The Identity Status Of Individuals Essay

According to Salmon, 1985 (Salmon 1985, p171), development and change are not limited to childhood but continue throughout our lives. It is however argued that personal identities are similar to social identities, and include group or collective identities.

Identity has been defined in many ways. It is the concept used to describe an individual's sense of who he or she is (Dashefsky and Shapiro, 1976). Changes in identity occur throughout the life cycle, however, the changes in identity are usually most notable during adolescence. Integrating a positive sense of ethnic identity into one's overall personal identity is an important task of late adolescence (Steinberg, 1996).

According to Steinberg (2016), individuals who have a healthy sense of identity are able to take responsibilities for their actions, and have a clear idea of who they are and who they would like to be. However, Steinberg

Identity Moratorium “the status in which the adolescent is currently in a crisis, exploring various commitments and is ready to make choices, but has not made a commitment to these choices yet” (Feldman, 2017)(p.297). I take from this that this type adolescent is one who has planned there life out and has identified different goals he/she want to do and is making steps towards there goals into they choose one as there main goal. I would compare this adolescent to myself about two years ago. I was looking for my identity and really didn't know what I want to do in life. I will go in details later on into the paper.

Therefore, all these factors are crucial in the process of identity development which occurs as the individual answers questions such as “Who am I? Where am I headed? and What is the meaning of my life? (Newman & Newman, 2012, p.389).” The psychosocial crisis faced during these years is achieving individual identity versus identity confusion. Thus, the individual most pull together the many components of the self into a unified image that can push the person in the direction of positive and significant feats (Newman & Newman, 2012, p.412.) Moreover, a sense of identity provides a deep sense of ideological commitment and allows the individual to know his or her place in the world (Sokol, 2009, p.142). In contrast, identity confusion stems from the individual’s inability to make commitments to any single view of him/herself. He/she may be unable to integrate the several roles they play and may lack confidence in their ability to make meaningful decisions (Newman & Newman, 2012,

The first status is an identity diffuser, this is a person who has not encountered a crisis of identity and has not made any commitments or done any personal exploration. The next identity status is foreclosure where an adolescent commits to a parents beliefs or values without exploring other options on their own. Moratorium is where the individual has been exploring their options but has not yet made any commitments. And finally, identify achievement is when a person has explored all their options and committed to occupation, belief, political view or gender identity (Marcia, 1966). A great deal of research has been done on the different identity statuses. For example, Waterman (1985) found no difference in gender during the formation of identity when considering political ideology, social roles, vocational choices or religious beliefs. He also found that adolescent during the pre–high school years are more likely to be identity diffusers in regard to occupational decisions and political ideology and foreclosed in the domain of religion. Overall, Waterman (1982) has found that adolescents, beginning in middle school “show a pattern of progressive identify formation characterized by frequent changes in self- concept during the early years followed by increasing consistency and stability as the person approaches high school graduation.” These finding support

A study involving 232 young adults studying Developmental Psychology at RMIT was carried out in order to examine the correlation between the four identity statuses, in both the domains of ‘ideological’, ‘interpersonal’ and ‘wellbeing’ in 8 subdomains. Each participant completed a confidential, 78 item online survey. The core results that respondents provided categorised majority of young people within the ideological diffusion status, with the least number placed within interpersonal foreclosure. Alongside this finding, wellbeing was positively correlated with identity achievement and negatively correlated with Identity foreclosure, with no separation of ideological and interpersonal domains. Interpersonal moratorium and diffusion were also both negatively correlated with most of 8 subdomains of wellbeing. This research needs to consider the samples gender inequality, using only correlational data and whether using one-time data collection would impact the results.

In her study, Josselson found that Identity Achievers break psychological ties to childhood and form separate, distinct identities (Evans, Forney, Patton, Renn, Guido, & Quaye, 2016, p. 294). They take pride in themselves and rely on their own accomplishments for their self-esteem rather than on the approval of parents which often causing deliberate distancing from them. They seek internal affirmation as opposed to external approval. The major theme in this group is independence. As I reflect on who I am today, I connect with Josselson's description of an identity achiever.

