James Marcia - Ego-identity Status

Ego-identity Status

Marcia is perhaps best known for his extensive research and writings on psychological development, with specific attention focused on adolescent psychosocial development and lifespan identity development. Erik H. Erikson had suggested that the normative conflict occurring in adolescence is the opposition between identity achievement and identity confusion. Marcia elaborated on Erikson’s proposal in a citation classic by suggesting this stage consists neither of identity resolution nor identity confusion as Erikson claimed, but is better understood as the extent to which one has both explored and committed to an identity in a variety of life domains including politics, occupation, religion, intimate relationships, friendships, and gender roles. 'Two crucial areas in which the adolescent must make such commitments are ideology and occupation'.

His theory of identity achievement states that there are two distinct parts contributing to the achievement of adolescent identity: a time of choosing or crisis, and a commitment. He defined a crisis as a time of upheaval where old values or choices are being reexamined and new alternatives are explored - 'times during adolescence when the individual seems to be actively involved in choosing among alternative occupations and beliefs'. Both exploration and commitment are the two processes that contribute to differences in outcome during an Identity crisis. That is, whether or not (the extent to which) one explores identity alternatives and whether or not one makes a commitment to chosen alternatives.