A conceptual review of identity integration across adulthood.

Abstract

Though Erikson recognized identity development as a lifelong project, most research on identity has focused on adolescents and emerging adults. Less is known about how the identity formed in adolescence is maintained and adapted across the adult life span. The purpose of the present paper is to provide a conceptual review and elaboration of Erikson's (1968) theory focused on identity integration, a construct that is particularly relevant to adult identity development. Identity integration describes the process of bringing together various aspects of one's self into a coherent whole, and the sense of selfcontinuity and wholeness that emerges as a result of these processes. Informed by the identity and life span development literatures, we present a conceptual framework that describes how identity integration is maintained across the adult life span, and how it is reestablished when changing life circumstances present threats to an individual's identity. These maintenance and reestablishment processes help to support adults' well-being and adaptation to major life transitions and stressful events. This conceptual framework is intended to facilitate research on identity integration in adulthood, a time of life that has been less often studied in the identity literature but that can involve identity dynamics that are just as critical as those in adolescence.

Intergenerational Storytelling as a Developmental Resource in LGBTQ+ Communities

“…LGBTQ+ communities (Mitchell et al, 2021). In the same spirit as many other stories about marriage equality in our study, the narrator reported learning the following lesson from this storytelling experience: "There are so many people who fought for marriage equality for so long and it was an extremely uphill and emotional battle.…”

Creating something new from past experiences—The meaning of change in repeated narratives

“…The theme of gaining insight is also in line with previous longitudinal research which has shown that when people repeat a narrative after several years, the focus is more on understanding and making sense of the repeated event (Negele & Habermas, 2010). Such meaning making has been found to be associated with ego-development (Bauer et al, 2005), and perceived growth (McLean et al, 2020), supporting the idea that insights gained in one specific context (such as occupation) can also be connected to identity development in other contexts as well as identity development in general (Mitchell et al, 2021;.…”

Issues of identity, perceptions and isolation: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of women’s experience of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome

“…Our results suggest that this impact can still occur in those diagnosed much later but that such challenges posed by diagnosis can be processed. Mitchell et al (2021) suggest that adult identity integration or development has two core stages, maintenance and reestablishment. Reestablishment process attempt to manage disruptions or challenges to established identity.…”