Explain James Marcia’s theory of identity status

James Marcia

James Marcia is a psychologist specializing in developmental and clinical psychology. He was born in 1937 in Ohio. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Wittenburg University, then went on to earn both a master's and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Ohio State University.

He spent 30 years teaching at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. While at Simon Fraser University, Marcia conducted his research into developmental psychology. His research was largely based on the work of Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist who coined the phrase "identity crisis."

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Explain James Marcia’s theory of identity status

Erikson divided psychosocial development into eight stages of life, all with unique challenges to overcome. The fifth stage, adolescence, is when adolescents struggle with identity vs. role confusion. During this stage, according to Erikson, adolescents develop a sense of self by exploring and trying out different identities.

James Marcia's theory of development states that identity results from a series of choices made by people, usually in adolescence. These choices, regarding which ideologies, occupations, relationships, hobbies, and genders a person has incorporated into their identity, are affected by conflict and commitment.

James Marcia's Theory of Development

During the adolescent phase of development, most people undergo a series of identity crises, developing their sense of self through trial and error. These crises help people determine their roles in several areas, including politics, religion, sexuality, social relationships, occupation, and more.

Of these, Marica believed that occupation and ideology were the two most important facets of an adolescent's identity to be resolved. Marcia saw the identity as the result of choices made by individuals as to which groups or labels they decide to take upon themselves. He felt that people's identities give their lives meaning by defining their role within society.

Crisis and commitment are two important factors in peoples' search for meaning through identity.

Explain James Marcia’s theory of identity status

A crisis is defined in psychology as the process of actively exploring and researching multiple options. In James Marcia's theory of development, this includes looking into alternatives to an identity that the person did not choose for themself. A crisis is also called exploration in discussions of Marcia's Identity Status Theory, and the two terms are used interchangeably.

Commitment is the degree to which a person has decided to accept something as part of their identity. Commitment can also refer to the amount of confidence a person has in their choice.
The levels of crisis and commitment that people are experiencing at any given time define which of the four stages of identity the person is currently in.

Marcia's Identity Statuses

Marcia's four identity statuses are diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure, and achievement.

People experiencing a low level of crisis and a low level of commitment, or don't know what they want or believe and aren't trying anything, are in a state of diffusion. This is the most difficult state to move out of, and people in this state report feeling sad, lonely, and afraid of the world.

A person in the identity diffusion stage might want to choose a political party to join but feel overwhelmed with the weight of the decision or the variety of choices. They don't have strong enough political convictions to have a clear choice, and they aren't making any effort to educate themselves about each party's various platforms and values. So instead, they do nothing.

When exploration is high and commitment is low, a person is trying new things or researching ideas but has not yet decided which to identify with. This status is identity moratorium. This is a relatively desirable state since the person is actively looking for a resolution to their crisis.

Explain James Marcia’s theory of identity status

For example, suppose someone in the moratorium stage wants to join a religion. In that case, they will be reading religious literature and attending services at different religious institutions to decide which religion they want to identify with. They might read the Quaran, the Bible, and the Mahabharata to see which resonates most.

A high level of commitment and a low level of crisis indicates that a person is in an identity foreclosure state. In this state, a person identifies as a certain occupation or with an ideology, but they have not actively researched other options.

A child raised in a family of lawyers, for example, in which the person's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are all lawyers, there is likely a strong expectation that the child will also become a lawyer when they grow up. If, as an adolescent, that person decides to go along with his family's expectations by becoming a lawyer, without seriously considering other occupations, that adolescent is in the state of identity foreclosure.