Identity Crisis Most Psychological Theorists

Identity Crisis

Most psychological theorists describe identity as a type of self-description or a specific type of self-knowledge / self-impression. Self-identity or the self-concept is a multidimensional personal construct that refers to one's individual perception of themselves in relation to a number of different characteristics or situations such as one's occupation, achievements, purpose, abilities, gender roles, sexuality, racial identity, and so forth. Social-identity is the portion of the individual self-identity that has to do with perceived membership in a personally-relevant social group or social-identity can refer to the collective identity of the group. Moreover, since the self-concept is formed by both one's perceptions of what others expect from them and subjective needs and desires to gain a sense of achievement and belonging in one's life it is no surprise that individuals such as Aron who "drift through numerous jobs and relationships" experience identity issues. Aron's life narrative most likely offers no anchors or stable points from which he can refer to as a stable and characteristic sense of himself. A sense of identity would require a subjective sense of sameness and constancy in the means one uses to define people (such as stable career and stable relationships). Aron does not appear have achieved this type of stability in his life.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that in order to know what something is, one would have to understand what its final cause is. The final cause of any living thing is its function when it reaches maturation. The forms that the organism transcends in its early development should help it perform such functions when it matures. Aron may have not developed a stable narrative identity that allowed him to define a specific final cause for himself. These functions are relatively fixed in animals, but in humans such functions are defined by the culture or social environment in which the person resides. Aron, for some reason may not have been able to relate to expectations or cultural notions of how these functions apply to him and may be in a moratorium regarding how to incorporate these ideals. He drifts in and out of jobs and relationships and this behavior confuses the issue for him even more. He cannot find a stable self-definition or final cause on which to focus his efforts and self-definition. This leads to him questioning who he really is.

To understand what a person's self-concept or identity one needs to understand the context within a person lives. In addition, in modern Western societies the conceptualization of one's identity is more fluid than many other cultures. It may be this fluidity that is not allowing Aron to grasp specific meaning in his life narrative. Without very traditional and defined standards Aron may be looking for some anchor to grasp in developing a sense of identity as in foreclosure. Self-identity becomes defined by the context of the person, the society to which they belong, social groups, cultural factors, and legal statues of a society. Aron may be having trouble incorporating a stable sense of what path he should follow and what it is he wants to achieve based on these parameters.