Story Sharing and Female Adolescent Faith Development :: Essays Papers

Story Sharing and Female Adolescent Faith DevelopmentAdolescence Women in Crisis According to developmental psychologist Erik Erikson, the defining psychological crisis of adolescence is identity validation versus identity confusion (Erikson 1982). This involves defining what is most chief(prenominal) to the individual in toll of ethics, long-term goals, and especially personal and interpersonal commitments. Erikson proposes three elements necessary for this formation an experience of inner sameness or consistency between value and self-determined actions, a historical continuity of such decisions, and a community of important others who serve to validate that integrated self (1968). Ideally, self-confidence is evident for two genders during this period. However, the contrast between male and female commitments indicates that many females are non successful in forming a strong identity at this phase. To leaven the varying commitments teenages make during the identity form ation crisis period, a team of adolescent psychologists interviewed hundreds of middle and high school aged people of both sexes. individually participant was asked to record a few things that were most important in their lives (i.e. family, career goals, vivification philosophy), then the interviewers asked them to say more about these themes. piece the men mentioned subjects most pertinent to their own interests (school, political issues, and their futures), women focused principally on interpersonal relationships. This alone whitethorn or may not indicate a gap in identity development, but the piece of work indicated that women did not exclude talk of themselves and their lives, but rather spoke negatively about both Many quondam(a) female subjects mentioned problems and ambivalence with deliberate to themselves (being uncertain and so on) and difficulties in committing themselves to the different aspects of their own personalities(Bosma 100). Why are they not committed to themselves? Perhaps they cannot not commit because they do not know to what they are committing. Neither are they committed to certain life philosophies that might inform their characters. In fact, religion was ranked one of the weakest commitments for older adolescent women. Do they honestly not care, or do they not know what to care about without the immediate feedback of others? In this light, the volatile temperament of a womans attention to her own character may not be moodiness, then, but a deeper sense of despair at choosing to commit to something that might elicit a damaging critique from others. It is much safer to focus on something highly valued in the social world, bid ones friends, than something that could be construed as selfish, like schoolwork or faith.