Identity and Behavior
Training Resource Manual
Identity Formation and the Young Adult Transition
Training Resource Manual
Jonathan Trinidad, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Sociology
New York State University at Buffalo
Michael Farrell, Ph.D. Department Chair
Department of Sociology
New York State University at Buffalo
Funding for this research project was provided by New York State Office of Children and Family Services,Project1044698/1052594Award: 34851/34852 through the Center for Development of Human Services, College Relations Group, Research Foundation of SUNY, Buffalo State College.
Table of Contents
Part I. How to use this Handbook
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Introduction
2. Keep in Mind
3. Using this Resource Training Manual with the Participant Guide
Part II. The Young Adult Transition
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. The Rise of the Young Adult Transition as a Stage in Life
2. Rates of Success
3. The Young Adult Transition and Identity Theory
Part III. Burke’s Identity Control
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Identity Standards
2. Input
3. Output
4. Comparator
5. Summary
6. Diagram
C. Application
1. Skewed identity standards and mal-adjusted behavior
2. Unachieved identity standards and stress
3. Mis-conceptualization
Part IV. Stryker’s Identity Salience
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Status and Roles
2. Identity Salience
3. Three Things You Should Know
4. Commitment
5. Salience Hierarchy
6. Summary
C. Application
1. Combining Burke and Stryker
2. Organizing and Conceptualizing
3. Promoting Action
D. Case Scenarios: The Young Adult Transition, Race and Ethnicity
1. Agatha
2. Emily
Part V. Resources
A. Handouts
1. Understanding Burke’s Identity Control Model
2. Understanding Stryker’s Identity Salience
3. Understanding Identity Standards and Salience in Action
4. Standards and Salience Worksheet
B. Useful Articles
Part I. How to Use this Handbook
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Introduction
2. Keep in Mind
3. Using this Training Manual with the Participant Guide
Part I. How to Use this Handbook
A. Questions
What is the young adult transition?
How can we better serve our clients?
How do racial and ethnic identities
impact the transition into adulthood?
How can identity theory benefit social workers?
What isidentity salience?
What’s an identity standard?
How can we unify our language and systematize
our thoughts?
Part I. How to Use this Handbook
B. Basics
Welcome! Let’s get started!
1. Introduction
This study focuses on identity formation during the transformation from late adolescence to young adulthood. This period of life, often referred to as the Young Adult Transition, is a volatile time for identity development whereby individuals forge for themselves identities often in conflict. It is in this stage of life that individuals weigh internal desires, personal needs and unique skills against the external pressures of finding a career, becoming independent, and raising a family. I may desire to be an artist, but it might be more financially responsible to become an accountant. Said in simple terms, adolescents must create identities that balance desires and responsibility.
Identity and behavior are linked.
Furthermore, this research looks at therole of identity and behavior on the young adult transition. Of particular interest is how occupational, racial and ethnic identities may impact successful transition. Burke claims identities are control cycles that outline the boundaries of appropriate behavior. Consequently, positive behavior is the result of positively formed and maintained occupational, racial, and ethnic identities. Stryker argues identities control individuals based on salience which is measured by probability and commitment. The most salient identities are the strongest dictators of behavior.
The young adult transition is conceptualized in terms of identity and behavior research.
Key Points
- This research focuses on the young adult transition, occupational identities, racial and ethnic identities, identity control, and identity salience.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition
- Burke’s identity control model explains how identities guide behavior.
- Stryker’s identity salience explains why some behavioral patterns are more predominant than others.
- Collectively, Burke and Stryker’s work gives insight on why adolescents behave as they do during the identity transition from youth to adult.
How do work identities affect action? Race and ethnic identities? Gender identities?
As a social worker, it is important to learn the strong vocabulary identity theorists have used for years. Particularly important are those concepts and principles associated with contemporary theories such as Stryker’s Identity Salience and Burke’s Identity Control Model. Their rich theories have developed unnoticed and are underused by social workers, psychiatrists, and self-help literature. Many in the academic world believe theyir will impact mainstream society in ways similar to self-esteem research several decades ago.
Self-esteem is now a common word in our vocabulary. Salience and Identity Standard should also be.
Having learned new vocabulary, social workers will be better prepared to see those concepts mobilized in reality. That is, by knowing about the social psychological phenomena of identity salience and identity control, individuals are better suited to identify it in action. Consequently, social workers can take active and appropriate measures when they see identity salience and identity control at work. That’s the ultimate goal, to empower action.
A powerful tool for understanding, predicting, and shaping behavior.
Key Points
- Identities are control mechanisms that help us explain and predict behavior.
- If we understand how identities control behavior, we can also predict and shape behavior.
