PART XVIII Section 1.Identity And Life Stages

When studying the following slides, try to use them to recall the course your identity has traversed over the years from your earliest memory to the present. Try to remember what factors were shaping your own identity, what caused pivotal moments when your identity changed to more positive or more negative and, looking back, how you felt about these pivotal moments and transitions and transformations. Consider how your identity differs from your private self now. Use the journalizing technique again to track your identity’s history and then consider how you would like your identity to change. In what way would you like your true feeling of who you are inside to be aligned with your public personality or identity? Do you feel the difference between your identity and your private, true self is keeping you from a sense of inner peace with yourself?

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

2

Life Goes Through Stages From Birth to Death. As We Move Out Of and Into Major Stages of Life, We Not Only Have to Adopt New Skills and

Ways of Being, But, Also, Our Identity Changes. The Identity Is That Part of the Self That Is Shared With the Public, With Other People in Our Life.

• Stages of Life– Infancy: development of the basic orientation of the Will has the most pervasive effect on the

remainder of life.– Early childhood: initiates enduring incorporation of the Implicit Other. Play taking of parent

roles. Will competency expansion through spontaneous self selected challenges.– Early teens: initiates beginning of emotional and territorial independence from parents and

establishing roles, identities, and complementary relationship scenarios.– Late teen and early adulthood: initiates separation from parents toward an independent belief

system, values, view of the world, life style, economic self reliance, vision of one’s role and destiny in ever encompassing strata of the world, and finally, establishing enduring intimate relationships and parenting.

– Mid adulthood: initiates solidifying secure institutional connections; coming to grips with the fragile, contingent, limited nature of one’s remaining years; a desperate attempt to fulfill enduring criteria for life satisfactions.

– Elder: making the transition to loss of power; mortality; and making peace with the way one’s life has turned out. Passing knowledge to next generation – Mentoring.

• On the Next Slide There Is Graphic Showing How Each Stage Sets the Stage for the Next. There Is a Continuity Underlying the Disjunctive Ness Between Stages.

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

3

Significant Phases Of Life With Their Landmark CharacteristicsEmphasis On Changes In The Nature Of The Will And Identity

Infancy: develop-ment of the basic orientation of the Will has the most pervasive effect on the remainder of life.

Early childhood: initiates enduring incorporation of the Implicit Other. Play taking of parent roles. Will competency expansion through spontaneous self selected challenges.

Early teens: initiates beginning of emotional & territorial independence from parents & establishing roles, identities, complementary relationship scenarios

Late teens & early adulthood: initiates separation from parents toward an independent belief system, values, view of the world, life style, economic self reliance, vision of one’s role, identity & destiny in ever encompassing strata of the world, & finally, establishing enduring intimate relationships & parenting.

Mid adulthood: initiates solidifying secure institutional connections; crystallizes identity; coming to grips with the fragile, contingent, limited nature of one’s remaining years; a desperate attempt to fulfill enduring criteria for life satisfactions.

Elder: making thetransition to loss of power; Mortality; & making peace with the way one’s life has turned out. Passing knowledge to next generation-Mentoring.

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

4

Age At Significant Phases Of Life And Landmark Experiences Within Each Phase And The Determinative Effects Each Has On The Ensuing Phase

•The first period of life, infancy to early childhood, is the period when the person, the brain, is, with the exception of intrauterine experiences that are limited to tactile sensations and perhaps muffled auditory sensations, like a blank tablet upon which whimsical life can etch whatever it chances to. The mind, however, is not really like a blank tablet because the brain is not a passive tablet but a untutored but dynamic process, an intentional process. •As an intentional process, the brain attempts to make sense of and interact with whatever is presented by the world. Nevertheless, the first experiences with the world invoke the first patterning of the intentional processes. These first patterns have no competing patterns and therefore subsequent experiences are met first with the previously formed patens. When these patterns do not bring comfort or success, a search begins for a variant pattern that will work. However, these subsequent patterns are close approximations to the first and prior patterns. The world is always initially seen and reacted to in terms of prior perceptions and reactions. The earlier is the prototype for the later. •In a more general sense, experience is ever widening and responses are ever broadening. Life patterns or styles are constructed out of these interactions with the world. As perceptions are refined and behavior more complex and skillful, the person advances to higher levels on interaction. •Since the child interacts with parents, adults, siblings, and peers, peers are subjected to the same graduated progression in learning experiences and challenges and progress in general at the same rates. Children begin to exhibit the same idiosyncrasies at nearly the same age. •There are certain crucial experiential phenomena that appear on schedule in modern American culture because of the structure of our culture. The experience, meaning, and significance of each subsequent phase of life is hidden from us until we reach that phase. When that phase is reached we gain a new perspective on life and we experience new perplexities, confusions, anxieties, and stresses. When we look at people in an earlier phase, we feel we are looking down and back at what we have been through and think.

