Implicit motives and identity development

在发展心理学中，身份的形成被认为是一个终生的过程。然而，由于认知能力的发展和社会环境提出的新要求，正是在青春期，个人开始有意识地处理自己的身份。青少年寻求“我是谁”这个问题的答案。，他们制定自己的生活计划，设定目标，并寻找指导原则，作为他们行为的方向。各种理论模型都将身份形成描述为一个过程，这个过程是由青少年成长的社会文化背景强烈形成的。文化背景对青少年提出了不同的要求，赋予他们一定的自由，但在探索和承诺身份元素时，也设定了一定的界限。特别是在现代社会，人们希望年轻人在没有制度帮助的情况下找到自己独特的身份。养育方式往往反映了特定文化背景下的主要社会化目标，是身份形成过程中的另一个因素。研究表明，除了这些外部因素外，内部因素对青少年身份危机的过程和结果也有影响。特别是，在各种研究中，自我调节已被确定为这方面的重要资源。然而，内隐动机的作用尚未在身份形成的背景下得到检验。这是令人惊讶的，因为隐性动机激励和指导行为。此外，它们影响整个生命周期的发育过程。在本项目中，内隐动机和身份形成的研究传统以前被单独考虑，现在被整合在一起。在这里，身份形成被理解为对目标的探索和最终承诺的结合。该项目的一个中心假设是，内隐动机形成了身份形成的过程，因为它们作为一种权衡倾向发挥作用，表明正在探索的身份元素（即目标）是否符合一个人的内在需求。多元的、跨文化的和纵向的设计使得联合考虑影响青少年身份形成的各种重要因素成为可能，从而有望在这个一直让心理学家着迷的话题上有新的见解。

In developmental psychology, identity formation is understood as a life-long process. Nonetheless, due to developing cognitive capacities and new demands put forth by the social environment it is in adolescence that individuals begin to consciously deal with their own identity. Adolescents seek answers to the question Who am I?, they make their own life-plans, set goals, and look for guiding principles which they can use as orientation for their behavior. Various theoretical models describe identity formation as a process which is strongly formed by the sociocultural context which the adolescent grows up in. Cultural contexts set different demands for adolescents and grant certain freedoms but also set certain boundaries when it comes to the exploration of and commitment to identity elements. In particular, in modern societies, youths are expected to find their own unique identity without institutional help. Parenting styles, which often reflect dominant socialization goals in a given cultural context, are an additional factor in the process of identity formation. Studies have shown that apart from such external factors, internal factors have an impact on the process and the outcome of the identity crisis in adolescence. In particular, in various studies self-regulation has been identified to be an important resource in this context. The role of implicit motives, however, has not yet been examined in the context of identity formation. This is surprising as implicit motives energize and direct behavior. Moreover, they influence developmental processes across the life-span. In the present project the research traditions of implicit motives and identity formation which previously have been considered separately are meant to be brought together. Identity formation here is understood as a combination of exploration of and resulting commitment to goals. A central assumption of the project is that implicit motives form the process of identity formation because they function as a sort of weighing disposition, indicating whether an identity element (i.e., goal) under exploration shows a fit with one's inner needs. The multivariate, cross-cultural, and longitudinal design makes it possible to conjointly consider various significant factors that impact identity formation in adolescence, thus promising new insights in a topic that has always fascinated psychologists.