Female Identity Development Research Articles

Separation-Individuation in Patterns in Turkey: An Investigation of Developmental, Gender and Contextual Differences

IntroductionThere is still a paucity of studies exploring the impacts of teenage employment on mental health and development. In many developing countries, youths participate intensively in the teenage labor force. The involvement of adolescent in the world of work would promote the development of responsibility and prepare the young person to function more effectively in adult roles.ObjectivesThe purposes of the present study were to examine the adolescent separation-individuation among an understudied and vulnerable population; and to examine the Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA) for revealing the differentiation working male group from student male group.MethodsParticipants completed the SITA. The group of study 1 consisted of 618 high school and 252 university students between the ages of 14 and 24, 489 of which were girls and 381 were boys. In Study 2, participants were 269 male adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17, 141 of which were full-time worker and 128 high school students. In study 1, these results were consistent with the rapprochement subphase of the separation-individuation process in adolescence -the striking desires for intimacy and independence.ResultsOur results support the gender specific patterns of identity formation and the argument that connectedness in close relationships plays a central role in the female identity development. Interestingly, there were no significant gender differences in the tendency to view close interpersonal relationships as threatening to their sense of independence and selfhood, and to deny or avoid dependency needs. The reason for this might be the cultural differences between the individualistic and collectivistic cultures. In study 2, working males could be distinguished from student counterparts by their increased tendency to seek close interpersonal ties with caretakers. The finding also suggested that student males reflected characteristics of the traditional view of adolescents’ independence striving. Across both studies it was found that the traditional Turkish child-rearing patterns have been characterized by an emphasis on interpersonal relationships and close ties with family than individualistic culturesConclusionsOur results revealed that the subscales of SITA –especially dependency denial, rejection expectancy, nurturance seeking, engulfment anxiety, and teacher enmeshment- can help clinicians for assessing the adolescent separation-individuation process in a reliable way. We suggested that adolescent employment would lead to the difficulties in developing bonds with parents because of the adolescents’ long work hours, the early involvement with the world of work would lead to the withdrawal from the more dependent, preadultlike student role, and student adolescents would reflect characteristics of the traditional view of adolescents’ independence striving.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Trans-Mediation of Gender in Elia Kazan’s Adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire

Elia Kazan is among the first directors who adapted Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) for the cinema. Kazan’s film adaptation was almost faithful to the original manuscript by sticking to Williams’s words and sentences. However, even if one ignores the cultural and historical contexts, the alterations that take place in the process of trans-mediation cannot be disregarded, since the telling mode in the text changes to the showing mode in the media. With this hypothetical basis, the present study aims to detect the possible alterations in the adaptation of the play to examine gender roles in both texts. Using the ideas of Linda Hutcheon in A Theory of Adaptation (2013), the authors have studied the verbal signs in the play together with the verbal and visual codes in the movie to assess how the film adaptation has incorporated the ideas of femininity, which are the main concerns of the play, too. The results of the study suggest that the alterations from the literary text to film have contributed to the development of female identity.

Contours of Feminist Consciousness in the Musical and Theatrical Life of Vilnius: The Second Half of the Nineteenth Century and the Early Twentieth Century

Feminism is a broad concept, and its definition is a constant subject of debate. The article is limited to the treatment of feminism as one of the aspects in the development of female identity. The chronological boundaries of feminism discussed in this article cover the period from the second half of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. This period is traditionally considered the first wave of feminism as an organized movement. Although primarily associated with the fight for the right of women to vote, this movement also extended to women’s other social and professional fields. Both in Lithuania and other countries, the growing modernisation of society gradually rendered the general attitude towards women’s creative work more liberal: the artistic expression of actresses and female musicians became freer. However, the shift in public consciousness and the transformation of values was not fast enough. Traditions of social life and the stereotypes of gender cohesion resulted in diverse public reflections on these changes for a long period of time: women were often subjected to one set of standards on the stage and another set of standards when off the stage. The theatrical and concert life of Vilnius, Lithuania’s major culture hub, witnessed more and more examples (both local and foreign) that reflected the change in female self-expression. On the theatre stage, actresses demonstrated unusually bold means of acting expression (admittedly, this phenomenon was partly due to the epochal changes in theatre art), dared to play male roles. The number of female soloists in concerts was growing: female singers and pianists had to compete with violinists. Although with caution (triggered by the position of the instrument while playing it), female cellists were admitted to the cultural space. It should be noted that the striving of a woman – an actress or a musician –to break or ignore the deep-rooted public stereotypes would often receive a controversial response from the public and the reviewers of cultural events.

