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SELF-CONCEPT CLARITY AND RUMINATION AS PREDICTORS OF IDENTITY

CRISIS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Article · December 2020

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Sushma Suri Kanika Khandelwal

National Islamic University Government Medical College & Hospital
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 ISSN - 2348-2397 S SHODH SARITA
ODH ARITA
APPROVED UGC CARE SH Vol. 7, Issue 28, October-December, 2020
LLS Page Nos. 81-86
AN INTERNATIONAL BILINGUAL PEER REVIEWED REFEREED RESEARCH JOURNAL

SELF-CONCEPT CLARITY AND RUMINATION

Sushma Suri*
AS PREDICTORS OF IDENTITY CRISIS Kanika Khandelwal**
AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Geetika Tholia***

ABSTRACT
The current study examined Identity Crisis, Self-Concept Clarity and Rumination in 132 (male=66) University
Students. Participants within the age range of 20-25 were recruited through convenient sampling technique. A survey
was performed on University students using Identity Status, Self- Concept Clarity (SCC) and Ruminative Response
Scales. Data were analysed using SPSS. Results revealed that SCC has significant positive correlation with identity
achievement, identity diffusion and negative correlation with brooding and reflection. Brooding has a significant
negative correlation with SCC and identity achievement. Reflection correlated negatively with SCC. SCC significantly
predicted Identity Achievement and Identity diffusion. Whereas Rumination did not show any significant contribution
on all the dimensions of Identity Crisis. Gender did not show any significant difference on IC, SCC and Rumination.
The study provides direction to Counselor, Teacher and Parents.
Keywords : Identity Crisis, Rumination, Self-Concept Clarity

INTRODUCTION motivations, or aspirations that an individual implements

Identity has been defined as “unitary” or or adheres to (Baumeister, Shapiro, & Tice, 1985;
“multiple”, “real” or “constructed”, “stable” or “fluid”, Marcia, 1966) e.g an individual who is active in the
“personal” or “social”, and in many other ways that often commitment process might decide upon a college major
seem to contradict each other (Vignoles et al., 2011). or become more vocal about how his religious beliefs
Within a given socio-cultural and historical milieu, guide his life choices. Exploration is the active process in
psychological research and theorizing suggests that which an individual investigates alternatives and
individuals construct their identities by negotiating “who questions commitments (Luyckx et al., 2013; Marcia,
they are” with significant others (Swann & Bosson, 1966). This process might take the form of an individual
2008). The process of identity formation is, in reality, a shadowing professionals in several fields to understand
cycle of crisis followed by resolution followed by another his future career options before deciding upon a major.
crisis (Erikson, 1968; Luyckx, 2006a; Luyckx, 2006b; The two processes of exploration and commitment are
Marcia, 1966). foundational for modern models of identity development
The works of Erikson (1950, 1968) on identity (Luyckx et al., 2008; Meeus, 2011; Meeus, van de Shoot,
development were expanded upon by Marcia (1966), Keijsers, Schwartz, & Branje, 2010). In addition, Marcia
who defined two key processes that are active during (1966) defined four categories of identity development
identity development called commitment and that are the basic stages of identity development. These
exploration. Commitment is a broad term to mean any statuses are achievement, diffusion, moratorium, and
potential piece of ideology, personal or social values, foreclosure. Achievement is the most stable status over

