Journal of Education and Human Development

Reflexive Identity and Self-authorship Development on Psychology Students
Luiza Bontempo e Silva, Ph.D; Rosa del Carmen Flores Macías, Ph.D.

Abstract
This paper presents the results of a research about cognitive development and identity construction of psychology students. The key concepts in this work are: a) Identity, assumed as an individual’s narrative construction based on a reflexive analysis of his own biography; b) Self-authorship, understood in this context as the capacity to make meaning of one’s experiences based on one’s own internal foundation. The main purpose of this study was to comprehend how college students construct their identity and how does it relate to the development of their self-authorship.The sample was taken from sophomore psychology students of National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), aged between 18 and 22 years old. The research was divided in two stages: 1) Development, validation, and application of the instrument Self-Authorship Written Stories Survey to forty-two volunteers, 2) Biographical interviews with five participants, one of each position described on first stage. Data analysis allowed describing five different self-authorship positions, the first position is characterized for total reliance on external models and the last,for an incipient autonomy on constructing individual´s own perspective. Majority of the participants were on initials self-authorship positions and was found that as students’ progresses on selfauthorship development, their identity becomes more complex. At the same time, the conflict that structures identity and the way they deal with it also gets more complex.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v6n2a16