Comparative Study of Identity Crisis in Students based on Age, Sex, and Level of Education

Simin Gholamrezaei

doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s3p202

Abstract

Identity crisis means uncertainty and ambiguity in a person’s definition of self and his or her being, and it prevents him or her to have an integrated character. This research aims to study the identity crisis in students comparatively based on age, sex, and level of education. The study is descriptive and correlation type. The statistical population includes all students of Lorestan University in educational year of 2014-2015. 196 students (100 men and 96 women) were selected as sample. The research tool was the scale of Ahmadi Personal Identity Questionnaire (1996). This scale measures 10 factors through 10 items. ANOVA test and Tukey’s post-hoc test were used to measure identity crisis of students of both sexes, and Pearson Correlation test was used for studying the correlation between identity crisis and age. The results showed that there is a significant difference in identity crisis among students of bachelor, master, and Ph.D levels (p < 0.01 and F-30.940). The averages of identity crisis were 7.026 in men and 10.01 in women. This difference was significant. Moreover, there was a significant negative relationship between age and identity crisis (p < 0.01) so that in this study, identity crisis decreased by increasing the age. These findings was consistent to some researches and inconsistent to some others. The inconsistency can be due to the difference between environments of participants in different societies. The results showed that factors like age, level of education, and sex could influence on people’s identity crisis. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s3p202

Highlights

Identity is the distinction that a person believes to exist between self and the others
Regarding the results of the above table, the lowest average of the identity crisis was related to Ph.D. level, and the highest average was associated with bachelor
The result of the present research is in accordance with the results of Zaki’s study (2002), and according to our research, girls experience identity crisis less than boys do

Summary

Introduction

Identity is the distinction that a person believes to exist between self and the others. Personal identity is a mental-social structure that includes person’s ideas, beliefs, and way of interaction with others. Erickson firstly used the word “identity crisis”. Erickson used the term “identity disorder” or identity crisis (Sharafi, 2001). According to Erickson’s theory (1968), if an adult’s identity is formed throughout time and based on experiences resulted from appropriate social interactions, and he/she could know himself/herself and could separate himself/herself from the others, his/her mental balance is guaranteed, but if an ambiguity of role happens instead of self-awareness and forming positive identity, his/her mental balance breaks down and the result is identity crisis. The adult’s growth and evolution depends on finding a solution for this crisis (Markstrom et al, 2003)

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