Emerging Commitments and Identity-Processing Style in Middle Adolescence.
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 23. – 27. 8. 2011, Bergen, Norway. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Psychology |
| Keywords | Commitments; exploration; identity processing style |
| Description | This study examines processual and content aspects of identity during middle adolescence. The main question is how identity processing style (informative/normative/diffuse) affects the content of identity (in terms of exploration and commitment) in different domains of life. The sample includes 256 Czech adolescents who have participated in the long-term longitudinal research ELSPAC (age 17). As instruments, the Czech adaptation of the Groningen Identity Development Scale (GIDS; Bosma, 1985) and the Czech version of the Identity Style Inventory (ISI4, Berzonsky et al., 2007) were administrated. We analyze the content of commitments, strength of these commitments, and the amount of exploration in different life domains (school, occupation, leisure-time activities, philosophy of life, friendship, and romantic relationships). These identity/commitment variables are related to three identity styles. Results indicate that adolescents who prefer an informative identity processing style are not committed yet. Adolescents who adopt normative style report commitments in some life domains, however certain number of them are very weak. Those who relied on a diffuse/avoidant identity processing style lacked firm commitments. |
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