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 was always who I was and I knew what I wanted to do, but moving to another country made everything seem different. Based on Erik Erikson’s theory, I even felt like I go from the stage of Intimacy vs. Isolation back to the stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion. It’s like having a new identity. No one around me knew about me. I was meeting new people, learning about the culture, the language, and even interests. I was exploring a new me, and a new identity. However, I was confused at the same time, I didn’t know how to deal with the “old” identity. I was worried to lose myself when I was trying to adapt to this new identity.

Back to the questions I asked at the beginning, 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? The first time when I went back to my country from the United States, all of my friends would ask me about my life in the U.S. and ask all different questions about study abroad. When I am in Asia, people ask me about my life in the U.S., when I am in the U.S., people ask me about my life in Asia. From time to time, the feeling of not belonging anywhere became stronger because how people ask me questions makes me feel like I am always from a different place. For a long time, I was trying to figure out where I belong, how come I am an outsider all the time. Now, when I am traveling in the U.S. I won’t say I am from Asia, I say I am from Idaho. From my experiences, I think it’s important for me to find a place that feels like home, find a place where people accept me as me.

Identity confusion among young people could be affecting some mental problems including depression, suicide, and substance use (Arnett, 2013). Helping adolescents to find their identity can prevent some of the confusion. Communicate with children, and make sure they don’t lose themselves when they are trying to explore their world. From my personal experiences, I believe once we can adopt a new identity easily, it would be easier when we move from one place to another place or even moving from one job to another job.

References

Arnett, J. J. (2013). Adolescence and emerging adulthood: a cultural approach. Boston: Pearson.

Yampolsky, M. A., Amiot, C. E., & de la Sablonnière, R. (2013, March 14). Multicultural identity integration and well-being: a qualitative exploration of variations in narrative coherence and multicultural identification. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3596806/.