Bridge over Troubled Water:

how personal relationships facilitate teenage identity construction

Since the research of Erik Erikson (1969) and James Marcia (1966, 1980), identity
has been an important theme in adolescent psychology. Initially most researchers
chose the individual as their primary unity of analysis, however during the last
decade contextual factors in adolescent development have attracted considerable
attention from scholars of adolescence. This paper uses James Côté’s explanation of
youth alienation from a political economy perspective (1994) to place adolescent
identity formation into a social context, and Charles Taylor’s (1995) assertion that
identities need to be formed in open dialogue, unfettered by social and cultural
scripts to be authentic, to make the point that identity formation and stabilisation is
becoming an increasingly complex and difficult undertaking for young people living
in a world in which personal choice seems to increase at the same exponential rate as
real power is concentrating in economic and political structures. The potential that
quality personal relationships have to build a bridge over this ocean of treacherous
choice is highlighted and extended to consider the role of the teacher and
implications for pedagogy.
Which factors contribute to a stable and balanced identity? And if this can be
determined, how can the analysis of their influence yield practical insights for
everyday pedagogy? These questions have been researched by a wide range of
disciplines emphasising a number of different aspects, from neurology, to psychology,
sociology and theology. Research interactions across fields are complex and
numerous, however scholars of adolescence frequently refer to some aspect of the
work of Erik Erikson as the basis of discussion (Adams & Marshall, 1996). Erikson’s
approach to identity extends the psychosexual theory of Freud, but differs in that it
recognizes the continuing development of identity beyond childhood and the
importance of the impact of culture and society on an individual personality. Erikson
conceptualised identity development as one of eight psychosocial crises, which have
to be resolved in consecutive order if an individual is to develop a positive ego
identity (Erikson, 1959). At the fifth, the adolescent, stage, an individual must make a
conscious search for identity that involves evaluating experiences and views for
personal meaning which leads to the construction of an identity out of socially
possible faces and voices (Adams & Marshall, 1996). The resolution of the earlier
stages of development now becomes the foundation for identity search: Adolescents
who feel optimistic and secure, who are independent and curious, and who feel pride
in their accomplishments, are more likely to be able to effectively form an identity
during adolescence (Rice & Dolgin, 2005).
Researchers such as Marcia (1980) and Waterman (1985) have built on Erikson’s
work by highlighting the many different variables which combine in the process of
identity development and proposing that each individual must bring these strands
together via conscious evaluation, followed by commitment to or rejection of a
particular belief, view, or suggestion. The more coherent the resultant structure is, the
less individuals have to rely on external sources to evaluate themselves (Marcia,
1980), the more likely they are to construct an authentic identity.
This paper examines the impact contemporary Western culture and society may have
on adolescents’ ability to arrive at this position and what challenges might result for
pedagogues.

The construction and confirmation of students’ self- concept is a very relevant

concern for teachers, as it is thought to influence achievement through its affect on
motivation (Hay, Ashman, & van Kraayenoord, 1994), immunize against anxiety
disorders (Hay, Ashman, & van Kraayenoord, 1998) and depression (Hay, Byrne, &
Butler, 2000) as well as promote emotional stability and behavioural adjustment
(DuBois, Burk-Braxton, Swenson, Tevendale, & Hardesty, 2002).
Achieving an identity, which confers the above benefits because it is based on values
which are meaningful and significant for the self, becomes more difficult as the
boundaries of traditional social institutions break down, as what used to be constant
becomes variable and society itself loses cohesion.
When the creation of identity needs to take place outside of the influences of tradition,
the process is becomes increasingly problematic. The absence of traditional influences
forces people to mould their identity from their own experience or to turn to other
cultural information sources (such as the mass media) for guidance.
As Giddens (1991: 70) puts it:

'What to do? How to act? Who to be? These are focal questions for
everyone living in circumstances of late modernity - and ones which,
on some level or another, all of us answer, either discursively or
through day-to-day social behaviour.'

