Identity has been a topical issue in both popular and social science literatures for the past forty years. The writings of Erik Erikson on the identity formation process of late adolescence have provided an important theoretical foundation to clinical, counseling, and educational practices. As the literature on adolescent development has burgeoned over the last three decades, so have efforts to understand, more systematically, the means by which young people find their occupational, religi...

"This is the one book that I recommend as authoritative on life-span identity development. Written in a lively style with examples both numerous and apt, it helps practitioners and social planners to become current with research findings, and it provides researchers with both the necessary background and intriguing new ideas to advance their work. University instructors will find it invaluable as a text for a seminar in identity development as well as a highly useful supplement for courses...

This fully revised fifth edition of Identity in Adolescence: The Balance Between Self and Other presents four theoretical perspectives on identity development during adolescence and young adulthood and their practical implications for intervention. Ferrer-Wreder, Sugimura, and Kroger consider adolescent identity development as the unique intersection of social and cultural forces in combination with individual factors that each theoretical model stresses in attempting to understan...

As the world bears witness to the terror and warfare provoked by people's sense of who they are, how they are regarded, and what they deserve, we have entered into the "age of identity." Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was the prophet of this new age. His lifetime of clinical and interdisciplinary work on human development focused on the formation and maintenance of identity among people of diverse backgrounds: black, white, and Native American; rich, middle class, and poor; male and female. In t...