Professional Documents
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Vol:2 2008-04-27
I. INTRODUCTION
AbstractThe contribution deals with analysis of identity style
at adolescents (N=463) at the age from 16 to 19 (the average age is
17,7 years). We used the Identity Style Inventory by Berzonsky,
distinguishing three basic, measured identity styles: informational,
W E understand identity of personality as being aware of
oneself, his uniqueness, and authenticity. According to
Baov [1] identity is a cognitive process in which an
normative, diffuse-avoidant identity style and also commitment. The individual experiences the value of oneself identity formation
informational identity style influencing on personal adaptability,
through social environment.
coping strategies, quality of life and the normative identity style, it
International Science Index Vol:2, No:4, 2008 waset.org/Publication/5782
means the style in which an individual takes on models of authorities Although identity is not defined uniformly, several
at self-defining were found to have the highest representation in the psychological approaches agree that development of personal
studied group of adolescents by higher scores at girls in comparison identity is influenced by social and cultural environment,
with boys. The normative identity style positively correlates with the which surround personality [1]. Identity structure is in this
informational identity style. The diffuse-avoidant identity style was way formed in a dynamic process.
found to be positively associated with maladaptive decisional Adolescent stage is considered to be an important milestone
strategies, neuroticism and depressive reactions. There is the style, of personal identity formation. In this period an individual is
in which the individual shifts aside defining his personality. In our
aware of his feelings, values, aims, he is looking for a place in
research sample the lowest score represents it and negatively
correlates with commitment, it means with coping strategies, thrust in
society. In a process of identity maturing it is very important
oneself and the surrounding world. The age of adolescents did not to pay attention to formation of value system, aspiration level,
significantly differentiate representation of identity style. We were identifying of life priorities at adolescent youth. The
finding the model, in which informational and normative identity developmental stage of adolescence, forming a transitory
style had positive relationship and the informational and diffuse- period between childhood and adulthood, is at the same time
avoidant style had negative relationship, which were determinated a period of identity fulfilment, bringing genuineness,
with commitment. In the same time the commitment is influenced singularity. It is the importance of investigating the adolescent
with other outside factors. stage of development as a key turning point in both
constructing and reconstructing a young persons identity that
KeywordsIdentity Style Inventory, Informational Identity several authors bring their attention to this process [2] [3] [4]
Style, Normative Identity Style, Diffuse-Avoidant Style, Identity [5]. The forming of identity style requires the investigation of
Commitment.
presence or absence of identity crisis (doubts about values and
goals implemented to the child by his parents) and presence,
or absence, of commitments (stability in the selection of
values, individual life standards), leading to the achievement
of four identity statuses in adolescence.
Manuscript received May 30, 2008. The contribution is a part of realized
grant VEGA 1/3675/06: Social-psychological aspects of identity of Berzonsky [6] serves an integrating attitude to identity
adolescents. defining, which differentiates three basic identity styles:
Blandna ramov is a special assistant of psychology at the Department informational, normative, diffuse-avoidant style.
the of Mass media communication and advertising studies, Faculty of Art, Informational identity style is characteristic of
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Drovsk 4, 949 74 Nitra,
Slovak Republic (e-mail: bsramova@ukf.sk). individualities that actively look for their personality, who are
Barbara Lticov is a research fellow at the Department of Social and open to new experiences and have active attitude to problem
Biological Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. solving [7] [8] [9] [10]. The informational identity style
Gabriel Bianchi is a senior research fellow at the Department of Social and corresponds with achieving the moratorium state [11] [12].
Biological Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Katarna Fichnov is head of Departmet of Mass Media Communication Normative identity style is characteristic of an individual
and Advertising Studies Faculty of Art, Constantine The Philosopher who at identity formation passively accepts models, is
University in Nitra, Drovsk 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic (e-mail: conscientious and concentrated on the aim. The individual
kfichnova@ukf.sk). adapts his behaviour to norms and expectations of others, so
Aneka Hamranov is a assistant at the Department of Educational and
School Psychology, Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher
he is oriented conformal. Ambiguity does not satisfy him, he
University in Nitra, Drovsk 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic (e-mail: achieves foreclosed identity commitments [7] [10] [12].
ahamranova@ukf.sk).
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Vol:2 2008-04-27
Diffuse-avoidant identity style is bound to maladaptive purposes we used Slovak version that we translated from the
strategies, neuroticism, and depression. It is a style, where an original and modified [19].
individual postpones defining of his personality, he has low The inventory includes 40 items. Adolescents represented
self-confidence, his behaviour is conditioned by situation degree of agreement with individual items on a scale from 1 to
factors, he avoids personal conflicts, achieves diffuse identity 5 points. For analysis we used summary score of socio-
state [7] [9] [10] [13]. cognitive identity styles that are focused on solution, coping
According to Berzonsky [13], at studying of identity style it with personal problems, forming of the personal identity:
is important to observe commitment that tells about 1. Informational identity style (Cronbachs
personalitys responsibility, constancy of its decisions, alpha=0.634)
optimism, increased self-esteem, sense for duty, personal 2. Diffuse-avoidant identity style (Cronbachs
adaptability. alpha=0.592)
Intrapersonal identity, being aware of ones own 3. Normative identity style (Cronbachs
uniqueness, authenticity, is closely interconnected with alpha=0.603).
interpersonal identity, in other words with maintaining of At the same time we observed firmness of personality
certain social roles and with social identity, that means with decisions, which Berzonsky calls identity commitment
knowing of its membership in social groups. In the process of (Cronbachs alpha=0.678). For statistic processing we used
personality identity formation cognitive, personal and also correlation analysis, reliability measurement, t-test, ANOVA
socio-cultural factors play an important role. It is important to (SPSS), Amos (Arbuckle, 1997).
