James Marcia's Adolescent Identity Development - YouTube

So what we're going to talk about today is James Marcia's theory of adolescent

identity development. And the reason that we talk about it is it's a really good way

to explain to people why they might not know what they are majoring in in college.

You know most people come to college and they say "Oh, I don't know what I'm going

to major in" and they sort of, they're wringing their hands and they feel bad about

it, they talk to their parents. And everybody says "Hey, you're going to college! What

are you going to major in?" It's like "I have no idea what I'm going to major in!"

And what I'd like to explain is there is a theory that suggests that you

shouldn't know yet. And so the theory is James Marcia's theory and a

really good way to explain it is to draw it as a four blocker. And this is

something that I've done for lots of people. There aren't very many theories

in psychology that I talk about in my personal life outside because

people have a pretty low tolerance for that, but I have drawn this in the sand

at the beach, I've drawn it on a napkin at a cocktail party.

It's a really useful thing and so I'd like you to be able to draw it. It's going

to be on the final exam, so get your pens out. I don't care how you label

it, you don't have to label it exactly the same way I do

as long as the intersections of the things that you draw are correctly

labeled within it. So across the top we're going to put "Crisis."

And "crisis" in psychology is not a bad thing. So when you think about a crisis it's like "Oh,

I'm having a crisis" "Yay, I love crisis." No, in psychology a crisis is

a period of active exploration. So when Erikson, for example, said there was a

crisis of trust versus mistrust, you're working through something. So Crisis is a

period of active exploration.

And then on this side what you've got is "Commitment." A commitment to a

particular course of action. So, once you have committed to something you say "I'm

going to major in engineering." "I'm going to major in an animal science." That

would be a commitment. So over here you've got Commitment.

Either of these things can be high or low. So we'll make it really

simple and we'll say it's low here and high here.

If Crisis is low,

it means you're not spending any time ... so think about a high school senior trying to

decide what to major in, what to do next. If crisis is low, that student is not

doing anything. They're not thinking about it. They're laying on the couch, they're

watching TV, they're in the woods behind the school chatting with their friends. Crisis

is low. They're not ... inwardly they might be doing something

but it doesn't look like they're doing anything. If you ask them, it's like "I

haven't thought about that."

They also haven't committed to anything, and that identity status is called

Diffusion. I'm going to give that one a frowny face because you don't get out

of that. If you're not doing any work and you're not committing to anything, you're

just going to stay there. You are stagnant. There's no progress being made.

On the other hand, if Commitment is low - you haven't decided what to do, but

you're spending a lot of time thinking about it, so this Crisis period, this

active exploration is high.

"I took some tests, I went and visited somebody at work, I've done

all these other things." When Crisis is high and Commitment is low, that's

something that we call Moratorium. Moratorium sounds horrible. It sounds

like something you would find at a funeral home, but it's actually a really

good place to be. So I'm going to give that one a smiley face, and the reason

for that is you're working through things. You're trying things on, and it's

like "Wow, you know I tried this for a while, I took a couple of classes, it

turns out geology is not my thing. I thought it was going to be, I thought I

would be a geologist and here I am,

you know, after a couple of courses, I need to sort of step back and do

something else." Or I'm that high school student who says "You know what,

I'm just going to do my Gen Ed classes first and see what speaks to me." So

Moratorium is a really good place to be, and that's where people should stay as

long as they need to.

So why rush through that? Life is long. You're not ... what's the rush

You're going to be working for decades, and so you want it to be something that

you like, you know and not ... you don't want to get to be in your 30s and say "I

don't know if I like this so much."

So that's when Commitment is low and Crisis is high. When Commitment is high

and Crisis is low,

that's what we call Foreclosure. And foreclosure means you have foreclosed on

your other options.

So, your mother was a nurse your father a nurse,

your grandparents were nurses. You'd like to go into the field of

nursing. Or you've got a family business and it's always been

expected that you would go into the family business. Or you come from a long

line of people who do chemical engineering, or law or, whatever it is. And

you've decided really early in life "That's what I want to do." That sounds like it

would be fairly rar,e but it's not as rare as you would think. You think about

a child ... I know a child who had some medical difficulties when she was young

and she got really good nursing care. And so as a 10-year-old people said

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" "I want to be a nurse!" And as a

fourteen-year-old "What do you want to be?" "I want to be a nurse!" And

every time you say that, you get a little bit more of a pat on the back. People say

"Wow, that's great that you know what you're going to do."

So the idea is, that high school senior that has a has an answer, like "I'm

going into nursing, I'm looking at schools that have nursing, I'm going to

major in nursing."

That sounds awesome and that's the thing that everybody wishes their kid did or

wishes that they were doing, but in fact that student is going to get to

college and start taking courses like statistics and chemistry and

biochem. And it's like "Whoa! I got a C in that, I am in no way going to get

into the nursing program, and I don't even like those courses!" So your

commitment was high but you foreclosed other options without doing enough

exploration.

So Foreclosure, I'm going to say it's not a huge frowny face, it's not quite as bad

as Diffusion

but it's not a great place to be, because what will happen is you get to be 40

years old and it's like "Wow, I've been doing this job for 20 years. I never really

liked it, I have all of my fun after hours.

Well that's not great. Wouldn't you like to have fun at your job and say "I love it.

Even on my worst day, I'm still glad to be there because I'm working

things out, I'm doing things." That's what you want, and that's where Moratorium

might get you, but Foreclosure won't.

So you foreclosed other options. Not a great place to be. When Commitment is

high, Crisis has been high and Commitment is high, that's what we call Identity

Achievement.

And with Identity Achievement, that's just what it sounds like. It's like, of

course, that's the ideal. You want to spend enough time - for some

people that will be a short amount of time. "I took this course, I loved it, I

want to go into that field and I've never looked back and I've never been

sorry.

That's great, but they explored other

options and got there from Moratorium, rather than these other two

options which are not awesome.

Now there's one last thing that I want to say and that is ... life is long. So

you get to be 40, and just because you were in Achievement, and you've got this

great career in, you know,

underwater basket weaving and it's been your thing and it's been your jam and

you've loved it for the whole time. There's a cycle that's called MAMA

that we talk about. Moratorium, Achievement, Moratorium, Achievement and

that's that idea that you went through moratorium initially, and then you

achieved an identity and you you went with that. And then at some point you're

40, 45 years old and it's like "You know what, this has been a great run but I've

always also been interested in architecture.

I'm going to go back into moratorium, I'm going to explore other options again, I'm

going to think about other things."

Sometimes it looks like a midlife crisis, but really what is happening is a

midlife review. So a midlife crisis, actually, in psychology - not a bad thing.

Crisis is not a bad thing. So you go back, you explore other options. Go back

into moratorium and then you go back to achievement again.

So that's the ideal. That is James Marcia's theory of adolescent identity

development.