- Contemporary social psychologists have developed useful theory and vocabulary on what drives behavior.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition
- Adolescents, as with all individuals, behave in ways consistent with the identities they value the most. We need to understand what identities are important to adolescents and why.
- As social workers, we are better equipped to discuss and address behavioral problems if we have a strong understanding of theory and vocabulary. The ability to convey complex thoughts with a few select words unifiestes discussion and accelerates action.
2. Keep in Mind
As you read and review this handbook, keeping the following in mind towill help you maximize its potential.
- This study focuses on identity formation during the young adult transition. Consequently, the material is divided into two subject areas: the transition, and identity theory.
- Learn how the material stands alone. The young adult transition and identity theory are two independent bodies of knowledge. Depending on your interests and needs, one area may be more interesting and/or useful.
- Learn how the material works in conjunction with each other. Don’t forget to consider how the material on the young adult transition and identity theory work together. The young adult transition is a useful case study to explain identity theory. Conversely, identity theory is a useful perspective to explain the young adult transition.
- Focus on how occupational, racial, and ethnic identities may impact successful transition into adulthood.
- Learn to mobilize these concepts in reality. By knowing about the social psychological phenomena presented here, individuals are better suited to identifyty it in action. Social workers can take active and appropriate measures when they see identity salience and identity control at work.
- Study the material from Burke’s perspective. That is, how doour identities control cycles thatcontrol our actions by outlininge the boundaries of appropriate behavior? Apply Burke’s theory to your experiences in the field.
- Study the material from Stryker’s perspective. How do identities control individuals based on salience and commitment? Again, apply Stryker’s theory to your experiences in the field.
- Learn new vocabulary. Identity theorists have used this vocabulary for years. Many in the academic world believe these concepts will impact mainstream society in ways similar to self-esteem research.
3. Using this Resource Training Manual with the Participant Guide
This Resource Training Manual also comes with a Participant Guide. As an instructor, you may or may not choose to make the guide and manual available to your students. I recommend the following:
If you plan on making only the Participant Guide available to your students:
- When preparing, use both the Resource Training Manual and the Guide. Read the Mmanual first and write your notes in the Gguide.
- Prepare for your presentation using the Resource Training Manual PowerPoint.
- Teach from Gguide. Only use the Mmanual for reference.
- Teach using the Participant Guide PowerPoint
If you plan on making both the guide and manual available to your students:
- When preparing use both the Resource Training Mmanual and the Participant Gguide.
- Prepare for your presentation using the Resource Training Manual Power Point.
- Print and copy the Mmanual at its original size. Print and copy the Gguide at half its original size.
- Teach one section at a time. First review a section from the Gguide, and then review the corresponding pages from the Mmanual. Keep in mind that the page numbers in the Mmanual do not correspond with the Gguide page by page.
- Teach using the Training Resource Manual PowerPoint.
Part II. The Young Adult Transition
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Rise of the Young Adult Transition as a Stage of Life
2. Rates of Success by Race
3. The Young Adult Transition and Identity Theory
Part II. The Young Adult Transition
A. Questions
What is the young adult transition?
Why does it matter?
Why does the ease and success of the young adult transition vary by race and ethnicity?
How can we increase awareness of the
social processes that positively
and negatively affect identity development
during the transition?
How do difficulties during the
transition result in additional problems in later life?
Part II. The Young Adult Transition
B. Basics
As was described earlier, the period of life between adolescence and adulthood has often been referred to as the Young Adult Transition. Let’s consider how this transitional stage developed.
1. Rise of the Young Adult Transition as a Stage of Life
Three major factors have contributed to creation of the Young Adult Transition as a stage of life, the first of which is prolongation of education. Increasingly, jobs in today’s workforce require advanced and professional degrees, forcing adolescents to refrain from paid work in favor of additional school. A second major factor that has contributed to the creation of the young adult transition as a stage of life is the growth of the period of non-family living after leaving the parent’s home and before forming one’s own household. That is, individuals are spending more time living away from their families and are in less of a rush to start their own families. A third major factor that has contributed to the creation of the young adult transition as stage of life is the delay in marriage and childbirth. Individuals are not rushing in a rush to assume the responsibility of becoming a spouse or child-rearing adult.
I don’t want to work yet. I don’t want to get married yet. I don’t want kids yet. I don’t want to live with my family anymore.
Cumulatively, these factors result in a prolonged period of transition from child to adult. Individuals aren’t assuming adult responsibilities such as full-time work, marriage, and raising a family as early as their parents and grandparents did.