know the factors for creating intentional educational strategies
that in appropriate way influence self-actualisation process in III. RESULTS
International Science Index Vol:2, No:4, 2008 waset.org/Publication/5782
adolescent period, as is pointed out by research findings by The research findings refer to correlation relations of the
e.g. [14] [15] [16] [17]. studied identity scales in individual groups of adolescents in
In this context and on the basis of a pre-research [16] [18] dependence on gender and age (Table II). Similar to previous
we assume that at adolescents informational identity style and findings [12] [18] [20], all three studied identity styles are
normative identity style would be represented to a bigger bound to commitment.
extent and diffuse-avoidant identity style to a less extent. We Our assumption about prevailing identity style was
expect positive correlation between informational, normative confirmed. In the whole research sample informational
identity style and identity commitment. We suppose that
identity style and normative identity style dominated then
diffuse-avoidant identity style at adolescents would relate with
diffuse-avoidant identity style had the smallest representation.
a low identity commitment. At the same time we expect that
diffuse-avoidant identity of adolescents would increase with An informational (r=0.413,p<0,01) and normative identity
age. style (r=0.438,p<0,01) positively correlate with commitment
and diffuse-avoidant identity style (r=-0.341,p<0,01)
II. MATERIALS AND METHOD negatively correlate with commitment. The correlation
The research group consisted of 463 adolescents (219 boys, between the style, age and commitments are presented in
244 girls), Slovak students of secondary technical schools and Table II. As shown in Table II, style relate to adolescents age.
secondary grammar schools age from 16 to 19 (mean age 17,7
yrs.) (Table I). TABLE II
THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN IDENTITY STYLE, AGE, AND COMMITMENT
TABLE I (N=463)
CRONBACH ALPHA OF IDENTITY STYLE INVENTORY (ISI3) Variables 1 2 3 4 5
Scales AM SD Cronbachs Cronbachs
alpha alpha
(Slovak (original 1. Gender
version) version) * 2. Age -0.076
Informational 38.005 5.566 0.634 0.78 3. Informational 0.253** -0.054
identity style identity style
4. Normative 0.078* -0.040 0.299**
Normative 32.560 4.901 0.603 0.61 identity style
identity style 5. Diffuse- -0.096* 0.78 -0.154* -0.002
Diffuse- 30.071 5.495 0.592 0.78 avoidant
avoidant identity style
identity style 6. Commitment 0.039 -0.036 0.413** 0.438** -0.341**
Commitment 35.135 6.199 0.678 0.80
Together 135.80 12.665 0.687 0.76 An informational style associate positively with normative
4
identity style (r=0.299,p<0,01) and associate negatively with
* by Berzonsky (2004)
diffuse-avoidant identity style (r=-0.154,p<0,05).
For studying of the identity styles we used Berzonskys
Identity Style Inventory (ISI3, revised version). For our
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Vol:2 2008-04-27
TABLE III 2 shows that the model 3 for df=1 is the best for
REGRESSION ANALYSES
agreement model with dates (Table V). We can say that the
Variables Step 1 Step 2
Beta Beta model 3 is fair (Table VI, VII).
Model 3 shows that informational and normative identity
Gender 0.036 -0.089 styles have positive relationship and the informational and
Age -0.033 0.010 diffuse-avoidant style have negative relationship, which are
Informational identity style 0.281** determinated with commitment. At the same time, the
Normative identity style 0.36**
commitment is influenced by other outside factors .
Diffuse-avoidant identity style -0.306**
R2 Change -0.002 0.372**
R2 0.003 0.368** IV. DISCUSSION
**p< 0,01, *p< 0,05 The results of our research about positive correlation of
normative identity style, informational identity style and
Regression analyses are showed in Table III. Gender and commitment corresponded with conclusions of Berzonsky [7]
age in the Step 1 do not explain significantly difference in
commitment. Social-cognitive identity style, which was
controlled in the Step 2, predicated commitment identity (R2 Informational
identity style
=0.372,p<0,01). Informational ( =0.281, p<0,01) and r
0.27**
normative ( =0.36,p<0,01) identity style related positively 0.29**
and diffused-avoidant style related negatively (R2 =-0.306,
International Science Index Vol:2, No:4, 2008 waset.org/Publication/5782
Normative 0.36**
p<0,01) at the construction the commitment identity. identity style commitment
In fo r m a tio n a l
id e n tity sty le
Fig. 2 The structural model 1 (M1)
0 .2 8 1 * *
R 2 = 0 .3 7 2 ,p < 0 ,0 1
N o r m a tive 0 .3 6 ** Informational
id e n tity sty le C o m m itm e n t identity style
0.26** r4
0.31**
D iffu se -a v o id a n t 0.35**
id e n tity sty le
Normative identity
-0.16* 0.34**
style commitment
-0.02
Fig. 1 Path model for illustration of the results of regression analyses -0.29**
Diffuse-
avoidant
identity style
In the other step we were looking for the model, which
would be explained by the variables of style identity
inventory. We found 3 models (Table IV, Figs. 2, 3, 4). The
Fig. 3 The structural model 2 (M2)
first model is without relationships between identity styles.
The second model showed the same relationships between
identity styles. Informational
identity style
r
0.26**
TABLE IV 0.30**
THE TESTED MODELS 0.35**
Normative 0.35**
Model Description N df -0.15* identity style commitment
parameters
M1 Without relationships between identity 7 3 -0.29**
style Diffuse-avoidant
M2 The relationships between identity 10 0 identity style
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Vol:2 2008-04-27
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