Appunti di PsicologiaŠPsychology Notes - Cultural Association for Psychology Research
Adolescent Identity, and an Elaboration on a Test of Identity (1978, 1989)
by Miguel Molla
The Test of Identity for adolescents and youth, is an inventory composed of
110 items. This test has been elaborated with the intention of measuring a
series of alternatives attitudes to fundamental self aspects that build the
feeling of ego identity.
One of the first approximations to the problems of youth, is to figure out
how to handle one's personal development: to reach a sense of unity and
coherence within oneself, to learn the fundamental definitions of one's
life, and the key aspects of one's relationship with reality.
This attainment of personal development, called "identity",
will allow the individual to project him/herself to a personal and social
level.
What is identity? How does it come about in human development?
The theory of Erik Erikson describes the psychological development of
identity, which has its critical moment during adolescence, as a stage in
which one must define aspects of great importance to our future lives. Such
development is characterized by one's own personal individuality, knowing
oneself and being that self.
Adolescence verifies this growth, assuming, genuinely, consciously, and with
one's own will, an orientation that gives meaning to one's life, with which
one translates an intelligence of the world, and of one's internal and
external reality, then communicates this world with the creativity of
his/her own vision to become uniquely oneself, of value to oneself and to
others.
This growth must continue its transformation: to grow, one must overcome the
daily problems associated with change, stages of crisis which show
themselves in various degrees of disorganization e confusion. One expresses
this by asking frequently :"Who am I?"
The characteristics of the identity of youth are incommensurable, but our
Identity Inventory is useful in facilitating a methodology of classification
of key characteristics described by Erikson.
The test of Identity allows one to establish an individual psychological
profile, a type of x-ray of one evolution process,
helping to reach an experimental confirmation of this theory,
comparing empirical proof with theoretical convictions.
The test has been devised to condense, in a questionnaire, the phrases
regarding the essential characteristics that define every stage of the
Epigenetic Cycle.
To validate the test, we use the same sample of adolescents, and have them
compile, other than the Test of Identity, also the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory (MMPI), a test which taps into multiple aspects of
personality, and in this sense, measures or validates the same variables of
our test.
Our data was statistically analyzed, uncovering correlations between both tests,
and looking for the existence of significant differences between the
results. This permitted us to establish, on one hand, the validity and the
reliability of our test, and on the other hand, to explain the significant
differences. The results gave us adequate validity and reliability of the
test of Identity. The reliability coefficient of .93 was considerably high.
The theoretical correspondence regarding content validity, derived from 264
calculated correlations, tells us that only 1.6% of these correlations
showed significant differences, implicating a refusal of the null hypothesis.
The Test examines the following aspects:
1.Trust
The average total score is the value of Identity
These results appear as objective indicators of the development of youth,
corresponding to different stages: those of the infantile past, of the
present, and projection of the future adult.
The tasks of infantile development are:
1. Trust
The tasks caracteristic of adolescence are:
5. Temporal Perspective
Other tasks also caracteristic of adolescence but projects to the adult
stage are:
9. Sexual Polarization
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AREAS MEASURED BY THE TEST OF IDENTITY:
"Identity" mainly means adequacy and strength of the self, the Ego; a
balance, maturity, personal integrity, rationality and dependability; and
adequate level of personal satisfaction in social adaptability and
responsibility; spontaneous expression and self-confidence (This correlates
negatively with Scales 6,7,0,2,and 8 of the MMPI, and positively with the
"Strength of Ego", Scale under experimentation).
"Trust", refers mainly to adequate faith in one self and in others;
maturity in the way one faces life, faith and personal integrity,
sociability, spontaneity, flexibility, and a feeling of satisfaction with
one's self. (This correlates negatively with Scales 6,7,8,2,0 and 4 of
the MMPI, and positively with the Strength of "I" scale).
"Autonomy" mainly refers to the strength of Ego, and faith in one's
capacity to interact with one's environment, a sense of organization in one's
life, as something personal, for which one is responsible,
balance and integrity; a feeling of adequacy, productivity, and sociability.
(This correlates negatively with Scales 7,6,0,8,5, and 2 of the MMPI, and
positively with the Scale "Strength of Ego").
"Initiative", mainly refers to a spontaneity of expression and self
assurance; enthusiasm and a consciousness of one's own worth; originality in
problem-solving; a capacity to decide quickly, a flexibility in thought and
action, activity and great initiative, sociability and reliability in
personal relationships (This correlates negatively with the Scales 0,6,7,2,
and 8 of the MMPI, and positively with the Scale "Strength of Ego".
"Industry", mainly refers to a sense of organization, responsibility and
rectitude in work, the capacity to make decisions rapidly and find solutions
to problems, an adequate level of personal satisfaction, reliability and
personal integrity, adaptability to the mechanisms of social
conventionalities. (This correlates negatively with Scales 0,6,7,2,and 8 of
the MMPI, and positively with the Scale "Strength of Ego").