Key Points
- Continued education, growth of the period of non-family living, delaying marriage and childbirth are major factors that have contributed to the creation on the young adult transition as a stage of life.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition
- The transition from adolescence to adult is about taking on the responsibility of adult roles. Prolonging Delaying entrance into paid work, parenthood, marriage, and family life also prolongs the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Individuals effectively evade adult responsibility.
2. Rates of Success
Research suggests the ease and success of the young adult transition varies by race and ethnicity. Hardships in identity formation during adolescent development may account for future socio-economic status discrepancies along racial and ethnic lines as young individual transition into paid work. Consider the following statistics:
- One of the markers of a successful transition into adulthood is education, such as earning a high school degree. High school completion rates for those 25 years old and older differ according to race: 94% of whites, 86% of blacks, and 62% of Hispanics have completed their high school degree. What accounts for the discrepancy between whites and non-whites?
- Regarding work, secondary education is increasingly needed to participate in the changing, technology and service-driven economy. The best jobs are reserved for those with advanced degrees. College completion rates for those 25 years and older also differ according to race: 28% of whites and 16% of blacks have completed their college degree.
- The growing divide between the middle and working class follows ethnic and racial lines. The median family income for white families is 51,224 versus 21,778 for blacks.
- Amongst the poorest households in the nation are those headed by single mothers. The percentage of 25 year old black women who are single mothers is 17% compared to 4% for whites.
In sum, demographic research done in the last decade and a half indicates that African Americans are more likely than whites to come through the young adult transition in ways that can negatively affect later life development. To explain this trend, some literature has pointed to the, “disappearance of marriage” among African Americans. Others talk about the additional handicaps experienced by African American men and women during this stage of life including the lack of suitable role-models, cycles of poverty, and “the consequences of slavery.” However, there is less research on the social-psychological factors accounting for differences in the young adult transition by race.
Key Points
- Rates of occupational, educational, and martial success differ by race.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition
- Hardships in identity formation during the young adult transition may account for future socio-economic status discrepancies.
3. The Young Adult Transition and Identity Theory
The strength of social-psychological research on identity development during the young adult transition lies in its potential to provide guidelines that prevent problematic adjustments in young adulthood. Increase awareness of the social processes that positively or negatively affect identity development during the young adult transition may lead to checklists for identifying risk factors that undermine identity development, and buffering factors that facilitate identity development. Moreover, although adjustment varies along racial and ethnic lines, awareness of risk factors and buffering factors serves to benefit all cases regardless of background. Ultimately, pulling together all we know about differences by race in how people navigate through this period of life will improve identity formation and later life development as young adults transition into the paid workforce and start their own families.
How do individuals navigate through this period of life? How can we improve identity formation?
We now focus our attention on two such identity theories: Burke’s Identity Control Model, and Stryker’s Identity Salience Hierarchy.
Key Points
- Two important social psychological concepts reviewed in this handbook are identity salience and identity control.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition
- The young adult transition can be framed from an identity theorist perspective. Specifically, iIf social workers understand some of the social psychological issues of maturing adolescents, they will be better able to identify and treat it.
Part III. Burke’s Identity Control
A. Questions
B. Basics
1. Identity Standards
2. Input
3. Output
4. Comparator
5. Summary
6. Diagram
C. Application
1. Skewed identity standards and mal-adjusted behavior
2. Unachieved identity standards and stress
3. Mis-conceptualization
Part III. Burke’s Identity Control
A. Questions
How do identities control behavior?
What is an identity standard? How does an identity standard influence behavior?
Why do individuals modify behavior?
What are they trying to achieve?
What causes an individual to experience stress? How can stress be avoided?
Part III. Burke’s Identity Control
B. Basics
Identity theories are important becausethey help explain and predict behavior. Why is one individual likely to behave functionally in a social situation? Why is another individual likely to behave dysfunctional in the same social situation? Burke argues that identities are control systems that guide individuals by limiting the range of acceptable behavior. As he writes, “Identities bring into play dissonance-reduction mechanisms whereby people modify their behavior to achieve a match with their internalized identity standard.”
It’s not as complicated as it might sound. Let’s piece together Burke’s control model. There are four parts to his model, the first being the Identity Standard.
1. Identity standards
In simplest terms, an identity standard is the collection of ideal expectations for a given identity. It is the perfect idea of how an individual acting like a father, mother, teacher, social worker, student or any other identity should behave. Ultimately, as implied by its name, an identity standard is the conceptual standard for an identity.
Consider the identity standard for a parent. What are the ideal behaviors associated with the parent identity?
Key Points
- According to Burke, identities are control systems that govern behavior.
- The first part of Burke’s control model is the Identity Standard, or the collection of ideal expectations for a given identity.
Understanding the Young Adult Transition