Monster as can be: o gótico contemporâneo em I am Mother

Este trabalho investiga como o filme I am Mother (2019), dirigido por Grant Sputore, traz para o centro da narrativa a relação entre mãe e filha e faz convergir na primeira as figuras da mãe nutridora e da mãe destruidora, ora uma mãe-máquina, ora um corpo-monstruoso, na tentativa de criar um ser humano perfeito. Logo, buscaremos analisar, com recurso à poética gótica, as relações entre as personagens femininas que em momentos diferentes ocupam o lugar central do ser mãe, assim como também questionaremos o processo de construção de identidade feminina em um futuro pós-humano. Para atingir tais objetivos, foram utilizados como referencial teórico, sob a lente do gótico contemporâneo, conceitos de monstruosidade, de mãe nutridora/destruidora e de abjeção.

A case report of opposite sex twin pairs in which one had female to male gender dysphoria

The etiology of gender dysphoria (GD) is not fully known. In recent years, there are studies suggesting that the development of GD is related to some biological mechanisms. The hypothesis conveying that there is a biological background in the development of GD emphasize the importance of exposure to sex hormones in prenatal period. According to this hypothesis, while prenatal exposure to sex hormones causes development of male identity, non-exposure results with female identity. This hypothesis is supported with determination of the relationship between prenatal exposure to testosterone and masculine behaviors, in complete androgen insensitivity syndrome mostly development of female identity, and presence of near values of 2nd and 4th finger ratio in individuals with GD and the individuals with the sex they want to pass. In this article, one of the twins is male and the other one is female-to-male GD case was discussed in terms of the roles of prenatal exposure to sex hormones in the etiology of GD.

Women in Distance Doctoral Programs: How They Negotiate Their Identities As Mothers, Professionals, and Academics In Order to Persist

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explain how Distance Education women EdD students who are mothers balanced and integrated their multiple identities (e.g., mother, student, professional) to persist. Background: It is well documented that parenting students experience higher levels of stress and pressure during their degree pursuit than their non-parenting counterparts. It is also well documented that doctoral attrition is a persistent problem across decades and disciplines, and examination of specific populations was necessary to better understand how to foster doctoral persistence. Methodology : Data were collected from 17 women via questionnaires, life maps, and interviews and were analyzed in accordance with grounded theory procedures. Contribution: This study generated a novel theoretical model to explain women EdD students’ academic identity progression from students to scholars and its intersection with other salient identities, especially mother, and the core sense of self in alignment with other identity theories. Findings: Academic identity development from student to research scholar is complex and challenging, but follows a unique progression that begins with gaining competence in research, followed by a confidence to conduct research. This positive attitude toward research is often shaped by an influential advisor or mentor, a relationship that enables a student mother to envision herself as a scholar and mother. However, it is a woman’s social conditions (e.g., supportive spouse, friends, or employer) that provide her the confidence and space to differentiate, develop, and intersect multiple identities, a process that allows for successful negotiation and integration of identities, and ultimately, persistence and attainment of the doctorate. Recommendations for Practitioners : Findings highlight the need for more women faculty role models in higher education. To increase the number of women faculty mentors in academia, program administrators can recruit, retain, and support and encourage parental visibility through developing structures and supports for faculty with families. Given the women candidates’ emphasis on stewardship, faculty should design coursework to allow students to intersect assignments with professional goals and practices, and support empirically and theoretically grounded dissertations aimed at not only solving problems of practice but also aimed at advocacy. Recommendation for Researchers: Research is needed with women doctoral candidates in other disciplines from other institutions and regions of the country, including those without children and individuals in non-heterosexual relationships. Impact on Society: This study is an important first step in better understanding female identity development through the doctoral process. Future Research: Themes uncovered in this research need further investigation. Ruptures in relationships were uncovered but not fully explored or saturated. More research is needed to understand the specific contexts and factors leading to both relationship fractures and the disruption in the academic identity trajectory.

A Reapplication of Erikson’s Theory of Identity Development to Female Identity Development

My principal concern in this essay is a reapplication of Erik Erikson’s developmental theory to female identity development in terms of his psychosocial theory, evaluating the feminist application regarding women’s connectedness. Erikson describes human development in his eight-stage theory of life cycle development. Based upon this theoretical framework, Erikson poses the matter of identity in the fifth stage of identity versus identity confusion as more central than in any of the other eight stages. In his view, the process of identity formation is linear in his epigenetic principle, and thus, a sense of identity may be achieved before the next stage of intimacy versus isolation. However, some feminist researchers criticize Erikson’s identity developmental model as being conceived in terms of male development, not female development. They may raise a question of whether Erikson’s consideration of female identity development can show that women’s identity development is inferior to men’s development. They focus on women’s interpersonal relatedness or connectedness, regarding intimacy, which has been over looked as a crucial issue in female identity development. Nevertheless, on the basis of Josselson’s four pathways to identity formation, I examine that women’s connectedness may vary to some extent, regarding their identity formation and development, and that these differences can be largely derived from the discontinuity between traditional values and changing values amidst social changes. Therefore, Erikson’s suggestion for female identity development needs to be reconsidered in terms of the connection between social changes and female identity formation, on the basis of his psychosocial perspective of identity and social validation. This work must be helpful to understand women’s identity in this socio-cultural context, and even in Christianity, and to probe pastoral counseling for women on the psychological theoretical basis.