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

5

Identities In Relation To Will Evolves Through Significant Structural TransitionsOver Time, As A Result Of Significant Life Events, In Relationships, Through Roles, And Within Social Structures

• Infancy: development of the basic orientation of the Will has the most pervasive effect on the remainder of life.

• Early childhood: initiates enduring incorporation of the Implicit Other. Play taking of parent roles. Will competency expansion through spontaneous self selected challenges.

• Early teens: initiates beginning of emotional & territorial independence from parents & establishing roles, identities, complementary relationship scenarios.

• Late teens & early adulthood: initiates separation from parents toward an independent belief system, values, view of the world, life style, economic self reliance, vision of one’s role & destiny in ever encompassing strata of the world, & finally, establishing enduring intimate relationships & parenting.

• Mid adulthood: initiates solidifying secure institutional connections; coming to grips with the fragile, contingent, limited nature of one’s remaining years; a desperate attempt to fulfill enduring criteria for life satisfactions.

• Elder: Making the transition to loss of power; Mortality; & making peace with the way one’s life has turned out. Passing knowledge to next generation-Mentoring.

• The impact of parents, parent substitutes, events, and setting structures on the infant up through early childhood is to define for the child a fundamental sense of ‘I can’ versus ‘I can’t’.

• In early childhood these same factors plus peer relations begin to define the child in terms of ‘I should’ versus ‘I shouldn’t’. This orientation of restraining versus experimenting determine the growth of competency, confidence, and satisfaction with self. From here through late teens, status and identity of parents is a major aspect of identity formation.

• In early teens the influence of parents and adult authorities diminishes, setting structures ascend, and peer relations and social roles begin to predominate. The former restraint versus experimentation orientation reveals the power of its early influence in the face of expanding territorial independence. The evolving degree of independence, strength, and self reliance of Will at this stage determines the extent to which the teen develops social, intellectual, and physical competence. The initial assignment or adoption of formal and informal roles shapes the developing character, preferences, and behavior. These dynamics work together to begin to crystallize Identity.

• At this stage, identity reorients in that it becomes more shaped from within and is developed as a counterpoint in relation to parents. Independence of will takes a surge forward and encompasses knowledge, skill, traits, beliefs, values, preferences, style. Departing from parents ways and separating emotionally, territorially, and economically requires the freedom and strength of will to envision one’s own future and how to prepare for it. Identity is the launching pad for this great adventure.

• While life’s choices were formerly, primarily determined by parents and institutions, in early through middle adulthood a vast array of vital, critical, life course determining choices present them selves. On the threshold of relocation, career, marriage, homestead, parenthood, management of money, and adult affiliations and recreation, earlier life preparation of will and skill and formation of identity are challenged and reshaped fundamentally and create soul wrenching crises concerning the direction of one’s life and the meaning and significance of life itself.

• Having passed through the crucible of mid adulthood, the person faces the next and final major crisis of identity and will. Status, roles, skills, and range of choices begin to decline and disappear, leaving the person with identity confirmed only by memory and whether to voluntarily contribute the wealth of memory whenever life presents willing protégés.

There Are Unanticipated Events and Influences Throughout the Course of a Life That

Distinctly and Powerfully Shape Public Identity, Life Skills and Ways of Being.

On the following two slides there are lists of examples of positive and negative events and

influences that shape Identity and Behavior throughout the life span.

