TITLE:
Identity in Adulthood—Stable or Flexible
AUTHORS:
Margarita Bakracheva
KEYWORDS:
Psychosocial Identity, Identity Reorganization, Identity Crisis, Identity Statuses
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.4,
March
31,
2020
ABSTRACT: The
traditional approach to identity is focused on research of identity attainment
in adolescence and early adulthood. Research of identity in adulthood is scarce, but outlines interesting
perspectives. This article is focused on the specific features, typical for the
transitional periods of identity reformulation throughout lifespan as adaptive response to the
experienced contextual specificity. 703 Bulgarian volunteers in total, aged 18 - 60, were administered EOMEIS-2 in two different periods—2008 and 2018. The main objective of the study is three-fold: 1) to
account changes in identity statuses distribution in the two time points—2008 and 2018; 2) to describe the most
preferred identity status for adults in Bulgaria; and 3) to outline the most
frequent statuses as ensuring the best adaptation of the person to the context.
The general results reveal that there is no change in the distribution of the
identity statuses. 82% of the adults prefer to postpone their stable
commitments and reorganize their identity. Furthermore, this is not a result of
inner choice but mainly adaptive response to the requirements of the context.
Environment, perceived as unstable and preventing strong commitments, results
in identity choices postponement as most adaptive person-context transaction.