Topic > Psychosocial Development Case Study: The Joy Luck Club

She is An-Mei's daughter. This character is in the later life stage of adolescence. According to Newman & Newman, in the late adolescent phase the developmental tasks are: autonomy, gender identity, internalized morality and career choice. The psychological crisis this character is facing is one of individual identity versus identity confusion. Individual identity is when an individual looks at their past and examines their childhood identifications. Then the person will evaluate their interests, aptitudes and abilities. According to Newman & Newman, identity confusion is “the inability to engage with a single vision of oneself.” Newman and Neman also discuss that a person in identity confusion may find themselves “confronted with opposing value systems or a lack of confidence in their ability to do meaningful things”.