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

7

Major Negative Determinants Of Identity And Behavior Throughout The Life Span

• Pain, Punishment, And Aversive Conditioning Lead To Avoidance Of The Associated Preferences and Paths.

• Failure In New Pursuits And Repeated Failure In Preferred Goals Eventually Leads To Avoidance Of These Pursuits And Goals.

• Interruption Of Preferred Pursuits And Goals Leads To Repeated Pursuit.• Accidental Trauma Leads To Avoidance And Mental Repetition, Haunting

Obsession.• Intentional Infliction Of Trauma By Another Person Leads To Obsession With

Mastering That Type Of Incident.• Perceived Unwarranted Restriction, Limitation, Deprivation Leads To Compulsive

Pursuit.• Disapproval, Rejection, Criticism, Ridicule Leads To Avoidance And Negative

Preoccupation Against Both Self And The Originator Of The Negative Attributions.

• A Negative Model Leads To Attempts To Exhibit The Opposite Behavior.• Loss Leads To Ceasing Goal Orientation, Withdrawal, Immobilization, And

Recapturing The Loss In Fantasy.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCES

THE CONSEQUENCE OF EACH NEGATIVE INFLUENCE TENDS TO PERSIST AND LATER IS EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED AS THE TRAIT JUST BEING ‘THE WAY I AM’. THIS BECOMES A PART OF AND IS PRESENTED AS THE PERSON’S IDENTITY OR PUBLIC PERSONA.

copyright edyoung, PhD 1998

8

Major Positive Determinants Of Identity And Behavior Through The Life Span (Cont.)

• Modeling By Parents, Siblings, Peers, Significant Others Shape The Quality of Relationships and the Preferences, Paths, And Directions Of Behavior.

• Guidance And Education Shape Goals and Pursuits In Life.

• Conditions Of Life, Social Status, Material Resources, Opportunities Determine And Shape Those Avenues That Are Pursued And Those That Could Be But Are Left Unacknowledged.

• Approval, Recognition, Reward And Success Lead To Preferences And Pursuits.

• Bonding With Positive Models Leads To Sense Of Emotional Security, Belonging, And Empowerment.

• Involvement In Intensely Pleasant But Forbidden Experiences Leads To Intense Mental Fixation And Obsession.

• Expansion Of Freedom Of Independent Judgment and Movement Beyond Home Borders And Penetration Into New Territories Expands Social Confidence, Competence And Emancipation For Emotional Independence.

• Availability Of Productive Work, Organizational, And Recreational Challenges Develops Self Reliance, Competency And Confidence

• Assumption Of Formal And Informal Social Roles Shapes Perceptions, Attitudes, Values, And Behavior.

• Characteristics Of Neighborhoods Shape Social Skills And The Definition Of The Self In Relation To The Local Society.

OpenOrganizedPersonal Productive Rewarding

• Characteristics Of Representatives Of Public Institutions Visible In The Neighborhoods Shape The Definition Of The Self And Enfranchisement In Relation To The Broader Society.

POSITIVE INFLUENCES

THE CONSEQUENCE OF EACH POSITIVE INFLUENCE TENDS TO PERSIST AND LATER IS EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED AS THE TRAIT JUST BEING ‘THE WAY I AM’. THIS BECOMES A PART OF AND IS PRESENTED AS THE PERSON’S IDENTITY OR PUBLIC PERSONA.

Dynamics of Interaction of Internal and External Structures and Systems Interact to Form and Transform Identities As Humans Pass Through the Stages of Life.•The primary internal system involved in shaping identity is the human will or intentional processes.•Parenting also goes through transformations as their children pass through stages.•Intentional processes develop with age but make dramatic changes at age landmarks.•The primary external structure shaping identity is the Societal structures that are fitted to each life stage.•Transitions across Societal structures present the child with difficult challenges.•The combination of transitions across life stages and age landmarks and societal structures present the child’s will with difficult challenges.•The child’s manner of mastering these challenges is both shaped by and shapes the child’s public identity.•As the child moves through these stages and structures, major positive and negative life events tend to alter the course of the child’s developing will and public identity.

Return to PART XVIII Table of Contents