A Cognitive-Affective perspective on Ego Identity Construction

During the age of adolescence, he/she is confronted for the first time with the overwhelming complexities and abstract qualities of the world, as they develop complex cognitive skills. The primary task of the adolescents is to develop a stable sense of identity and have a purpose in life and, for this they require adequate cognitive repertoire. There are qualitative changes in the nature of mental ability, rather than any simple increase in cognitive skills around puberty, and it is at this point in development that formal operational thought becomes possible. This newly acquired ability to use the hypothetical reasoning allows them to create an ideal representation of the physical reality. They can perceive relationships among abstract concepts and conceptualize problems involving transitivity. Also, emotions and identity are closely related in many ways. As the adolescents start to explore life alternatives, they experience a gamut of emotions which can be both facilitative and debilitating. Thus, to understand the relationship between identity with cognitive styles (domain of field dependence/ independence) and emotions (positive and negative affect) is explored in the current study and a sample of 500 adolescents from Punjab, India state was taken.