A clinical model for enhancing adolescent ego identity

Abstract

A model of identity formation based on the cognitive developmental stages of social perspective-taking is described. The model assumes that identity can be achieved through cognitive strategies of considering the self in relation to one friend, one's family, the peer group, and society. Two studies were undertaken to test the model. In Study 1, 28 college students participated in a two week program in which the experimental students were asked to take the perspective of each social entity above and then to consider how the self was like and unlike these. The experimentals gained more than the controls on the identity subscale of Rasmussen's EIS. Fifty-nine college students participated in Study 2 which used a more sensitive discrepancy score measure on a revised identity scale. Discrepancy scores in an analysis of covariance indicated that the experimentals were higher than the controls at post-test and at a one month follow-up.