“Little Lena's a Big Girl Now”

Lena Zavaroni became famous as a child star on the British TV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1974, suffered from anorexia from age thirteen, and subsequently died from complications associated with the problem in 1999, age thirty-five. This article uses 165 press articles from 1974 to 1999 to analyse how Zavaroni's relationship with anorexia was constructed in the British popular press. Existing feminist work suggests that stars with anorexia are worth studying because they make eating disorders popularly visible, with the coverage providing an occasion to analyse how the media constructs anorexia in relation to particular ideologies of femininity. But this article argues that it is important to explore how discourses on fame become intertwined with discursive constructions of anorexia, shaping how such problems are explained and gendered. Because Zavaroni appeared in the media as a child, her trajectory also dramatises how anorexia is seen to be linked not only with the role of the media, but with the development of female identity. Thus, whilst bringing stardom and celebrity into the frame, this article thus seeks to contribute to the feminist work which interrogates how popular constructions of anorexia mark out normative/disordered femininities.

Embodied identity – gendered body

AbstractIn the literature one often comes across a thesis that body plays more relevant role in the development of female identity than in the development of male identity. Beauty and appearance are treated as key factors among numerous categories explicating the thesis. The beauty is considered to be the key feature in the definition of women, hence the appearance should be more relevant to female’s identity and should constitute the self and expansively introduce the body into consciousness and self-consciousness. Such a paradigm of relations between body and identity indicates that male’s identity is less embodied. What if it is not less embodied but anchored in different categories than appearance and beauty? What are these categories? Are these categories equally expansive in the introduction of body into consciousness and self-consciousness? An attempt to provide answers to these questions is based on interviews focused on the variety of experiences of nudity.

Gender Self‐Definition and Gender Self‐Acceptance in Women: Intersections With Feminist, Womanist, and Ethnic Identities

The author explored the relationships among women's gender identity constructs as well as the relationships of those constructs to ethnic identity. Nine of the 12 hypothesized relationships between gender self‐definition and female identity development statuses and between gender self‐acceptance and female identity development statuses were supported. Gender self‐definition and gender self‐acceptance were also both positively correlated with ethnic identity. Analyses of the Hoffman Gender Scale (R. M. Hoffman, 1996; R. M. Hoffman, L. D. Borders, & J. A. Hattie, 2000) provided additional support for its use as a measure of gender self‐definition and gender self‐acceptance.

Parental Death, Shifting Family Dynamics, and Female Identity Development

This article is a report of research that explored how the death of a parent influences a woman's identity development. Qualitative methodology and data analysis procedures based on grounded theory were used for the research. Eighteen women who experienced parental death between age 11 and 17, were recruited by convenience sampling. Shifts in family relationships and roles, in part, influenced who these young women became. Many young women were expected to take on a caregiving role to support the surviving parent and replace the deceased. The transition in the relationship between the adolescent girl and surviving parent was an important theme for identity development.

Problématique dépressive, première grossesse et menace d'accouchement prématuré

Among the many phases of a woman’s lifetime, the first pregnancy represents always a profound change that implies access to a new status determined by social norms. Linked with the present, pregnancy announces the future, while it confronts the mother-to-be with her past. Therefore pregnancy represents a critical phase in the development of female identity, in the same way as adolescence and menopause do. Besides profound physiological changes, the process of pregnancy implies a fundamental restructuring on the psychic level. To be confronted with an intense physical experience which is linked to prior stages of psychic development—and which sometimes remained conflictual—reveals itself as being such a burden to certain women that the normal course of pregnancy could be at risk. The risk of preterm labor can arise precisely when biological events mingle with psychic representations. Could we therefore evaluate the risk of premature birth as a somatic expression occurring as a means to act in a conflictual situation? The present study deals with 10 women at risk for premature birth and 10 women who are not. The observed tendencies point out a link between the risk of idiopathic premature birth and the unresolved problematics of motherly image, on the one hand, and the difficulty to resolve depressive position, on the other hand. As these tendencies imply a high risk of depression, it could be advisable to make provision for preventive measures, from the desire of childbirth to the first weeks in the life of the child.

