Chapter 8 Learning Activity

Learning Objective:

Interpret and apply information learned in class to facilitate understanding of the psychological characteristics of the student and others

Discussion Title:

Please title the Discussion Entry with Your Name

Instructions:

Emerging adulthood is a time of critical identity development whereby you determine where you fit into the world.  Key areas in which you form an identity include love, work, and ideology including your religious, cultural, and political views.  Erik Erikson suggested that individuals experience a crisis in which they achieve an identity after a period of healthy exploration, or adolescents can experience role confusion.  Expanding on these ideas, James Marcia presented four possibility identity statuses as follows:

• Identity Diffusion – No exploration or commitment has been made to any possible choices.  Person is not seriously attempting to sort through possible choices for future or make enduring commitments.
• Identity Moratorium – Actively exploring possibilities, but no commitment has yet been made.  Person is actively trying out different personal, occupational, and ideological possibilities. 
• Identity Foreclosure – The person has not actively explored possibilities, but nevertheless has committed to certain choices.  This is often the result of parental influences and the individual almost blindly adopts the values of others or the identity imposed upon them by others.
• Identity Achievement – Person has actively explored a range of possibilities and has committed to an identity that meets with their personal interests, desires, and convictions.  This status involves both exploration and commitment, both of which are critical to a healthy identity formation.

For this activity, I would like you to identify your status at this time, and provide descriptions as to why your identity formation fits within that particular status.  Please outline how you have committed to your occupational, personal, and ideological identity at this stage of your life.  Additionally, I would like you to identify someone you know in each of the remaining three identity statuses, and the factors that may have influenced the individual being in that status.