.

Stevenson, S. W., & Zusho, A. (2002). Adolescence in China and Japan. The world’s youth, 141-170.

Sugimura, K. (2020), Adolescent Identity Development in Japan. Child Dev Perspect, 14: 71-77. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12359