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Key Words
Ego identity status theory * Identity constraints * Identity development * Identity structure * Jewish modern orthodoxy * Postmodern identity
Abstract
Ego Identity Status Theory, following Erikson's identity theory, describes mature identity as striving towards sameness and continuity, and as thus constrained by structural elements such as closure, consistency and commitment. Lately, however, theoreticians are portraying a relatively unconstrained postmodern, mutable, multiple, Protean self, continuously changing and inconsistent across situations. This paper examines personal narratives of identity formation in order to determine what 30 Jewish modern orthodox young adults implicitly considered to be the structural requirements of a 'good' identity. Their deliberations regarding a potentially conflictual identity issue (i.e. their religious and sexual development) revealed four constraints on identity: A 'good' identity must allow for: a sense of consistency, sameness and continuity; the inclusion of all significant identifications; mutual recognition between individual and society; and feelings of authenticity and vitality. The possible implications of the concept of `identity constraints' on identity theory are discussed.
This paper introduces the concept of `identity constraints' in order to further our understanding of how individuals construct identity. I claim that in constructing identity, individuals implicitly deliberate whether a specific identity fulfills certain structural criteria, and that these criteria impose constraints on the 'final' identity constructed. First I review how identity theorists have disputed `personal sameness and continuity' as a major criterion constraining identity formation, and then I examine interviews undertaken to uncover what criteria constrain identity from individuals' points of view.
Erik Erikson's identity theory [1963, 1968, 1975] characterizes identity as a `subjective sense of an invigorating sameness and continuity' [Erikson, 1968, pg. 19]. This 'sense' is the subjective feeling of a person that he or she remains the same across situations and across time, and that his or her actions and experiences in these differing contexts can be related to the same core active self. Erikson claimed that this sense is accrued through a developmental psychosocial process. Identity formation is the process by which the ego, in interaction with society during adolescence, reorganizes, synthesizes and transforms numerous childhood identifications into a single structure termed an `identity configuration'. Erikson claimed that by creating this configuration of identifications, disparate parts of the psyche are...