To master this changing reality, to exploit it creatively for personal benefit, the
adolescent has to make a myriad of decision where a generation ago firm social
expectation came to the rescue. However, while Giddens (1984) discusses the
experience of self-identity in the context of the massive ‘intensional and extensional
changes’ that are set into being by the onset of modernity, he also argues that it is
misleading to suggest that contextual diversity in everyday life will necessarily
promote a fragmented self. An integrated self is equally seen as a possibility,
depending upon the ways n which individuals use the cultural resources at their
disposal.(Miles, 2000) Accessing of these cultural resources, the everyday
interpretation and negotiation of abundant lifestyle choices, presupposes that
individuals have baselines against which these evaluations can take place. This paper
explores why it is difficult for young people to find and commit to appropriate value
systems and what we as educators can do to help them.

The sociology of adolescence

Prior to the twentieth century, today’s sharp distinction between adulthood and
adolescence did not exist (Côté & Allahar, 1996). The phenomenon of adolescence as
a hormone-controlled, rebellious yet natural stage of human development came into
existence as a consequence of a conception of development as driven by biology, such
as put forward by psychologist G. Stanley Hall (1904). While adolescence itself
obviously has distinctive biological markers, it is possible to explain its concomitant
difficulties plausibly as the result of certain cultural conditions. Considerable cross-
cultural evidence exists that suggests that the phenomenon of adolescence as it is
popularly defined in contemporary Western society, is not universal but specific to
certain cultures and continues to develop within these cultures (Baumeister & Tice,
1986; Mead, 1924, cited in Côté & Allahar, 1996; Manning, 1983; Osgerby, 1998). If
adolescence is a cultural construct, it stands to reason that the aspects that constitute it
have evolved alongside the society in which they are situated.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, we live in a society, which is more pluralist than
ever. People’s experiences, including young people’s experiences, are increasingly
diverse. We are moving
towards a post-modern consumer culture based upon a profusion of
information and proliferation of images which cannot be ultimately stabilized,
or hierachized into a system which correlates to fixed social divisions, [this]
would further suggest the irrelevance of social divisions and ultimately the end
of the social as a significant reference point. (Featherstone, 1991)

Côté and Allahar (1996) describe three ways in which late modernity is effecting the
experience of adolescence:

• by prolongation, which began as a result of compulsory education and child

labour laws, and is continuing with the push towards retention in education
(see also the report by Mintel, 1988)
• by disenfranchisement of young adults as they are staying financially
dependent on parents for longer
• by the growth of massive ‘leisure’ (e.g. media and music) and ‘identity’
industries (e.g. fashion and education) which target the growing population of
adolescent consumers and produce socially engineered identity crises to
safeguard the continued consumption of their product.

Young people face this bewildering array of identity choices at a time when they have
the capacity, but increasingly not the opportunity, to exercise emotional or financial
independence from parents or other adults. This dependence imposes an extended
time-out on adolescents in which they are expected to choose which experiences and
beliefs will constitute their adult identities. A typical adolescent in Western society
may be physically and cognitively mature, up to a decade before they are socially
mature or ‘adult’.1 Having, as a rule, few responsibilities pertaining to others, and not
being able to participate in an equal capacity in adult society economically, politically
or socially, the focus during this time remains firmly on the self: the identity.

Me myself and I
Our society has created an almost impossible dialectic, which proposes that all human
beings are equal (our inheritance from the Enlightenment), that each human being is
also importantly unique (the romantic gloss) and most recently, that it is neither
possible not desirable to discover this essentially unique self, because it is merely a
contingent product of historical and cultural circumstance and as such an
accidental phenomena that could have been otherwise or not at all (a view describing
itself as post-modernist).
Notwithstanding these diverse perspectives, society expects individuals to ‘find
themselves’, to bring together their cultural, political, religious, ethnic, gender, and
other ‘identities’ to create a synthesis, an awareness of personal identity different
from that of all others, an acute self-consciousness. To achieve this an individual has
to assess current and past interactions with social structures and decide which are
significant for the essential ‘self’ (Taylor, 1993). It does not seem possible to do so
without appealing to various reasons for declaring one thing "significant," and another
not. In this way, the question "Who am I?" is a question of, by, and for reason.
Giddens (Giddens, 1991) asserts that
A lifestyle can be defined as a more or less integrated set of practices which an
individual embraces, not only because such practices fulfil utilitarian needs,
but because they give material form to a particular form of self-identity.

