| Achieving authenticity is a process of coming to grips with an individual's own life at any given moment, and responding in accordance with one's personal values. When functioning authentically, individuals are likely to think, feel, and behave in ways that promote the fulfillment of their values, preferences, and needs. The purpose of this study was to examine the process that young adult women experienced to act authentically, and the role that their religious/spiritual experiences and sexual development experiences had in this process. A randomized sample of 10 young adult women between the ages 18 and 21 were recruited through Craigslist, an Internet forum. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design consisting of two phases was used in this study. The first phase of the research utilized a quantitative data collection, while the second phase employed qualitative data collection from a sample of young adult women utilizing semi-structured, open-ended interviews. The quantitative method measured the authenticity of the young adult women through the use of the Authenticity Scale (Wood, Linley, Maltby, Baliousis, & Joseph, 2008). The qualitative method explored how young adult women make authentic decisions and how these decisions are influenced by their religious/spiritual experiences, and sexual development. None of the participants in this study had fully developed their authenticity. The young adult women in the Authentic and Integrated Group were more authentically developed than the young adult women in the Inauthentic and Disassociated Group. The research uncovered that challenges in life supported the authentic maturity level of the participants. The young adult women in both groups explained how their life challenges propelled them to being more or less authentic. The research discovered how life challenges shaped the authenticity and/or inauthenticity of young adult women by developing their conscious value system, which was used to gauge their behavior in a way that was supportive of their true selves. |
