ABSTRACT
The adolescent years are often portrayed as a time of moratorium, choices, conflict, and turbulence as youth attempt to establish their personal identity. Erik Erikson, a psychosocial theorist, believed that identity is historically situated or related to the era in which one lives. His psychosocial theory discusses how the developing self meets the challenges and opportunities of each life stage, merging past identifications into one's present identity. Cognitive achievements during adolescence "complement" a young person's sense of identity and "add a powerful tool to the tasks of youth". Jean Piaget, a widely known Swiss biological psychologist, developed a stage theory of cognitive development from birth to late adolescence. Symbolic interactionism is a school of thought that explains how the self emerges through social interaction. Developed in the 1900s at the University of Chicago, its principles had a strong influence on social work pioneer Jane Addams and the settlement house movement as a means of perceiving social activism.