The nature of young people’s lifestyles has generally been addressed by sociologists
with reference to sub-cultures (Miles, 2000). From this perspective, I would like to
argue that lifestyle choices are not always indicative of an examined conscious
expression of identity; that instead it is possible that lifestyles are ‘tried on’ by
adolescents for a variety of personal and social reasons and that they are not always
1
The average age for the onset of puberty is…(look up Rice)
evaluated via a personal standard. There seems to be a cyclical process here whereby
adolescents construct their own value system via their identity, but are asked to
construct their identity by making choices about the significance of their experiences
based on their personal value system. Young people, are, in effect, looking for self-
definition, but have nothing to define themselves against (Miles, 2000):
Unlike fifty years ago, there are no ideologies for today’s alienated to define
themselves against. Our ‘cool’ predecessors knew who they were by virtue of
the fact that they disbelieved in those singular entities known as Marxism-
Leninism and the American/British Way of Life. But nowadays there are no
absolute belief systems left to disbelieve in. From priests to politicians,
everyone is as pragmatic and pluralist as only rebels without causes used to be.
(Calcutt, 1998)

Despite the waning importance of subcultures, the break-down of family units, the
increasing individuism, cyber reality and resultant loneliness and alienation,
adolescents need for belonging and recognition has not changed(Lechner, 2003). If
these are not provided, if the adolescent is left wanting validating interpersonal
connections, clear normative horizons and respect for others and the self, identity
stabilization is often sought through addictive or violent behaviour(Lechner,
2003).Not validating or recognising the emerging identity of a young person can
result in suffering as it condemns the subject to a deformed, unauthentic form of being
and thus constitutes abuse according to Taylor(2001).
Balanced primary relationships (distinguished by reciprocal love) offer the first and
best opportunity for the provision of recognition, according to Axel Honneth.
Honneth refers also to the need to be recognised as having rights before the law, and
the need to perceive that one is valued as a member of society. Many adolescents are
in a position where they have lost relationships to parents, (It has been estimated that
more than one in three parents are ‘seriously disengaged’ from their adolescent’s life
and especially from their education (Fullan, 2001), are not yet equal under the law,
and are often vilified by public opinion. These predicaments along with the blatant
exploitation of their need to belong by identity merchants pedalling everything from
fashion to plastic surgery, from cult movies to university degrees, make identity
construction such a precarious undertaking for adolescents today.
Pedagogic action
Fatalism is not an acceptable reaction to the situation. It is first of all important that
we question to what extent we value students as autonomous personalities and
encourage them to develop as authentic and connected individuals? Do we promote an
atmosphere of mindless conformity or critical self analysis? Do we teach children
how to fit into the school system, or the school system how it can be fit for children?
Given what we know of the importance of primary relationships, we should become
interested in which of our students have the benefit of strong, validating personal
relationships, and which have not. We should ask ourselves if we can extend the
middle school idea of main teacher per class? Pastoral care? Much smaller classes for
this purpose? Mentors?
Taylor (1993)shows that self-examination (which is so necessary for the construction
of an authentic identity),is always, and must be, dialogic: we learn how to understand
ourselves through conversation-through being variously perceived, understood, and
judged by others, and in turn learning how to perceive, understand, and judge in our
own right Humans negotiate meaning through communication and interaction
(Giddens, 1991) By teaching student how to establish and evaluate a value system as
a point of reference, we teach them how to believe in something and therefore become
capable of social action. By reflecting on their own behaviour, people are always
capable, to some extent, of influencing and transforming their social situations, as
social structures do not just influence people, but people also influence social
structures, explicitly or implicitly.
Provision for dialogue would be made via classes (such as philosophical enquiry,e tc),
programs (such as Ironbark), but also by restructuring teacher’s workload based on
the enormous social value they have, so that they can effectively support the identity
formation particularly those of our adolescent who are ‘at-risk’ because they do not
have access to adults with committed authentic identities.