"Temporal Perspective" refers mainly to a good orientation towards time and
space, an assimilation of experiences that profit from an adequate level of
interpersonal exchange and sensitivity (emotional experience); rapidity of
reaction and thought; sociableness, concentration; ease in activity,
sureness of the environment. (This correlates negatively with the Scales
6,0,2,and 4 of the MMPI, and positively with the Scale "Strength of I").
"Self-Certainty", for the most part means the feeling of being able to
depend on oneself, a sense of adequacy and organization in one's personal life;
satisfaction and confidence in self-expression; sociableness and adequate
personal trust; strength of ego. (This correlates negatively with scales
7,0,6,4, and 2 of the MMPI and positively correlates with the scale "Strength
of Ego ).
"Role Experimentation", mainly means emphasis on action; confronting
diverse situations, competence, research resulting from the force of
productivity, effervescence and colorful expression of oneself; a sense of
direction in one's own life, or a clarification of one's own intentions; and
adequate exercise of goal anticipation; maturity in one's style of
confronting life, energy and enthusiasm , and in a certain way, absence of
conventionalism. (This correlates negatively with the Scales 0,8,7,6,2, and
4 of the MMPI and positively with the "Strength of Ego" Scale.
"Apprenticeship" mainly means interest in the environment and in
contact with the world, having a strategy of vital contact, a favorable
attitude towards work and knowledge, conventional adaptation to the
requirements of the environment, restlessness, personal satisfaction,
personal maturity, responsibility and rectitude in work and
sociability (This correlates negatively with scales 8,2,6,7, and 0 of the
MMPI, and positively with the scale "Strength of Ego".
"Sexual Polarization": a strong Ego in adolescence enables one to endure
the crises one must confront to reach a final equilibrium and integration of
experiences, which , at times, are opposing and contradictory. Sexual
polarization mainly means personal adaptation; an adequate and favorable
attitude towards ones own sex role; adequate faith in oneself; energy,
impulsivity, an inclination to pursue interests appropriate to one's sex.
(Correlates negatively with scales 7,2, and 5 of the MMPI, and positively
with the scale "Strength of Ego")
"Leadership and Followership" mainly means adequacy in interpersonal
relationships, and adaptation to groups which the individual finds
meaningful; confidence in the environment and in significant others;
adequate exercise and sharing of leadership roles; a sense of self-worth;
maturity,responsibility; the tendency to accept and recognize authority figures;
sociability. (This correlates negatively with the scales 7,0,6, and 8 of the
MMPI, and positively with the scale "Strength of Ego".
"Ideological Commitment" refers mainly to the individual's level of
participation in valuable relationships in one's own environment; stability,
integrity, personal trust, maturity, and adaptability to social
requirements. (This correlates negatively with scales 2,6,4,and 8 of the
MMPI, and positively with the scale "Strength of I").
CONCLUSIONS
I think that the Ego of the adolescent proves a sort of "engineering of
the personality", and that adolescence provides a special explanation of
defensive strategies that manifest themselves in a form that is creative,
constructive and ingenious in an individual sense (Yoico), and that maneuver
in a social context. The adolescent establishes diverse characterizations
of oneself, testing with rolls, various social postures, self-images that
are not totally internally derived, but neither are they a compromise. This
serves to make one agile in the use of remediation, to remain the same
notwithstanding changes, to find oneself in finding a definition of one self
(this is what Erikson called the search for identity), that is very
different from the postures and defensive games mentioned earlier.
The adolescent uses defensive styles, felt as a construction of the internal
Gestalt (an engineering of the Ego), among elements that combine and
balance each other out, while the identity conforms with what changes and
molds the "I" against the contrasts of adolescence, overcoming confusion.
As Erikson points out, three dimensions exist of which one can speak of the
feeling of identity: as a conscious feeling, as a way of behaving
(observable to others), and lastly, also as an internal state, verifiable
only by special examination.
We believe that the problems of adolescence (which one can verify at any
level), cannot be produced with a structure such as in base psychiatric
terms, but as a coming together of characteristic defensive modalities,
forming an extension of Liberman's concept (1976), we can call it "style of
communication".
By means of the test of Identity, we can access at the first level
(a conscious feeling),and extend this access by partial interpretation
into the other two levels, to verify a posteriori by an accurate
anamnestic.
Using this method, one can also easily diagnose the characteristics of
adolescents in group form, as well as precociously prevent various problems
and risks, in such a way that "the game is more creative, health is more
satisfying, sexuality is more free, and work is more meaningful".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BERTALANFFY, Ludwig Von, "Teoria Genral de Sistemas", Mexico, Fondo
de Cultura Economica.
Miguel Molla
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