All throughout our lives, we wrestle with the question of who am I and what do I want in life? However, it is usually during the adolescent years that this issue really comes to a head and we begin a more earnest search into finding ourselves and deciding the direction we want to take with our lives. One of the theorists who studied this idea of identity formation was James Marcia. Marcia proposed that there were four different stages or statuses in the development of identity which he labeled Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Achievement. In this essay, we will briefly summarize his four different stages and then apply his theory to my own identity development during the adolescent years.

Social Identity Theory has a considerable impact on social psychology. It is tested in a wide range of

Identities are created through communication, and they do not develop smoothly, but in fits and spurts, over a long period of time. Additionally, we do not have one identity, but multiple identities, which are dynamic, and influenced by

Marcia’s identity statuses theory can be addressed in four categories, which are identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, identity moratorium, and identity achievement. All four are necessary to be aware of, but identity foreclosure I have both researched and familiarized myself with.

Identity theory is a theoretical framework that posits that individuals have many different identities that intersect, such as social class, race, and gender (Burke & Tully, 1977; Michalski & Helmig, 2008; Stryker, 1968; Stryker, 1987; Stryker, 2008). However, identity theory also acknowledges that these varying identities tend to exist hierarchically (Stryker & Burke, 2000). Therefore, identities that are more central to a person’s sense of self are more salient. That is, salient identities tend to be higher on a person’s salience hierarchy than other identities. For example, a person may identify as a heterosexual woman, an African American, a Protestant, and a mother. However, if after considering all of these identities, she were to indicate that her identity of being a mother was the most important to her sense of self, and then researchers could infer that her mother identity would be set highest on her salience

In Erikson’s Identity and the Life Cycle, he says the “Identity Versus Identity Diffusion” psychosocial stage is characterized by adolescents’ “search for a new sense of continuity and sameness [but] some adolescents have to refight many of the crises of earlier years” (Erikson, 1959, p. 94). When adolescents encounter role confusion or identity diffusion, they often encounter a dilemma “based on a strong previous doubt of one’s ethnic and sexual identity,” which can lead to “delinquent and outright psychotic incidents” (Erikson, 1959, p. 97). Erikson describes it as “the inability to settle on an occupational identity” and in order “to keep themselves together, they temporarily over identify, to the point of apparent complete loss of identity” (Erikson, 1959, p. 97). In order for adolescents to establish a coherent sense of identity, the previous crises must be resolved and they must have a healthy sense of trust, autonomy, initiative, and industry (Steinberg & Belsky, 1991). James Marcia (1980) in Blackwell Handbook of Adolescent Psychology further explored Erikson’s theory and expanded it with four different states of identity formation; suicidal adolescents who are unable to form an identity may be stuck at identity diffusion or identity moratorium. In identity diffusion, adolescents suffer from severe lack of decision making and have no direction whereas adolescents are indecisive and have different identity options, but do not fully commit in identity moratorium. As a result, adolescents, unable to form an identity or struggle to form one, may turn to suicidal thoughts and ultimately commit suicide. Adolescents who suffer from role confusion or identity

Crocetti, Rubini & Meeus (2008) developed a three-dimensional model of identity formation, which includes commitment, in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment. In-depth exploration refers to individuals are actively exploring and reflecting on their current commitments. Reconsideration of commitment is when individuals are comparing current commitments with other possible alternatives. Unlike Marcia, this model of identity formation separates exploration into in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment and suggests that commitment is developed through a process of exploring, choosing and reconsidering. The three-dimensional model has been used by researchers to study identity processes in one specific domain such as educational identity (Karaś et al., 2014), or to study global identity (Klimstra et al., 2010). Studies have employed this model have shifted their focus from looking at changes in identity statuses to changes in identity