ABSTRACT
Of the many pressures and responsibilities confronting the contemporary adolescent, “the task of self-definition” (Kroger, 1996, p. 1) seems to cast a powerful shadow over all that he or she does. As Ritch C. Savin-Williams asserts, “According to psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, the unique developmental task of adolescence is to solidify a personal identity” (2005, p. 71). Once an adolescent understands-either consciously or subconsciously-that he or she must undertake the development of an identity, he or she must then decide how precisely this monumental and critical task is to be accomplished. Fortunately, for the teenager, adolescence is widely regarded within contemporary society as a time when one is expected to assume various guises and personae. No one truly expects an adolescent to select an identity and maintain it for very long, and various aspects of the culture surrounding the adolescent exert variable degrees of influence on his or her identity development.
