(BQ) Part 2 book “Adolescent identities - A collection of readings” has contents: A relational perspective on adolescent boys’ identity development, adolescent thinking, the problem of ego identity, the problem of ego identity, a changing female identity, and other contents. | 9 Adolescents’ Relatedness and Identity Formation A Narrative Study HANOCH FLUM AND MICHAL LAVI-YUDELEVITCH In Erikson’s (1950, 1968) psychosocial approach, identity formation comprises complex processes with agentic and communal aspects. Whereas the agentic facet has been more often at the foreground in conceptualizations and empirical studies of identity formation in adolescence, the relational facet has been in the background. Indeed, in the traditional approach, the process of separation– individuation has been viewed as a hallmark of adolescent development (Blos, 1967). This emphasis reflects a conception of mature selfhood that is achieved through separation and marked by autonomy and independence. The relational context of development in adolescence, with a special focus on relationships with parents, serves largely as the backdrop against which separation takes place. Within this approach, connectedness to family members is mostly interpreted as a source of dependency and as an obstacle to autonomy, individuation, and personal identity development. More recently, some researchers contextualized the formation of identity in a relational context. Feminists and researchers of women’s development (Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan, Lyons, & Hammer, 1990; Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991; Josselson, 1987; Lyons, 1983) emphasize the role of relatedness in women’s identity. Similarly, research that refers to the Eriksonian conception of identity, with attention to relatedness and belongingness as well as to competency and the individuated aspects of identity, leads to a more complex view of development (Blatt & Blass, 1996; Guisinger & Blatt, 1994; Marcia, 1993), and gives an empirical basis to conceptualizations that stress the interplay between connectedness and identity development for both sexes From: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Vol. 19(4), 2002, pp. 527–548. Copyright © Sage Press. Reprinted with permission of Sage Press and Hanoch .
