Identity Status Shifts
Throughout the lifecycle identity status shifts will occur. When identity status change occurs (in late adolescence and young adulthood) the change is more than twice as likely to be progressive as opposed to regressive. Longitudinally status change is most often a transition form moratorium to identity achievement. Transitions are often inspired by disequilibrium in identity. Marcia outlines how status change occurs as it relates to disequilibrium. Crisis in identity comes in the form of later adult life cycle stages and various life events. Depending on the individual, particular life events such as death of a loved one, job loss, moving, etc. may cause disequilibrium. However, this is only true when an individual has constructed some form of identity. Diffusions are stagnant. They have not made an effort to construct an identity and therefore have no identity to reform. In the case of foreclosures many will choose to live in an environment that is similar to their childhood experiences so that they may remain unchanged. When disequilibrium occurs in the life of foreclosures, the effects may be especially devastating. When disequilibrium occurs a period of re-construction begins. These periods of re-construction are called the moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement (MAMA) cycles. In each persons life there are a minimum of three MAMA cycles, corresponding with the three remaining psychosocial stages. During re-construction a person may regress to an earlier identity status. It is crucial that old constructs fall so that new ones that are more encompassing of the person's identity may be constructed. In the re-construction process there is still continuity with the previous identity, however the newer construction is broadened to include new life experiences and commitments.
Read more about this topic: James Marcia
Famous quotes containing the words identity, status and/or shifts:
“Unlike Boswell, whose Journals record a long and unrewarded search for a self, Johnson possessed a formidable one. His life in London—he arrived twenty-five years earlier than Boswell—turned out to be a long defense of the values of Augustan humanism against the pressures of other possibilities. In contrast to Boswell, Johnson possesses an identity not because he has gone in search of one, but because of his allegiance to a set of assumptions that he regards as objectively true.”
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“The flattering, if arbitrary, label, First Lady of the Theatre, takes its toll. The demands are great, not only in energy but eventually in dramatic focus. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a star to occupy an inch of space without bursting seams, cramping everyone else’s style and unbalancing a play. No matter how self-effacing a famous player may be, he makes an entrance as a casual neighbor and the audience interest shifts to the house next door.”
—Helen Hayes (1900–1993)