Experiences of special gynaecological services for children and adolescents: a descriptive study

Gynaecological examination of girls during childhood is undertaken somewhat infrequently. These genital examinations should not be taboo or a frightening experience for the girl, for her parents or for the physician. Studies of children suspected of sexual abuse have paid attention to the wide variety of gynaecological conditions already present in childhood. In 1988 we founded a special gynaecological outpatient clinic for girls under 16 y of age at a university hospital to develop the special knowledge and skills needed in children's gynaecology. In this gynaecological clinic for children and adolescents we were able to gain and offer expert knowledge of the problems of this age group. In this special clinic for children, gynaecological examination by special techniques and sonography led to a diagnosis in 71% of the patients without any instrumentation. Children and adolescent girls in need of special gynaecological care should be recognized specifically. Particular attention should be paid to the gynaecological care of victims of child sexual abuse and mentally or physically handicapped girls. In good co‐operation with the girl, a gynaecological examination can become a positive experience during the development of female identity.

Experiences of special gynaecological services for children and adolescents: a descriptive study.

Gynaecological examination of girls during childhood is undertaken somewhat infrequently. These genital examinations should not be taboo or a frightening experience for the girl, for her parents or for the physician. Studies of children suspected of sexual abuse have paid attention to the wide variety of gynaecological conditions already present in childhood. In 1988 we founded a special gynaecological outpatient clinic for girls under 16 y of age at a university hospital to develop the special knowledge and skills needed in children's gynaecology. In this gynaecological clinic for children and adolescents we were able to gain and offer expert knowledge of the problems of this age group. In this special clinic for children, gynaecological examination by special techniques and sonography led to a diagnosis in 71% of the patients without any instrumentation. Children and adolescent girls in need of special gynaecological care should be recognized specifically. Particular attention should be paid to the gynaecological care of victims of child sexual abuse and mentally or physically handicapped girls. In good co-operation with the girl, a gynaecological examination can become a positive experience during the development of female identity.

Adolescent Female Identify Development

The purpose of this study was to (a) add to the current literature on female identity development and (b) determine whether a gender specific pattern of identity formation is evident in females during their early and middle adolescent years. The Measures of Psychosocial Development (MPD) was administered by graduate students to 317 males and 332 females in sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades from schools in a small and a mid-sized mid-western city. The schools were selected because they were representative of the racial/ethnic status of the cities (African American, 12%, Asian American, 4%, European, 63%, Latino, 10%, and Native American, 6%; 5% did not state their ethnicity). The results of the two by four analyses of variance (gender by grade) indicated that females blend interpersonal and intrapersonal identity development, whereas males appear to develop only intrapersonal identity. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also included.

The Transition to Young Adulthood: Generational Boundary Dissolution and Female Identity Development

This research explored links between differential qualities of family connectedness and young adult females' development of an independent identity. Identity development involves exploration of possible roles and choices in particular domains such as occupation, dating, and friendship, followed by commitment to a set of values and behaviors in one of these areas. In this study, women who reported that their parents encouraged autonomy while still maintaining closeness also reported more exploration in their friendship and dating relationships. In contrast, reports of parent-child boundary dissolution, characterized by role-reversal, enmeshment, and overinvolvement, were related to less exploration, particularly in dating relationships. Mother-daughter boundary dissolution, specifically, was linked to women's tendency to base their commitments to a career and relationships with others on parental values and expectations without ever exploring alternative choices. Father-daughter boundary dissolution was related to lower exploration as well as lower commitment to values and beliefs in any area. These findings lend support to theoretical and clinical impressions that intergenerational boundary violations hinder the development of an independent identity.

Motivation for motherhood and the experience of pregnancy.

It is frequently assumed that becoming a mother is an essential step in the development of female identity. Although female hormones may increase a woman's readiness to care for an infant, there is no clear cut evidence of a hormonal basis for maternal feelings. A woman's desire to have and raise children is affected by cultural expectations and opportunities. Current analytical thinking, while viewing reproductive choice as being an important component of feminine identity, does not emphasize the necessity of having a child to feel feminine. Once pregnant, the woman works through issues related to body image, relationship with mother and husband, concerns for the fetus, fears about the future and her new vision of herself.

Sex differences in identity status

In this study, sex differences in the Identity Status Interview (ISI) developed by Marcia (1980) were examined. The ISI was administered to 151 college students, 75 female and 76 male. It was found that status in the Ideology domain is most predictive of Identity Status for males, while status in the Sexual-Interpersonal domain is most predictive for females. No sex difference was found for the Occupation domain. An additional finding was that females rated the Sexual-Interpersonal domain as more important to their identity than did males. These results are interpreted as supporting the view that issues of interpersonal function are uniquely relevant to female identity development.

On the development of female identity: Issues of mother‐daughter interaction during the separation‐individuation process

(1987). On the development of female identity: Issues of mother‐daughter interaction during the separation‐individuation process. Psychoanalytic Inquiry: Vol. 7, Applications of Infant Research to Adult Psychoanalytic Treatment, pp. 381-396.

Mirror, Mirror: The development of female identity in Jean Rhys's fiction

(1985). Mirror, Mirror: The development of female identity in Jean Rhys's fiction. World Literature Written in English: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 270-285.