Dec 22 Identity vs Role Confusion

Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development interested me most from our readings so far—particularly the identity vs role confusion stage. This stage is supposed to be during adolescence when people are figuring out who they are and what they believe in (Berger, 2008, 36). It is most interesting to me because I didn’t figure that out until this past summer/fall, and I’m 23. Since middle school I felt like I had to be a teacher for various reasons, none of which were because I wanted to teach. The culture of my family, church and school encouraged it, and I stuck with it because everyone I was close to expected me to. I even tried to convince myself that it was what I was “meant to do” since so many people told me so. I avoided thinking about my nagging discomfort with it because I wanted to do what I was “meant to do”. It took graduation and the necessity of employment as a teacher for me to have enough courage to disappoint everyone and refuse to teach. Since then, I finally allowed myself to think about what I want my career and life to be instead of what people expect. I discovered occupational therapy and found that it matches my personality, values and career objectives very well. Now I am excited for the prospect of grad school for OT because I have chosen it for myself based on who I am and what I want.

It seems that I was stuck in Erikson’s identity vs role confusion stage for a long time past adolescence. Looking back, it’s easy to see the cultural influences and expectations that helped keep me at that stage, but at the time it was difficult to understand. The most interesting part is that I don’t feel like I waited until I had figured out “who I am” and passed the identity vs role confusion stage to enter the intimacy vs isolation stage. I made very close friends at college and my boyfriend and I met at Millersville, all before I figured out what I want from life, let alone anything about grad school and OT. The text didn’t make it clear if the theory allows a person to skip a stage and then come back to deal with that crisis later, but I think my experience would argue that you can.