Identity Crises and Religionism Attitudes

Abstract

Society's failure to find solutions to crises leads to struggles in adolescents’ lives, as they need something
to have faith in. When an individual finds he/she suffers from ambiguity, contradiction and inability
to form a clear self-concept, he/she rushes to compensate by involving in other collective identities
characterized by violent ideologies that offer certainty to them. Within such ethnic, sectarian and
religious extreme groups the teenagers do not find their identities, but find interpretations to their
crises and promises for a better future. Therefore, identity is not only a personal and individual gift,
but also a collective concept rooted in individual's homely, ethnic, sectarian and religious belonging.
Both the intolerant attitudes questionnaire and scale identity crisis have been applied to a sample of
male and female teenagers. Statistical indicators of adolescents' identity crisis show that the adolescents'
identity crisis is the product of two important factors which are clear and evident in socializing
system, namely the Contradictory of roles, and Adopting a negative identity (Adaptation to a negative
identity).
The research results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between identity crisis
and intolerant attitudes among adolescents. This can be explained in the psychological debilitation
caused by the failure to set clear parameters for the relevant scattering self-images and the confusion
of psychological and social role in adolescents.