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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 1167 - 1170
WCES 2012
The correlation between identity status and loving elements (intimacy , commitment , passion)
Mohsen Mansoobifar a, Adis Kraskian Mujembaria Toloue Keybollahib
Department of psychology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Alborz, Iran, Graduate of Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Alborz, Iran
Abstract
The present research has been carried out with the objective of studying the relation between identity status and loving elements (intimacy, commitment, passion) among university students. In retrospective study, 210 university students (62 males and 148 females) selected among university students of Alborz Province using multistage random sampling method, answered questionnaires on status of the young identity and triangular love scale .The finding obtained from the significance testing of Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient Analysis of stepwise regression showed that There is direct correlation between achievement identity and Foreclosure Identity with triple love elements and There is counter-relation between Prohibited Identity and intimacy . The results also showed that among triple love elements, identity status is only capable of forecasting intimacy and commitment and lacks the capability of foreseeing passion element.
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu Keywords:Identity,Love,Intimacy, commitment,passion.
1. Introduction
Erikson believes that humans experience & psychosocial stays that the formation of every stays is based on success or failure of press ions stage. The believed that in each stage, the contradiction between compatible and inter faring elements, a power or characteristic of self comes to existence which Erikson named Basic Strength. For him many problems and crisis happen during adolescence, the fifth psychosocial stage, that he called the stage of seeking identity versus role confuse. Erikson was the first one who detected identity as the major achievement of adolescence character and an important step toward becoming a fruitful and pleased individual.
According to Erikson's theory, seeking identity is not only the major indicator of adolescence, but it is also required for sailing through adolescence to early adulthood [1,2].
The experiences of this stage of development directly affect the rest of adult life. People in early adulthood (youth), after achieving identity in adolescence, must have the ability to merge this identity with another individual's identity and yet, keep his own personal self. Young adulthood, beginning approximately from 19 to 30, is indicated
. Corresponding author.Tel.: +98-0912-6177761 E-mail Address: '.mansoobifar@yahoo.com
1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.268
with learning intimacy at the beginning of this stage and development of generativity at this and time limit is not the prominent charactristic of this stage. In some people this stage is rather short and maybe takes only a few years, but in others it (the youth stage) may last for decades. The youth must become mature in terms of sexual orientation, experience the contradictions between intimacy and isolation, and gain the basic strength of love. Erikson considers love as the basic strength of youth which is resulted from the crisis of intimacy again isolation. Erikson defined love as a mature attachment and sacrifice that take over basic differences between men and women. Even though love contains intimacy, it includes some isolation too, because each partner is allowed to keep a separate identity.
Mature love is sense of commitment, sexual thirst, cooperation, competition, and friend ship. Love is the basic strength of youth and enables the person to handle the lost two stages generatively. It seems that the relationship between identity and love have also been viewed by or her psychologists.
Ferum described love as unity with someone or something outside oneself under the condition of keeping the separation and integration of self." Love requires sharing and connection to others, yet it allows the individual to be unique and separate. Love enables the person to satisfy his/her need to relation without dispensing with his/her own independence and integration. In love people turn to one yet stay two.
On the other hand, regarding the complication of concept of love, social psychologists have made diverse approaches to classify and describe love in its multiple forms. A specifically useful classification is triangle of love created by Robert Sternberg and his colleges. [3].
They trace love with merging three basic parameters: intimacy, passion and commitment. Intimacy is the sense of closeness and unity with the beloved. Passion applies for warm aspects of relationship, that is emotion plus sexual attraction and desire. Commitment is made of two decisions for keeping and maintaining that love: until death separates you two." [4].
For Sternberg love can be only made of one of these parameters or a combination of the three parts. If there is no passion, commitment, and intimacy, Sternberg believes that there is no love.
If passion and commitment does not exist and there is only intimacy Sternberg calls it liking. Another type of love is love is the first sight or Sternberg called infatuation .this style lacks intimacy and commitment parameters and in fact is only sexual desire and arousal. The third type of single element relation lacks intimacy and passion and only includes commitment. This is what stern berg calls empty love.
The characteristic of romantic love is intimacy plus passion and lust. Characteristic of idiot or fatuous love is commitment that passion and last only aggravate that.
Sternberg uses the term companionate love to describe the love that has intimacy and commitment and finally perfect or pure love is combination of all three parameters intimacy passion a last, and finally commitment [5].
Evidence of various studies show that the three elements of intimacy, Commitment and passion can be related to the person's identity status.
Results of Oconner showed that quality of loving relationships are related to identity status. Experiencing identity crisis is related to instability of relationship (low commitment level) and less satisfaction [6].
From Erikson's point of view, for a woman, loving and commitment to family are important issues related to a woman's identity.
Giligan holds in men, identity succeeds intimacy and perfect generativity follows separation and attachment, where as in woman it seems that these tasks are merged and intimacy succeeds identity or comes along with it. [7].
