The World is My Home
The World Is My Home? Environmental Effects and Multicultural Influences on Self-Identity
By: Tina Hsu
It is hard enough for us to figure out who we are and who do we want to be when we grow up. What about for those people who grew up with moving all over the country or even all over the world? What will impact their identity and self-exploring when their environment just keeps changing? Where do they belong?
Wpengine. (2016). Summit Life Today. Retrieved from https://summitlife.org/sense-of-direction-summit-life-today/.
According to Arnett (2013), Germany psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson, created a theory of development from childhood to adulthood. There are eight stages of psychosocial development in his theory including:
1) Trust vs. Mistrust: this stage is the age from 0 to 18 months old. Children start to have contact of this world. Develop confidence and security and build the trust through the experiences with the world.
2) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: happens between 18 months to 3 years old. In this stage, children start to have opinions about what they want or don’t want to do. Want to do thing on their own and feeling shame if they are not able to learn certain skills.
3) Initiative vs. Guilt: this stage happens around 3 years old to 5 years old. Children in this stage desire to be the adults around them. Figure our social role identity through role playing. Feel guilt when they can’t have the relationships they expected.
4) Industry vs. Inferiority: children who are between age 6 to 12. It’s a stage that kids learning different new skills and knowledge. Spend less time with parents but building their social life with peers.
5) Identity vs. Role Confusion: this stage is the age between 12 to 18 years old. This is the stage that adolescents would trying to explore and figure out their own identity and trying to fit in with social interactions at the same time.
6) Intimacy vs. Isolation: this happens between the age of 19 to 40 years old. In this stage, it’s important for people building up their love relationships.
7) Generativity vs. Stagnation: this stage is the age between 40 to 65 years old. This stage is when people trying to guide, lead, and support their next generation.
8) Ego Integrity vs. Despair: this stage happens on age 65 years old to death. In this stage, people start to look back and trying to make sure their lives are meaningful (Arnett, 2013).
We all experience these different stages in different ways. Especially for the stages of “Identity vs. Role Confusion” and “Intimacy vs. Isolation,” it could be complicated when a person can’t find a place where he or she belongs. People with multicultural backgrounds often need to learn the different norms and values related to their multiple cultural identities (Yampolsky, Amiot, & de la Sablonnière, 2013).
Growing up in Asia, I understood I am Asian, but I have never thought about what the definition of being an “Asian” until I moved to the United States. I wa