5 Minutes in College: Identity Development

I read a book during this past break totally unrelated to my area (so refreshing!) It was a book about learning a second language and it was filled with reports regarding this matter. There were all kind of investigations in there, some really interesting, some terribly boring. But one caught my eye particularly. It was about learning a second language like all the rest, but what really interested me was the psycology and sociology in it.

It was about how a persons identity can cause them to try and learn a second language.  So I've rescued this for y'all, the different stages an individual passes before they have an established identity.

The first stage of an indivudual developing his or her identity is called Identity of Diffusion. A person in this stage is easily impressionable, can change his/her mind easily, and is not commited to any particular identity or group and therefore theres is no identity crisis or identity at all really.

The second stage is Foreclosed Status. There is commitment to an identity and a set of values but these don't stem from the individual. Rather, these come from others like parents, peers or friends.

Next is Moratorium Status. At this stage there is an identity crisis and the individual actively searching for solutions and a genuine identity. They can experiment different things, until they're sure of what they really like and want. Once this stage is overcome, is...

Identity Achieved Status, you must have a good idea of what this involves, so I'll mention a quote that totally ilustrated it. These individuals are:

"In harmony with themselves, accept their capabilities, limitations and opportunities."

Need more be said?

So there you go. It feels like common knowledge, but I suppose it's good to remember information like this, especially when dealing with teenagers. In fact, most of this research was aimed at eighteen to twenty-something year olds. I suppose this process can begin a lot earlier, but when you finish high school you usually have to figure it out over again for good I guess. As for me, I think I'm somewhere between the latter two stages x )

I hope you enjoyed these 5 minutes in college. See ya! :)

PS: I was going to include bibliography, but I got them all muddled up so if you're interested and want to know the books directly, you can contact me through a comment, and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

5 Minutes in College: Maquiavelo

As you all know, I'm a university student so a lot of my thoughts revolve around that fact: be it a class, or homework assignment or these conferences I have to go to every semester in order not flunk that particular subject. Whatevs,the point is I thought you all might benefit from the dark circles under my eyes. I'll occasionally write about stuff I learn at school only digested so it's easy to understand and you don't end up sleep deprived like me.

In a nutshell, I hope you enjoy these five minutes in college.

Machiavelli

Today I'm going to talk about the largely (in my opinion) misunderstood Niccoló Maquiavelli. And no it is not an italian dish, he was an italian guy.

Now, (don´t quote me though) this dude lived between 1469 and 1527 in ancient Italy, only it was nothing like todays´ Italy because it wasn´t organized as a country yet. Rather, there were city-states in constant, ruthless war. It was just brutal: cities were sacked, women were raped, children were killed... the whole enchilada. This was how Machiavelli grew up. You can´t blame the man if he acquired a realistic and crude way to view life!

His two most important books were The Prince where he talks about all the stuff you should do in order to be a good prince like staying in power and, well, staying alive, and Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy where he now turns to the proper way to run a republic.

I read The Prince in high school for pleasure and studied and read half of the second book because of this subject at school called Social and Political Theory, or something to that effect ´cuz it´s in spanish. They´re both very practical books that in spite of being obviously outdated (when he says "eliminate" it is not a metaphor)it´s based on human nature. And we may have new gadgets, tecnology and all, but we´re just as good and bad as five hundred years ago, only our toys are much cooler.

We all feel jealousy and anger, passion, love. We´ve become more "civilized", but those instincts are still there, hidden in our subconscious. In fact, Hobson talks of this as Primitive Instincts and their translation into a more modern reality, for example

Nomad habit: the love of traveling
Spirit of adventure: modern hunting, competitive sports
The pleasure of fighting- war: dangerous gambling

See what I mean?

Ok, back to Machiavelli. Before this becomes more of an essay than it already is, I'll leave you with a couple quotes of Machiavelli so you can know him better by what he said and not only by what I wrote. With this these quotes I end these first five minutes in college. I hope you enjoyed it :)

"Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are."

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared."

"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."

"There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect."

"When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the marjority of men live content."

The Prince

Quotes courtesy of readprint.com