Identity issue

Erikson’s epigenetic model recognized the possibility of change at each period of the life span. Role theorists who see personality in terms of the self concept and tie it to changing social roles are likely to predict change, as would social learning theorists and life stress researchers, who hold that personality should be continuously reshaped by changing contingencies and traumatic events, such as the example of endless hours watching TV that has tremendous impact on individual’s lives and affect their personalities.

For the personality theorists the impressive degree of stability seen in longitudinal studies over several decades suggest that human beings are less a product of their environment than many social scientists have imagined. People are not passive victims of life events, historical movements or changing social roles. They maintain their distinctive characteristics in the face of all these forces.

New theories of personality that address the origins and maintenance of personality within the individual are needed. Some describe processes of cumulative and interactional continuity that help perpetuate some personality characteristics.

Stability of personality implies to sense of identity and basis for planning and conducting our lives.



Erikson, E. H., 1950, Childhood and Society, NY Norton