Evaluate the claim that personal identity changes as the result of acts of Identification.

One of the purposes of this essay will be to evaluate Erik Erikson’s argument, that identity changes are accomplished over the whole of the life course. It will weigh up using examples that the formation of one’s identity is through changes in our bodies, practices and relationships. Focussing especially through one’s identifications with significant others, primarily with parents, also other individuals during their biographical experiences. Finally, it will consider identification theories by way of social psychologists Sigmund Freud and Michael Billig.

Erik Erikson a psychologist (1950s) defined identity as a sense of ones continuity over time as a being or entity that is different from others (Erikson, 1980 [1959], cited: Hollway, 2009, pg 252). He argues that a change in a persons identity is throughout an entire life. He believed that there are eight stages thr…(short extract)