Findings of Fartash and Hejazi showed that informative identity style can significantly predict three parameters of intimacy, commitment, and trust. Where is normative identity and diffused / avoidant identity styles can t predict the above parameters. [8]
Regarding the conducted studies, this research is aimed to answer the question can the individual identity status predict the three elements of love? "
2. Method
2.1 The present research is a retrospective one. Research population includes all college students of Alborz province who are doing their courses within the time period of this study. Sample size was 210 (62 males, 148 females) college students in Alborz province that was selected through multi stage random sampling method. 2.2The following instrument were used for collecting data: Youth Identity Questionnaire
This questionnaire contains 125 items that examine five identity seeking statuses including achieved identity, stereotype id, diffused id, moratorium id. Each of the above statuses are assessed within five parameters national, religious, personal, social, and work identity. Validity of the five statuses and the whole questionnaire was perliminaryly calculated for adolescents cronbach s alpha coefficient was reported between 0.75 and 0.83 . the reliability of questionnaire was assessed using factor analysis and finally five significant factors were extracted that totally explain 50% of common variation which indicates an acceptable reliability for the instrument[9].
Robert sternberg's triangular scale of love This questionnaire examines intimacy passion, and commitment. Subjects mark a score between 1 and 9 for each item (meaning No to very much). Higher scores show higher levels of intimacy, passion, and commitment. Results of stadies using this scale show that this scale is used in different cultures as valid and reliable instrument.
3. Result
In order to examine the relationship between identity status and three elements of love Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used, and then was tested by correlation coefficient significance test. The calculated coefficients and test results are shown in table1.
Table1. coefficients of correlation between identity statuses and elements of love.
identity
prohibited diffused moratorium foreclosure achieved
Intimacy -0.148* -0.098 0.039 0.142* 0.269**
Passion 0.087 0.073 0.122 0.160* 0.130
commitment -0.077 -0.075 0.020 0.145* 0.276**
*P<0/05, **P<0/01
- Increase of achieved identity causes the increase of intimacy and commitment in love
- Increase of fore closure identity causes the increase of triple elements of love
- Increase of prohibited identity causes the decrease of intimacy in love
- There is no relationship between moratorium and diffused identities and triple elements of love. -There is no relationship between prohibited identity and passion and commitment in love.
- There is no relationship between achieved identity and the element of passion in love.
Next step wise regression will be used to determine the predictive role of identity status and its amount in predication, triple elements of love. Results of regression analysis are given in table 2.
Table 2. Regression analysis for predicting triple elements of love according to identity status.
Elements of love R R2 F
Intimacy 0.316 0.100 204,5 4.539**
Passion 0.219 0.048 204,5 2.057
commitment 0.297 0.088 204,5 3.959**
**P<0/01
- Identity statuses predict intimacy.
- Identity statuses do not predict passion.
- Identity statuses predict commitment.
In order to determine the amount of each identity status's role in predicting intimacy in love, regression coefficients mane calculated and tested, the result of which can be seen in table3.
Table3. Regression coefficients for predicting intimacy in love based on identity statuses.
Peridicting variable b Beta t
Residual amount 43.0632 2.292
Achieved identity 0.427 0.209 2.535*
Foreclosure identity 0.269 0.134 1.758
Moratorium identity 0.115 0.058 0.693
Diffused identity 0.102 0.051 0.423
Prohibited identity -0.352 -0.187 -1.854
*P<0/005
In order to deter mine the amount of each identity status's role in predicting commitment in love regression coefficients were calculated and tested, the result of which can be seen in table 4.
Table 4. Regression coefficient, for prediction commitment in love based on identity statuses
Pridicting variable b Beta t
Residual amount 18.653 0.769
Achieved identity 0.673 0.260 3.1365
Foreclosure identity 0.276 0.109 1.413
Moratorium identity -0.022 -0.009 -0.107
Diffused identity 0.114 0.045 0.370
Prohibited identity -0.135 -0.057 -1.557
4. Conclusion
About the predictive role of identity statuses in elements of love findings of the present research indicate that achieved identity predicts commitment and intimacy. This finding reconfirms Erikson's theory about the role of identity in formation of basic strengths intimacy and faith fullness. Marcia holds that the characteristic of achievement identity is commitment to certain goals sense of humor, and the capacity for making intimate relationship.
Hence, this finding is in line with Marcia's description of achievement identity. On the other hand, there was no relationship between passion and individuals identity status. This issue may be resulted from cultural and social factors related to love and its behavioral aspects. Some studies on cultural differences in components of love, have reported that Asians passion scores are relatively low and on the contrary their commitment and intimacy score higher than French and American's. So, in explaining this finding, the probable roles of cultural factors have to be taken into consideration.
References
[1] Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and Society. W. W. Norton, New York.
[2] Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed: A review. New York: Norton.
[3] Fromm,E.(1981).On disobedience and other essays .New York:eabury press.
[4] Aronson,E.(1999). The social animal (8th ed).New York:worty/Freemen.ISBN-0-7767-5715-x.
[5] Sternberg,R.J.(1988). The triangle of love.New York:Basic Books.
[6] O'Connor,P.(1992).Friendship between woman,New York:Guilford
[7] Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theoty and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[8] Hejazi,A.,Fartash,S.(2006/"rae correfafton between identity style andfreandship" Iranian Journal of psychology &Education .Vol36,No.1&2.pp-167-184 .
[9] Kraskian Mujembari,Adis.(2010). Developmental & Standardization of Adolescence Identity Questionnaire (Review of James
Marscia's Stutus of Identity). Doctoral Dissertation, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Science & Research branch, Tehran, Iran.
