Erickson believed that the primary psychosocial task of adolescents was to establish their

identity. This brings about self-consciousness and thus reflects on one’s attributes and

behaviors. An adolescent is always asking about their attributes and behaviors, like “who

they are”. This entails factors such as their appearance, choices of education, sexuality, and

political and social views. According to Erickson's view, this is a period of uncertainty. In his

argument, (Marcia 2009) identified the main concepts of identification as self-conception,

self-identification, and social identification. These identifications have an impact on all

aspects of their development and lay the groundwork for personal growth and development

by assisting people in understanding their strengths and flaws. How people see themselves in

society is significantly influenced by self-identification as well. Teenagers want autonomy

during adolescence, especially from their parents. They also become more committed to

social aspects of identity and have larger requirements for peer interaction. In a similar vein,

self-evaluations across roles and relationships become more nuanced and distinct.

Despite the behavioral and neurological evidence of the enhanced importance of self- and

identity-related processes during adolescence, what function these processes may play in

neurodevelopmental theories of teenage behavior is unclear. An adolescent may explore their

self-conception through gender identification. Sigmund Freud developed the psychosexual

stages. There are different stages of development that a child goes through. The stages entail

the oral, anal phallic latency, and genital stages. They differ according to the age of the child;

in his argument, he believed that life is built around tension and pleasure, whereby tension

comes from the build-up of libido, and then pleasure comes from discharge. (Mcleod, 2022).

As children grow, they also identify their roles as male and female. According to (Phinney,

1990) although gender is not a contextual issue per se, it is possible that there are differing
cultural expectations for men and women, such as the notion that women are the keepers of

ethnic customs.

Social identification is another way of exploring an adolescent. This helps them fit well into

society. Erikson was intrigued by how interpersonal and social interactions affected human

growth and development. (Erikson, 1970) On the so-called epigenetic principle, Erikson's

theory was established. This idea contends that development happens in stages that develop

over time and within the framework of a broader community. There are different activities

that can help learners socialize, such as sports. According to (Lundberg et al.,2011) adaptive

sports and recreation participation among individuals with disabilities has the potential to

create positive mental images and may also provide opportunities to challenge negative

cultural norms. Sometimes adolescents may have some misconduct that will make them

conflict with people around them. A good social relationship is vital in the learning

environment as it has an impact on academic performance.

I experienced the identification process during my adolescent years. My main focus was to be

a well-behaved and responsible daughter who would make her family proud. This was one of

the things that made me be obedient and focus on my education. There was never a day that

my uncles were called upon to discipline me. This was self-concept identification This also

had a negative impact on my development, as I was more mature than my peers, and most of

the time I spent doing family chores and assisting my mother, I spent my entire adolescence

as an adult. Adolescents undergo the identification process but in a different way.

Question

How positively does the identification process impact a learner’s academic

performance?

References

Erikson, E. H. (1970). Autobiographic notes on the identity crisis - JSTOR.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20023973

Lundberg, N. R., Taniguchi, S. T., McCormick, B. P., & Tibbs, C. (2011a). Identity

Negotiating: Redefining Stigmatized Identities through Adaptive Sports and Recreation

Participation among Individuals with a Disability. Journal of Leisure Research, 43(2), 205–

225. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2011.11950233

Marcia, J. E. (2009). Life transitions and stress in the context of psychosocial development.

In Springer eBooks (pp. 19–34). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0748-6_2

Mcleod, S. (2022, July 26). Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development. Simply

Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research.

Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 499–514. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.499