Özet:

Identity, a main topic of interests and conflicts in interpersonal and intergroup processes, has become one of the primary subjects in social sciences. The concept of identity may be defined as the conscious perception of an individual or a group about its status and value. “Having an identity” is considered to be good and desirable, whereas the situation of “having no identity” is evaluated negatively. An organization or community without a clear identity is considered weak, without direction, and confused (Verkuyten, 2005: 41). The identity implies not only an awareness regarding who the one really is, but also the value, recognition and respect brought by particular identities. Identity influences the behaviours and attitudes to the others. For this reason, it is necessary to take identity elements into consideration in social researches.People are actively getting involved in defining their identities. Processes of identity formation, involving many different actors, such as parents and other authorities, friends, institutions and groups, are complex. The reflected appraisals of friends and attachment to them, self evaluation via social comparisons and identifications with social groups are considered to be significant predictors of young people’s identity concepts. Studies about identity development indicate that there are positive and meaningful relations among attachement to friends, group identifications and identity orientations.In this resarch, the correlations between the identity orientations, self evaluation via social comparison, attachment to friends and group integration levels of the young, between 12-24, were investigated. Correlations between the identity orientations and some variables affiliated with social groups were examined. Identity orientations refer to the relative importance that individuals place on various identity attributes or characteristics suc as race, religion, culture and language when constructing their selfdefinitions (Cheek, 1989). Adolescents, who are the members of different social groups and who are not the members of any social groups, and genders were compared regarding some variables. The sample consisted of 657 young people (334 female, 323 male) affiliated and 661 young people (333 female, 328 male) non-affiliated with social groups. 1318 young people, living in Ankara, participated in this study in total. Some demographic variables together with The Identity Questionnaire, The Group Integration Scale, The Inventory of Peer Attachment and The Social Comparison Scale were administered to participants. The data was analyzed through the SPSS (11.0) statistical program. Findings indicated that between the dependent variables there are positive and meaningful relations. The young affiliated with social groups evaluate themselves more positive than the young non-affiliated with social groups, females have higher average scores in self evaluation, personal identity and attachment to friends than males. The findings of the study were discussed in the light of the theoretical approaches related to identity development and other findings related in the literature. It can be said that the study contributes to the literature in the way that it examines identity development in youth and reveals the relationships between the concept of identity and relevant variables.

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