“Identidade na vida adulta: a singularização da experiência”

Abstract

This research introduces a proposal of understanding the construction of the adult identity in the contemporary world, in a context of multiple social and cultural transformations marked, above all, by the technology development and the democratization of intimate relationships. Within the Systemic Psychology framework, the study followed a mixed method, quanti-qualitative, therefore divided into two distinct phases. The first one, quantitative, had the participation of 64 individuals from 25 to 34 years old, from both genders, with an online questionnaire taken as a data collect procedure. The second one, qualitative, was headed with the use of semi-structured interviews with six collaborators from the previous phase, chosen according to their “self-concept”. The results indicated that this dynamic and fluid character that surrounds the experiences of becoming and being an adult, along with the individualization of the projects of life, puts into question some traditional criteria of adulthood legitimation, such as marriage, parenting, and the leaving of parents’ house, giving space to experiences of adult identity construction based on the development of psychosocial abilities, mainly the ethic responsibility and the autonomy. In a society governed by the combination of productivity and consumption, being financially independent remains as an important source of validation of the adult condition, yet in a “re-signified” way, in which the self-sufficiency gives way to intergenerational relations of support and partnership. Formerly a phenomenon legitimated by concrete experiences designed in order to meet preestablished social expectations, such as getting married and having children, the construction of identity in adulthood turns out to be a continuously revised and updated process, emerged from reflections and self-organizations, with the autonomous responsibility taken as the keyelement for the social recognition of this construction