*Associate Professor - Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

** [Link]. Clinical Psychology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh
***Research Scholar - Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Vol. 7 Issue 28 October to December 2020 SHODH SARITA 81 QUARTERLY BI-LINGUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
time because once achievement has been reached Contemporary researchers suggest that Eriksonian
adolescents are likely to remain in this state (Kroger et al., theory application should be inclusive of social context &
2010). Individuals experiencing achievement have the culture of society. Markus (1986) argued that people
experienced crisis, considered alternatives and have from Western and Eastern cultures have strikingly
committed to an ideology, occupation, and direction for different construal of the self. The Western (or
life (Marcia, 1966; Meeus et al., 2010). A college student independent) construal views the self as an independent,
who has reached achievement is likely to appear sure of self-contained, autonomous entity. The Eastern (or
his career path, has settled on religious beliefs, and interdependent) construal views the self as an
overall feels comfortable with who he is as a person. interconnected entity that is most meaningful when cast
Achievement is the preferred outcome of identity within an interpersonal context.
development because it means that the individual has Rumination is a method of coping with negative
engaged in exploration of alternatives and has been able mood that involves self-focused attention (Lyubomirsky
to commit to a path (Marcia, 1966). & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1993). According to Response
These four statuses fall on the continuum, where Styles theory it is characterized by self-reflection (Nolen-
Identity Achievement & Moratorium falls on the positive Hoeksema M.,1991) as well as a repetitive and passive
end and Foreclosure & Identity Diffusion falls on the focus on one's negative emotions. Specifically,
negative end. To develop an identity, one must go through Treynorand colleagues (2003) found that brooding or
a crisis: an intensified exploration. Identity status can also passively focusing on symptoms predicted depression
change during adulthood, despite the fact that identity is longitudinally, whereas self-reflection or actively
formed during adolescence and is more susceptible to attempting to gain insight into problems did not.
change at that time (Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen, & Kokko, Why some people, when they contemplate their
2005). problems and feelings of distress, can engage in adaptive
Campbell defined Self-Concept Clarity (SCC) as reflection whereas others fall into brooding. Teasdale and
the extent to which the contents of an individual's self- Barnard (1993) have suggested that people whose
concept (e.g., perceived personal attributes) are clearly negative self-schemas have become easily accessible
and confidently defined, internally consistent, and because of previous episodes of depression should fall
temporally stable (Campbell et al., 1996). into the brooding form of rumination more easily. A low
The similarities between the construct identity & sense of mastery, however, contributes primarily to
SCC often results in researchers using the terms brooding—that is, to a passive contemplation of what's
interchangeably. However, many contemporary wrong in your life and how you wish it were better.
researchers now view identity as a broader concept which Adolescence which is often described as a crucial
is inclusive of a narrower concept like SCC (Mc Adams phase of all developmental stages, is also a time where
,2013). one's focus is on identity formation. In this phase
According toHarter (2008) Identity is a process adolescents engage in experimentation and act
represents the 'I' and SCC represents the 'me' which is inconsistently to explore in order to self-discover.
created through the process and it denotes a theory of who (Strasburger, Wilson & Jordan, 2013). Côté (2018) stated
'one' is and how 'one' came to be at current position in life. that in today's time, the delayed transition to adulthood
Both constructs share a bidirectional relationship, If the has resulted in prolonged Identity crisis. Also, he stated
identity & self are not in sync, the individual may have to that this may further cause problematic person- context
reconsider the process of identity formation Simply fits & effect the active engagement in Identity processes
putting, SCC defines the image of self which is being during transitions.
created & not the process through which it was created When an individual moves from a school
(Schwartz, Klimstra, Luyckx, Hale & Meeus, 2012). environment to College, this shift can sometimes be
Vol. 7 Issue 28 October to December 2020 SHODH SARITA 82 QUARTERLY BI-LINGUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
overwhelming given that college environment is PROCEDURE
significantly different from the school. As the person Informed consent of the participants was sought.
adapts to the daily routines, they also find themselves in a The obtained data was analysed using different statistical
state of crisis with new roles and responsibilities. The techniques through SPSS version 20.
person in crisis tend to question about his/her own beliefs, RESULTS
values, attitudes, ideologies, and philosophy of life and This study aims to determine Identity Crisis, SCC
indulge in ruminative mode of thinking. Further and Rumination among University Students. Pearson
ruminative individuals tend to lack a sense of self clarity. correlation, Regression analysis and t-test were used.
It will be therefore interesting to see how ones' level of Since the normality test was coming significant, a check
self-concept clarity and rumination will affect one's for skewedness and kurtosis showed the range of
identity development. skewedness and kurtosis came out to be +/-2. The data is
Also, this construct has been widely studied in little skewed, and kurtoses does not significantly deviate
clinical psychology field, but few studies are done on from normal distribution. Mean and SD for the variables
non-clinical population. are as follows: Identity Achievement (M=21.02,
OBJECTIVES SD=4.16), Identity Diffusion (M=23.99, SD=5.30),
· To examine Rumination (Brooding & Reflection) Identity Foreclosure (M=20.42, SD=4.40), Identity
and SCC as a predictor of Identity Crisis (Identity Moratorium (M=18.63, SD=4.57), SCC (M=36.04,
Achievement, Identity Diffusion, Identity SD=7.85), Rumination (M=24.87, SD=4.98).
Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium) among Correlation analysis revealed that SCC has significant
University Students. positive correlation (p=.01) with identity achievement
· To examine Identity Crisis (stages), SCC and (r=.28), identity diffusion (r=.25) and significant
Rumination (Brooding & Reflection) among male negative correlation with brooding (r=.43, p=.01) and
and female University Students. reflection (r=.18, p=.05). Brooding negatively correlated
METHOD with identity achievement (r=.20, p=.05).
Participants : Results of regression analysis highlighted that
132 (female=66) University Students recruited SCC predicted identity achievement (β=.234, R2=.089,
through convenient sampling technique Participants f2=0.09, p<.05) and identity diffusion (β =.290, R2=.077,
selected were within the age range of 20-25 yrs. studying f2=0.08, p<.05). Regression Models were found to be
in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. non-significant for identity foreclosure and moratorium.
Measures : To check whether males and females differed on
· Ruminative Response Scale - Short Form brooding, reflection, SCC, achievement, diffusion,
(Treynor, Gonzalex, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003) is foreclosure, and moratorium, a t-test was done and it
a 10-item having 2 dimensions: Brooding & indicated no significant difference among males and
Reflection. It has good content validity and females for all the variables.
Cronbach alpha is .88. (Nolen-Hoeksema M. , DISCUSSION
1991). The present study aimed to study identity crisis,
· Self-Concept Clarity- Short Form (Campbell and SCC, and rumination among university students. Results
lavallee , 1993) is a 12-item scale has good content revealed that SCC significantly predicted by identity
validity and Cronbach alpha is .86 (Campbell, et achievement. The findings of the study are on the line of
al., 1996). previous study by (Marcia, 2002), who reported that
· Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Adam, identity achieved individuals have a strong and
Fitch & Shea, 1979), a 24-item scales. The autonomous sense of self and realistically they are high
Cronbach alpha ranged between .63 to .67. on self-esteem scores. It is because of the fact that they
Vol. 7 Issue 28 October to December 2020 SHODH SARITA 83 QUARTERLY BI-LINGUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
have undergone a period of exploration and have made an LIMITATIONS
ideological, occupational, and interpersonal value · Restricted to small sample size from Jamia Millia
commitments. Moreover, Adams (2010) found that Islamia only.
identity achieved students were significantly lower in · Limited to quantitative analyses only
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