As adolescence is a time of drastic changes, it comes as no surprise that the traits of the Five Factor Model (FFM), or the Big Five, also change. The five dimensions: neuroticism, openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness all begin to increase in different measures towards late adolescence, as the individual is transitioning into adulthood. They all change in different ways. For example, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and social dominance extraversion all increase through middle adulthood. Openness and extraversion related to sociability both increase while transitioning to adulthood, but the traits remain relatively stable throughout the rest of adulthood (Schwartz, Donnellan, Ravert, Luyckx, & Zamboanga, 2013). Because of these changes, some evidence suggests that we can see these changes in the manifestation of social media.

As this transition occurs, autonomy naturally increases as well. In turn, this leads to more identity exploration in an adolescent’s life. Individuals in this stage are likely to seek out social context that appeal to them in a variety of ways. Of course, in this day and age, social media has the potential of being a very popular social outlet (Schwartz et al., 2013). In fact, this likely could be because adolescence shows an increase in overall extraversion, while a study done by Ryan and Xenos (2011) highlights that fact that extroverted individuals are more likely to be Facebook users. The opportunity to use social media like Facebook gives adolescents a way to explore their identity in ways that could either benefit or harm them.

Identity exploration is most closely related to the Big Five characteristic of openness. This comes as unsurprising, because being high on openness is associated with sensation seeking, which in turn promotes identity exploration. While most people believe that the invulnerability that teenagers feel in this period of life is harmful, some scholars believe that this is not always that case. The biggest factor is related to the motivation behind sensation-seeking. The invulnerability the the adolescents feel can push them to do things that they may have not originally done, and potentially lead them to uncover another dimension of their identity (Schwartz et al., 2013).

The most important thing to consider is an adolescent’s motivation of sensation-seeking related to identity exploration. Further, it all comes down to James Marcia’s four stages of identity. Identity foreclosure, which is where, essentially, an adolescent’s identity has been chosen for them. They did not go through an identity crisis (Santrock, 2016). If this is the case, the reasons for identity exploration may be rooted in rebellion and dangerous activities. This would be a case of unhealthy identity exploration. On the other hand, by taking risks more carefully and productively, adolescents are more likely to be in identity moratorium or identity achievement. These risky behaviors could promote growth-oriented outcomes, that could serve as a good outlet for identity exploration (Schwartz et al., 2013). Personally, I very rarely participated in sensation-seeking activities. In fact, on the Sensation-Seeking Scale, I scored a 7. This is a low score. However, I believe that even though I didn’t participate in risky behaviors, I have gone through an identity crisis and have reached identity achievement. My behaviors in early adolescence have led me to live a productive, responsible life.

References

Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. (2011). Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 27. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.02.004

Santrock, J. W. (2016) Adolescence. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education

Schwartz, S. J., Donnellan, M. B., Ravert, R. D., Luyckx, K., & Zamboanga, B. L. (2013). Identity development, personality, and well-being in adolescence and emerging adulthood: Theory, research, and recent advancements. Handbook of psychology: Development of psychology (pp. 346-348). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.