Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Identity in Context

Chapter Two of Nakkula and Toshalis's book, "Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators," discusses the struggle that youth often have with finding their own identity.  Four different identities are discussed:


Foreclosed Identity-  One in which an individual has committed to a life direction or way of being without exploring it carefully and without experimenting with alternatives.

Diffuse Identity-  A state where there had been little exploration, active consideration and no psychological commitment of a particular identity.

Identity Moratorium-  A developmental state in which one actively explores roles and beliefs, behaviors and relationships, but refrains from making a commitment.

Achieved Identity-  Occurs when the identity crisis is resolved and the commitment to the selected identity is high.



In the chapter, Mitch had Julian to make a list of all the different spaces and relationships  he negotiate each day.  When he is finished with this, he was told to write down what each of those spaces and relationships expect of him.  Finally, he was told to think about how each of those spaces and relationships makes him feel.  The activity Mitch was having Julian do was making a context map.  Context maps can help a person to take a step back and look at all of the different identities that they play in their day to day life.  In doing this, they can figure out what it is that they want to be.

If I was to look at my own life and make a context map, I would categorize it into places that influence me the most.


5 comments:

  1. Hey Melissa,
    I really liked how you incorporated six identities within your context map. Based on your context map, I could see that you hold various influences as well as relationships that impact your life.

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  2. I also like how you incorporated 6 identities in your context map. I never thought to put social media into my context map, but I like how you put into yours. Maybe social media just is not a big part of my life.

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    1. Whether social media is a big part of your life or not, I like to think of it as a relationship that I interact with because I have to be careful what I put online because of the fact that everyone can see it. Sometimes things that happen online may make you feel unsafe, uneasy or happy.

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  3. I had to look through multiple different posts to see what they were using for their context maps. I, also did not really think of social media, but it is indeed a good point to use. I tried to use some of your ideas as well as others to incorporate as much as I could into my identity. It is sometimes tough for me to reflect back on myself, which is somewhat odd.

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  4. Hi Missy,

    I like how simple and to the point your post was this week. I liked how you set up your context map, it was very east to read.

    -Brittany

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