Becoming "Identity Achieved" Critical to Adolescent Success

In his book on child and adolescent development, author Paul Kaplan states that adolescents "must somehow integrate the lessons of the past with the realities of the present and the possibilities of the future. They must evaluate and develop their unique abilities and choose a lifestyle, vocation, and personal definition. In other words, the adolescent must search for and form a personal identity." This, according to Erik Erikson (Childhood and Society), is the key task of adolescence.

For young people today it is a difficult task indeed. Never before have emerging adults had so many choices and so few certainties in their lives. To complicate matters further, parents who might be expected to guide their children through this important transition are likely to be less available than in the past.

How, then, are adolescents supposed to learn who they are and what they stand for--and even what they won't stand for? Young women, especially (often more concerned about pleasing others than pleasing themselves), are at risk of denying their own identity and taking on that of a boyfriend or significant other.

It would be difficult, however, to find a teen of either gender who isn't intensely interested in learning more about himself or herself. The prospect of finding answers to these intriguing questions is sure to hold your students' attention as you take them through the lessons and activities in Career Choices that together allow for a formalized identity search. This is one reason why students respond with such enthusiasm to the curriculum and why so many instructors find it has added a new and exciting dimension to their classrooms and to their own careers.