Identity Development

Identity development refers to one’s sense of an individual and how they define themselves in terms of values, beliefs, and role in the world. Identity development has been seen historically as a primary developmental task of adolescence, the transition from dependency in childhood to increasing responsibility for one’s own needs, interests, drives, aspirations, and desires in adulthood. Identity development is when one forms an identity within a larger and transitional cultural context. For example, changes in the body due to puberty, shifts in sociocultural context due to war or the civil rights movement, changes in individual role responsibility due to parenthood or divorce, and changes in cognitive processing due to aging support a life-span view of identity formation. Cultural factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual orientation also affect the identity formation that take place on the way to and through adulthood.