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This introductory analysis presents the content of the special issue entitled “Fifty years since ‘Identity: Youth and Crisis’: A renewed look at Erikson’s writings on identity.” The authors of the ...

The purpose of this paper is to highlight three aspects of Erikson's theory of identity that have been left relatively undeveloped. The first is Erikson's embedding identity development in an inter...

This Special Issue was put together with the intention of deepening our understanding of those individuals and social or cultural institutions that knowingly and intentionally take part in the iden...

In this article, I differentiate between 2 ways in which the postmodern is described as challenging Erikson's identity theory: postmodernity as a unique context of development and postmodernism as a critical theory of knowledge. Erikson's theory is evaluated from both perspectives. It is suggested that Erikson's writings contain significant concepts that can be used to constructively address many of the concerns of postmodernists. Erikson's concept of identity structure as a goal-oriented configuration of identity elements created through the interaction of the individual and society, coupled with his portrayal of multiple possible cultural goals and values guiding childrearing practice, are seen as key concepts with which Erikson's theory can explain and acknowledge diverse and context-sensitive structures of identity. A call is made to bring both values and cultural content back into the domain of the psychological study of identity.