Development process of identity

When old people tell stories from their lives, they often choose tales from that time. They repeat them unwaveringly, sometimes insistently. It seems as important to them as breathing, to give a voice to the past. Those who are younger listen in astonishment. And if they have a relaxed relationship with the storyteller, they may feel something like reverence. That feeling would be appropriate. For this special kind of urge to communicate is not just a quirk, but an expression of an extremely important process of finding oneself. Experts today assume that every person constructs their personal life story. This creates a meaningful summary of what has been with a continuous red thread and certain guiding motifs. Only with their help do we find and understand our identity and our place in the world.

The course of life significantly changes our way of thinking, and one can even make rough predictions about how. For in at least the Western industrial societies, there are very widespread life experiences that shape our minds in typical ways. This change can best be understood as a spiral movement. It begins with the small child. In its world, there are hardly any logical constraints. It is populated by countless possibilities and impossibilities. As a person goes through youth, they begin to trust in the power of logical thinking. Young people acted as if "the world had to submit to idealistic visions and not to the given realities," observed Jean Piaget long ago. In this mindset, one believes there must be a patent solution for every complicated problem. Many remain stuck in it for a long time. However, in general, it at least partially wears down against the realities of adult life.

The phase of formal logic can thus be overcome. A sign of this is that a person begins, to find multiple-choice tests idiotic. For they now perceive that most questions have multiple answers. How important feelings are. That the world is full of uncertainties. That irreconcilable contradictions belong to reality, and even offer special opportunities for understanding. They gain a touch of wisdom. Or, in other words: Some adult men and women return, enriched with worldly knowledge and a situation-appropriate logic, and poorer in many illusions, to the childlike openness. Whether this state is better or worse remains open. Every kind of being deserves our appreciation: Those who think all fruits ripen with strawberries know nothing of grapes. And what one prefers is ultimately a matter of taste …

Thinking and judging, those abilities of the mentioned intellectual software, are in all of this only part of a far more complex system that matures with our body, yet is distinguishable from it: our personality. What this word means exactly has been redefined by psychologists for decades. For everyday use, one might say: It is the typical way we behave. It is shaped by our temperament, but also by our beliefs and values. Experts largely agree that personality is still very elastic until about the age of ten. Then it forms and is relatively stable from the age of 30. A phenomenon can be observed from birth to death, which psychologist Ursula Staudinger and her colleagues call "heterotypic continuity." The tone of our behavior, one could say, remains similar throughout life – yet the pieces that are played change over time.

Life demands an almost frightening adaptability from us today. We no longer look into our own future when we consider our parents or grandparents. For life forms, technical possibilities, and professions are changing at a breakneck speed. The network is vast, the obligations numerous, expectations endless, options everywhere, and time is a scarce commodity.

What could help people navigate through today's world is one of Ursula Staudinger's research areas. She draws from extensive work on "psychologically resilient" individuals – people who master their lives with admirable calmness despite various turmoil and strokes of fate. The belief in oneself and one's own creative power, Staudinger knows, is an important component of this resilience. However, it must be complemented by a very different kind of skill: Those who want to get through life well should consciously also foster the ability to adapt at the right moment. Researchers have shown that these two complementary traits are not innate, but can be learned and renewed to a significant extent – and are closely linked to cultural values.