Identity Processing Styles in Relation to Rational-Experiential Cognitive Reasoning Processes in Adolescents

Abstract

Knowing ‘who one is’ and developing a clear sense of ‘self’ are important tasks to be accomplished by adolescents. In negotiating the different issues related to the adolescents’ self, the differences in how individuals process self related information and general cognitive reasoning processes play important role. The present study aimed to investigate whether different styles of resolving identity issues are related to rational and experiential cognitive reasoning processes. For this purpose, a sample of 250 boys and 250 girls with age ranging from 13-20 years was taken.Identity Style Inventory-3 (Berzonsky, 1992b) and Rational Experiential Inventory-Adolescents (Marks et al., 2008) were administered. Three identity processing styles as given by Berzonsky’s were investigated: Informational, Normative and Diffuse-Avoidant. Pearson Product Moment correlation analyses revealed that the Informational style is positively correlated with both rational and experiential processing systems. Relationship between normative identity style and experiential processing system is significantly positive whereas, the diffuse-avoidant style is negatively associated with rational processing system and no significant relationship is found between diffuse-avoidant style and experiential processing system. Implications are discussed.